Monday night's Lac La Biche and District Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting drew only 25 people — and of those five were last term's board members and the executive director, four were Lac La Biche County councillors, three were county staff members, two were guest speakers and one was the caterer.
The turnout was upsetting for outgoing Chamber president Lina Yadlowski.
"I'm so disappointed," said Yadlowski as she looked over less than 20 scattered faces in the McArthur Room at McArthur Place — a room that had been made ready to host four times that amount. "With all the emails I get and phone calls that I get saying, 'What is the Chamber doing for me?' And no one shows up for the meeting? It's extremely frustrating and sad."
The Chamber's new website had ads for the AGM and the Chambers new email system sent out message blasts to the more than 175 Chamber members — but only half a dozen businesses were represented in the audience.
Yadlowski, who has been the Chamber's president for the last year, got emotional as she said how near the organization is to folding.
"Our whole community, when it comes to being involved with the Chamber, is pathetic," she said, shaking back tears and saying her biggest concern is that by the turnout and the last year's waning interest in Chamber events "the community could care squat."
ONE MORE TRY —
With no one stepping into the President, Vice President or Treasurer roles, a decision was made for "one more try" to see if local businesses wanted to join the organization's executive.
Included in the few who attended the meeting was previous Chamber President Gail Broadbent. She wasn't prepared to join the executive, but was in favour of trying a final attempt to draw new people.
A decision was made to hold another meeting on October 28 to try again for an executive board and to see if there was any business interest. In the mean time, the last year's executive board agreed to stay on until the next meeting.
Article 10, Section 50 was a hot topic of the Chamber's bylaws at Monday night's AGM. It outlines how to dissolve the organization.
If there is no new interest in the organization, plans will be put into place to dissolve or "hibernate" the Chamber until it can be revived. In 2022, the LLB Chamber will mark 100 years since the Lac La Biche Board of Trade was established.
