A message from our President
Dear BCSCA Membership,
We wrote to you in March during the early days of COVID-19 in BC with regards to delaying our AGM. That feels like months ago, and we are certainly living in a different world today. First and foremost we hope that everyone, their loved ones, friends, and colleagues are staying safe and healthy. As we settle in to this new normal (hopefully not for too long) we wanted to reach out to let you know what is going on with the BC Shopping Centre Association. As you likely know, our board is entirely made up of volunteers in the industry with no paid staff. This is the reason we have been quiet, while other associations such as ICSC and BOMA have been more active. Over the past month our board has been busy tending to the shopping centres they manage, and the supplier businesses that they run, and their families adjusting to the new reality. As such the BCSCA is not active in advocacy like other groups. We are based on networking for the local industry.
We are also evaluating our 2020 program. Given that Social and Physical Distancing is likely here to stay for longer then we all thought, we have to revisit the networking mandate. We had tentative plans for a Summer Mingler, our Annual Golf Tournament, a Fall Educational event, and the Annual Christmas Party on December 10th. Certainly the summer mingler and golf tournament seem unlikely at this point, but we will continue to monitor the local authority announcements. We have also suspended our collection activity temporarily. We understand the financial impact of COVID-19. While we are reviewing and trimming our expenses, there are some fixed costs the association has such as mail fees, taxes, insurance, website hosting fees etc. The association is in a good financial position from past years, however we currently do not have sponsorships, event revenue and funds coming in. If you are able to pay your annual dues that is very much appreciated.
Finally, we want to open it up to you, our membership, for suggestions on moving forward in the short term. We plan to resume our newsletter, focusing on some of the good news coming from our local industry. Certainly we will not be highlighting events, but more along the lines of charitable initiatives, stories of essential services we are helping keep going, etc. Please feel free to send in suggestions. Further, please let us know if there are any ideas for virtual events you would like our board to consider. Keep in mind we do not want to be paying for speakers, however do you want Q&A’s, speakers, or other ideas, let us know.
Once again, on behalf of the BCSCA Board I would like to wish everyone the best as we move through these unprecedented times. Stay safe, celebrate our essential workers at 7pm every night, and I look forward to a good Cheers with each of you once we are through this.
Charles Fleck
President, BCSCA