Our Town looks to optimistic business future

September 12th, 2016
[by David Armstrong]

Our Town Motueka has stabilised its financial position and elected a new leadership team, aiming to take a more strategic approach to building the Motueka business community.

At its Annual General Meeting last Thursday, a new chairman and two deputy chairs were elected and a new mission statement adopted, following a year of successful recovery from shaky finances and muddled direction.

Johny O'Donnell (pictured), who runs new media consultancy ShiftOn, is the new chairman, elected after David Ogilvie stood down to stand for a Ward Councillor seat on TDC.

The two deputy chairs are both restaurant proprietors, Angie Morris of Toad Hall and Matt Galvin of Kaiwaka. All three have committed OTM to building an accountable, strategic marketing plan for Motueka businesses.

The committee also has a handful of additions, several saying they are enthused by the new initiatives OTM has been signalling. The committee now comprises nearly a dozen business people.

The team noted a strong and successful 2015/16 year under the leadership of David Ogilvie. A year ago the incoming committee faced several potential budget blowouts and other difficulties.

David was thanked profusely for his work, along with the new secretary/treasurer Claire Hutt, in restoring strong governance and encouraging a growing number of businesses owners onto the committee.

The committee agreed that part of the recent problems had been due to an out-of-date and over-broad mission statement that led to ad hoc decision making. A new, better focused statement which had been agreed informally more than a year ago was formally adopted to replace the old one.

The new mission statement is: "To create, encourage, promote and support business activities and enterprises operating within the Motueka Ward.

"This is achieved by maintaining effective communication between businesses, promoting Motueka through a variety of media, delivering and supporting events which stimulate economic activity, fostering business development and education, and building collaborative relationships with other Motueka Community Groups".

The new committee agreed on their first step: to create an agreed, integrated annual marketing and promotion strategy for Motueka as a town and a business community.

And on the practical side, they agreed to restart the free Wi-Fi facility in the CBD under a new contracted supplier, after the existing system failed to meet expectations and was costing too much under a contract that had never been properly signed.

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