Monthly Archives

January 2020

Jan 28
1

SOIREE @ THE MARINA for our February Informal Chamber Meeting

By | Chamber News

We invite you, the business community to come together and relax, mingle – share your stories – embrace what we have all experienced over the last 8 weeks – kick up our heels – we all deserve it.

Invite your other business friends that may not be members to also come along as well.  We have all felt the affects of the fires in our region and we plan to work collaboratively to build our business community back bigger and better than ever.

Thursday:- 6th February, 2020

Venue:- On the lawns @ the Marina near Southern Catch.

Time:- 6.00  – 8.00pm

Drinks and Fingers Food provided courtesy of the Marina.

Kind regards,

Alison Miers

President

Jan 15
0

Introducing the Love the Bay Gift Card system to our area!

By | Chamber News

Dear Chamber Members,

Since its launch at our December 4 Christmas party, you will all have noticed how popular our Love the Bay community pride campaign has become.

Nobody could’ve imagined back then the disastrous impacts the bushfires would have on our wonderful community and more particularly on our local businesses.

For these reasons, the Love the Bay working group have been working hard and have come up with an initiative I hope you will all support: the Love the Bay Gift Card!

The initiative allows people to purchase gift cards online or from specific local businesses. The gift cards work like debit cards and can be spent at all participating local businesses. It also allows people to donate funds into our community in the same way. Cards can have from $10 to $1,000 loaded onto them and that money will stay here in our area, injecting much needed cashflow into our economy. The best thing of the Love the Bay Gift Card program is that it is totally free to become a business where people can spend their gift card. If you already have an EFTPOS machine, it does not cost you any time, money or effort!

With the approval of our Chamber executive, and the support of our campaign partner John Holland and Eurobodalla Council, this initiative capitalises on the success of the Love the Bay campaign, particularly its social following which has been growing healthily every day.

The Chamber hopes all of our local businesses are able to survive the current challenges, so this initiative is not just for our Chamber Members but for all businesses in the Batemans Bay region: postcode 2536 and Tomakin, Mossy Point and Broulee.

We ask you to spread the Love the Bay Gift Card message to as many businesses as possible – the more participate, the more money we will keep in town, and the more options our locals and visitors have to make their purchases locally.

Please read all details about the Gift Card in the factsheet document here. We encourage you all to support this initiative in any way that you can.

Regards,

Alison Miers

President

Batemans Bay Business & Tourism Chamber

Jan 07
1

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Message to Members Regarding Bushfire Assistance

By | Chamber News

A MESSAGE TO ALL BUSINESS OWNERS

The Committee wish to express our profound sympathy to all members & all other businesses in our community who have been affected by the bushfires and especially those who have suffered infrastructure loss.

Please forward this message to any business or individual which you feel will benefit from the following information.

We ask that if you believe we can assist in anyway whatever, that you do not hesitate to contact us at – contact@baychamber.com.au & cc the email to treasurer@baychamber.com.au or you can phone Charles Stuart (Vice President) on 0438 888 864 or Maree Jackson (Treasurer) on 0458411953.

The following information and links may be of assistance to business: –

NBN are operating a free of charge internet service, battery charging facility and internet connected computers for personal and business banking and general connectivity. They are located at the Evacuation Centre at Hanging Rock Community Hall, adjacent to the Batemans Bay Library and Uni of Wollongong campus and plan to stay this week.

Cash donations are preferred over goods as charities are struggling with staff levels, transport and warehousing. Please donate if you are able, to: Salvation Army Disaster Appeal – When you make a donation please nominate the area that you would like to donations to come to e.g. South Coast NSW, Eurobodalla, or a town, etc – https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/. 

The NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) noted that while there are many ways you can help, “the best way is to donate money. This allows people to buy the things they need, and it supports local businesses which have also been impacted.”

The following are links for financial assistance for individuals, businesses & employees that have been affected by the bush fires: –

  1. The Regional Assistance Authority funding of up to $15,000 is for Primary Producers, Small businesses & Not-for-Profit Organisations. You can find more information at https://www.raa.nsw.gov.au/grants/disaster-recovery-grants/bushfires 
  2. Disaster Recovery Allowance is a short-term payment to help you if a declared disaster directly affects your income. You can get it for a maximum of 13 weeks. It’s payable from the date you lose income as a direct result of the NSW Bushfires in August, September, October, November, December 2019 and January 2020 – https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/nsw-bushfiresseptember-2019-disaster-recovery-allowance
  3. Support for eligible people adversely affected by the bushfires in New South Wales in August 2019 through to January 2020 – $1000 per adult & $400 for each child younger than 19 – https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/nsw-bushfiresseptember-2019-australian-government-disaster-recovery-payment
  4. The NSW Government Office of Emergency Management provides links for Financial Assistance after an emergency & recovery information & support to communities – https://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/ 
  5. NAB customers who have lost homes this bushfire season can immediately access $2,000 grants to help cover costs such as temporary accommodation, food and clothing. I believe that other Banks are also providing similar grants.
  6. The NSW Chamber of Commerce have the Advice Line & ask that businesses to call the number should they have any legal questions relating to staff, or other business issues. They can contact the advice line on 13 29 59 
  7. The Commonwealth Bank have announced they will assist their Customers with restocking their Business and/or rebuilding. Please discuss this with your bank to obtain assistance.

Yours sincerely.

Alison Miers

President

7 January 2020