ST. PAUL - The St. Paul and District Chamber of Commerce appeared before both the Town of St. Paul and County of St. Paul councils last week with hat in hand seeking an increase in the annual funding allocation provided to the chamber by the municipalities.
The request comes at a time when both municipalities have been working to shore up their spending and have implemented cost-cutting measures to balance their operations.
Executive director Yvonne Weinmeier explained the chamber was not immune to the challenges presented by the pandemic and as the business organization continues its work to right the ship, the seas are far from smooth sailing a year after the province lifted pandemic restrictions.
The chamber is requesting funding in the amount of $25,000 from each municipality. Last year, the Town and the County each funded $10,000.
“The St. Paul Chamber has also seen some tough times over the last few years, but we, just like the businesses in our community, are resilient and will continue to work hard to keep our community alive and prospering,” Weinmeier noted in an initial letter to council.
“I apologize if I took anybody by surprise with my letter,” Weinmeier said Monday night as she presented the chamber’s position to town council in person.
Weinmeier said her intent is to refocus the chamber’s direction on what she believes is at its core, that being to advocate for businesses in the community.
“Previously, looking back, there was a lot of fundraising and lot of comments throughout the community that ‘what does the chamber do other than ask businesses for more and more money, and host events?’ Yes, I believe a portion of our role is to collaborate with the community and bring community members together. I don’t want the focus of our role to be fundraising to put money in the bank just to operate.”
She said she recognized that everyone is in a funding crunch, but if the chamber is to move forward there “has to be some funding coming from somewhere.”
The organization has increased its membership fees slightly this year, but businesses are “not in favour of their fees going up too much and I understand that.”
While she said she recognizes that budgets are tight, Weinmeier also believes that business advocacy is crucial. “Without the businesses, none of us would prosper.”
In going over the chamber’s financial position with council, Weinmeier said the organization had hoped to finish last year in the black with a projected surplus of $26,000. However, instead they ended up in a deficit position. “There’s a $30,000 difference there from where we wanted to be to where we ended up being.”
Meanwhile, there are funding challenges facing the chamber in 2023 which include decreased grant monies from other sources which help offset costs such as wages. The chamber has two employees, the full-time executive director position, and a part-time administrative support position.
Membership in the chamber has also decreased, although Weinmeier, who is less than a year into her role, said one of her focuses will be to reconnect with local businesses. Her understanding when she took on the job was that the chamber has a membership of 175 businesses. As it turns out, that number is closer to 110.
In addition to hosting business support networking meetings, working to promote business locally, regionally, and beyond, and other business service programs including the cultural awareness education sessions, plans for the chamber this year include hosting a business conference, family night out, sports challenges, golf tournament, music festival, rodeo kick-off supper and business awards gala, among others.
No decision on the funding request for the chamber was made by Town council last week but the County council agreed it would fund the chamber as outlined in their budget at a rate of $10,000.
