ELK POINT – With just over three weeks to go, the search is on for potential candidates for president and vice president of the Elk Point and District Chamber of Commerce. Both current president Terri Hampson and vice president Faithe Hunter have made firm decisions not to seek reelection for the positions.
“It doesn’t have to be done the way I have done it, and although I’m not staying on as president, I will help with the transition,” Hampson told chamber members at last Wednesday’s meeting. The current treasurer and secretary will allow their names to stand for another year in those posts, and Hampson said she will stay with the Economic Development Committee “at least for this year.”
“I have been searching for potential candidates,” Shirley Harms noted, thanking Hampson for her seven years as president. “You have done a super job, and have raised the bar” for chamber programs and activities.
The chamber’s 2025 Annual General Meeting is slated for Feb. 12 at noon in the Northern Lights Library System meeting room.
The new executive will go into the coming year with a balanced budget, with Hampson outlining anticipated income and expenses for the coming year, and the budget, based on an estimated 35 members and adding in extra costs that could come with celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Christmas Extravaganza, approved by the members in attendance.
The 2024 Extravaganza was organized by a “super good committee,” Harms said, with a decent time frame for events, and very successful donations that will give the committee a nice nest egg for the 2025 version and that also resulted in a great lineup of prizes for both Extravaganza and Shop Local draw winners.
Along with Extravaganza night and the Forest of Lights, the Shop Local weeks encourage shoppers to patronize local businesses through the first half of December, “and shows other communities that we are alive and not a quiet little town. It gives people something to look forward to and promotes our retailers,” she noted.
“We have some things to work on, but it’s unbelievable that this started 40 years ago, and I’m hoping for fireworks, and by then, hopefully with what the town is doing, we can bring more businesses into town.”
But before another Extravaganza, comes summer, and hopefully an influx of visitors. With that in mind, the chamber discussed the upcoming tourist season, and after discussing the cost of membership, participation in the Road Trip contest and a prize for one of the Road Trip winners, made a firm decision to continue being part of the Go East of Edmonton tourism group.
Hampson will ask Home Town Grocers if they will once again become Elk Point’s Road Trip checkpoint. The chamber will also remain as part of Alberta’s Lakeland, which has a reciprocal membership with the chamber at no cost to either group.
