| Newsletter | October, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce P O Box 85, Nederland CO 80466 303-258-3936 www.nederlandchamber.org Member’s Corner
Welcome New Members
Serve on Your Board Join the group that represents our members and sets the future course of our organization. If you would like to be considered for temporary appointment to our Board until the elections next February, please contact any Chamber Board Member or Teresa Warren at 303-258-7976. Members are always welcome to attend Board meetings on the third Wednesday of the month at 8am at Peak National Bank, so drop on by for a free look and check us out! Membership Renewal Our current members enjoy a special renewal rate of $100 this year if they pay by September 30th. Late payers are subject to new member rates of $150.00 per member per year effective September 1. Call Serene (303-545-2126) if you need to make special payment arrangements beyond the deadline. Some of you who paid by September 9th have already received your free posters, signed by artist Steve Lowtwait. Call Serene if you still would like one delivered to you. Those who paid in advance last year through August, 2004 are also eligible to receive a free poster — call Serene while supplies last. Thanks to those who renewed by the September 9th meeting: Accounting Specialists, B&F Mountain Market, Calais Resources, Inc., Fabric Peddlers, High Peak Healing Arts, Kwik Mart, Magnolia Pottery, Medicine Shield Trade Co., Mountain Family Health Center, Northern Energy, Off Her Rocker Antiques, Peak National Bank, Sabo Financial Group, and Timberline Builders. And the Award-We-Never-Knew-Existed for Most Beautifully Decorated Envelope goes to our creative friend Dave Felkley of BIGfoot Snowshoe Tours! What Should the Chamber Do For Me Next Year? The Chamber exists to promote and support its members. As we have grown from about 75 members to over 125 just in the past nine months, we need to constantly evaluate how we achieve our mission. We have seen a dramatic increase in service businesses. Please complete the survey sent with last month’s membership renewal invoice so we can set our directions! Visitors Center It is that time of year again when the aspen leaves fall, the snowbirds leave us, the parade of tourists dwindles, and life returns to the quiet buzz we know as our hometown. The Visitors Center will reduce its hours beginning in October, open only a few days a week as we prepare for the reduction to only weekends by wintertime. They have been busier than ever this year and we thank all the volunteers who gave up their personal time to help our visitors! Plaster Posters Downtown Campaign The first in our new series of designs about Nederland is on display at the Visitors Center. We’d love to see these beautiful posters all over town! To encourage this, they are half price to our Chamber members for a limited time — just $2! Merchandise includes T-Shirts ($16), posters ($4) and postcards (4/$1). Artist Steve Lowtwait has been contracted to create four seasonal designs reflecting Nederland to be released one at a time. When all four are complete we also plan to run a notecard series. If you’d like to learn more about Steve and see samples of his work, please visit his website at www.campsteve.com. Boating on Barker The Town of Nederland has responded to the City of Boulder that they would like to continue discussion and create a proposal regarding limited non-motorized boating on Barker Reservoir. Neder-Nederland Race A well-attended race in the cool rain of an early September morning set a great backdrop for one of the big annual social gatherings in Nederland, as all huddled under the shelter at Chipeta Park afterwards for snacks and the eagerly awaited race results. The race attracts hundreds of visitors and locals and advertises our town and businesses to many who otherwise might not know of them. The NACC hosts the event and pays its expenses. We are most grateful to our sponsors and volunteers who make the event a reality. Thank you for donations of goods and financial support from: Town of Nederland, Eldora Mountain Resort, Peak National Bank, B&F Mountain Market, Backdoor Theater, Mountain People’s Coop, Dam Liquor, Dr. Fix-It, Jamba Juice, Runner’s Choice, Boulder Running Company, Mountain High, and Clif Bar. Sponsors are listed on the back of the long-sleeve T-Shirt provided to runners, who advertise these businesses wherever they wear them. Smart advertising move, sponsors! Another group of on-the-ball members provided free items or gift certificates to win in the awards drawings after the event. Many runners asked about the drawings and they were much anticipated and well received. Donors included: Black Forest Restaurant, Blumen Plants & Flowers, Lifefoundation, Medicine Shield Trade Co, Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce, Nederland Feed & Supply, Off Her Rocker Antiques, Old Town Books & Ice Cream Parlor, Village Video, Boulder Running Company, Fleet Feet Sports, Jamba Juice, and Runner’s Choice. Publicity in this format is excellent advertising at very low cost to you! Another smart advertising maneuver — congrats! Serene Karplus and volunteer Lois Ott set up a Chamber booth outside the shelter to sell NACC merchandise, answer questions, and showcase artist Steve Lowtwait, who signed his work. We had planned to represent our individual members with their flyers. Only three members took advantage of this opportunity and were present at the event. The Nederland Area Seniors provided free lemonade to runners, Violet Aandres of Lifefoundation sampled Lifeforce products, and High Peak Healing Arts provided brochures. Our congratulations to these members for their smart use of free publicity and their entrepreneurial spirit in creating visibility for themselves! Cyberworld Updates Find out