Chamber chair Derek Schmidt, left, with chief operating officer Linda Machniak at Tuesday's annual general meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Support for business

Battlefords Chamber of Commerce gives update on plans at AGM

Feb 8, 2022 | 5:11 PM

The Battlefords Chamber of Commerce gave a positive report to members at Tuesday’s Annual General Meeting.

The organization reviewed the past year and discussed future initiatives during the 116th annual ceremony.

Chief operating officer Linda Machniak gave an update on some plans ahead for the chamber.

Currently, the chamber has about 304 active and courtesy members, down by several members from last year but generally on par . Machniak mentioned there are a couple more new members that still have to be added. She noted there is also potential for more growth.

“Because we have been given a service area that is now larger than just the city and the town, we know we have businesses in Meota, Cochin and some of the regional areas that we could do some focus-work on to introduce them to the chamber,” she said.

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Chamber past chair Melanie Roberts, right, gives some highlights of 2021 at the annual general meeting Tuesday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

Machniak said looking ahead, the chamber will see some new projects that might be coming down the pipeline. For the most part it will finish up some of the work started last year on the Shop Local program, and move into more support for that from the recent study was just completed.

The chamber will also carry on with its duties with assistance from the Edwards School of Business Co-op Student Program as an added resource.

On the capital side, the chamber is currently in the midst of a construction project to have a lift installed at its building to increase accessibility.

“We’re excited about that,” Machniak said. “I know they are working hard at that. By the spring we hope to have that in place and operational.”

The budget for 2022, which was approved at the meeting, is basically a “status quo, go forward budget,” Machniak said.

On the financial side for the chamber’s 2022 budget, the organization is anticipating revenues of $320,000 and expenses of $313,500 on the general operating account. This means a projected surplus of $6,500 for general expected initiatives and events the chamber plans to host this year.

The Battlefords Business Excellence Awards (BBEX) and other programs have their own budgeted fund that are monitored by the chamber directors throughout the year. These revenues are anticipated at $34,500 with expenses at $25,000 for a projected surplus of $9,500.

Overall, factoring in the general budget surplus and the BBEX-related budget surplus, the chamber projects a total surplus of $16,000 for 2022.

“The budget number is basically about where we projected last year, although our actual surplus ended up being more than what we had projected,” Machniak said as a sum up.

Vantage Chartered Professional Accountants completed the financial statements for the past year’s numbers. Dallan Oberg of HRO Chartered Professional Accountants presented the 2021 statements on behalf of Vantage. In a sum up, he said overall it was reported the chamber is “in good shape.”

In total for the 2021 fiscal year end, the chamber had an operating surplus of $40,771 to what was budgeted.

“It was slightly down from last year, but basically on par,” Machniak said.

Despite the ongoing pandemic in 2021, she said the chamber had quite a productive year.

“It was another change in staffing and modeling through the work of the chamber but I would say it was a very successful year, and one that I am pretty proud of,” she said. “We have a great team now, and we’re moving forward into 2022. We’re going to finish up some of those projects but obviously the accreditation and some of the items that we completed in 2021 were very positive for us and a real accomplishment.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow