Invitation from the Chair... October 2008
Next Breakfast Meeting: Thursday October 23rd
Braintree Football Club
7.45am – 9.00am

On the agenda (apart from a good breakfast) we will be looking at the statement from Chamber to Braintree District Council relating to the town centre redevelopment on the site behind the Old Town Hall (3 Towns, One Vision).

The other subject will be the launch of the new MEMBERS BENEFITS PACKAGE.

This package includes entitlement to discounts on employment law advice from Smith Law Partnership and access to FREE Installation Monitored security system for SME businesses. The security product, known as MonitoredShop or MonitoredUnit is supported by AABC Action Against Business Crime and one of their regional managers will give a short presentation.

Please let us know that you are coming by returning the acceptance sheet on the Invitation by email or telephone to 01376 550373.

Agenda: 14th October 2008

14th October 2008 Agenda
18Kb PDF

Questionnaire Three Towns: One Vision July 08

Survey concerning Braintree Town Centre proposal
Braintree Chamber of Trade & Commerce is collecting business responses to the proposal by Braintree District Council encapsulated in their document “3 Towns: One Vision” (see www.braintree.gov.uk if you do not have a full copy).

3 Towns Questionnaire
25Kb PDF

FREE Networking Breakfast Meeting
Thursday 14th August 2008, Community Centre, Braintree
7.45am – 9.30am

This is an opportunity to network with other local businesses and to create new relationships to improve your business. In a time of economic slowdown and increasing fuel prices seeking local suppliers can be extremely beneficial to your business and for the local economy.

During the session we will be seeking your opinions on the ‘Three Towns: One Vision’ document issued by Braintree DC. Further details can be found on www.braintree.gov.uk

We look forward to welcoming you to the event and please feel free to pass this invite to any other businesses that you feel will benefit from meeting local business owners.

A continental breakfast will be provided and formalities will be at a minimum.

Complete and fax back the PDF or email to confirm your attendance.

FREE Networking Breakfast Meeting
19Kb PDF

A Note from the Chair, Brenda Baker
July 2008

First of all, I should say thank you to my fellow Chamber Committee members who have elected me as Chair for the next two years. You may be aware that I am Centre Manager of George Yard Shopping Centre in Braintree and have been on the Chamber Committee for a couple of years. I attend Business Council and Economic Development Partnership meetings on behalf of Chamber.

Download the PDF to read the complete document.

A note from the chair
20Kb PDF

Minutes 8th July 08
Minutes July 2008
23Kb PDF

Agenda 12th August 08
Agenda August 2008
19Kb PDF

AGM Notice 2008

Notice of the Braintree Chamber of Trade and Commerce AGM being held at George Yard Town Centre Office on Tuesday 17th June 2008 at 5.30pm.

To confirm attendance please email chair@braintreechamber.co.uk

AGM 2008 Agenda
8Kb PDF

Accounts 2007-08
33Kb PDF

Spring Newsletter 2008

Braintree Town Centre Traders Association
Derek Salmon Customer Service Awards
- looking for the Braintree Retailer of the Year 2008

I am sure that you agree that customer service is an important facet of retailing today. The Derek Salmon Retailer of the Year Customer Service Awards are designed not only to encourage everybody in a customer facing role to try that little bit harder, but also make customers aware that we know the importance of good service (and their good opinion!)

Download the PDF to read the complete document.

Spring Newsletter 2008
21Kb PDF

Braintree Chaplaincy
The Chaplaincy Service

A personal service of ethical and spiritual support for people in their places of employment. The chaplaincy is established under the auspices of Essex Churches Council for Industry and Commerce. It works on behalf of Braintree & District Churches Together and is supported by Braintree Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

Download the PDF to read the complete document.

The Chaplaincy Service
15Kb PDF

Revd Dennis Ivey dennisivey@hotmail.com
01376 340774
Braintree Town
(Cressing Evangelical)

Revd Robin Sewell robinsewell1@tiscali.co.uk
01376 325095
Freeport
(St Pauls)

Fr Trevor Diaper father.trevor@btinternet.com
01376 322698
Causeway House
(St Peters)

Michael Malone-Lee malonelee@supanet.com
01376 551012
George Yard
(Our Lady Queen of Peace)

Tony Britten tony_britten@btopenworld.com
01371 822882
Essex Police
(Elim Pentecostal)

Cyril Bamforth cyrilbbamforth@tiscali.co.uk
01376 328406
Freeport
(St Michaels)

Liz Macnee ianmacnee@lineone.net
01376 323673
(Christ Church)

19th July 2007 - Members Annual Dinner
Howard Hall, Braintree

This years annual dinner in being held in association with the George Yard Shopping Centre and will incorporate the Derek Salmon Awards for Retail. This will be an opportunity to relax and enjoy yourself away from the stresses that business provides. Tickets include a three course meal and music provided by The Mosaic Orchestra. This event is not restricted to Chamber members and the more attendees the merrier - so get those glad rags on and invite along some friends for what will be a fun evening.