if you are eligible for help from one or more federal programs by visiting the website www.govbenefits.gov. There is another government page that is a resource for students with links to scholarship sources and reference and writing pages, www.students.gov. Please consider sharing with your fellow members favorite websites that may of interest and helpful to everyone. We would especially like to share sites for free info or services! Email serene@karplus.com to list your favorite sites in the newsletter. Economic Summit Vision-to-Action Several of the short-term goals of these groups have already been met. The long-term goals are making progress. Rather than meet as a full group regularly, the consensus was that special project groups will continue to meet on their own schedules. There are two major projects in the works and several smaller ones. One major project will assemble useful market analysis and economic indicator data for use with determining the forward direction of our community. The other major project is determining what energetic support and financial opportunity exists to upgrade the appearance of our central business district. Other projects include creating resources for start-up businesses, especially regarding local processes. Please contact Garry Sanfaçon of Peak to Peak Healthy Communities Project (303-258-7119) if you’d like to participate. Maximizing Momentum on Main [OK, First] Street The Colorado Community Revitalization Association hosted a conference last month in Montrose, Colorado. Peter Rowland graciously agreed to represent the Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce at the conference, which was also attended by member Ron Mitchell and his daughter Grace from Nederland Central Business District Redevelopment, LLC. A summary of information gleaned at the conference was presented by Peter at the recent meeting with PUMA about financing revitalization. We have invited Peter to present further information to us at a Chamber gathering and/or through this newsletter, date to be determined. The other PUMA On Thursday, September 25, a standing-room-only crowd of 45 people gathered at the Community Center to learn from Progressive Urban Management Associates and discuss the financing strategies for downtown revitalization projects. The group determined that the next step is to acquire market analysis data. It is vital that before any public improvements are planned we know what our target market is and what will result in improved viability of our businesses. A follow-up meeting regarding this data collection project will be held Monday October 6, 7-9pm at the Community Center. Four points made by PUMA at this meeting regarding the planning of improvements:
Data Collection Survey Project The Chamber has received commitments from local property and business owners for over $9,000 to help fund the important project of gathering data about our economics and demographics, our needs and leakage. Those who pay for it will be the first to have access to the data and be able to use it both to further their business interests and to assist in the decision-making process regarding economic development of our area. Please plan to attend a meeting on Monday, October 6, 7-9pm, Community Center regarding the next step in the data collection project for market analysis information. We will begin to determine what kinds of data we need and how we would like to acquire it. More funds are needed. Please consider contributing to this project to benefit your own business and the entire business community. Call Teresa Warren 303-258-7976 for information or to commit funds. Voting at the County Level to Affect our Local Needs Two major ballot issues have been brought to the Chamber’s attention as strong local concerns. On the Boulder Valley School District Board four of seven seats are up for election this Fall, one of which is our own District 1. Our own mountain candidate Frank Lutz has stepped forward to represent us and is passionate about keeping our schools open. He has an incredible amount of experience with teaching, public schools and the administration of them, and has served many years on school boards, including as President. Supporting our local candidate is the strongest statement we can make to keep our schools open and our community viable. Ballot Issue 1A asks us to extend the countywide Worthy Cause Sales Tax. We’ve already been paying this tax of one penny on $20. Our own Mountain Family Health Center (you remember it as Columbine) has been granted $100,000 from this tax to assist with their future building project. They stand to gain another $100,000 if we continue the tax. It is a painless way to raise huge dollars with the help of the entire county! More info is available on handouts at the Health Center and at the Visitors Center. Talk to everyone you know and remind them they must be registered as an active voter or change their address no later than October 6. Info and forms are available at www.co.boulder.co.us/clerk/elections/elections.htm. It is critical that we support local candidates and issues. Boulder Valley School District Communications NACC Executive Director Serene Karplus has been invited to assist the Boulder Valley School District with ideas about improving communications. At her first meeting, a suggestion was made that a regular newsletter be sent from each school to its surrounding draw area to let homeowners know what is happening in the school that their tax dollars are supporting. It would increase pride in our local schools and might garner more support for school activities. What information would be valuable to you as a business owner? What information would you like made available to you directly from the Schools or District rather than gleaning filtered information through various new sources? Please contact Serene (303-545-2126) with ideas you have about enhancing communications with our schools. Enjoy Gardening? OK, timing is never as planned, but before the winter hits, we’d like to get the pile of rocks and dirt near the entrance sign moved to underneath the sign and looking like they belong there. Enjoy a couple of hours in the sun and help us create a little landscape area for future planting. Call Serene to plan a brief garden playday. 