RCCIWA Members Forum – October 31^st and November 1^st 2019

Planning is underway for the second RCCIWA Members Forum for 2019 – which will be held on October 31^st and November 1^st in Perth. We encourage you to get in touch and let us know the speakers and topics you would like to see included, to ensure we continue to provide a relevant and valuable experience. Please email me at ceo@regionalchamberswa.com.au with any suggestions you may have.

For those that have not attended previously below is a brief outline:

Thursday October 31^st  – Parliament House – 8.15am to 2.30pm – Advocacy Day

A privileged opportunity to meet in Parliament House, where Members of Parliament, including key Ministers and Party Leaders will spend quality time with us talking openly about the issues and topics that are of concern or priority for your town or region.

Thursday October 31^st  – The Mercure Hotel Perth –  5.30pm to 7.30pm – Business After Hours

Generously hosted by Accor Hotels WA and showcasing beautiful produce and beverages from regional WA, the Business after Hours will see a gathering of RCCIWA members from all over regional WA as well as stakeholders and regional supporters. A great opportunity to network, connect and catch up. If you have any members or stake-holders you would like us to include on the invitation list please email ceo@regionalchamberswa.com.au

Friday November 1^st  – The Mercure Hotel Perth – 8.30am to 3.30pm – Operational Day

With a focus on events, activities, challenges and opportunities for all of our members, this day will comprise of workshops, speakers and presentations by members. Topics such as revenue streams, place activation, communication methods and building a sustainable Chamber are some of the topics to be covered. This is a day of incredible value for our members as it gives you ideas to learn from (or steal), share what your Chamber is up to, strengthen you regional Chamber network and also understand that you have a vast regional network of supporters available.

 

Working Together Update

We have just completed our first 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

 

Grow Local Program

Continuing from the successful program delivered in Karratha and Tom Price to June 2019 in partnership with Rio Tinto and delivered locally by the KDCCI and PICCI, we are currently working on our new program – Grow Local. With the objectives to build and develop capacity of local Pilbara businesses whilst connecting them to opportunities, Grow Local sees multiple contributing partners all working in collaboration. Our launch is planned for the middle of October – we will be able to reveal all then!

 

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 in the next few weeks and to assist us, could you please email ceo@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
• Events information
• Policies and Procedures
• Committee Induction pack  etc

 

RCCIWA Members Partnering with Business Station to Deliver ASBAS Program

Last year our friends at Business Station were the successful tenderer for WA, QLD and the NT to provide the Digital Solutions Program for the Australian Small Business Advisory Services, a Federally funded program. ASBAS Digital Solutions provides small business with low cost, high quality advice on a range of digital solutions to help them meet their business needs and grow their digital capabilities.

They use service providers across regional and metropolitan Australia to give small business operators and intenders professional low-cost advice. Services are being delivered through a mix of one-to-one and group formats, including face-to-face and online. Assistance is available until June 2021.

RCCIWA supported Business Station in their tender, with the understanding that RCCIWA members would be able to partner with Business Station in the delivery of the service. I am pleased to inform you that Business Station have been busily reaching out to our members in regards to working together to deliver this service in Regional WA, and to date several of our members have entered into a formal agreement and will deliver the service locally.

• Kalgoorlie CCI 
• Bunbury Geograph CCI 
• Wheatbelt 

 

If you would like to find out more go to https://www.businessstation.com.au/our-programs/asbas/yber

 

Small Business Cyber Security Survey

The Australian Signals Directorate is reaching out to let you know they’re about to release our Small Business Cyber Security Guide. The Guide will be the first in a suite of materials released to help enhance the cyber resilience of Australian small businesses.

They are asking for your help with promoting their survey, the data will help inform ACSC technical uplift and advice for Australian small businesses which will include a Small Business Cyber Security Guide, Step by Step guides, Questions to Ask publications, and Myth busting publications.

To date they have over 1400 survey responses from small businesses nation-wide. Some interesting outcomes from the data so far include:

• One in five businesses use an operating system that is no longer supported to receive security updates
• Windows 10 is the most popular operating system used by small businesses in Australia
• The most popular mobile device used by small businesses is the iPhone, but is very closely followed by Android users.
• The majority of small businesses owners manage the day to day IT security of their business themselves

Access the survey here

 

2019 Women’s Report Card

The Department of Communities in partnership with the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) have released the 2019 WA Women’s Report Card and Data Insights Platform.

The 2019 Women’s Report Card presents fact-based information to raise awareness of the status of Western Australian women.

It contributes to the evidence base which underpins actions to address the barriers to women’s progress and promote the benefits of greater gender equity.

This report provides reliable information to inform discussion, debate and advocacy. Public, private and community sector organisations can also use this information to develop policies and take action to support women’s progress and to achieve gender equality.

The report also fulfils the State Government’s continuing commitment to provide regular updates on the status and progress of WA women. This report recognises that barriers to women’s progress persist and that there is a shared responsibility to improve the status of women and address the barriers to their progress.

 

New national gift card rules

Gift cards are big money in Australia, both for their convenience and flexibility. Unfortunately an estimated $70 million is lost each year due to uncertainty about expiry dates.

Consumer Protection Western Australia received 116 gift card related complaints in the last year (September 2018–September 2019) with 26 per cent of complaints about inability to redeem a gift card and 14 per cent of complaints regarding issues with the expiry date.

To help prevent monetary losses and to make gift cards fairer for consumers, new national gift card rules around expiry dates and post-purchase fees and charges start in November 2019.

With the exception of a few limited use gift cards and vouchers, all gift cards bought from 1 November 2019 will automatically come with a minimum three-year expiry period, with the expiry date clearly marked on the card. Even if a trader states an earlier expiry date, it will be invalid and you will be entitled to the mandatory three-year period.It will also be illegal for traders to charge post-purchase fees or administration charges that will reduce the value of your gift card, such as activation, account keeping and balance enquiry fees.

Traders will, however, be able to charge fees they would normally charge as part of a transaction, such as overseas transaction fees, booking fees, payment surcharges that reflect the costs of using the payment method, or fees charged to replace a lost, stolen or damaged card. They will also be able to charge an upfront fee for the purchase of the gift card. Whether you choose to accept that fee and proceed with the purchase will be up to you.

There are some exceptions to the new rules, such as cards sold for a good or service at a genuine discount and cards or vouchers given to customers as part of a limited promotion.

For more information on the changes, including a full list of exceptions, visit www.consumerlaw.gov.au.