Members of the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce board of directors heard directly from Herb Sutton, the City’s community safety co-ordinator, at their meeting Tuesday.
Sutton was there to speak about SAGE — Safety, Acceptance, Guidance and Empowerment. Joining Sutton were fellow SAGE participants Bonnie Evans and Susanne Abe to give an overview of the initiative and encourage the business community’s involvement.
Sutton spoke about some of the SAGE efforts, including some community. He also spoke of efforts to recruit new members for Citizens on Patrol.
He spoke of the Crime-Free Multi Housing initiative and said he attended their first “safety social” earlier that evening with North Battleford Housing Authority.
At that event, they talked with residents about safety, including looking out for neighbours. The initiative is aimed at reducing crime at multi-unit facilities.
Sutton noted the importance of community engagement and citizen involvement towards the success of SAGE. “If people don’t have a stake in it it’s not going to be effective,” said Sutton.
“Citizens have to be involved, that’s the recipe for success.”
The board also heard from Nathan Puffalt, of NP Marketing Direction, who spoke about the Shop Battlefords campaign and about the plans for a new app. The focus at the moment was making sales and Puffalt said there was lively interest being expressed so far.
As well, the Chamber is planning an active October with a number of events.
A big event is the annual BBEX awards Oct. 4 at the Dekker Centre, which is sold out.
As well, plans are well underway for events during Small Business Week which is the third week of October, from 16-22.
In the past few years the Battlefords Best Marketplace and Expo had highlighted Chamber activities during this week, but that event has been discontinued.
Instead, smaller events are planned and one is election-related.
The Chamber plans to hold an all-candidates event Monday, Oct. 17 at their Chamber offices at the corner of Highways 16 and 40. The format is expected to differ from the traditional all-candidates meetings hosted in the past by the Chamber.
The original intention had been to do more of a meet-and-greet format on issues related to the Chamber, but Executive Director Linda Machniak noted they had an idea to do a “candidate on the clock” type of event. It would be something along the lines of speed-dating events, where candidates could be given two minutes each to make their pitch directly to voters.
Plans for that event are to be finalized in the coming weeks and invitations will be sent out once the nominations close.
That would be the first event held that week. The plan is to hold a small business luncheon Tuesday. The guest speaker being lined up is Amanda Guthrie of OUTSaskatoon, who would speak on diversity in the workplace.
The plan for Wednesday is for a “Betcha Didn’t Know Business Tour” which will set up a tour of the Northland Power plant for that day.
Thursday the Chamber is planning a gala event celebrating “110 Women of Business” and work is still ongoing to line up speakers for that event.
Finally, on Friday Oct. 21 is the public launch at Gold Eagle Casino of the Shop the Battlefords app.
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