303-545-2126 Not-for-Profit Organizations Signs Part of the sign refurbishing being completed by Tom Hendricks of Calais Resources includes new panels for displaying not-for-profit organizations’ logos. They will face more towards the east so that drivers can read them. Please advise any organizations you work with that they may provide a sign not to exceed 18" in diameter or width/height for display at the sign. We suggest a 12" metal printed sign for durability. Ideas for Larger Corporate Sponsors It’s budget season for the many major corporations who run their fiscal year to coincide with the calendar year. It is urgent that we seek our sponsorships NOW for next year. We’d like to get creative about pursuing dollars from outside the community to sponsor large events and special functions. Please think about companies with whom you do business, especially vendors that profit from sales through you in this community. How about the companies where your family, friends, and neighbors work? Do they have a corporate donations department? Could they possibly benefit from advertising at our event and in our newsletter by sponsoring? Do they have a product or service that might tie in to an event, such as ice or cooler companies or funeral businesses for Frozen Dead Guy Days or art supplies and entertainment for the Summertime Event? Can you acquire for us contact persons at larger corporations who makes decisions about corporate giving and marketing? A committee is forming to pursue these leads. Can you serve on it? Please share your thoughts with us immediately with any ideas you have. NACC Board Meetings This month there were two Board meetings. The first was a five-hour session discussing the mission and direction of the Chamber, our structure, our budget, and how to fund our projects. The tough stuff philosophically resulted in a proposed mission statement that appears at the end of this newsletter and still left some questions unanswered in defining how our members contribute to the functions we serve. We produced a broad-stroke budget which was presented to the Town of Nederland for consideration in preparing their budget. With a membership dues income of approximately $15,000 and projected expenses of $115,000, the Chamber needs to generate a lot of volunteer energy to produce events, meetings, newsletters, resources, member benefits, the Visitors Center, and to run its non-profit day-to-day business. The Chamber is seeking the Town’s assistance with the support of the Visitors Center, the Economic Summit, the Market Analysis Data Collection Project, and Shop Nederland campaigns. The regular monthly Board meeting, after taking care of regular business matters, focused on creating a new structure for our organization. We have unfortunately burned out the energy of the few volunteers who have carried us through the last year and a half into the high-results-oriented organization we have become. We need groups of people to serve on committees to get the job done. With dues remaining so low, we still must rely on volunteer efforts to fulfill our functions. As we create these committees and you are called to serve, please volunteer your time or donate time from interested employees. Without your help, none of the exciting ground we have gained can be maintained. Let’s not lose the impetus created by the few hard-working volunteers who have brought us to this level. Please consider your interests, talents, skills, and schedule and be prepared to volunteer for the following committees:
Last Month’s Member Meeting Over 80 people attended our September 9 potluck and bonfire outdoors. A big thank you to Arapaho Ranch for hosting us and providing the magnificent creekside setting, the bonfire, grill, and campfire coffee. The food was fabulous — thanks to everyone who brought so much! Children played on a nearby playground and received small toys while parents and other business owners traded stories and business cards. It was a great networking event and an opportunity for us to get to know one another. Several businesses attended who are not yet members of the Chamber and we warmly welcome them to continue to visit monthly meetings and consider joining our ever-growing ranks. Congratulations to the Middle/Senior High School Chamber Choir’s Jesse Warren, who raised $350 at the meeting for the choir’s upcoming competition in New York. Thanks, supporters! No business was transacted at the meeting to maintain the social atmosphere. Businesses represented at the meeting were (* means they won a door prize/drawing): AFLAC Insurance, Arapaho Ranch, Artist I Photography, B&F Mountain Market, Black Forest Restaurant, Blumen Plants & Flowers, Century 21 Peak Performance Group*, D&D Investments, Fabric Peddlers, Gilpin-Boulder Title, Goldminer Hotel, Gordon Gallagher – Attorney at Law, Heaven’s Best Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning, High Peak Healing Arts Center*, Lifefoundation, Mark Cohen – Attorney at Law, Mary Kay Cosmetics*, Michigan Mike Presents*, Nederland Area Seniors, Nederland Community Library Foundation, Nederland Community Library Foundation, Nederland Downtown Redevelopment LLC, Nednet, Off Her Rocker Antiques, Over The Rainbow Preschool, Sabo Financial Group, The Mountain-Ear, Timberline Builders, Turnburke & Associates, Visitor Center Volunteers, Vista Access, Weddings Your Way, Wild Bear Center