From the CEO’s Desk                                                                    Monday January 29^th 2024

RCCIWA – 2024 WA Regional Business Excellence Awards Update

We are so excited to be presenting our inaugural WA Regional Business Excellence Awards in April and just wanted to share with you a few key updates and some addition information to assist:

• As we do not have a Not for Profit category this year, Not for Profit organisations are not eligible to enter. Please note that we have taken on board feedback from our members and will be introducing a NFP category for our 2025 event.

Key Dates

• Submissions open now!

warbea2024.awardsplatform.com

• Submissions close Wednesday 21st February 2024
• Finalists announced from Thursday February 29th 2024
• Tickets open Thursday February 29th 2024
• Gala Celebration Event – Thursday April 18th 2024 – Hyatt Hotel Perth

Key Info

• All entrants must have won the relevant category at their local awards program, hosted by a RCCIWA member held during 2023
• Only winners of local awards programs delivered by RCCIWA members are eligible to enter
• All entries must be endorsed and entered by a RCCIWA member. This is a critical step in our awards process as we will need your help to ensure your local winners participate.
• Not for Profit organisations are ineligible
• Full criteria and T&C’s can be found here.  https://regionalchamberswa.com.au/newsitem/2024-wa-regional-business-excellence-awards

Accommodation

• Our Brilliant friends at the Hyatt Hotel has a great accommodation offer for all event attendees. Please read here for more info.

RCCIWA – Gift Favours for the 2024 WARBEA’s from Regional Businesses

One of the special touches we are adding to the gala evening, is giving all attendees a gift – which will be sourced from a regional business that is a member of one of our members. We will be purchasing these gifts, and it is our way of thanking our members and their members and also highlighting the amazing businesses and their goods throughout regional WA.

To do this, I am asking for our members help. We have created the Expressions of interest form below and we are asking for our members to send it to their members, that you think may be able to provide a product for us to be one of our gifts. We are expecting 300 people at the gala, but are not asking one business to provide all of these – ideally, we would love a wide variety and if a business could provide 15 to 20 that would be perfect. We would love to get a wide representation of gifts from all over regional WA. When they complete the form, it is emailed straight to us, so we will handle everything from our end – we are just asking for our members to include it in your communications to them in the first instance.

We have already received some fantastic offers from awesome regional businesses from coffee to honeycomb to wine and beef jerky – this is going to be fun!  Please note that you do not have to be participating in our awards in 2024 to provide this opportunity to your members – it is open to all businesses that are members of our members.

We are looking for interesting items that are not all the same and we have a budget of $15 per item. We will pay any freight costs over and above this. Suggested items:

• Local prints, cards from local artists, photographers
• Locally printed tea towels
• Locally made craft items – sewn, pottery, wooden, etc
• Chocolates, jams, preserves and other food items
• Wines and other beverages
• Candles, soaps
• Jewellery and trinkets
• Anything else you can think of that will suit – we know you have amazing businesses that will add something really special to our event.

We have created some content for you below to use when you contact them – feel free to amend this to suit your style.

RCCIWA - Supporting Regional Businesses

You may be aware that we are a member of the Regional Chambers of Commerce of WA and excitingly, RCCIWA will be holding their inaugural WA Regional Business Excellence awards on April 18^th 2024. One of the special touches they are adding to the gala evening, is giving all attendees a gift – which will be sourced from a regional business that is a member of one of their members (as in us!). RCCIWA will be purchasing these gifts, and it is their way of thanking and supporting their members (as in us again) and our members (as in you) and also highlighting the amazing businesses and their goods throughout regional WA.

They are expecting 300 people at the gala event being held in Perth but are not asking one business to provide all of these – ideally, they would love a wide variety and if a business could provide 15 to 20 that would be perfect. RCCIWA are hoping to get a wide representation of locally made items from all over regional WA.  They have a budget of $15.00 per item and will pay freight costs if needed, over and above this.

Each gift will be presented in a lovely gift box or bag with a note about your business at the event.

To register you interest please complete the Expression of Interest form below, and RCCIWA will be in touch with you.

https://form.jotform.com/Regional_CCIWA/WARBEA_EOI

We would love to see our members’ members awesome goods showcased on the night.

RCCIWA Members Forums 2024 – Save the Dates!

Planning has started for our two RCCIWA Member forums for 2024. We have received fantastic feedback from our members either directly or via our delegate surveys from our 2023 Forums as to who they would like to hear from and what topics they would like covered and are taking that all in board in the planning. If you have any suggestions or feedback to contribute, please email me at ceo@regionalchamberswa.com.au – the reason our Forums are so valued is because they are developed using the input of our members.

            June Forum - Thursday 13^th and Friday 14^th June 2024

            November Forum - Thursday 7^th and Friday 8^th November 2024

If you have not attended these Forums previously on behalf of your Chamber, Business Network or Business Association, we strongly recommend that you do. We are confident you will find them informative, useful and interesting and that The Forums will provide excellent opportunities for networking and connection for your RCCIWA network and key stakeholders. Please save the dates!

RCCIWA Monthly Online Members Meeting – Commencing on February 13th

On the second Tuesday of each month, from February to November at 10am we hold an online members’ meeting which usually runs for an hour to 90 minutes. We usually see around 15 of our member organisations represented each month to give member updates, discuss common issues & possible solutions to these, as well as the opportunity to share and learn from each other. We also hear from experts from the SBDC and CCIWA, as well as others as requested. The monthly meetings are a great way of connecting with our members with each other, as well as working through common issues or activities. Calendar Invites for the year were sent to our members last week. If you do not have a calendar invite, please let me know and I will send you one. The agenda and a reminder will be sent out a few days before the meeting each month. Our first meeting for 2024 will be held on Tuesday February 13^th at 10am via MS Teams – we would love you to join us.

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. And the good news is we are currently building a new website, with the members portal being upgraded and expanded. This is a great reference point to refer to when planning events, setting up polices or updating your own collateral. We are regularly uploading documents however to keep it current, could you please email  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 

RCCIWA Administrative Items

• We are constantly updating our membership contact list. If you have any changes to your contacts or would like to add any people, please email admin@regionalchamberswa.com.au The information we need is name, position/role, email address and mobile number.
• Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and share our page with your members, and in particular your elected committee or board members.