THERE really is no ‘I’ in team and the Guyra and District Chamber of Commerce and Armidale Business Chamber have proved just that.
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The two chambers have decided to work in collaboration to extend their support to members.
President of the Guyra Chamber of Commerce Aileen MacDonald said that the two forces were thrilled to be able to offer more to their members.
“I think what Guyra will benefit from most is the sharing of ideas, what works for them might work for us.
Guyra is a small country town and as a result we’re very focused on agriculture and I believe we will benefit a lot from the networking opportunities this will offer us,” she said.
MacDonald hopes that the collaboration between the two entities will encourage and entice businesses from Armidale and beyond to bring their experiences and expertise to the area.
“In Guyra it’s all about lifestyle, we welcome people to go on hobby farms and see what Guyra has to offer,” she said.
The role of the chambers is to create stronger business development within their respective communities and to facilitate training opportunities in addition to their work in promoting local business and events.
President of the Armidale Business Chamber Tracey Pendergast said that the two bodies have always had a cooperative relationship, but that the decision to work more closely together will allow both groups to extend services to members.
“We’ve always been cousins and now we’re siblings, it’s important to both of us to maintain community development and members of the Guyra District Chamber are more than welcome to attend our events.
What this means is that we can cross-promote events, for example Guyra will soon have its Passion in the Peonies event where they can showcase locally grown foods and we think it will be fantastic to be a part of promoting that,” she said.
The women are both mindful that their member bases are different, and in many ways so are their concerns.
President of the Armidale Business Chamber Tracey Pendergast believes that it’s important for communities to rally together, especially since the amalgamation of Armidale Dumaresq and Guyra Shire into one council.
“Collaboration is always more productive, you can always achieve more as a team and it stands to reason that our work with Guyra will be helpful to the business community.
We need to focus on our commonalities rather than our differences,” she said.