HUMBOLDT — For the Humboldt and District Chamber of Commerce, 2019 was about building connections with businesses, expanding its events and getting closer to a breakeven position financially.
“2019 was a successful year for the chamber,” said Olivia Coffyne, the vice-president, just after its May 28 annual general meeting. “We hosted various events and tried to build business within the region.”
Events included a luncheon about doing business with First Nations with Chief Mark Arcand of the Saskatoon Tribal Council, a federal election all-candidates forum, the Mark of Excellence awards, the annual trader show, and various educational lunch events.
It was the first full year at the job for Brent Fitzpatrick, the executive director. He said 2019 was an educational year for him, learning about Humboldt’s business, how to operate the chamber and how to run a campground.
The chamber saw a loss of $3,000 in 2019, compared to almost $9,300 in 2018. When the chamber’s general operations and campground operations were combined, it had $216,600 in revenues in 2019, an increase of $3,800 from 2018, and $219,700 in expenses, a decrease of $2,400 from the previous year.
The campground saw a small increase in revenue due to an increase in camping fees, but saw a large decrease in expenses. Fitzpatrick said a lot of the reduction in expenses came from him, office manager Kristal Hart, and the summer students hired at the campground doing a lot of work in-house, as well as working together with the city’s community leisure services department and other organizations.
“That's probably the key to it, just really good partnerships,” he said.
The 2019 Mark of Excellence saw higher profits, while less travel was done.
One area of concern in 2019 was there were fewer members. The chamber is expecting growth this year.
“The chamber came through a couple of tough years with a lot of staff changes and there wasn’t a lot of consistency with the chamber membership,” Fitzpatrick said.
More focus was placed on building relationships with local businesses.
“We tried to be more interactive with our members and businesses in the area, just trying to get more involvement and be more hands-on with our business community,” Coffyne said.
That approach may have paid off, with Fitzpatrick saying there’s been more interest from businesses in getting a membership in 2020.
As for the rest of 2020, the chamber, like its members, is dealing with the effects of the pandemic.
“The remainder of this year is going to be a challenge as far as business goes,” Coffyne said. “[There will be] different obstacles that businesses will be overcoming and adjusting to. We just hope for the best in the future and look forward to a fresh start in 2021.”
The Mark of Excellence was cancelled due to public health restriction. An online event to announce the winners is being planned in June.
Fitzpatrick said the chamber will be keeping its budget tight in 2020.
“We're not going to spend any money we don't need to, but we need to reinvest in what we have in our community, and we'll do that.”
The chamber elected a full board of 13 directors at the annual general meeting. Fitzpatrick said he believes that shows the chamber is something the business community provides a benefit to the community.
Brent Walker will serve as the chamber’s new president, replacing Dan Torwalt.
“He's got lots of knowledge when it comes to chambers and the business community, so we look forward to him heading things up this year,” Coffyne said.
