The Rotary Business Breakfast held at Carlsberg last Friday morning was well supported with about 45 local business people in attendance.
Guests included Mayor Rhonda Sanderson, local ward Councillors Bob Humm and David Atkinson, Shire executives Mary Agostino, Director of Community Services and Advocacy, Chris Cheal, who heads up the Shire’s Economic Development Unit and Jemma Dockerty, from Tourism and Promotions.
After an inspiring address by David Doherty OAM, which could not fail to inspire our business community to rise to the challenge to create a prosperous future for the whole Mitchell community, Bruce Nicholls, our Rotary President and Chair of the Mitchell Business Network reported on the work done to date in setting up the network. He said that since launching, the focus has been on on building a strong platform for business advocacy and that every business is precious to us, from the home based sole trader to the large corporation, as we try to give voice to your business concerns and to influence the direction of public policy. Bruce went on to say "Our board is working on a strategic vision for Mitchell, which will seek to both inspire and to instruct legislators. We will publish it shortly. We are progressively taking up the cudgels on behalf of our local business community on a range of public policy issues. You will begin to see editorials about Kilmore traffic congestion, about the need to improve local business amenity and about other issues. If you have legitimate, well framed concerns, we want to hear from you. We plan to establish local business ambassadors to focus on issues in each major township & feed them back into the Network’s policy loop".
Bruce said that with funding from Nestle and Bendigo Bank, and thanks to good work by Lee Day & Ellie Nicholls the website www.mitchellbusiness.com.au will shortly go live, creating the first comprehensive Mitchell business directory & referring new business inquiries directly to local businesses. He said that the committee is working on a package of other Network membership benefits to reward membership generously, including a ‘buy local’ campaign.
The Rotary Club of Southern Mitchell is indebted to Annie, Ellie and Bruce Nicholls who invited us into their home for this event and in particular to Ellie and Annie who took on the role of caterers.
