RCCIWA – Set for a great year in 2020
We have hit the ground running for the start of this new year and are working hard to continue delivering support, information, connection and representation for all of our members and stakeholders. We welcome back our administration superstar Emmi Taylor from maternity leave and look forward to our first RCCIWA Executive meeting to be held in February. Our President, Ron Mosby and I will be catching up over the next week to discuss our strategic priorities for the year, in preparation for our first executive meeting as well as how best we can serve our members. Some of our planned activities for 2020 include:

• RCCIWA Members Forum – June 18^th and 19^th 2020. A few of our members have asked for the CCIWA presentation from our November Forum. You will find it here
• Continue our regular monthly RCCIWA teleconferences – the second Tuesday of each month at 10am
• Develop a state-wide regional Chambers/business associations/business network membership
• Develop a state-wide regional advertising campaign for use on all social media platforms as well as television – promoting each of our members and why businesses should join their local business organisation
• Continue to look for opportunities for program delivery via our members, such as Working Together and Grow Local
• Continue to provide regular quality information for our members
• Continue to provide quality networking events and connect between our members and stakeholders
• Advocate and represent our members on the issues that matter
• Complete the resource portal of our website by the end of January 2020

Inquiry into the business case for the NBN and the experiences of small businesses
As previously communicated the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network (NBN) is undertaking an Inquiry into the business case for the NBN and the experiences of small to medium businesses.

The Committee will specifically consider:

• the economics of the NBN, including key operational and financial performance forecasts in the Corporate Plan 2020-23
• current pricing structures, including wholesale pricing, affordability and take-up, particularly as they relate to low-income and rural and regional customers
• network coverage issues; including reporting of outages planned and unplanned
• the delivery of the business segment strategy, including to enterprise and government customers, and small to medium businesses
• the experiences of small and medium business in relation to the utilisation, accessibility, customer service and affordability of the NBN
• compliance with the NBN Statement of Expectations and adequacy of that Statement
• any other related matters.

For additional information see the Parliament of Australia website.

Please note that the closing date for submission is tomorrow – Friday January 17^th – and RCCIWA has not yet prepared a submission – however if you would like us to, I can enquire as to whether we can obtain an extension. Please let me know.

Working Together Update
We have just completed our latest quarterly reports for this fourth year of delivering the WT program and I am pleased to report that all five Chambers are doing a terrific job and are genuinely making a positive impact in sourcing employment opportunities for Aboriginal people in their region. A big thank you to the Kalgoorlie-Boulder CCI, Broome CCI, Bunbury-Geographe CCI, The Albany CCI and the Midwest CCI for their commitment, efforts and hard work in ensuring this program is delivered strongly.

Working Together is a dedicated service with a focus to provide information, support and advice to business owners and operators in the Goldfields, South West, Midwest, West Kimberley and Great Southern regions to attract, recruit and retain young Aboriginal Employees. Working in collaboration with the local Jobs abs Skills Centres, Working Together aims to expand work opportunities for young local Aboriginal people by talking with and educating local businesses. It is about delivering local jobs for local people. Funded and supported by the Department of Training and Workplace Development, this program is about to enter its fourth year and we are seeing positive results, particularly in delivering cultural awareness to business owners and connecting potential applicants to the right job for them. Delivered locally by the five Chambers of Commerce in each region with RCCIWA the Program Manager, Working Together is a great example of utilising the trust, engagement and network of local Chambers to deliver real outcome and support the business community. For more information read here.

Dept of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation Meeting
Last week I caught up with Stephen, Daniel and Fiona from Industry Development with JTSI for are regular bi-monthly meeting. They gave me an update on Industry participation plans, the WA Industry Link Regional Communication forms and a general overview on the Western Australian Industry Participation Plans. We also discussed issues and areas of priority for regional businesses in regard to local content and State Government procurement and projects. Stephen, Daniel and Fiona all presented at our RCCIWA Forum last November and this regular engagement and strong two-way communication is making a positive impact in ensuring local business get access to every opportunity for work that is presented. They genuinely want to hear from all regional businesses. If you ever have any issues, questions or suggestion in regard to local procurement by the WA Government please let me know and I will ensure it is raised.

Website Refresh - Send us your Documents
We are pleased to announce that we have built a member’s only access area on our website that will be a resource library to share information from our members with our members.  Now we need to fill it! We get asked every week for examples and templates and thought it would be great to have a live resource you could access. We hope this will be up and ready to go by the end of January and to assist us, could you please email any documents that you are happy to share with your fellow members. We will assume if you send it to us that you are happy for us to upload this on the members only access section of our website. Please send in pdf format (and in the smallest size you can), documents such as:

• Your Constitution
• Your Strategic or Operational Plans
• Membership Forms, Membership prospectus
• Member Benefits flyer
• BAH information
• Sponsorship information
• Directory information
• Business Awards Information
• Job and Position Descriptions
• Events information
• Policies and Procedures
• Committee Induction pack  etc

RCCIWA Administrative Items

• As mentioned, Emmi Taylor is back and is currently updating our membership contact list. If you have any changes to your contacts or would like to add any people, please email Emmi.
• Please find your “proud to be a member of” logo here – we would love you to use this in your various communication channels and branded collateral.
• Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and share our page with your members.
• Please also let us know about any activities, initiatives or events you would like us to include in our weekly newsletter. You will notice that we are including an item each week that showcases a great idea, program or event that one of our members is delivering. If you have something you would like us to share – please send through the details to Emmi.