March 31, 2011
Chamber moves closer
to merger
by Vance Gutzman
Despite opposition to the idea from some of its members, the Deep River
and District Chamber of Commerce (DRCC) is one step closer to merging
with its larger brethren, the Upper Ottawa Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Members who attended the DRCC's annual general meeting last week have
given the chamber's new executive the green light to pursue
amalgamation talks with the Upper Ottawa Valley Chamber (UOVCC).
Amalgamation has been a hot-button topic at the chamber for some time.
It was a year ago in March, in fact, that the chamber of commerce met
to vote on a resolution calling upon the executive to pursue the
steps needed for it to give up its charter and become a division of the
UOVCC.
Advantages in doing so, cited at the time, included the suggestion that
the UOVCC could bring a stronger lobbying power to bear, seeing as how
it has 320 members, compared to the DRCC's 48.
Also cited as an advantage is the fact the UOVCC employs a
full-time administrative staff person in Pembroke, whereas all the
administrative work for the local chamber of commerce is done on
a volunteer basis - and those volunteers are starting to feel burnt out.
"We need more volunteers," outgoing DRCC president Jim Macmillan said
at last week's AGM.
"That's what's driving us to look at amalgamation."
But while members of the chamber's executive were then and still are in
favour of amalgamation, not all of the membership is.
One of its most vocal opponents is Deep River lawyer George LeConte,
who sent a missive to the executive calling for last week's
amalgamation motion to be postponed by one month, as he was slated to
be out of town on the date of the AGM.
"There has been no fair notice of this motion to me and others,"
LeConte stated in his letter to the DRCC.
"If the executive does not permit this fair adjournment that I have
requested in writing then what the executive has done is that it has
unfairly orchestrated a result without fair opportunity to debate that
result."
LeConte went on to state that he and others in the business community
believe in the need for a "free and independent" local business voice,
and that the local business constituency has unique local
characteristics.
Despite LeConte's urging that last week's meeting be postponed, the
meeting went on with an amalgamation resolution on the table, albeit
just barely.
That's because the chamber of commerce just barely had a quorum in
order to vote on the matter.
According to its bylaws, the chamber needs at least 15 of its members
to be in attendance in order to vote on procedural items.
There were, in fact, just 14 members present last week, but a recent
change to the chamber's bylaws allows for proxy votes, and three
members had sent in proxy forms to the AGM.
A year ago, when the same resolution came into play, only 14 members
were again present, despite the fact special notices were sent out to
all members ahead of time, so it died on the table because of the lack
of proxies.
Turnouts like that for the chamber's meetings, while being one of the
reasons behind its executive's push for amalgamation with the UOVCC,
are a source of frustration for the executive members as well.
"I think we should have brought champagne tonight, because we actually
have a quorum," home-based business owner Yvonne Stothers lamented last
week.
"You have to give us credit for trying to make things better for the
membership."
Still, some business owners in attendance remained unconvinced of the
merits of amalgamation.
"If you can't get people to come out and sit on the board, who's going
to drive all the way to Pembroke," asked pharmacy owner Christine
Harding.
"I think you're going to lose your voice."
Her concerns were echoed by chartered accountant Chris Carroll.
"You'd be losing your autonomy. You'd be giving up your authority,"
Carroll said of the merger plans.
"You'd no longer control what issues you could take on. You're kidding
yourself if you think it would be the same, only better.
“It would be different, and I remain unconvinced that would be better."
In the end, however, the motion to explore merger talks with the UOVCC
passed by a margin of 13-4, with the chamber's executive promising that
nothing has yet been carved in stone.
"Give us the go-ahead to work out some things and we'll bring it back
for another vote," Stothers said.
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