Estevan Chamber of Commerce decided to personally reach out to its members for involvement. The initiative came out at the strategic planning session, and as far as chamber executive director Jackie Wall concerned, “it was a really successful first attempt at doing this.”
Last Wednesday seven out of 12 board members took time off work, took their handwritten thank you cards and headed out into the community, trying to visit as many member businesses as they could in one day, which actually wasn't their original plan.
“Each board member already had handwritten thank you cards and we were just looking at perhaps mailing them out. And then one of the board members said, ‘You know what, I can take part of my day and deliver some.’ And all of the other members were like, ‘Yeah, I can do that too.’ So we thought we could probably just choose one day and get it done, but I think moving forward we are probably going to take a week or so, just so it’s a little bit more flexible,” explained Wall.
In most cases, chamber members just had a brief conversation with members they visited.
“It was meet and greet… We were walking into businesses, we had a thank you card that just said ‘Thank you for your membership.’ We introduced ourselves and most places we had a one to two-minute conversation with people,” said one of the board members Daniel Betnar, who had a chance to participate in the so-called Board Walk.
And even brief visits were well worth the time and effort.
“It’s the first time we actually tried this, so we really weren’t sure what to expect,” said Wall. “The best thing was when Sheila (Guenther) was sending in these photos just to see how happy they were. We had a few really good comments on Facebook that they appreciated that personal touch of the hand delivery of the thank you card.”
Betnar said that the Estevan Fire Rescue Service made their visit to the station even more exciting.
“We went and visited the Estevan Fire and Rescue and it was a great experience to go over there because they gave us a tour of their facility. (We could see) how great it is, and how open they are to have people coming in and seeing that facility,” said Betnar.
A few board members couldn’t join the walk due to work or personal reasons, but Wall said they plan to continue their visits through this week to meet more businesses. They hope none of the more than 300 chamber members will be left out.
“We are going to mail out whatever we cannot reach up (this) week…. But we are going to do our best to reach as many as we can over the next few days,” said Wall.
For board members, this walk was an opportunity to personally engage with chamber members.
“It would be really great if we could sit down with each and every member throughout the year, but realistically that’s not always possible. But this is a nice way to really hit as many as we can. Stop in and say thank you and just give that personal handshake,” said Wall.
Besides, it was a way to show the member businesses that they are appreciated and that the board is advocating for them and having a relationship with them.
“Really showing to them that we are open to everybody coming and seeing us and talking about things,” said Betnar, noting that for these reasons they also hold luncheons and coffee talks.
The Estevan Chamber of Commerce currently has all board member positions filled, which is a very rare situation.
“That really does indicate that we have a lot of engagement within the community, our membership is engaged. Our board is engaged, and the staff here is really engaged in ensuring that we are the voice for our member businesses,” said Wall.
