I would first of all want to thank Bruce Lantz, the immediate Past President, for his leadership over the past two years. Bruce has led the Chamber back to financial stability and continued growth. He is now the NE Director for the BC Chamber of Commerce and will provide continued leadership at the regional and provincial level. I want to thank our key partners- the North Peace Economic Development Commission, Sci-Tech North, Community Futures and the Business Development Bank as well as our major contributors this year. They have all assisted the Chamber greatly in our events and activities and we look forward to working with them again this year.

I also want to welcome our new Board members. For the first time in many years, we have a full Board of 17 members and we have a great many things on our plate to help serve our members better. We have committed as Board members to contacting each of our members in the next month to find out what you think our priorities should be. The Board is dealing with the issues that you identified in our member survey late last year and we are also continuing to work on completing the action items in our strategic plan. We will also be strengthening our relationship with the BC Chamber, City of Fort St John, Districts of Taylor and Hudson Hope and Regional District Areas B&C. And finally, we will continue to work on the issues facing small business in our District including hiring employees and skilled labour, improving opportunities and taxation. We are looking at helping business to find opportunities with such things as the 2010 Olympics.

The Chamber is always looking for new partners and new ideas so please do not hesitate to contact Annette, myself or any of the Board members at any time.