April 23, 2014
The Wondai Chamber Of Commerce will change from a purely business-oriented group into a more broadly based community organisation that will act as “the voice of Wondai”, a public meeting decided last night.
The meeting was called by former Wondai Shire Mayor Percy Iszlaub after the town’s Chamber Of Commerce was put into mothballs in March.
The gathering was held at the Wondai Regional Art Gallery’s Studio and was attended by South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann, Division 6 Cr Ros Heit and about 20 representatives from various community groups, as well as several interested locals.
Mayor Kratzmann opened the meeting by giving the audience a “State Of The Region” address which summarised how the Council had progressed since amalgamation in March 2008 and the challenges it faces.
This was the same presentation he had given to other groups in Kingaroy, Murgon and Blackbutt in the past few months, he said.
The Mayor then went on to explain that he felt peak community groups which were able to organise and then pass on the wishes and concerns of their towns to Divisional Councillors played an extremely valuable role in helping the Council decide where funds should be spent.
“We need a voice for Wondai,” he said.
Mr Iszlaub then addressed the meeting, saying the main problems the Chamber Of Commerce faced were that there were only a small number of businesses in the town, and many business people were finding it “too tough” to attend meetings or assume executive positions because of the many demands on their time.
He suggested the best way forward might be to broaden the organisation out to involve interested members of the community and representatives from the town’s many other community groups.
This would allow a new-look Chamber to represent not just the interests of business, but the interests of the community as a whole.
Various people in the audience then discussed possible ways this might be done.
Mayor Kratzmann suggested one model the group might like to consider could be the Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce’s six-weekly Meet’n’Greet socials, which had seen attendance numbers soar in the last few years.
Another might be the progress association model adopted in Maidenwell, where the Maidenwell Community Group had been formed by locals to gather consensus about how the community should spend a $45,000 civic improvement grant from Council.
This group’s suggestions have now led to the levelling of the Maidenwell Oval and the creation of a three to five-year plan to revitalise the town centre.
The Wondai meeting wound up with a resolution to form a steering committee to look into the organisation’s transition.
- Related article: Wondai Chamber Seeks New Direction
- Related link: State Of The Region Powerpoint Presentation (1.3Mb PDF)
