Just over a dozen members of Clearwater and District Chamber of Commerce met to choose a new board of directors during the organization’s annual general meeting on Thursday evening.
The meeting was held at Wells Gray Inn.
Members of the new executive are president Jeff Lamond, vice-president Sandie Robinson, secretary Goldie Krawec, and treasurer Judy Annis. Trudy Anderson was elected as a two-year directors while Cheryl Thomas, Lorne Selbee, Flo Anderson and Bonnie Ruttan are one-year directors.
The new board decided to continue meeting on the third Tuesday evening of the month. Rather than being held at Dutch Lake Community Center, however, the meetings will be held at Wells Gray Inn.
Some of the meetings will have guest speakers and will be for all Chamber members as well as the general public.
Major highlight of the past year was the Chamber hosting the 53rd Of the Year awards banquet, said vice-president Sandie Robinson in her report. The last time it was held was in 2012.
She noted that she had become a director in 2015, became vice-president when that position became vacant, and then took over the responsibilities of president when that position became vacant as well.
Many members and potential members are not fully aware of the benefits of belonging to the Chamber, Robinson said.
These include discounts on fuel from some service stations as well as insurance coverage.
Outgoing treasurer Jeff Lamond reported that the Of the Year banquet was a joint operation with Clearwater Ski Club. The event raised about $4,000 for the club and was attended by about 160 people.
The Chamber had 92 members during 2016, he said, which was consistent with previous years.
The map project was a success, with 55 advertisers on the back and 12 corporate sponsors on the front.
The Chamber printed 12,000 maps for the map project, reported secretary Goldie Krawec. Nearly 5,000 of these were given to Wells Gray Infocentre to distribute, while each advertiser got a bundle of 50.
Director Cheryl Thomas reported that the Chamber also was involved in National Forest Week and in hosting an all candidates forum. She represented the Chamber at Tourism Wells Gray, District of Clearwater and other meetings.