Cairns Chamber of Commerce - Building Business - Celebrating 100 Years in 2009

Celebrating 100 years of service to our Members.
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TIME TO CELEBRATE! 2009 IS THE CENTENARY YEAR FOR THE CAIRNS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

	February 2009 \| Monthly Report to Members	www.cairnschamber.com.au
	2009 Centenary Sponsors:


1909 - 1918	1979 - 1988	1989 - 1998	1999 - 2008


	What's happening at the Chamber: President's Report Young Ch@mber Report Welcome to our Newest Members Chamber Lunch - Darryl King Centenary Celebrations: 1909 - 1918 Benefits of Being Part of the Chamber Working Through the Tough Times Membership Renewals 2009 Dengue - Check the Work Space Road Reports Cairns Base Hospital - Stakeholder Reference Group Resource & Industrial Taskforce (R&IT) Chamber Connection Chamber Events Who Would You Like to See at Lunch?

	President's Report

	If you thought you were treading hard to keep your head above water in Cairns, then spare a thought for those in Ingham, Georgetown and Normanton. There certainly are some stunning shots doing the rounds. In fact, I had the dubious pleasure of being stuck in
	Ingham for 36 hours Saturday week ago, during the flood before THE flood. To say it was frustrating was an understatement, every hour or two checking the status of the road, not really getting much information through, not knowing if we'd get through before the cyclone. As it happened, and to great relief to the many travellers and truckies stranded there, the back-log of motorists got to continue their journey - at least for 24 hours. Each year we expect to be cut off from the rest of the State for at least a day or so, and we learn to live with it. But events such as this brought on by Cyclone Ellie serve to highlight the tenuous nature of our national highway, not to mention the various western routes and developmental roads. Great work has been done to improve the Tully section and of course the impending completion of the new Mulgrave River bridge. But it is high time we saw some action in these other areas, so we avoid the interruption to business and our daily lives. And if current weather conditions prevail, by the time you're reading this, I could imagine many businesses will start to feel the pinch of not getting supplies through and of not being able to service customers. Of course, we can do much by way of the internet nowadays. To enlighten us in this area, we have a special guest speaker, Darryl King of ireckon fame, to our first lunch for the year. Come along and enjoy Darryl's insights into the electronic world and compare it to the early 1900s as we celebrate the first of our Centenary celebration decades sponsored by Telstra Country Wide. Regards, Jeremy Blockey President


	Upcoming Chamber Events:

	Young Ch@mber Cocktail Party Date: Friday 13 February Venue: Pacific International Hotel Time: 7.00pm til late Grab your tickets now!

	Chamber Breakfast Date: Tuesday 17 February Venue: Pacific International Hotel Time: 7.00am til 9am Book now

	Chamber Lunch Remembering Decade: 1909 - 1918 Date: Tuesday 24 February Speaker: Darryl King Venue: Shangri-La Hotel The Ballroom (Level 2), via main foyer Sponsor: Telstra CountryWide Book online

	SPECIAL EVENT Chamber Gala Dinner Date: Saturday 23 May Venue: The Sebel Cairns Time: 7.00pm to 11.30pm Don't miss out - book now!

	Quick Links: Young Chamber Join or renew your membership Advertise on the eNoticeboard Members News Archive Missed a lunch? View our guest speaker presentation archive Chamber boardroom bookings Cairns Report 2007 Contact us

	See Anyone You Know? If you haven't met the Young Chamber team yet, make sure you head to the Cocktail Party on Friday 13 February. But before you go, view the team's pics or download their group shots below so you know who to look out for. Photos courtesy of Lovegreen Photography

Young Ch@mber Report

YOUNG CHAMBER PRESIDENT - SARAH POWELL

YC Chair:
Sarah Powell

Each year, the Young Chamber event calendar is launched with our signature Cocktail Party. This formal event is always held on a Friday evening and is characterised by a cocktail attire dress code, set cocktail menu, posh catering and live jazz. It's a huge hit!

The key objectives of the event are to:

* Ensure awareness of Young Chamber's purpose and agenda;

* Preview the keynote events that are scheduled to take place

during the year;

* Formally introduce our newly elected Young Chamber committee

members; and

* Encourage people to approach the committee members and tell them

what they (or the organisation they are representing) personally want

to achieve through the Young Chamber.

Even though the Cocktail Party is the only Young Chamber event which is not themed (i.e. as a professional development or dedicated networking event), the feedback in prior years has included "it made doing business feel easy" and "the cocktail party was a great environment to meet different people and make new contacts".

Of course, the popularity of this event also recognises the fact that people love an opportunity to get 'spruced up' and we're certainly not going to dissuade that! All are welcome, members, non-members, business owners and employees, from the office to the outdoors.

A big thank you goes out to the team at Outsource Management / BDO for coming onboard as a sponsor for this year's Cocktail Party. Bob - you rock.

