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new year, new challenges

Between writing this and its publication, the world will likely have changed as much again as it has in the last few months. Christmas has come and gone, our retailers will have weathered the storm, delivered the goods and we will have sat down with friends and family and reflected on 2008 as undoubtedly one of the most exceptional years of change in recent decades.

The new year has typically been a time for optimism, the expression of new ambitions and all those resolutions that often fall by the wayside within the first 30 days but 2009 will be a unique year in many ways. It will be a year when we have to pick ourselves up from the meltdown of 2008, when we have to pick ourselves up and look to drive our businesses forward, when we have to pick ourselves up and recover a degree of optimism and confidence, we have to put the turmoil behind us and continue to plan and invest in our businesses and to seek new markets and more market share.

The Chamber of Commerce will see a lot of change as well with my successor Bob Collier joining in the early part of April, bringing new ideas, new energy to the organisation. I will be steering the business through the first quarter and already we are enthused by the opportunities in the market place and we have confidence in our strong membership proposition and very high retention rates, amongst our existing members. Forecasting has undoubtedly been difficult but we have to be optimistic and I guess an organisation that's been round since the 1830's has every reason to be optimistic as it's weathered a few storms along the way.

I'd like to take this opportunity to record my thanks to all the members for their support in 2008 and in particular to our Premier Partners and Sponsors who have helped us deliver a wide range of quality services and benefits for the business community in the North East of Scotland. We finish the year by achieving British Chambers of Commerce re-accreditation against increasingly demanding standards and the Chamber's staff team have a clear set of goals in place for the New Year. Our ambition is to add real value to provide important and relevant networking opportunities and to seek to work with you, our members to exploit every business opportunity possible.

Have a very happy, healthy and successful 2009, irrespective of the challenges that we face.