15th May 2007 – Braintree Chamber of Trade and Commerce Annual General Meeting

The meeting was attended by over 20 people including a variety of local businesses in the Braintree area and a selection of existing Chamber members and some prospective members. The formal part of the AGM was held in the latter part of the session and the minutes are attached for review.

I am pleased to report that three businesses joined the Chamber at the Event and I would like to welcome, Supreme Clean Limited, Paul J King Funeral Directors and UK Electrical Wholesale Limited.

During the first part of the meeting we were lucky to have 3 speakers covering a variety of issues.

1. Lara Colgan from Smith Law Partnership focused on the Age Discrimination and Grievance procedures relating to employment. She has very kindly provided further details relating to Recruitment processes and Unfair dismissal which can be viewed below.

2. Ron Gathercole and Alan Briggs from Independent Therapy Solutions talked about Drug and Alcohol issues in the workplace. This focused on the requirements of employers to be aware of the effects on employees and to especially take regard as to the cause which could very easily be work-related stress. Further details again have been provided below.

3. Paul Munson from Braintree District Council provided an insight into Development Plan Document which sets out the spatial vision, objectives and strategy for the development of the district. The basis of this report was from a study undertaken by Cambridge Econometrics and resulted in the 2025 Futures Report. I would strongly recommend that you take the time to view this document and any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Once again I would like to end by reminding Members to contact the Committee with any issues that they may have including training requirements. We are there to help and can only do so if we know what you want.

Lisa Potter – Chairman

AGM 2007 Minutes
42Kb PDF

Recruitment Checklist
70Kb PDF

Unfair Dismissal
47Kb PDF

Drugs / Alcohol in the workplace
87Kb PDF

PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader to be viewed and printed.
The free download can be accessed via the button below:

In October 2006 rules for all businesses regarding Fire Safety and Fire Risk Assessment were updated and upgraded.

Every business with premises MUST now carry out a Fire Risk Assessment which for businesses with five or more employees, must be recorded in writing.

Every business must now have a person with responsibility for fire safety measures and fire risk assessment.

All staff must have Fire Safety Training – Non compliance will be a costly option

In order to assist our Members we have organised some training courses that will be run by the Fire Service Safety Partnership at the Braintree Fire Station. These courses allow you to benefit from an extremely competitive price for a whole days training £60 per attendee (many commercial courses are costing between £250 - £500 a day).

If you are interested do not delay please complete the registration form and return it to the chamber office.

April 12th Event is a success – note from the Chairman

First of all for those of you that were able to attend I would like to thank you for contributing to an excellent evening. We had over 50 attendees and the feedback has been extremely positive. I hope this goes some way to proving to our members that the Chamber is there focusing on its core tasks of listening to and assisting business owners with their issues. For a flavour of the event please refer to the article on www.braintree.tv

The main focus of the evening was to connect with our members and find out what their current issues are so that the new Chamber Committee have some projects to go forward with. We are there to help businesses with their issues which business owners may not have the time personally to devote to and where a collective voice is stronger than an individual. To gain this knowledge we asked the attendees to write down their current issues on PostIT notes and place them on boards which were located round the room.

A summary of the issues (available opposite) raised during the evening and over the next couple of months the Committee will be working hard at trying to work with the local councils etc. and get some of the issues resolved - although some will inevitably take longer. We will be reporting to our Members on our progress via emails, newsletters and updates on the website.

The event, which I hope will be the first of many, included the following speakers, whom I would like to thank for giving up their time to present for us:

1. Brenda Baker - Chairman of BARC - highlighted how to deal with business crime and gave her views on the current CCTV development in the Town Centre.

2. Chris Stephenson - Essex County Highways - provided us with an update of current transport issues.

3. Hilary Sellens - EEBP - provided us with some current thinking on education and how businesses can assist through the Essex Education Business Partnership.

4. Paul Bird - Joscelyne Chase - provided us with the current developments in the district covering various areas including retail, commercial and industrial.

Our next event will be held on 15th May at the Town Hall, Braintree (invite included) and will include speakers covering the following topics 2025 Report (as recently disclosed in the Braintree & Witham), HR Legislation (as requested by members) and Drug and Alcohol issues in the workplace. If you would like any other topics covered please do not hesitate to contact me.

The Chamber is your VOICE and the more opinions we have the more successful we are - more members = more pressure.