Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce

This week’s Chamber News has been distributed. If you would like a copy or haven’t read it yet please click the link below.

Chamber news February 12

The highlights this week are the mixer hosted by Victoria Costumes and UniquelyU on Thursday, February 18th and the results of the local Haiti relief events. Here is a link to the Peninsula News Review article about the events.

Also, our Pat Bay Visitor Information Centre opens today. Exciting new news is the addition of the Beacon Information Centre in Sidney. This centre, along with the centre across from the Anacortes Ferry Terminal brings our total to three Information Centres. Racking space is available at all three. 

Link to 2010 Display Space Order Form - Revised

We would like to welcome back our dedicated volunteers at the information centres and invite new volunteers to join us for the coming season. Volunteers will have a choice of location.  Please call Carol at 250-665-7362 or the Saanich Peninsula Chamber office at 250-656-3616. You can also email Carol at visitors@peninsulachamber.ca.

Will visitors to the Saanich Peninsula find your business?

The deadline is Friday February 5 but, if you contact us the beginning of next week we will, hopefully, be able to fit you onto the map. Production of the 2010 edition of the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce tear-off, flat map will begin on February 18th. This full-colour, 11” x 17” flat map of the Saanich Peninsula, and Greater Victoria, enables our visitors to easily find their way around our region. This map helps visitors find your business!

Line Listing & Location
Along the right side of the map, both front and back, we have space for a numbered one-line listing of your business that includes your business name and phone number. Visitors locate your business by finding the corresponding number on the map. The cost for the line-listing is $225 + GST for Chamber members and $300 + GST for non-members.

Sponsorship Opportunity
Sponsors get approximately 2″ x 3.5″ to display a logo and message. The map can accommodate three sponsors on the Peninsula side and one on the Sidney side. The cost of sponsorship is $3500.

Distribution
We will produce 50,000 copies of this map. At least one of these maps is handed to every traveling party that stops at our Visitor Centres: volunteers at our VCs are first to welcome thousands of visitors, annually, to southern Vancouver Island. In addition, the map will be distributed to hotels, motels, B&B’s, retail shops and tourist kiosks throughout Greater Victoria region, and Mill Bay.

Deadline
With your support, this map will be ready for distribution by the middle of March 2010. Please advise us by Friday, February 5, 2010, if you would like to promote your business by participating in this year’s map. Let us know by email – info@peninsulachamber.ca – or by phone – 656-3616: we will confirm your details at that time.

Flat Map Advertising Agreement

Terry Stewart, Victoria Airport Authority; Mayor Jack Mar, Central Saanich; Mayor Alice Finell, North Saanich; Mayor Larry Cross, Sidney; John Treleaven, Saanich Peninsula Chamber

The annual Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Mayors’ Breakfast on Thursday, January 21, 2010 provided an opportunity for the Mayors of the three Peninsula municipalities to speak to the business community about their successes of the past year and the goals for this year. Sponsorship of the event by the Victoria Airport Authority allowed this opportunity to be showcased.

Over 100 people attended the event held in the picturesque dining area of the Ocean Sciences Institute in Pat Bay. A busy and hopeful year was outlined.The Peninsula News Review has provided an excellent synopsis of the event called Chamber hosts bacon and boasting.

You can download the December newsletter in PDF format here

Click to see the results of our HST Survey as of November 24th, 2009.

Survey Results

We invite all business owners in British Columbia to participate in this survey created by the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. Questions in the survey are regarding the new harmonized sales tax (HST) to be introduce on July 1, 2010.

We will post the results periodically as the survery progesses.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=nHgREWCyNQVGeqwTL0p01A_3d_3d

A tourism councillor, at our Pat Bay Visitor Centre, helps make a Netherlands couple’s vacation an “unforgettable experience to last for a lifetime”. The couple spoke with her at the visitor centre and told her of their plans to go on a whale watching tour the next day. She insisted that the couple rearrange their plans and go whale watching that day instead, because she had heard that the conditions were absolutely perfect. The couple took her advice and they got to see a total of an estimated 85 killer whales, and plenty of other wildlife during their trip from Sidney.

On top of that she also arranged the couple’s accommodation for their stay on the Saanich Peninsula, where they experienced spectacular wildlife and sun rises that they could never experience from home.

The couple was so thankful for the councillor’s help that they sent their personal thanks and this brilliant photo of a killer whale jumping out of the water near their whale watching boat.

You can download the September newsletter in PDF format here

The Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce introduced “Cinema by the Sea” to residents of Sidney and the Saanich Peninsula on July 30th, 2009. The event was made possible with the help of our title sponsor, Peninsula Co-op, and other supporting sponsors. Proceeds donated to the Saanich Peninsula Hospital Foundation.  “Cinema Under the Stars” was held the previous night at Centennial Park, in Central Saanich.

(Clockwise) 1. Fresh Air Cinema inflates their giant 30ft. movie screen in preparation for the movie while some early birds grab center seats ahead of time. 2. The screen is fully inflated and the crew finishes setting up the speakers. 3. Our M.C., Kenny Podmore (a.k.a. Doc Brown), chats with Stanya Watson from Peninsula Co-op, Lloyd Gale and Eileen Leddy, executive director of the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. 4. Volunteers at the Chamber of Commerce, the staff at Margie’s Corner Deli and the Peninsula Co-op set up their tents for the big screen event.

Click here to view the presentation

Click here for the article by the Peninsula News Review