RCCIWA January Monthly Members Online Meeting -  Wrap Up
We held our first monthly members meeting for 2021 this past Tuesday and it was absolutely fantastic to have 16 of our members represented as well as CCIWA and the SBDC. We also had a very special guest in attendance - our Founding President, Mr Rolf Stene. The monthly meeting is such a great opportunity to receive policy updates from the SBDC and CCIWA, as well as to hear about and learn from all the activities and issues our members our working on and dealing with. Our members do find these regular monthly catch-ups valuable, and this month it was very encouraging to hear that everyone is back from their well-deserved breaks and have all hit the ground running. So, if you are available on the second Tuesday of the month at 10am – we’d love to see you. Some of the takeaways from the conversation are highlighted below:

• For all of our members the issues of critical priority currently are the extreme worker shortage as well as the lack of available housing and accommodation. There is a wide range of activities and actions being undertaken to address both of these impediments to business and community growth and RCCIWA and our members will continue working hard to find practical solutions. The major concern is that regional businesses will incur reputational damage due to not being able to staff businesses at the needed levels and that opportunities for business growth will not be able to be taken. There is a great deal of work to be done on addressing these to key areas of concern.
• All of our members are back on deck and have already set impressive events and activity plans for the year. We will continue to highlight these in our newsletters.
• Nikki Wilson, Policy & Advocacy Officer with the SBDC joined us to give us an update on their activities and main pieces of policy work. We hear from the SBDC each month and it is a great way to keep updated and also to give direct feedback to inform their work. If you have not checked out the SBDC website lately, I would thoroughly recommend that you do here – it is a fantastic resource.  Nikki updated us on:
  
  • Their recently launched Local Government Approvals Program. This involves the SBDC working closely with Local Government Authorities on their approvals processes and then working with them intensively over a six week period to implement changes that will streamline the process making it quicker and easier to do business. They have already trialled the program in a pilot with two LGA’s. This will be a very important program that will make a positive impact for businesses, and is being rolled out this year. You can find out more about this here.
• Ryan Fernie, Manager Member Experience with CCIWA joined us to give an overview of some of their activities as well as sharing valuable information with all on the line. Including:
  
  • CCIWA has just launched their e-learning for teams. More information can be found in our newsletter.
  • You can find out more  about CCIWA here.  

Stakeholder Submissions Invited for the 2021-22 Migration Program
The Department of Home Affairs is currently inviting public submissions to inform planning for the 2021-22 Migration Program. Each year the Department of Home Affairs undertakes a comprehensive consultation process to inform the make-up of Australia’s Migration Program.  Public submissions are an important part of this process and will help shape a Migration Program that benefits all Australians. 

Public submissions will be accepted by 29 January 2021.

If you would like to make a submission, please email migration.policy@homeaffairs.gov.au.

For more information, please refer to their website.

The new mailbox for enquiries to the Business Industry and Regional Outreach (BIRO) team in WA is: BIRO.WA@homeaffairs.gov.au

RCCIWA Members - Update your Information
To assist us with keeping our website and communications as up to date as possible can you please send to Emmi at admin@regionalchamberswa.com.au the following:

• Any changes to your contact details, particularly following your AGM. Please also let Emmi know if you have any committee members or general members that you would like added to the newsletter and we will pop them on the distribution list.
• Your new logo if you have refreshed or changed it recently.
• Any activities, initiatives or events you would like us to include in our weekly newsletter. You will notice that we like to include member showcases in our newsletter that features a great idea, program or event that  our members are delivering. If you have something you would like us to share – please send through the details to Emmi at admin@regionalchamberswa.com.au
• Any events you would like added to the events calendar on our website. If you have a specific logo for that event -could you also send that through, and we will include it.

RCCIWA Website Members Only Resource Portal
Just a reminder that as a RCCIWA Member you have access our resource library that contains a wide variety of documents from all of our members. This is a great reference point to refer to when planning events, setting up polices or updating your own collateral. Please email Emmi if you need access to the portal. We are regularly uploading documents however to keep it current, could you please email Emmi at admin@regionalchamberswa.com.au 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, HR documents
• Events information
• Policies and Procedures
• Committee Induction pack