The event will be held at the Pacific Harbour Room and Pool Terrace of the Pacific International Hotel, on Friday 13 February 2009.

The night begins at 7.00pm and on arrival you will receive vouchers for our delicious cocktails - the Cosmopolitan and the Black Russian. This year there are two live music acts, creating ambience indoors in the aircon, and entertaining the troupes outdoors on the pool terrace.

I encourage you to come along, bring your staff and invite your clients. It is a fantastic night out so come see what all the fuss is about. Click here to register (mad if you don't)!

Sarah
Young Ch@mber Chair

www.youngchamber.com.au

Welcome to Our Newest Members

Company/Contact	Category
Cairns Finance Pty Ltd	Financial & Investment Services
Island & Cape	Food & Beverage Suppliers
Steadfast Security Consultants	Security Systems & Services

Chamber Lunch


	For the third year in a row we have entered into an arrangement with The Cairns Post that allows us to target quality speakers for our monthly lunches - and this month is no exception. Our first speaker for the year is Darryl King and many of you will have seen his work already as he designed the cairns.com.au website. Darryl will give us insights regarding the use of the internet and some gems on how best to maximise the electronic mediums currently available to us. To learn more about Darryl or to book for the event click here.
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Centenary Celebrations: 1909 - 1918


	1909 - 1918: Did You Know? The year 1909 marked the adoption of the Chamber's constitution. The nation's population climbed to 4.3 million, Queensland University was established, and the old age pension was introduced by the Commonwealth Government. Manager of the local branch of the Queensland National Bank, James Alison, accepted nomination as the inaugural Chamber president. Monthly meetings were introduced and an immediate drive to recruit new members began. Land issues, potential trade with Papua New Guinea, the need for better courthouse services, fishing, timber and sugar industry problems were addressed by the chamber during its first official year. During James' two-year term in office, the Chamber also welcomed the establishment of the first butter factory on the Tablelands at Atherton. In 1912 the city got its first taste of a new entertainment phenomenon with the opening of the Lyric Theatre in Spence Street, which screened "the very latest in motion picture art". It closed soon after, to reopen as Royal Pictures, and later as the Palace Theatre. In what was the start of a shift of business away from Abbott Street, Irish born entrepreneur, Michael Boland, opened the grand three-storey Boland Centre in 1913, in time for Christmas shopping at the corner of Lake and Spence Streets. The emporium, constructed entirely of reinforced concrete, had a flat roof that was waterproofed with bitumen. During World War I musicians used it as a stage for patriotic performances. And in World War 2 part of the store was occupied by the United States Navy. In 1963 the business was sold to Sydney based David Jones Ltd, which relocated its CBD department store to Earlville Shopping Centre in 1984. Read more on the 1909-1918 decade of Cairns and the Cairns Chamber of Commerce on the Chamber website.
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Benefits of Being Part of the Chamber

The Chamber takes an active role in securing the best possible future of both Cairns and the region. This takes the form of providing networking opportunities, hosting interesting speakers, advocating on strategic regional issues and so on.

Strategic regional issues include:

Health	Border Protection
Regional Planning	Water supply & storage
Road upgrades	Education & training
Migration Policy	Energy & power supply

With the vision of Building Business we present opportunities to our members via:

Inviting mining representatives to Cairns	Information & networking events
Regional Business Tours to Cape York	eNewsletter & eNoticeboard

To stay abreast of matters and keep focused on key areas we have a number of subcommittees which draw on the interests and expertise of our members. We have previously outlined the focus areas for each of the groups.

Young Chamber	Centenary Taskforce
Resource & Industrial Taskforce	Health Taskforce
CBD Taskforce	Regional Plan Monitory Group

Please visit our website at www.cairnschamber.com.au for helpful links and information, or send us an email at info@cairnschamber.com.au if we can help you.

Working Through the Tough Times

The Chamber will be offering a number of free seminars to you on working through tough times. We will be calling for Expressions of Interest later this month for those members capable of delivering these seminars. If you have any suggestions on particular topics, please let us know.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland - CCIQ (formerly Commerce Queensland) is offering a free seminar on 20 February titled "Surviving Tough Times". Due to it's popularity the seminar is already BOOKED OUT but future events will be held. Please visit the CCIQ website for updates.

It is during the times when the going gets tough that we all

need to work together. The events we have planned for 2009 will present you with an ideal opportunity to build local relationships as well as hear about innovative ideas to streamline your business.

Membership Renewals

As you have seen through our Members News, lunch and media coverage, the Chamber has been very active in working for you, our members. We need your ongoing support to continue to deliver a quality and relevant service to our members. We would like to thank you for your support and commitment to the Chamber in 2008 and look forward to continuing to work together in 2009.

With 2009 looking like a difficult year for business, we will be working even harder to present you with opportunities to help build your business. We are also keen to hear your ideas on how we can work together.

