9 August 2019

Chamber Restructure and Breakfast Meeting (cont..)

Professionalising the Management of the Chamber of Commerce

The activities of the Chamber of Commerce are predominantly carried out by its office-bearers, somewhat on an ad-hoc basis, with the able assistance of a part-time office administrator. The Chamber intends to expand its activities, and in particular the sponsored programmes in support of the business community. Sponsors have been approached, with positive feedback. 

Currently the Chamber does not have the resources to properly fund staff for these functions, although it expects to be able to do so once sponsorship arrangements are in place, and are on-going. It is anticipated that each sponsored programme will have a remunerated supervisor to ensure delivery is kept on track. A percentage of sponsored funds will be applied to Chamber overheads, and are anticipated to allow for the employment of a Chief Executive Office (CEO), to ensure the professional running of the organisation.

Chicken-and-egg dilemma

 - The Chamber needs to have professional management to attract sponsorship for its programmes.
 - Sponsorship of multiple, simultaneous programmes, will allow professional management to be engaged.

Proposed Changes

To make the transition to being a fully funded, professionally managed Chamber of Commerce, a change to the current hierarchy is required. Therefore it is proposed that, starting with the 2019-2020 year, the Chamber office-bearers and Executive members be re-structured along the lines of the organisational chart below -

• 3 Vice-presidents would be elected, each responsible for a specific sector of the Chamber’s activities. 
• 7 Executive Members would be elected on the basis that they would each take up a specific Manager role. 
• If a role cannot be filled by a suitably qualified person at the AGM, the Executive would later co-opt a suitable person from the membership.  
• If an Executive member’s circumstances later prevent them from carrying out their duties, they would step aside in favour of a replacement co-opted to the position, to ensure continuity of the programme. 

Some minor changes to the Chamber Constitution are required to make this possible.

Full details will be available for open discussion at a Special General Meeting in August. It is expected that the proposal, including the necessary constitutional changes, would be put to the AGM in September.