for Nature Discovery, American Family Insurance, Highland Mortgage Partners*, High Mountain Service, Human Potential, Premier Mountain Realty*, Martin’s Auto Repair, Native Ecology, Nederland Caring Pregnancy Center Meeting Hosts Hosting a meeting is an excellent advertisement for your business. Readership of this newsletter now exceeds 175, so you receive free publicity to this select group, plus a Cracker Barrel announcement in The Mountain-Ear. Inviting us into your business will bring to you people who may not typically visit you. We all know that some of our best business comes from referrals. Hosting only requires you provide space for about 25 folks to gather. Some meetings can be pure networking events with no seated meeting agenda, so don’t worry if your space is fairly small or you are a restaurant that needs to stay open during our gathering. We can partner you with another business that can provide refreshments, too, if that is a concern for you. Who would like to host our November and December meetings? Anyone up for an 8am meeting? Call Serene to arrange — 303-545-2126. Featured Members Two members will be featured each month in the newsletter based on business card drawings at the monthly member meeting. Mary Kay Cosmetics – Deb Goldberg – 303-589-0711 “Mary Kay Cosmetics is about taking good care of your skin, it’s not just cosmetics,” says Deb Goldberg in her new role as a Mary Kay business owner. She reminds us that in our climate, and especially at our altitude, men, women, and children need to take special care of our skin. Deb began using the products 15 years ago and has been a consultant with Mary Kay for 6 years. Her goal is to replicate the income formerly produced by her real estate sales and management businesses as she focuses her attention now on her new line of work. She is proud of the support that the international company, now 40 years old and a million consultants strong, provides for women, not only within the business, but also through research in cancers that affect women and domestic violence issues. It is Deb’s great joy to work with the strong and powerful women who comprise her company. Her life in the Nederland area began when she relocated here in 1972 and her business relationships here formed with her real estate business in 1984. She has two sons — the 26-year-old is in the Naval Reserves in Virginia Beach and the 28-year-old manages a Good Times restaurant in Denver. Deb has served our community in numerous ways, including working on the committee that brought us the Roundabout, the Downtown Revitalization Committee, a group that formed to create a non-profit foundation for funding smaller non-profit projects, and currently as an active member of the Peak-to-Peak Rotary Club. Her long-term commitment to the Chamber, serving as our President for 5 or 6 years, has brought unparalleled growth, doubling our membership from about 35 to over 70 when she handed over the gavel last February. Thanks for your continuing contributions to our community, Deb! Michigan Mike Presents – Mike Torpie – 303-415-5665 We all see Mike Torpie, or “Michigan Mike” around town as he visits his many business contacts with his faithful companion “Mountain Girl”, a St Bernard/Akita/Golden Retriever mix. Mike has been booking bands in Nederland since his arrival here from Boulder in 1995, beginning with five nights a week at the Top of the Square club and now extending to three of our primary music venues in town. He loves to “get people on their feet and boogie”. He has also booked big shows at Boulder Theater, and several other venues in Boulder, Longmont, and Rollinsville. Michigan Mike Presents does more than book bands for local venues. Mike can produce large-scale events for private, corporate, and public parties, usually based around music, but he’s done it all! He also rents out a sound system (and his services to run it), which is also currently for sale. His experience as a promoter has honed his skills in Marketing, Advertising, and Publicity. He is also available to create Print Design for media, advertising, and posters, and is an accomplished Web Designer. Check out both of his sites at www.michiganmike.com and www.nedfest.com. On Monday nights at 10pm we can find Mike at the Pioneer Inn hosting the Nederland Acid Jazz, a group that has enjoyed national media attention and an ever-changing array of talented musicians, both local and touring, a tradition Mike has maintained for over 7 years. Mike thanks the many local businesses, the Town, the Police, and the Chamber for their support of NedFest over the past 5 consecutive years. He looks forward to this annual music and arts festival becoming a more successful event each year and a source of community pride for many years in the future! Boulder Business Development Workshops It’s never too late to learn new ways to develop business. The Colorado Small Business Development Center in Boulder has offered to members of the Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce that we may take courses from them at the prices offered to Boulder Chamber of Commerce members. They offer a comprehensive and affordable education for those of us who wish to improve our business acumen. Cost is only $40 per class. The following classes meet for one afternoon only, typically three hours, at the SBDC in the Chamber building at Pearl and Folsom in Boulder. Topics include Writing a Winning Business Plan, Small Business Start-Up Workshop, Create a Powerful Marketing and Advertising Plan, Start-Up Financing for Your Business, Buying a Business, Finding a Great Location and Negotiating Your Lease, 10 Ways to Market Your Business for Under $100, Buying Your Own Commercial Real Estate, Creating a Powerful Website, Exploring the E-Myth, The 7 “Do or Die” Daily Habits of Successful Sales, The Challenge