| The wheels of progress I spent Wednesday of last week meeting with Business Association (BID) Managers from around the upper North Island and it was interesting to see how many challenges and issues we all had in common. Perhaps even more interesting though was seeing the initiatives and projects that One Mahurangi is delivering that other BIDs are not. We are not the only region facing roading and infrastructure issues. While some of the towns outside of Auckland seem to have more success dealing with smaller, regional councils, the common frustration from those within the Auckland Super City was how challenging it was to deal with Auckland Transport. We all compared notes on our ongoing advocacy. Each BID hosts a variety of events and I was inspired to see if we can replicate some of them here. Events like the Emergency Services Dinner that One Mahurangi hosted earlier this year have not been run anywhere else in the country. There was a lot of interest in that community event from other BIDs as well as the Mahurangi Winter Festival of Lights. It was also interesting to hear how often most other BIDs put their BID rate up. This is something that One Mahurangi has said we will not do as we are committed to keeping our fees to landlords as low as possible. (Our rate is the lowest rate of all 50 BIDs) Our association’s growth will come from the new properties coming online, One Mahurangi Sponsorship, and additional OMBA Associate Members from outside our BID area. There will be no increase in rates and membership to OMBA remains free for BID Affiliate Members. (Visit our website for information on membership.) As one of the newest BIDs, it was very gratifying to see and hear how well we compare to most of the larger and well-established BIDs with much larger income streams. It is amazing what can be achieved with some ideas and a willing, supportive community. Here are some of the takeaways for me from the BID conference: – Our business association punches well above our weight, and the OMBA Transport & Infrastructure Forum gets more traction and successful outcomes than most BIDs outside our area. – Some of the community events One Mahurangi has hosted have not been run by other BIDs and there was great interest in our successes. – A smaller business community has much more engagement and stronger connections than those in larger urban areas. This results in wider community support through volunteers and/or the sponsorship of events and projects. – Every BID needs to keep applying pressure on local councils and government agencies around infrastructure development to prevent Developer-led growth. – Each BID team makes up a group of ordinary people, passionate about their business and local community, often putting in many more hours than we get paid because we love and believe in what we do. – Every BID pushes the Buy Local message and we need to keep pushing that to keep as much money in our area as possible. I was proud to be representing such a connected and thriving local community despite the challenges we have all faced over the last two years. Mahurangi and the surrounding region really is an amazing place to live and work. We are Stronger Together and that was evident when reflecting on our achievements during the conference last week. Thank you all for continuing to LOVE LOCAL! Murray Chapman Manager, One Mahurangi Business Association murray@onemahurangi.co.nz www.onemahurangi.co.nz Support Local, Buy Local, Employ Local, Love Local! |
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