VOTE SHOWS CHAMBER MUST BE SENSITIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS

(OSOYOOS TIMES — September 19, 2007) —

Businesses in Osoyoos, Oliver and Okanagan Falls will now have a unified South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce to provide services, networking, and a stronger lobbying voice on issues of importance to them.
The amalgamation of the three towns' separate Chambers of Commerce took place last week, and by next January all the legal paperwork will be done and the first annual general meeting of the new regional
Chamber will be held.
The leaders of the three Chambers are to be commended for shepherding a process over the past year that studied the issue of a merger, surveyed the views of local businesses, and then promoted the single Chamber as the best way to move forward.
Interestingly, the move passed unanimously among Oliver and OK Falls business people, but the Osoyoos vote was much more split, with 32 voting in favour and 9 voting against.
While Chamber leaders have assured everyone that the Chamber offices in all three towns will remain open, and the identity of each community's businesses will be retained, it appears there is some apprehension on the part of Osoyoos businesses that the goals and needs of local businesses may be subsumed under the larger South Okanagan vision.
It will be up to both the leadership of the new regional Chamber and to Osoyoos businesses to work hard to ensure that the needs of our business people aren't lost in a bigger and fuzzier South Okanagan Chamber.

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We have received both favourable and unfavourable reaction to our fairly strong editorial last week about the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen and its Advisory Planning Commission.
We hold to our view that RDOS is overly controlling, but in fairness we were likely too critical of local APC members.
As Regional Director Mark Pendergraft points out, APC's mandate is to look for any possible objections to proposed developments in the area. It is then up to Mark to take APC's recommendation forward to the RDOS Board as-is, or with changes he feels are necessary.