Chamber of Commerce administration moves to home-based virtual offices

The Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce staff will now complete their administrative roles from home-based virtual offices, says a newsletter to Chamber members. The Chamber said it will continue to host its popular line-up of community and member-based events in-person, as the province’s re-opening guidelines allow.

The full text of the newsletter is below. We are reaching out for more comments.

The Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce would like to advise our membership that Chamber team members have now transitioned to a hybrid model of work and member engagement.

Chamber staff will now complete their administrative roles from home-based virtual offices. The Chamber will continue to host its popular line-up of community and member-based events in-person, as the province’s re-opening guidelines allow. We look forward to reconnecting with our membership and the business community as COVID-19 protocols permit.

The transition to working virtually is not completely new, in fact most Chamber team members have been working from home-based offices for the majority of the last year, however we have made the decision to formally transition to this model for the foreseeable future. Members should see no change in the level of service that they have become accustomed to, from their Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks to the emergence of new online services offering virtual meetings and event spaces, we have actually been able to increase our advocacy efforts and connect our members with federal, provincial, and municipal leaders and decision makers in ways that we never could before.

The member management system that we adopted two years ago allows Chamber team members to manage member portfolios, event registrations, and our website from anywhere. Our members can use that same system to pay invoices online, register for events and update their member profiles.

Our Chamber team have enhanced their skill sets to effectively utilize additional online tools to manage communications, member e-mails, and graphic design. And, like most of our member businesses, we have embraced social media as means of communication with our members and a way to share our stories and theirs.

By embracing programming that could only be offered remotely, we have been able to offer our members the opportunity to participate in programs like the World Trade Centre Toronto’s ‘Trade Accelerator Program’ and its ‘Recovery Activation Program’ (Digital Transformation Program).

We understand that the last year and a half has been challenging for our members; it has not been without challenges for our Chamber as well. We feel a strong responsibility to ensure that your membership dollars are spent effectively advocating for local business, connecting you with key policy makers, keeping you informed of issues that matter to your business, and hosting events that offer the best return for your participation.

We wish to thank the many Chamber-member businesses that have generously offered the opportunity to host in-person meetings of the membership, Executive Team and Board of Directors at their locations; that hospitality will serve to deepen our relationship with the membership.

We look forward to continuing to serve as the Voice of Business in Sault Ste. Marie.