What was so special about the Quarterly Meeting of the Anguilla Chamber of Commerce on Friday, May 7, was that it looked at not only the development of business on the island, but education as well which has a pivotal role to play.

Business representatives

The guest speaker was Ilene Garner, a lecturer with the University of the Virgin Islands Community Engagement and Life-long Learning Center (UVICELL) which has partnered with the American Management Association (AMA) to provide business organisations with management skills for productivity and career growth.

She and other persons from the Anguilla business community were welcomed by President of the Chamber, John Benjamin. “It is very nice for Ms. Garner to be here at this time,” he remarked. “I think it is very crucial because quite often in our development we tend to forget education. Once we have money in our pockets we don’t seem to worry about how we are going to develop our human resources…As I looked at her brochure and saw the certificate programmes being offered, I thought that they are so relevant for Anguilla.” He urged young people on the island as well as members of the Chamber to take advantage of the courses.

Mr. Benjamin and Dr. Bardfield

The online courses outlined by the UVI official are the administrative professional, business communication, customer satisfaction, finance and accounting, general management, human resources, manufacturing, quality improvement, sales & marketing, strategic leadership, supervision and workplace skills.

UVICELL is the authorized AMA provider of the courses in a number of Caribbean islands including Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Maarten/St. Martin and the US Virgin Islands. The Anguilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry is facilitating the courses on the island and invited Mrs. Garner to provide the necessary information.

Calvin Bartlett

Meanwhile, the Chamber’s Executive Director, Calvin Bartlett, gave a power point presentation in which he highlighted various aspects relating to Anguilla’s economic growth. He focused to some extent on the need to improve employment and skill levels to maintain that growth.

“It is definitely a need to educate our people because education will take them a step further and that is what we are trying to do in the Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with other organisations such as the UVI,” he said. He spoke about a number of other educational programmes which the Chamber had introduced over the past two years. These included the Quickbooks Certification Programme, the Back Office Service Programme and the Clientele Consulting Customer Satisfaction and Leadership Management programme under which a major course was recently completed at CuisinArt Resort & Spa.

During the meeting, Mr. Benjamin made a presentation of a plaque to Dr. Louis Bardfield for his contribution to the work of the Anguilla Chamber of Commerce and Anguilla over the years. He noted that, like himself, Dr. Bardfield had also been a Rotarian and a Paul Harris Fellow. In addition he was awarded the MBE by the Queen in recognition of his career services as an optometrist in Anguilla.

Replying, Dr. Bardfield said that his “heart and soul was with the Chamber” and that over the past 10-15 years he had served as Vice President of the Chamber. “My goal was, and still is, to promote the future growth of Anguilla’s business community,” he stated. “I will certainly do whatever I can to support the Chamber and I have some ideas which I will continue to share with the Chamber. I thank you for this honour and I appreciate it very much.”

L-R: Vida Lloyd-Richardson, Brent Romney, John Benjamin and Ilene Garner

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