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Hello Chamber Members,

It’s Mary Jean O’Donnell, Chair of the Board of Directors.  We hope you and yours are healthy and staying safe.

We know that many local businesses are worried and we want to help, so we have partnered with Fan Saves Helps to help our members for FREE.

Because you’re a valued member of the Chamber, we are inviting you to be part of this Gift Certificate Program, customized for use by the Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce.

The program allows people to buy gift certificates from businesses that are currently closed or offering limited services. Once things get back to normal, the gift certificates can be used.

The first step for a business wanting to participate (the recipient) is to fill out THIS FORM.

Once that’s done, your business will appear on a unique website designed through Shopify, one of the safest, most convenient shopping portals (and a Canadian company to boot!)

How it works: As recipient companies appear on the Sarnia Lambton Chamber’s Fan Saves Helps site, we’ll let you know through our website (you can also visit the site to check to see who has registered as a recipient business).

Clicking through to a recipient business listing, you can then purchase a gift certificate. You’ll receive a digital gift certificate with a unique code that will be tracked for the recipient business in a spreadsheet (which you will have access to). Monies received on your behalf will be transferred to the business via Direct Deposit or e-transfer within 14 days (less credit card transaction fees).

When you re-open your doors, the buyer can redeem the gift certificate that they’ve printed off at your business.

You can keep track of the balance however it works best for you (some businesses are transferring it to their own gift card program, others are using the old-school method of tracking the balance right on the print out).

As mentioned, this program is completely free.

If you are interested in being a recipient business, please fill out this form and submit it as soon as possible.

Sincerely, Mary Jean O’Donnell
Chair, Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce
519-464-3699 (mobile)

The Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce is hiring a new Chief Executive Officer.

The successful candidate manages all aspects of the Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce, a 650+member non-profit organization.

The role includes directing membership sales, member relations, budgeting, marketing, media releases, volunteer coordination, advocacy, community outreach, sponsorships and event planning.

A close working relationship with the board of directors, including regular communications and reporting is also fundamental to the role.

The CEO is the face of the organization and is required to sit on numerous local boards in addition to all Chamber committees, to attend all Chamber events, and to attend a high percentage of non-Chamber events for which there is an expectation of Chamber participation.

The CEO is expected to build upon the existing goodwill and long history of the Chamber to engage and retain members, grow the membership, find new sources of revenue, innovate, modernize service delivery, and generally expand the influence and community profile of the organization.

Skills/Attributes

• Excellent written and oral communication skills (required);
• Financial management and budgeting (required);
• Experience reporting to a Board of Directors as a senior manager or CEO (required);
• Technology competency (common software such as MS Office, etc.) (required);
• Experience managing employees (required);
• Experience managing volunteers;
• Experience planning events;
• Experience as Chamber of Commerce executive or volunteer;
• Familiarity with Sarnia-Lambton and/or Sarnia-Lambton roots is a significant asset;

Applications may be submitted in confidence to Mary Jean O’Donnell, chair of the Board of Directors, by email (mjodonnell@slchamber.ca).

Closing date for applications is May 1, 2020.

This year’s Annual General Meeting, will be a “virtual event”, it will take place from 6 pm to 7 pm on Wednesday, May 13, 2020.

The AGM will include the election of officers and directors and approval of the financial statements.

“We are living in times that are a game-changer,” said Mary Jean O’Donnell, who was recently elected Chair of the Board by her fellow Chamber directors.

Stay tuned for more details on this event as we get closer to Wednesday, May 13, 2020.

Tourism Sarnia-Lambton has launched an initiative designed to support local businesses.

The initiative includes a comprehensive listing of businesses that are providing various levels of take-out and delivery options.  The listings can be found by clicking HERE

“We’re happy to do all we can to help our members succeed in these challenging times,” said Mary Jean O’Donnell, who is both Chair of the Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce and Chair of Tourism Sarnia-Lambton.

“We encourage all members to support one another as we work through these times together.”

Your organization can learn how to guide your enterprise through the COVID-19 crisis through specific steps that can help blunt the impact of the crisis.

So says the experts from Deloitte in a guide made available online.

Included in the guide are several key points, including recognizing that in the face of certain challenges and a still uncertain set of risks, business leaders are rightly concerned about how their companies will be affected and what they have to do next.

In the heat of the moment there are a number of lessons from history that can be applied now.

Deloitte has pooled its insights in affected areas around the world to provide practical insights for chief executives and their leadership teams in taking appropriate action.

The guide can be found by clicking HERE.