Over the past few months we have been incredibly busy behind the scenes revitalizing our society and developing plans to take us into the future.

Our Board of Directors continues to grow. We welcome Daryl Dunstan as our new Vice Chair of Marketing. Daryl currently works as the Marketing Coordinator at Omega Communications, in Kelowna.

As well, John Perrott, Business Development Officer at the District of West Kelowna & Brent Lachman, President & Founding Partner at Syndicate Theory, have joined the Board as members of our newly developed Planning & Strategy Committee. The Planning & Strategy Committee’s task is to move the Society forward over the upcoming years.

All three of these gentlemen bring a wealth of business & entrepreneurial experience to the Board and to OVES.

Sadly, we announce the recent resignation of Colin Parker from the Board due to increased commitments with his business. Colin has served the society in many capacities including Chair & Vice Chair of Membership. We would like to thank Colin for his years of service to the Society and our local entrepreneurs.

The OVES Board of Directors is excited to announce that we have made a paradigm shift for our monthly Town Hall Series.

We will be moving slightly away from our traditional business topics to more entrepreneurially focused themes that align with the intent and spirit of the Society, namely “the Entrepreneurial Spirit”.

This paradigm shift will move us into Fall 2012 and together we can assess the efficacy of our decision.

You have spoken to us requesting adjustments and we have listened and are prepared to offer you the best “take home” experience for your entrepreneurial journey.

Mark May 30^th on your calendar for our upcoming Townhall entitled … Balance Your Dream with Business Realities. Visit our website for more details. Please note time & location changes.

Our Board of Directors believes in setting an example of entrepreneurial leadership. Case in point, the Okanagan Entrepreneurial Roundtable Initiative, in which a considerable amount of work has been undertaken, hit a snag a couple months ago. This initiative’s purpose is to create a document to take to government to encourage the development of an Okanagan initiative to foster an entrepreneurial-friendly environment to create new and expand upon existing businesses. As this initiative has progressed it has become increasingly evident that the next step in its development will require a considerable amount of research. Joel Young, Founding Chair, has taken over the lead of the initiative under the umbrella of OVES.

OVES has some exciting plans & initiatives to reveal over the next while. Stay tuned!

OVES … Driving the entrepreneurial spirit.

Our Board of Directors continues to grow. We are pleased to announce that Melonie Dodaro of Top Dog Social Media has taken on the role of Vice Chair Social Media. This is a newly created position on the Board designed to capitalize on recent popularity of social media. Click here to read Joel Young's recent article in the Capital News to learn more about Melonie.

Over the past few months the Okanagan Entrepreneurial Roundtable subcommittees have been meeting and completing environmental scans of the resources that are currently in place and assessing the deficits.

Their task is to review the results of the Roundtable and to decide how to act upon the initiatives & strategies that were developed. The purpose of this roundtable is to create a document to take to government to encourage the development of an Okanagan initiative to foster an entrepreneurial-friendly environment to create new and expand upon existing businesses. The final report is expected to be released in late February.

Recent changes to the OVES Board of Directors: The Board welcomes Margaret Jenei as a Director to work on our Membership team with Colin Parker. Margaret is an independent associate with Prepaid Legal & Gosmallbiz. We also welcome Karen Girouard, of Dynamic Accounting to the Board in the VP Finances role.

Daniel Joseph has taken on the role of VP Business Development and has some ambitious plans for developing OVES. We have regrettably accepted the resignation of Rick Okimaw as a Director at Large.

Do you use social media? OVES does! Our most active group is on Linkedin where we have 378 members. Are you following us on Twitter? Close to a thousand are … so far! We now have a blog as well and we are looking for guest posters. It is a good opportunity to share your expertise with your fellow entrepreneurs. See our website for guest poster guidelines.

As our society & membership grows we need volunteers to help make our vision of being the premier source of Okanagan-based entrepreneurial resources a reality. If you have some time to help out or if you are wanting to develop some new entrepreneurial leadership skills, volunteering is the way to go. Check out our Volunteers page for more details. If you are interested in learning more about our volunteer opportunities that we have available at OVES contact Rae 250-451-6564 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Our January Townhall Meeting is being delayed by one week until January 11^th to allow everybody to recover from the festive mode. Our topic: Money, money, money! What every entrepreneur needs to know to access it, earn it, spend it and to save even more of it. See the event listing to learn more about this event.

OVES ... Driving the Entrepreneurial Spirit!