AGM and the Christmas Cheer Night

An excellent night on Thursday 18/11/2021 for the annual AGM of the Southport Chamber of Commerce, followed by our Christmas Celebratory drinks. We had 50 members attend our beautiful sunset evening event at the Southport Yacht Club overlooking the gorgeous yachts moored in the marina.

President Ian Kennedy announced the appointment of new Board Members, including our new incoming President, Ariana Margetts. After a search through over 100 years of archives of the Chamber Presidency, we are pretty confident to announce that Ariana is our first female President of the Chamber . Congratulations to Ariana, and our two new members on the Board, David Wilcox and Katie Bond. Thank you to all the existing Board Members who remain in their existing roles, another year of service will be much appreciated.

Both Ian and Ariana made special mention and thanks in their respective speeches, to Past President Laird Marshall who has stepped down from his Board responsibilities. Laird had stayed on as a Board member after his ten year presidency, to assist with a smooth transition of the role. We are thankful that Ian will do likewise to assist Ariana as she takes on her new responsibilities.

Following the formalities of the AGM, we enjoyed a presentation from the General Manager of the Southport Yacht Club, Brett James, who shared some amazing statistics on the typical revenues we can expect to see flowing into the local economy from the likely stays by the vessels that will soon be gracing the Superyacht berths. The berths are due to be ready for their first moorings in early December. We can confidently expect to see great things from the addition of this spectacular project to the Yacht Club and the spill over into local businesses as these Super Vessels enjoy making Southport a regular stop off on their ocean travels.

Thanks to our generous members and sponsors who donated gifts for the Christmas raffle, following Brett’s speech we had a “spirited” drawing of raffle prizes by Jenny Crewes , ably assisted by Lorraine Lovatt and Lauren Flack. Special thanks to the donors: Coomera Garden Resort, Elephant Creative Design, Gold Coast Business Hub, Headline Creative, H.W. Litigation, Institute of Glycomics from Griffith University, Maylake Properties, Paradise Distillers, Rise Legal, SewRoo, Southport Yacht Club, Vavachi Entertainment, VMA Promos and White Lady Funerals.

Present at her final night as a member of the Southport Chamber was Kylie McInally, Manager of H.W.Litigation. A generous donor of gifts for raffle prizes over many years, and a very regular attendee at Chamber events , Kylie is retiring and announced that this was the last Southport Chamber of Commerce event she will be attending. Heading into the sunset to travel around Australia with husband Brett in their amazing off road vehicle, we may see her on return visits to family on the Gold Coast, but for now she is planning their route and looking forward to life away from the office. Thankyou Kylie for your support over the years and best of luck in your retirement.

We look forward to welcoming existing members and new members as we enter 2022 . Business Membership of the Southport Chamber of Commerce continues to be on a complimentary basis, the only Chamber on the Gold Coast providing Chamber support to businesses at no charge.

Merry Christmas to our Business and Corporate members. Thank you again to our Sponsors, and we wish all of you a busy, happy and prosperous New Year.