We have issued our membership renewal invoices and would hope that you value your Chamber membership significantly enough to renew.

The membership period is January to December. If you have not received your invoice, please contact Erica at the Chamber office.

Dengue - Check the Work Space

As you are aware, dengue outbreaks have been declared in Cairns and Townsville. This has now been upgraded to an epidemic in Cairns with over 13 suburbs affected and 300 confirmed cases as of 10 February 2009. There are also 50 cases in Townsville and 1 in Port Douglas.

Due to the current outbreaks, we encourage you to adopt the following measures in your workplace to protect your staff, clients and neighbours:

1. Ensure that your workplace is free of potential mosquito breeding sites.

Specific potential breeding sites that need to be dealt with are:

i) Containers: Throw out stagnant water from (or just throw out) pot plant bases, buckets, tarpaulins, palm fronds, boats, flower vases, old tyres, and any other container that can hold water.

ii) Roof gutters: Check that roof gutters have not been clogged with leaves and branches. Clear them to ensure they do not breed mosquitoes.

iii) Gully traps/drains: Check any drain sumps that may hold stagnant water. Ensure they are clear of debris and, where practical, fill them with concrete to the bottom of outlet pipes. This also reduces the opportunity for mosquito breeding.

2. Apply surface spray to dark and shady areas in your workplace - for instance under desks and cupboards. If you are being bitten at your workplace or in the field, make sure you wear insect repellent during the day and reapply as labelled.

There is no simple way of preventing dengue epidemics in North Queensland but we encourage you to take these simple steps. After all, none of us want to have staff off work because they're sick.

Road Reports


	At this time of the year we are all very conscious of the weather and the impact of road closures. The vast majority of our freight comes in and goes out by road. For those wishing to check on road conditions and closures please visit the RACQ Road Reports site.
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Cairns Base Hospital


	Stakeholder Reference Group Members of the Chamber Management Committee and our Health Taskforce visited Cairns Base Hospital last week to gain a better understanding of the developments that will occur in coming year. Jeremy Blockey has been appointed to the stakeholder reference group for the upgrade. If you have any questions or would like to provide input, please contact the Chamber office - 07 4031 1838 or info@cairnschamber.com.au.
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Resource & Industrial Taskforce (R&IT)

REMINDER: The Chamber will be holding a series of breakfast presentations in 2009. The confirmed speakers so far are:

David Conn, Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce	They are setting up a Business Centre that could help Cairns' companies who want to set up a presence in Port Moresby to provide services to the major liquid natural gas projects.
Bruce Watson	Xstrata Mount Isa
Chris Bulbrook	Chalco (Arukun Bauxite Project)
Paul Messenger	Cape Alumina

Online eTendering For Queensland Government

The below link will find the most recent information about Queensland Government tendering opportunities. This Website lists opportunities that are upcoming, current or closed. https://www.tenders.qld.gov.au/queensland/

R & IT Webpage

Visit the R&IT page on the Chamber website. This page is being constantly updated.

Information

If you wish to be involved in any of our activities, or just gain a better understanding of the scope of resource projects that can be serviced from Cairns, please contact the Chamber office or the Chair of the Resource Taskforce, Sharon Dawson.

Chamber Connection

To highlight your membership with the Chamber and demonstrate your involvement with a leading business organisation, you are entitled and encouraged to display our logo and website link on your website.

To obtain a copy of the Chamber logo, please contact Judy Lloyd.

CAIRNS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE | BUILDING BUSINESS FOR 100 YEARS

Chamber Events

Young Ch@mber Cocktail Party
at the Pacific International Hotel

- Cocktails and Conversation

- Fantastic Networking Opportunity

- Great Prizes to be won

- Complimentary cocktails and canapes on arrival

Need we say more?

View your invitation or jump right in and book your tickets now - we look forward to seeing you there!

Event Sponsors:

BDO Kendalls
Outsource Management

Venue Partner:

Pacific International Cairns

Chamber Breakfast on Tuesday 17 February 2009
at the Pacific International Hotel, 7am to 9am

Speaker: David Conn, CEO of Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc

Topic: Working with and building relationships with PNG. More details here.

RSVP: By 3.00pm, this Friday 13 February 2009.

Book Online

February Lunch - Celebrating 100 Years in 2009
at the Shangri-la Hotel, The Marina Cairns

Remembering Decade: 1909 - 1918 | Sponsored by Telstra Country Wide

Speaker: Darryl King, CEO of ireckon

Topic: Insight into the use of the internet and how best to maximise the electronic mediums currently available to us.

About the Speaker: Founder and CEO of ireckon, Darryl King is a visionary and goal oriented CEO who has over 14 years experience in the IT industry.

Dabbling on the internet before it became popular; Darryl's goal for ireckon was to make it fair for SME's to access the internet and to compete in the world market.