of Growing a Business, Understanding Financial Statements, and Predicting Profits: How to Forecast and Budget. Obtain a copy of the detailed schedule from Serene 303-545-2126 or direct from the SBDC representative Kara Williams 303-442-1475, kara@boulderchamber.com. Coming Soon — One Free Hour of Business Consulting! Local resident, business owner, and active community volunteer John McCracken has recently been certified by SCORE to offer their services in our mountain community. SCORE offers free consulting to small business owners by experienced business executives. John will present to us at our November meeting an overview of the free services he can bring to our members through SCORE. Next Member Meeting Our next monthly member meeting will be Tuesday, October 7th (pencil into your calendars all the first Tuesdays of the month and just watch the newsletter for details!) at 4:30pm at the Nederland Post Office. Thanks to Jarman Smith, Postmaster, for offering to host us and provide food. We will enjoy a tour of the facility (please enter by the loading dock) and a short meeting agenda with extended networking time. All area businesses and their employees are invited to these free monthly meetings — please encourage your fellow businesses to attend! Chamber Calendar
First and Third Tuesdays every Month — Town Trustees Meeting — Community Center 7pm This month’s hot topic is Budget Planning — come see what goes into this at the Trustee level! Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce Mission Statement The Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce promotes and supports long-term sustainability of its member businesses; provides a united voice for its members with local government; and maintains and enhances a presence for its members to serve local residents and visitors. NACC Board, September 12, 2003 Executive Director’s Page — Serene Karplus I’ve decided to use this space to share with you excerpts from books that have inspired and guided me as related to life in the world of business. This month, I reflect back on my business prior to my move to Nederland in which I produced a workshop that guides people through their understanding of their relationship with money, how they came to be the way they are with it and how they’d like to grow and change it. It’s the emotional and spiritual side of the stuff I handled for nearly twenty years in the business of banking and stock brokerage. “Successful people know how energy works. They know how to focus the various kinds of energy — money, time, physical vitality, creativity, among others — to convert their ideas, dreams, and visions into reality. And they know how to do this with ease. They have realized their particular dreams, gone through their personal challenges, vanquished their individual dragons or fears. While they may not always be successful in their ventures, in general they have mastered how to use energy, and particularly how to use the energy of money. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell, the noted mythologist and philosopher, describes the hero’s journey. During our life’s progress, as with every hero’s quest, we have to suffer certain losses, leave the predictable comforts of our home, and set out into unfamiliar terrain to realize our dreams and goals. Along the way, the hero inevitably meets with dragons that block the way. Usually, his or her quest takes the hero into dark places to do tremendous battle with unseen forces for hidden treasure. Out of these struggles the hero emerges with a grail or jewels or wisdom that he or she shares with others. It is his or her contribution to others and to the larger world that makes the hero into a hero, for the ultimate task of the hero is to bring knowledge, energy, and power back to the people he or she loves and share it with them. Each of us has unique talents to contribute to the world, and we make our contribution by turning our individual dreams — the ones that truly excite and inspire us — into reality. Our task may be to nurture a family or to create a business that helps a community thrive. Whatever the vision that calls to us, accomplishing it is a heroic mission… You already have all the qualities and abilities you need to use the energy of money to make your dreams come true. We are all born with the ability to bring our dreams into reality. Successful people are conscious conduits of energy… Joseph Campbell said, “Money is congealed energy, and releasing it releases life’s possibilities.” Excerpted from The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth, Ph.D. “Giving is an energy that not only helps others but creates even more for the person who is doing the giving. This is a natural law that is true regardless of whether the person who is giving wants or even realizes what is occurring. Money is ‘circulation’. It needs to flow. When you are frightened, selfish, or when you hoard everything for yourself, you literally stop the circulation. You create ‘clogged pipes’, making it difficult to keep money flowing back in your direction. The way to get the flow going again is to start giving. Be generous. Pay others well, tip your waitress that extra dollar. Support several charities. Give back. Watch what happens! Things will start popping out of nowhere. The same dynamic is true if you want to fill your life with love or anything else worthwhile. Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. If you want more love, or fun, or respect, or success, or anything else, the way to get it is simple: give it away… Everything you give away will return, with interest!” Excerpted from Don’t Worry, Make Money by Richard Carlson, Ph.D. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[ Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce ] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||