Steve: Are most of your members corporate members, or do you have a lot of individuals who-and what are sort of the different motives? What motivates the corporate member to join, including, potentially, some of the ethnic-because Vancouver has received a lot of immigration over the last few years-so what motivates the corporate, or small or large company, and what motivates the individual?
Jack: Well, the larger companies, I think-let me answer the first part. The first part is we have over forty-seven hundred cardholders, members of the Board of Trade. I think as an estimate, about eighty to eighty-five percent of those forty-seven hundred represent companies, small companies, and when I say small, that means companies with ten or less employees-or ten or fewer employees. So the Board of Trade is not a big-business organization, and that's probably a perception that people think that we are, and that's a misperception. We don't-if you look at the numbers, we represent a large-a large majority of our membership is small business. Now, what can we do for the large companies? Yes, there are some differences for what we can do for large companies and what we can do for small companies. For large companies, I think we provide a voice, especially when large companies just by sheer size-a government policy that affects them; for example, whether it's import taxes, export taxes, or anything that would affect their business, which means a large chunk of their revenues or a large chunk of their costs. We provide a channel that we can-the Board of Trade is lucky to have some influence in shaping political and, I guess you can call it political legislation, and we can lobby on their behalf. We can get an audience with the Premier if we need to, and we can get an audience with the federal ministries if we need to, and we can get an audience with the mayor of a city if we need to. We just have that clout or that reputation that we can do that. So for big business, on that point, we can do that for them. Now, for the small businesses, they're after something a little bit different. They're after something to survive, you know. They're looking for a way of growing their business, or just trying to make connections and sell the product or provide some exposure and advertise their service. So the Board of Trade there would be able to provide what we call a "networking service," because the Board of Trade has over the years become known as a great way of connecting people up or networking with other businesses. So we provide that environment or that permission, as we call it, to network. People can come and just show their wares to other small businesses, and it's a business exchange, so for small businesses, I think that's invaluable for them. Steve: So, I gather then that you're finding that even though what you're doing here is quite different in scope from what you did before, there's no shortage of challenges and you're enjoying it. Jack: Yes. I've grown up in Vancouver; I was born here, raised here, went to school here, and worked here all my life. One of the reasons that I came, and I was not interested in coming out of a-what I would call the "full contractors environment" and go back in a staff role. I was not interested. This was a-the job that Darcy offered me was just to join an organization that could produce widgets, it wouldn't have interested me at all. I think the Board of Trade-and when I was growing up, I said, "I've heard about it, I know what they do to the community, and it's one of the things that every day I come here and I know that I'm working for an organization that actually does something for the community, and there's some value to what we do here." Steve: Well, I think that's a very positive note to end our discussion. I thank you very much for taking the time.
Jack: Thank you very much, Steve, anytime.
