Roadcraft Headquarters was the venue for an extra Gympie Chamber of Commerce Meeting last week.

“We normally meet once a month on a Wednesday morning, but we had so much to get through we called an extra meeting for the Chamber Board” enthused chamber board member, Brendan Allen, today.

The meeting’s agenda was aimed squarely at putting to paper the exact mission of the Chamber for the coming year.

Chamber President Tony Goodman stated. “I have spent the last several weeks since our February 13th event, meeting with private Town Planners, Real Estate Agents, Politicians, Councillors, influential business people and with GRC’s Economic Development Team to gauge feedback from our breakfast meeting, and to see if we are heading down the right track.”

“Essentially, it has been a fact-finding quest, and from all these discussions I am firmly of the opinion that our mission over the year should be to focus on three things.” He continued.

Over the following two hours the board, consisting of Tony Goodman, Scott Sutton, Sharlene Makin, Warren Polley, Adam Madill, Brendan Allen and Jason Virtue (absent) debated the exact direction and future vision of the Chamber.

What was decided is broken down into three points.

Point 1

 The board will work to create opportunities for Medium to Large Industries to come to the region. Essentially, we want our area to attract national or international companies to establish operations in our area whereby they create an identified number of new jobs to make an impact on the high unemployment rate we have in this region.

eg The Munitions Factory setting up, 30 mins outside Maryborough employing up to 100 people.

The board will do this by:

1. Identifying availability of suitable parcels of land
2. Identifying sites that have the correct zoning (or potential zoning) with infrastructure and servicing in place ready to go.
3. Advising Local, State and Federal Agencies of the willingness of the Chamber to assist with any inquiries from National and International companies wishing to establish a presence in the Region.
4. Engage the services of, Real Estate Expert Terry Ryder at a Chamber event, to help us Target Market these Large Industries

Point 2.

To assist new businesses, both those looking to start up and current local businesses wanting to expand their operations either on their existing site or on a new site.

The Chamber will be a conduit to help these businesses engage with Gympie Regional Council to discuss a possible GRC initiative to review its internal development assessment processes.

The board is advocating for a cohesive working relationship with GRC.

Point 3.

To work with GRC in helping them to put together the Economic Development Strategy for 2019 to 2024.

The board will do this by.

1. Working through the 2014 to 2019 E/D Strategy and see what worked and what didn’t work and what we can learn from it.
2. The focus must be on new employment opportunities, the economy and growth of our area.
3. It appears evident that GRC’s focus over the last five years, has not been on following the plan laid out in the 2014 report. There are several objectives and targets in the 2014 report that must discussed and answers sought.

It was agreed by all board members that the plan as laid out in the three points, was the best way for the Gympie Chamber of Commerce to bring about quantifiable change to the economic prospects of Gympie.