In an almost unanimous vote during one of the larger Radium Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce annual general meetings in recent memory, members have opted to create a separate entity to handle tourism matters.

Chamber members Oct. 11 voted 35 to three in favour of establishing the Tourism Radium Hot Springs Association, which will carry out contracts for the Visitor Centre services with Tourism BC, serve as Radium’s information centre and administer the Hotel Room Tax that is collected by village accommodators to market the community’s tourism assets.

Opening the chamber’s annual general meeting at Radium Resort, chair Doug McIntosh urged the membership to strongly consider the creation of the tourism arm of the chamber in order to “rebrand and consolidate” the business group’s resources.

“We must all work together with a positive mindset,” McIntosh said after outlining the difficulties the village’s economy has endured in the past couple of years, noting the suspension of operations at the mill, the loss of construction jobs, “the HST kicked us in the backside – twice, the .05, and negative publicity in the Calgary Herald over cars seized in the park.”

McIntish said “all sectors” of Radium’s business community need to work together to market the town.

“A can-do attitude has served us well, it always has,” he said.

Village Mayor Dee Conklin then outlined the current state of affairs with the province’s Resort Municipalities Initiative, with Radium being one of 14 tourism-reliant communities in B.C. that gets a share of a two per cent room tax to help it market and advertise.

Invermere/Panorama, Fernie and Kimberley are the other East Kootenay towns that are part of the program. The other communities are Rossland, Golden, Revelstoke, Valemount, Whistler, Osoyoos, Harrison Hot Springs, Tofino and Ucluelet.

“It is an excellent program,” Conklin said, while admitting the reporting aspect of it is “onerous.”

Village chief administrative officer Mark Read said in total $280,000 comes to the village from two provincial programs aimed at helping tourism destination communities do a better job at tourism.

Conklin said the creation of a tourism branch of the chamber is a logical next step, noting the other 13 resort municipalities “are going in the same direction. This is a direction we really need to go.”

Ensuring the best use of tourism dollars will enable the chamber to keep serving as a business advocacy voice and entity and push tourism along, she said, outlining the large volume of time spent by chamber staff on tourism-only matters.

Of 133 tourist information centres in the province, Radium’s is the 11^th busiest, Conklin said.

“It takes a lot to staff that 362 days a year,” she added.

Chamber manager Kent Kebe told the roughly 60 people gathered at the AGM that between September 2010 and August 2011, Radium’s info centre received 50,247 visitors.

He, too, urged the membership to vote in favour of the creation of the Tourism Radium Hot Springs Association (TRHSA).

“Today is a very important day for the Village of Radium Hot Springs but also for the valley,” he said, suggesting Radium can take a leadership role “to show them how it is done.”

Prior to the vote, a question period was held.

Members learned that they would retain full chamber member benefits in the changeover, and chamber staff would transition to the new organization but also still look after chamber duties.

“This great staff continually multi-tasks to keep business going,” McIntosh said.

He added that by establishing TRHSA, there would be more “credibility with senior levels of government.”

However, not all members were completely sold. Horsethief Creek Pub and Eatery owner Bob Fowler said he was concerned about the chamber veering further away from non-tourism-related business advocacy.

But McIntosh and Conklin spoke to the need of keeping the pedal down on tourism promotion because that would bolster the entire village economy.

“All the traffic goes through our town. We need to slow it down, stop it and get an extra night of them,” McIntosh said.

Conklin added that a pre-official community plan survey showed that village residents viewed branding as the number one priority and economic development as the second.

“The more people we can bring here the more there are who become excited about what we have,” she said. “I don’t know how many people I have talked to who said ‘I used to go to Radium’ and they need to be brought back.”

Following the vote, the chamber then held an election for its new executive, with a record 14 members being nominated for seven positions on the board.

Running were: McIntosh, Val Bracken, Karen Larsen, Rod Conklin, Michelle Cramton, Joe Evanoff, Ken Fisher, who also chaired the election process, Graham Kerslake, Ed Furger, Leann Laisnez, Kerstin McCauley, Jim Spiers, Marlise Stewart and Darren Thompson.

After each nominee had two minutes to speak to the membership, another vote was held for the new board of directors.

The vote resulted in an almost sweeping change of the chamber executive, as the seven elected board members are: Rod Conklin, Ken Fisher, Ed Furger, Graham Kerslake, Leann Laisnez, Kerstin McCauley and Jim Spiers. Only Fisher was on the previous executive.

The new directors then convened to elect the new executive, with Kerslake, owner of the Village Country Inn and Fireside Tea Shop emerging as the new chair, with Laisnez, of On Higher Ground, the new vice chair. Casavino Wine Bar co-owner Conklin is the new secretary and McCauley, owner of Crystal Springs Motel is treasurer.

For more on the resort municipality initiative go to: https://www.cscd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/gov_structure/resort_municipality/index.htm

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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