The Battlefords Chamber of Commerce has formally appointed the officers who will serve on the executive for 2012.
The executive was chosen by a unanimous vote of the directors in the first meeting of the year on Jan. 17.
Serving in 2012 will be Pat Smith as president, Ron Crush appointed to represent the City of North Battleford, Chris Odishaw and Bill Halewich representing the Town of Battleford, Sharon Mohagen as first vice-president, Rory Anderson as second vice-president and Megan Hermiston as treasurer. As well, outgoing president Scott Campbell will serve as immediate past-president.
The meeting also ratified the results of the recent board elections that saw all 11 candidates appointed to the board after a tie resulted for the 10th and final position.
The board meeting electing the officers would normally be held on the same night as the annual general meeting for the Chamber, however a scheduling issue prevented both Pat Smith and Scott Campbell from being able to attend on the same night.
As a result, the regular board meeting was moved up. Smith ended up presiding over the board meeting Tuesday while Campbell is set to preside over the 2012 AGM Tuesday.
Smith will be officially sworn in as the new president of the Chamber at the President's Banquet Jan. 31. The Saskatchewan Roughriders' Steve Mazurak will be the guest speaker for that event.
In addition to the board election there were two items of note that emerged from the meeting about some Chamber activities coming up.
One is that North Battleford has been confirmed as the host of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce Conference on Business, the provincial chamber's annual meeting and policy session, in May 2013.
The city was chosen to host the event in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the city. The city had last hosted the conference in 2006.
Directors have also given the green light to the Chamber to book a speaker for an upcoming educational event in mid-March.
They plan to bring in Eddie LeMoine, whose presentation is titled A Journey to Engagement - How to Attract, Retain and Motivate a Winning Team.
LeMoine was touted as an excellent speaker who got a standing ovation when he made a similar presentation in Lloydminster. The topic is also seen as valuable to businesses that find themselves facing challenges in retaining personnel.
It is likely the event would be a small-scale one held at the Chamber building to keep costs down. Part of the reason they will be able to secure LeMoine was because the North West Enterprise Region is committed to covering LeMoine's speaker fees for the event.
