June 2008
Business people from all around the island showed up for the discussion part of the SBA meeting on June 09, 2008. . It was a vital discussion and the board could gather valuable input from it's members. It was decided to undertake a membership survey to determen the organizations priorities. Furthermore it was suggested to form a tourism subcommitee to increase cooperation with government and tourism office concerning tourism on Saba. The board has a lot of plans for the new year 2008-2009 and is looking forward to increase influence and membership during this period.

June 2008
The SBA board elections took place on June 09, 2008. First the board appoved the treasurer balance and had a discussion with members who showed up for the election process. Two new members could be welcomed: Saba Deep/ In to Deep and El Momo Cottages from Booby Hill.

Mrs. Carmen Simmons was elected again to President, Mr. Wolfgang Tooten was confirmed for another period as Vice President and Treasurer and Mrs Mary Simmons took over the job as Secretary. Board members are Shirly Smith for another period and as a new board member Mrs. Alida Heilbron from ICS (Island Communication Service) was elected.

The board is looking forward to a fruitful year with lots of improvements for the Saba business community.

February 2008
The meeting took place in February 2008 at Queen's Garden Resort for a luncheon. The invited parties were the three dive shop owners and Scout's Place Hotel owner Wolfgang Tooten. The discussion was about tourism, nature & environment. The Dutch site, especially Prime Minister Balkenende was asking very specific questions about our opinion on the topics. The Dutch delegation was well informed and very keen to learn more about Saba's specifics. The discussion also included but didn't stop at recycling issues, access to Saba by air and boat, raising costs for local population, businesses and tourists, competition on the world market and the US/Euro relation.

No one of the business association was directly invited. But since the Vice President was present we had a direct chance to hand out four copies of the SBA "Position paper 2007" to the Prime Minister, the State secretary, the Dutch representative in SXM etc. Means it went right to the source. Also we could raise our opinion directly to them. The discussions were very frank and open and we had the impression that the delegation was truly interested in our opinion.

Also present at the meeting: Lt Governor S. Sorten, Commissioner B. Zagers & C. Johnson, Dir. of Tourism G. Holm, Marine Park Director J. v.d. Dulk, Mr. F. Johnson for the SCF etc.

It was a unique opportunity to meet and speak with the Dutch directly and we would wish we had more chances in the future to do so.

Announcement:
We regret that the current secretary of the SBA Mr. Chris Meijvogel handed in his resignation in January 2008.

August 27th, 2007. Meeting between the SBA and commissioner Bruce P. Zagers.

Commissioner Johnson was excused due to an upcoming trip to Curacao and Holland.

Commissioner Zagers promised to send a list of portfolios to the SBA, as well as a copy of the newly fixed 'retributie-verordening'.
He explained the reason for the 'time-out' and the meaning of it.
SBA's concerns about the taxes to be implemented in 2008 were based on rumours and according to Zagers, the Saba authorities themselves has to decide if and which taxes have to be implemented, if so.

New agreements concerning the transition are scheduled to be signed in December 2007.

Problem with kadaster, addressed by the SBA, was discussed and the commissioner promised to discuss this with Bobby Zagers and Roland Wilson.

Other points of discussion in this meeting:
- advertising Saba in Sint Maarten;
- costs of transport by air v.s sea;
- employee-training in Saba; developing a ssocial workplace;
- ramp at the harbour;
- combining the hospital, the old-age-homee and home-care;
- new foundation for culture.

The commissioner promised to keep the SBA involved and to stay in touch.

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007.
Meeting with the Minister of Economic and Labour Affairs Elvis Tjin A Sjoe.

During this acquaintance/inventory visit the SBA and other representatives of non-governmental  organizations got the opportunity to present themselves.
Main subjects discussed in this meeting where:
- the high cost of living in Saba;
- the high cost of travel.

It is said by the Minister that he will be focused on the transition from the islands into the new status. That means that no new developments can be expected  from his department.

Saba Business Association re-elects Board

SABA-The Saba Business Association re-elected unanimously all board members at its annual membership meeting held Monday afternoon at the Cultural Centre in The Bottom.

Returning to their duties are President Carmen Simmons, Vice President and Treasurer Wolfgang Tooten, and Board Members Shirley Smith and Norm Sawyer. The position of Secretary remains open.

More than half the membership turned out for the meeting, during which President Simmons reported on the organization’s achievements in the past year. SBA was instrumental in clearing up almost 10 years of backlogged payments owned 11 Saba businesses by the SVB insurance. Nine of the businesses served were not even members of the SBA at the time.

Another success was the implementation of a program to help local businesses recover bad debt from customers who had abused credit privileges. The situation had reached alarming proportions in some businesses, who felt they had little leverage to recover their money. SBA created a satisfactory program with the law office of Duncan and Brandon which has helped Saba businesses, whether or not members of SBA.

“We are here to serve all of Saba,” President Simmons pointed out. She said that board members receive no compensation, but worked many hours and met almost twice a month, to address issues with government and other entities, to try and improve the island business climate. Another major effort was the creation of a position paper that was distributed to all island council candidates before the election. The Board said that it had done its best to strike a dialogue with the current island council, but their efforts had been ignored for the most part, and they were hopeful that the incoming council would be more willing to listen to the concerns of the business population.

The board welcomes new qualified members to the association, and all SBA members can use the new SBA logo and website to get their information out to a larger audience. The website is still under construction, but may be reviewed at sababusinessassociation.com Member businesses can also receive help getting their data formatted for the web.

Reprinted with permission of
The Daily Herald
Author: Suzanne Nielsen