Alberni Valley Chamber's blog

The Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce is partnering with Twin Travel and Collette Vacations to offer the chance of a lifetime to achieve another “bucket list” goal – a river excursion all the way from Amsterdam to Budapest. This vacation dream will take place in September of 2013 –early fall in central Europe! The riverboat cruise includes 16 days, 41 meals, round trip airport shuttles and tours of Amsterdam, Cologne, Koblenz, Rudesheim, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Linz, Wachau Valley, Melk, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest, just to name a few.

So, what to do to help celebrate Port Alberni’s centennial? Our brain trust recently met in an out-of-the-way phone booth and we are ecstatic to announce the “Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce Centennial Beard and Bonnet Contest”! You can start growing your beards and constructing your bonnets any time now. The judgment day will be August 4th at Bob Dailey Stadium during our city’s Homecoming event. Men’s beards will be judged under the following categories: Best Over-All Beard, Best Moustache, Best Freestyle Facial Hair and Best Fake Beard.

I’m not totally convinced, but I assume we should all be pleased that the groundhog is predicting an early spring in Canada. At the Visitor Centre we are already experiencing more visitor traffic. Some are heading out to storm and whale watch on the west coast and many are looking for directions to sporting events such as the Alberni Invitational Wrestling Tournament (29th annual). Next month we expect a real spike in numbers as the BC All-Native Junior Basketball Tournament hits town with 50 teams taking part, March 18th - 23rd.

A great percentage of travelers driving through Port Alberni are destined for the west coast and specifically, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. We are improving on our challenge to stop some of them for a while to utilize our services and visit our attractions. Passers-through are now discovering that we have something to offer if you take the time to get off the beaten track, and they are planning vacations here, in a more central and affordable destination. This is precisely why we built our high-profile new Visitor Centre.

The chamber is looking ahead to another great season working with our volunteer Ambassadors aboard the Frances Barkley, in the grove, at the Visitor Centre and around town during special events. This year will be extra exciting as we celebrate all that goes along with our 100th anniversary. We are putting the call out for new Ambassadors to sign up for this gratifying pastime and in particular, we are looking for a call-out coordinator to maintain the schedule for Cathedral Grove Ambassadors.

To kick off our centennial year, the Chamber of Commerce would like to throw open nominations for our annual Community Excellence Awards Dinner. The event is scheduled for Thursday, April 12th at the best Western Barclay Hotel. You can pick up nomination papers at the Visitor Centre or by accessing the chamber’s website, avcoc.com.

In June the AV Chamber board passed the following motion: “That if the Raven Coal Project goes ahead, the AV Chamber of Commerce would support shipping through Port Alberni given all environmental permits are in place and there are net benefits to the Alberni Valley”. Over the past two weeks we polled our members by email as to whether they supported that motion, or not. 62% of those responding supported the motion and 38% did not. 84.5% of respondents preferred transportation by rail and 15.5% preferred trucking.

It’s Port Alberni’s centennial year! Yeah, we’re a hundred! Do you feel that old? We are working with the Centennial Committee to promote the special events planned for the year. Watch your emails for a poster you can display and the first draft of an events calendar. Local clubs and organizations should be planning special centennial events (tournaments, annual general meetings, picnics etc.) and working with the Centennial Committee to coordinate the year’s events and promote them.

The new Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce building boasts a boardroom which will seat 16 to 18 people around the board table or up to 35 people using theatre seating configuration.
If your group or organization is looking for a comfortable meeting room with access to a full kitchen and accessible washrooms call our office for a copy of the rental schedule. Our rental prices are very affordable and they can include audio-visual equipment as well.
Call 724 6535 for more information about “Meeting at the Visitor Centre”

The Chamber Learning Network is all about small and medium sized online business training.

Skills Growth = Business Growth
The Chamber Learning Network is a comprehensive, constantly expanding catalogue of more than 4,000 online workplace-training courses for small and medium sized businesses. We offer courses at a price your business can afford and training that your employees put into practice immediately.
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Your employees never need to leave work, as training occurs online during staff downtime.
Inexpensive