The Cochrane business community will have a new voice advocating on its behalf in a couple of months.
The Cochrane and District Chamber of Commerce will be electing a new president to replace Ozzie Sawicki, who is stepping down from the post as of March 26th.
Sawicki said his business commitments are making it difficult to dedicate the proper amount of time and energy to his post at the Chamber; so it’s time.
“My business is growing outside of Cochrane,” Sawicki said. “Most of my work – 95 per cent – is international, so I don't actually do much work in Cochrane.”
“I just have to be in a position where I can be on a plane and going where I need to go pretty quickly,” he added. “So it's really limiting me in terms of being available to be on a board.”
Sawicki hopes groups like Cochrane Tourism, and Innovate Cochrane seize the opportunity to work more collaboratively in partnership with the Town of Cochrane.
“I think the Town would like to see groups like this take more of a leadership role, to be able to say, ‘Here's what we see needed in the business community, here's what we see needed in the Tourism community and so on,’” he said.
Sawicki said there will be quite a few new board members in place after next month’s meetings. He believes as many as six of the 12 on the board could be stepping down.
The annual general meeting is from 11 am to 1 pm at The Station on April 23rd. The next board meeting after the AGM would be after that, where people could put their names forward to sit on the board.
Sawicki said the new leadership might want to consider ways they can create value for the membership.
“I think there's a goal to having a stronger working relationship between Cochrane Tourism and the Chamber of Commerce, because probably half the business membership in the community are tied to the Tourism side, and half are tied to the Chamber side,” he said. “So how can we bring that larger membership together to have more of a an impactful voice in the community?”
The soon-to-be-ex-president said he won’t be completely disappearing from the Cochrane business community, as there are questions still to be answered.
“There's been ideas like how do we distribute the leadership in town; so that there's good communication that happens amongst the different organizations.
“And I think that's the important piece is that although there's people stepping away, a number of us, including me, will remain a voice behind the scenes to make sure that those collaborations really happen,” he said.
The Cochrane Chamber was recognized by Alberta Chambers as the Chamber of the Year in 2021.
The Chamber’s Trade Show will be at the SLS Centre Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5.
