Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 30/02) - Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce membership numbers are skyrocketing and the group's financial woes are nearly over. The turn-around is thanks to the hard work of chamber staff and executive.

A year ago, chamber president David McPherson took on the task of improving the organization's public profile. Part of that mission included taking positions on important issues.

"That would at least let our membership know we are alive," said McPherson adding the chamber needed to be recognized as a relevant advocate for business.

The chamber also pushed to market itself more aggressively. Over the course of about six months it revamped its whole membership benefits package and pressed to sell that as a reason for small businesses to want to join.

Chamber members can access discounts from other chamber member businesses. The chamber offers insurance for small businesses at good rates. There are hotel and car rental discounts as well as other benefits.

"Since the spring trade show things have really turned around," said McPherson.

The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce' results came out at its annual general meeting last week. McPherson was acclaimed as president for a second term and a new board of directors was chosen.

Last year, at this time, the chamber was suffering from a plummeting membership and the organization's bank book was dripping with red ink.

Now, membership is increasing at a rate of about one to three new memberships every week. At its lowest, the numbers dropped to 297 last year but are now up to 402. It looks like the target of 500 members might be realized.

And more members means more money in the bank. Most of the chamber's revenue is contributed to membership fees.

"We're still walking a very tight line as far as revenues and expenses are concerned," said McPherson.

Administration and office costs consume the greatest chunk of expense money and those have markedly decreased.

In fact the books might look even better but the chamber decided to clear up its overdue debts.

An added money-making project launched during last year is a Web-based business directory called www.ykbusiness.com.

"Once that company gets up and running it will provide a much more reliable foundation for revenue generation for the chamber for quite some time," said McPherson.

The Web page is like an online yellow pages, "But we're hoping to grow that. We have plans to expand that to provide a number of member services that we can charge fees for."

Business people will be able to renew business licences, WCB applications and bill payments.