President’s Welcome – June 2025

Welcome to the end of the first quarter of 2025. If youWelcome to winter on the Sunshine Coast and while it’s getting cooler there’s still plenty going on within our Chamber and across our region.

Membership fees on hold

I want to start this newsletter with some very positive news. Our executive committee has recently decided that we will not raise membership fees for the forthcoming year. This is the fifth year in succession that our fees have remained the same and we are proud that we have been able to build our chamber to a level where we can keep our fees to the same level despite the current cost of living crisis. We know a number of businesses are doing it tough at the moment and we want to ensure that our current members can continue to sign up and attend our events and be a part of what is truly a special business organisation.

Thanks to our Executive team

Speaking of our executive committee, I continue to be humbled by their hard work and dedication to our chamber and our members. This was on show again recently when we hosted an event at the new Toro Bar in the Kon Tiki building which was sponsored by our executive team member Anita Piers from Telstra. Our team wanted to make this event a big success for Anita and Telstra and the vast majority of the Executive team reached out to their connection and encouraged them to attend. We had around 60 guests turn up on a cold night which was a remarkable achievement considering game two of State of Origin would commence that night (Go Queensland!). Thanks also to Toro Bar for their amazing tapas and wonderful hospitality.

Federal election

The 2025 Federal election has come and gone and we congratulate all of our local members who were elected to lead our region over the next three years. As I mentioned in our last newsletter, it’s an important time for our country and our region and our chamber will continue to work with both sides of politics to achieve the best outcomes for our region. 

HERpreneur Graduation ceremony

Our Chamber has been a long term supporter of diversity and inclusion and we were thrilled to see another successful graduation event for the HERpreneur program in late May. The HERpreneurs Program is an initiative empowering culturally and linguistically diverse women on the Sunshine Coast to launch and grow their own businesses. Graduates were presented with their Business & Innovation Certificates and Participation Certificates by the Honourable Fiona Simpson, Minister for Women and Women’s Economic Security, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, and Minister for Multiculturalism.More information about the program on www.nambourcc.org/herpreneurs

A number of graduates have attended our Chamber events and we look forward to welcoming more into the future.

For more information about the program visit www.nambourcc.org/herpreneurs

Chambercast with the President and Pep

We had a fantastic chat with communications expert Gina Balarin in our May Chambercast where we learnt more about effective communication in a corporate environment as well as Gina’s other passion which is helping people get back into the workforce. To listen to all the latest Chambercast’s with the President and Pep, please click here: https://maroochy.org/chambercast

MWP Member profile

We’ve had a fantastic response to our Maroochy Chamber member profiles which appear in My Weekly Preview and Sunshine Coast News every fortnight. This is a great opportunity for our Chamber to give back to our members and help raise their profiles via a prominent local media publication. If you are a member and would like to participate in the profile series please email admin@maroochy.org

Thanks for your support

Finally thanks to our sponsors and members for all you do to make our Chamber so successful. We were so pleased to reach over 350 members recently and this would not be possible without the hard work of our executive team as well as Min Swan’s Whitehouse team and our membership officer Sharon Dryden. As always, if you have any ideas for news, events or activities we could promote or undertake please let us know. I look forward to seeing you at our next Chamber event.

Brendan Bathersby

President