The taxpayer-funded Sunshine Coast Regional Economic Development Organization (SCREDO) has made its first major hire. Chris Hergesheimer of Roberts Creek will begin work as SCREDO’s program manager on March 1.
Hergesheimer’s appointment comes after the organization launched a search for an executive director last July.
In a letter to local governments the SCREDO board said it decided to change the position to something more junior, in part because of “the active role that the current board of directors sees itself playing in its chosen programs.”
SCREDO’s first board was appointed in early 2016, but much of the organization’s first year was spent on strategic planning and finalizing a service agreement with the local governments that are providing a combined $300,000 in annual funding.
The organization’s 2017-18 plan called for $174,100 in program spending on initiatives such as business retention, expansion and attraction and workforce development. The plan also anticipated some $25,765 in administrative costs and $92,000 for payroll.
As well as wrapping up the search for a program manager, SCREDO reanimated some programs that had been started under previous economic development organizations, including a fresh launch of the investsunshinecoast.ca website under the SCREDO branding.
It also put funding into This is the Coast that started in 2015 as a web and social media campaign to attract younger people to the Sunshine Coast by doing things like connecting them with residents, and led to several new families moving to the Coast.
In a December update to Gibsons council, Gibsons and District Chamber of Commerce president William Baker said the Gibsons Chamber and others on the Coast are working with SCREDO on a business census survey to create a database of existing businesses and on business retention initiatives. Baker told council he expects the economic development partnership to continue.
“It’s a really good partnership, and I think it’s really working for us to be an execution partner with SCREDO,” Baker said.
The SCREDO board is due to review its work from the past year and present its 2018-19 plan to local governments at a closed meeting on Jan. 26.
“We’re looking forward to that [report],” Sechelt mayor and Sunshine Coast Regional District chair Bruce Milne said Jan. 11 on Coast TV’s Talk to Your Local Government. “They are a busy working board and I think we’ll see a lot of things roll out in the next 18 months.”
Gibsons councillor Silas White, who was on the original steering committee that led to the creation of SCREDO, said the Town is also happy with how things are going, but would like to see more of the group’s work getting exposure. “We really would like to see some of their initiatives go out in the public more,” he said.
