Manager of a major business? Check. Term as mayor? Check. Relationships with influential decision-makers? Check.
In reviewing Tom Therien’s resume, it is difficult to imagine a more suitable candidate to lead the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce.
Therien was sworn in Tuesday for the second half of a two-year term as chamber president, pledging to champion the Flin Flon area’s business community.
“I think your community is only as strong as your business community, and I think as part of that your chamber needs to be extremely strong,” said Therien. “I believe in what the chamber stands for.”
Growth
During his first year as president, Therien successfully made growth a priority as membership revenue soared 24 per cent.
Now in his second year, he plans to maintain that focus.
“There’s still those that don’t understand what the chamber does for them,” said Therien. “We need to get that information out to them. We need to make sure that everybody’s aware of what we do, not just the business community, but [for] everyone else in the community to understand what it is that a chamber of commerce does, why it’s here, why you need one in your community, and [in] that aspect I think we’re ready to go.”
As has historically been the case, only a small percentage of members have attended regular chamber meetings under Therien’s leadership.
At Tuesday’s annual general meeting at the Friendship Centre Restaurant, for instance, fewer than 20 people were present.
Therien said he would like to see more people attend but adds that those who do turn out are “strong-willed” and “very committed.”
“We all believe in the same thing,” he added. “So to me that’s fantastic and I’m happy to be here.”
Though Therien has been part of the chamber on and off for the past quarter-century, this two-year term marks his first stint as president.
Not only is he manager of North of 53 Consumers Co-op, one of Flin Flon’s largest businesses, he is also the former chairperson of a committee that promoted downtown shopping.
But Therien is perhaps best known for his time as one of the longest-serving city councillors in Flin Flon history.
His eventful career at city hall included 11 years as a councillor and, from 2006 to 2010, a term as mayor.
Therien called the first term of his chamber presidency an eye-opener.
“You don’t realize when you sit as a member just how involved the chamber gets with everything that they do,” he said, “and as president of the chamber it was real interesting to find out that we’ve got some very active committees. We do a lot of hard work.”
The primary goal of that hard work, as always, is to ensure Flin Flon and area has a vibrant commercial sector.
Therien said while he expects some businesses are not doing as well as they would like, on the balance the business community seems to be healthy.
“We don’t see any closures,” he added. “We’ve seen a couple of new businesses pop up, which is always nice to see.”
Executive
Joining Therien on the chamber executive are past-president Kory Eastman, president-elect Dianne O’Brien, first vice-president Karen MacKinnon, second vice-president Laurel Mackie and third vice-president Mary Dwernichuk.
Lois (Bunny) Burke is the treasurer, with Doug O’Brien as secretary. Directors are Twyla Storey, Rob Winton, Dave Kendall, Cindy McLean, Randy Daneliuk and Laurence Gillespie.
With the chamber wrapping up another fiscal year, financial statements for the year ended Sept. 30 show the chamber realized a surplus of $3,504.
“We had a reasonably good year again,” said Kendall, who presented the figures.
