Office Hours
9:00 – 11:00 am weekdays. The office contact information is:
116 N. 16 th Street
425-6358
e-mail: bchamber@grm.net
Membership
We’re working hard to further increase membership and to reach our 2009 goal of eighty-five members. We’ve added six new members so far in 2009 - 17 th Street Bargain Store, Regina Taub, DQ Grill & Chill, Java Casa, Al’s Heating Cooling and Refrigeration and 16 th St. Bristo - welcome! Our paid membership currently stands at seventy-four. Your Chamber now routinely has more than thirty attendees at the monthly meetings.
If you are a member that is not currently active, the Chamber needs your involvement and encourages you to join us at the Chamber office for our regular meetings on the third Tuesday of each month from noon – 1:00 pm for a working lunch. Meals are catered and cost $5 per person. If you are not currently a member, we invite you to join. Everyone is welcome!
Recent Success
Information Center. The City of Bethany Information Center opened to a large crowd on June 12 th, and there is considerable excitement about how well the building
turned out. If you haven’t stopped by you should, for its larger than it looks from the highway. Volunteers staff the center from 9:00 – 3:00 Mon thru Sat and the report on July’s number of visitors was 138, which is greater than the average of 100 per month when the center was located in the train caboose. Many thanks to the City of Bethany, North Central Career Center staff and students, Bethany Building Center, Rick and Cathy Smith and all the others that contributed to returning an information center to Bethany.
Babe Adam’s Festival. We had another successful festival, with an exceptionally large crowd on Saturday. There was considerable good press on the festival and thanks to all those that supported it.
Business After Hours. Grand River Mutual hosted a Business After Hours on May 21 st. The food was excellent, many thanks to Steve and Alice for hosting it.
Relay for Life. For the second year, the Chamber sponsored a team to participate in the Relay for Life event. Thank you to those that participated in this very worthwhile fundraiser.
City/County Maps. The maps have arrived and are very popular, for the Information Center keeps asking for more. Thank you to Sabra and all those that purchased ads to support the maps.
Welcome Packets. We’ve completed another of our goals – for we now have welcome packets ready for new residents. Your business is encouraged to provide info/give-a-ways to be added to the packets, just bring the items to the Chamber office.
Bethany Community Betterment Foundation. The Chamber has taken an active role is supporting the Foundation which has held one downtown clean-up day and purchased cigarette receptacles for the square. There is another clean-up planned for Aug. 27, and the foundation is currently raising funds to replace missing or damaged street pole banners. You are encouraged to get involved – just contact Sabra to do so.
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Recent Success
Bethany Brochures. Thanks primarily to the efforts of Sabra, the Chamber has produced a professional marketing brochure for our community. They will be part of our Welcome Packets and are available at the Information Center, Chamber Office and the I-35 Welcome Center.
Quarterly Ad Campaign. We recently ran an ad in the Ad-Visor promoting our members and our organization. The campaign includes running such an ad approximately ever quarter and rotating the ad between our two print ad members - the Ad-Visor and the Republican Clipper. Let us know how it looked and if you think it’s effective?
Upcoming Events
Business After Hours. We are looking to have the next Business After Hours in late fall/early winter so let us know if you’d like to provide the host location.
Medical Professionals Appreciation. As we all know, having access to professional medical care is vital to the economy of any community. The Chamber wants to do its part to thank our medical professionals and to demonstrate to medical professionals that may be considering a practice in Bethany that they will have community support, and to do so we are sponsoring an initiative to provide an insert in the Republican Clipper that will profile and thank our many dedicated local medical professionals. Please consider the purchase of an ad saluting these essential members of our community, and watch for the insert coming soon.
Harrison County License Office. The Chamber decided not to pursue the License Office. The primary reasons for this decision are the unlikelihood that we’d be chosen due to the strong competition and the fact that our facility would take major remodeling to comply with ADA rules.
HCCH Foundation Golf Tournament. The Chamber showed its commitment to the importance of having a strong hospital by supporting the recent fundraiser golf tournament sponsored by the HCCH Foundation.
Chamber Administrative Assistant. The Chamber is seeking applicants for a part-time administrative assistant. Joe Stonecypher has filled in this summer, but returns to college soon. The position is for two hours M-F and pays minimum wage. If you know of anyone interested please have them drop off a resume at the Chamber office.
Community Sign. There has been some preliminary discussion on the possibility of raising the funds to purchase a sign which would be used to promote community events. It would be one more means to get the word out about events happening in our community. If you are interested in being part of a committee to pursue this, please let Jeff know.
Flag Campaign. One of the Chamber’s goals for 2009 is the installation of a commercial grade flagpole behind the I-35 welcome sign. Dan Lee has taken the lead on working with a local Boys Scout Post to raise the necessary funds.
Fair Booth. The Chamber will be operating a booth at the fair again this year to promote our members’ businesses and Bethany. Please sign up to help staff the booth. We are also operating the main gate on Monday so are looking for volunteers.
Volunteer of the Quarter. We have initiated a new Volunteer of the Quarter program and are seeking nominations of deserving Bethany area residents. Nomination forms are available at the Chamber office. There are lots of deserving people so nominate one or more.
Man About Down Town Promotional Campaign. KAAN Radio is sponsoring a program to spotlight downtown businesses. Contact Carsley Crabtree to participate in this ad campaign.
Census. The Census Bureau is seeking support from community organizations to help get the word out about how important it is for people to respond to the census questionnaire. A considerable amount of government funding is distributed according to census numbers. The Chamber has signed on as a sub-committee of the City of Bethany to help promote the census.
Green Hill Action Agency Backpacks Program. This program provides back to school items to those kids from families that can not afford them. Its taking place on Saturday, Aug 15 th, contact Tammy Taylor if you are interested in supporting it financially or wish to volunteer at the event.
President's Note
I thank the many members and sponsors of all the events for their hard work and continued support.
During these tough economic times its even more important than ever that everyone give strong preference to shopping locally, and giving preference to those businesses that are members of our Chamber – I do, and hope you will also.
Sincerely,
Jeff Nichols, President
Our next meeting is on August 18th. Future meetings: Aug 18th Sept 15th Oct 20th
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