Issue Date: April 17, 2023

1. The Opportunity

Community Futures Central Kootenay (CFCK) is seeking proposals from interested parties to take on ownership and management of kootenayshipping.com, a website that was created for the purpose of connecting business owners and transportation partners, in order to support the movement of goods within the region.

2. Background

Kootenay Shipping was a collaborative effort between Community Futures Central Kootenay and the Applied Research and Innovation Centre (ARIC) team, associated with Selkirk College. This project was made possible with support from the Province of British Columbia.

The project sought to connect business owners and transportation partners, to support the movement of goods within the region (as well as in and out of the region), improve logistical and economic efficiency, and remove barriers to future small business growth and economic development.

Businesses in the Kootenay Boundary region face significant challenges when moving freight: distance and geographic barriers between municipalities, weather and seasonal climate factors, and limited shipping infrastructure (particularly in terms of temperature control and refrigeration), which creates major impediments to business development and growth. Furthermore, many businesses (particularly those with a limited shipping or transportation background) rely on suboptimal transportation methods (e.g., personal vehicles) and are largely unaware of the transportation options that are available to them—or the advantages of collaboration with other shippers.

To address these challenges kootenayshipping.com was created as a resource to provide a list of available shippers, a tool to compare shipping options, and a Kootenay Shipping Facebook group to share ideas and pool resources.

3. Kootenay Shipping

Website traffic: The website has had over 3,000 visits since April 1, 2022, and had 1,945 visits between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022. The Kootenay Shipping Facebook group has 86 members.

Value: The website is currently valued at approximately $1,700 CAD by GoDaddy.

Annual costs: approximately $500/year for WordPress hosting & domain name registration

Investment to date: approximately $29,500 includes $25,000 in student time to research and build the site, and $4,500 in entrepreneur volunteer time to inform site development.

4. Proposal Contents

CFCK is seeking proposals from interested parties to take on ownership and management of kootenayshipping.com. Proposals may include a combination of cash contribution as well as in-kind volunteer contributions related to the original purpose/goals of the site. Preference will be given to proponents with the intent to maintain the original purpose of the website which is to improve the ability of Kootenay businesses to ship their products within and in and out of the region.

Proposals should include:

1. Intention: paragraph explaining intention of how the site will be used moving forward.
2. About: description of individual/organization that is submitting the proposal and how their mandate/skill set is suited to the ongoing management of the website.
3. Offer: cash/in-kind contribution towards ownership of the website.
4. Timeframe for transitioning ownership of the site.
5. Any other value-propositions the proponent can contribute.