Chamber AGM 2012
The Annual General Meeting of Gorey Chamber, held on the 21st of May saw James Kinsella of Sherry Fitzgerald O’Leary Kinsella elected as the new Chamber President for 2012. Following on in the footsteps of Marian McKenna, who retired on the evening after three years at the helm, Kinsella will head up a newly nominated eleven person committee for the year. Andrew Owen, Manager of the Bank of Ireland was nominated as Vice President and both of them take up their roles immediately.
The evening included reports on the various activities of the Chamber during the past year from the Tourism Working Group, Services to Business, Finance and the Retail Working Group.
With the Family Friendly designation, Dick White, Interim Chair of the Tourism Working Group reported, North Wexford is one of only five HUBS in the country and the intention was to develop this over the year. With attendance at Bloom 2011, the publication of 7,000 Cool For Kids and the production of 60,000 North Wexford Has It All A5 flyers which were distributed to residences in North and South County Dublin being the highlights of the year.
Michael Doyle representing the Services to Business sector summarised the ongoing work of the year including, monthly Lunch with the Chamber, Doing Business Member to Member, Build Your Business Network in addition to outlining the revamped Chamber website www.goreychamber.com and the addition of a Vacancies section which will benefit the business sector. Note was also made of the various business supports offered including the Innovate School Business Award, a newly established initiative and the six monthly Business Start Up Workshops.
The Financial situation of the Chamber was outlined by Andrew Owen who noted that while membership was strong the economic downturn had seen an increase in debtors. Work was ongoing on this with alternative methods of payments being pursued. Encouraging everyone to join, particular mention was made of the array of networking opportunities available to members.
The work of the Retail Working Group saw Marian McKenna give her report with, activity noted in the window displays competition run at Easter, Halloween and the Craft and Design Festival. In addition a full survey of Retailer’s was undertaken during the past year with the results highlighting the need for collective action form business and the requirement of improved communications. The quarterly Chamber Newsletter distributed to all business in the town was seen as going someway to improving communications while the revamped Website and FACEBOOK also addressed this issue. The biggest shopping initiative was the November campaign run under the banner ”Taking Orders For Christmas”
The newly appointed committee for 2012 are James Kinsella, Sherry Fitzgerald O’Leary Kinsella, Andrew Owen, Bank Of Ireland, Deirdre O’Flynn, Spellcheck.ie, Jim Hughes, Innovate, John Dempsey, Weatherglaze, Keith Groarke, Allied Irish Bank, Niamh Byrne, Ruby Rouge, Niall Slattery, Warren Estates, Marian McKenna, La Crème Boutique, Finbarr O’Donoghue, The Haven Group, Pat O’Hagan, O’Hagan Computers.
Commenting Chamber Executive, Dick White stated “This is a young and dynamic Committee and we are all looking forward to new positive developments for business as we build on the strong foundations that are in place”.
