Welcome to 2007 and for those who took holidays out of town you missed out on some great events back home.  This viewpoint is not going to be too business orientated, it’s the beginning of a new year and Wanganui has celebrated in style!

Wanganui started off 2007 jammed packed with events that put our city on the NZ ‘happening’ map and of course that brings people to town with dollars to spend. 

In just a few short weeks Wanganui has hosted the famous Cemetery Circuit Motorbike Races, Boxing Day Concert, UCOL Summer School, Wanganui Opera Week, Bushy Park Festival, Inline Skating Championships, Hurricanes Game, Jet Boats, NZ Masters Games, Street Drag Racing and soon the Mayoral Mile.  Believe me, events take a huge amount of time and organisation, largely by people who do it for no reward other than the satisfaction of running a great event that is well attended.  These people work behind the scenes for months and they deserve our recognition.

The NZ Master Games is a ‘grown-up’ event and I don’t mean in age terms, over the years the event has grown up and taken on a well-orchestrated, well-planned approach to delivering a professionally run week, congratulations to organisers for another games success.  The real measure of success is the people who return year after year from around New Zealand and the world, the competition is strong but competitors love city and the friendliness.  Roll on 2009!

Special congratulations to Sue Robinson, Chamber assistant who has been seen volunteering in the Games Village and won GOLD in her event! 

Still on the upside is Wanganui’s property boom continues as the city takes the lead in New Zealand as best performing provincial city with a 31.1 percent property rise over the past year!  People wanting to build new homes have to wait their turn as local builders continue to be swamped with commercial and residential building projects and existing homeowners investing in renovations.  A new borne sense of pride exists in Wanganui that is being transferred around the country and I’m proud to call it home.

UCOL Glass Programme faced closure at the beginning of the term, devastating the whole Glass Community.  A series of emergency meetings were held with Glass Group, Wanganui Inc, UCOL WRAC Committee, UCOL and I attended on behalf of Chamber of Commerce.   At the eleventh hour the course was saved due to the direct efforts of Wanganui District Council, Mayor Michael Laws and the generous support from our own Wanganui Gas.  An excellent outcome!  I have to make comment about the dignified manner in which Glass Group represented themselves, there was no blame culture or naming, just a ‘lets find a way’ attitude that made the end result more satisfying.  Well Done!

As its tax time this is an oldie but a goodie:
“Intaxication - Is euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with”

Bronwyn Paul
President