The Chambers’ Council held its quarterly meeting on Wednesday of this week at Commerce House.
The Council is made up of 36 elected members plus Forum chairs, presidents of Stafford and Staffordshire Moorlands local area advisory boards (long title!), Finest and Future Finest chairs, and honorary members – its quite an august body with an important role to play.
It serves to develop and ratify the Chambers’ policy and lobbying role, to help the Board and the Chambers’ executives to keep in touch with business issues and what the membership is talking about. It is used as a sounding board for policy matters and to receive reports of the discussions in the forums where businesses get a chance to talk about the issues they want the Chambers to represent to decision makers to ensure that they too are representing the business community.
We usually have a guest presenter at Council, someone who has something to say on hot issues that affect us all and this morning was no exception. We had a presentation from Damien Holdstock and Richard Hickman from St Modwen Logistics, talking about their current logistics and warehousing schemes including Stoke Central (Etruria Valley), Uttoxeter and specifically the plans for development at Junction 16 on the M6.
It sparked a debate on the paucity of decent mid-sized office accommodation, especially in the 20,000 – 100,000 square foot range. This is not only holding back expansion in businesses based here but is as a barrier to inward investment. Something which our Transport and Planning & Infrastructure Forums have been making representations about for a long time.
The Council also elects the 13 representatives who make up the Chambers’ Board of Directors. Their role is to set strategy for the Chambers as a business and to ensure that we are a well-run business which delivers services that are needed and supports the business community. And to join the board, members must have served on the forums or on the council for a year beforehand.
Nominations for council will open in September for election in November so now is a good time to ask you to consider nomination for you are anyone in your business who you think could benefit the Chamber and the wider economy. It is also great for personal development and provides you with a readymade network of senior business contacts.
We are getting some real momentum in our lobbying and representation work and making sure Staffordshire’s business voice is heard at the highest level and we have the ear of all our local MPs. And we all want to make sure that we are representing your views – so come and join in our campaign, through our forums and the council.
We will be sending out notice of council election in due course but please feel free to get in touch in the meantime to find out more. We can even put you in touch with a current council member for a discussion on how it benefits them and their business.
Email us on info@staffordshirechambers.co.uk titling your email ‘Chambers Council’.
You can also watch this short video on being a Council member: https://bit.ly/46tdNp6
We are really proud of the fact that our complicated but efficient governance structure means that we are truly accountable to our members – and we want more of our members to get involved – I look forward to seeing your name on the ballot paper!
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