The Squamish Chamber of Commerce board has apologized to a former member who was expelled from the organization during a dust-up over the release of information from a Chamber-led economic development survey in late 2011.
In a statement issued on Wednesday (Nov. 21), Chamber officials said they had reached a resolution with John Jervis that includes the retraction of all public accusations made against Jervis and offered to reinstate his membership, which was revoked last fall.
Jervis on Monday (Nov. 26) said his application for reinstatement as a Chamber member has been accepted.
Although a Board may sometimes have to deal with difficult situations, it is not the Chamber's mandate and it is not in the Chamber's interest to publicly accuse any individual member or business of wrongdoing, especially by way of press release, last week's statement reads.
As part of this resolution, the Chamber Board apologizes on behalf of the Chamber to John Jervis and all Chamber members for the manner in which the issues surrounding the economic development survey and subsequent expulsion were handled. The Chamber also retracts all public accusations made against John Jervis and offers to reinstate his membership."
Jervis was chair of the chamber's economic development committee before his expulsion last November. Disagreement arose after he allegedly refused to turn over raw data from an economic development survey that was on his computer. During the kerfuffle he was also accused of offering to turn over the data to the District of Squamish without permission from the board, an accusation he denied.
During a Dec. 5 members' meeting called for the board to explain its decision to expel Jervis from the organization, then-chair Jasmine Henczel and director Denise Imbeau also laid out more serious accusations against Jervis accusations Jervis maintained were wholly untrue.
Since that time, the current Chamber board and Jervis have worked together to reach an amicable resolution to the matter, the statement said.
There has been a lot of change at the Chamber since all of this began, and much has been learned, it stated. The Chamber Board and Mr. Jervis are happy to put all this behind us formally and finally.
Meanwhile, the Chamber is in the process of electing seven new members to the 12-member board for 2013. Voting remains open through Friday (Nov. 30). For information, please visit www.squamishchamber.com
