Business Council Gears Up For The Fall

By: Dawn Whalen, President ~ New Hartford Business Council

With the kids back in school and fall just around the corner, we’d like to share the following monthly update with all our New Hartford Businenss Council (NHBC) members and prospective members:

Membership Invoices: Membership invoices were recently mailed out. All legacy members and new members that joined at a prorated rate in the last few months will receive an invoice, otherwise members will now receive an invoice on their anniversary date (i.e. you joined in February 2010, you will receive an invoice at the beginning of January 2011 with a due date of February 1).

Please note: our membership dues are $75.00; if you plan to join the Canton Chamber of Commerce (which we highly recommend), your NHBC dues will be $50.00 and you will receive $25.00 off Canton’s membership as well. Visit the Canton Chamber website for information regarding membership.

Board of Directors Monthly Meeting: The Board of Directors meets the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 8 – 10am @ the Town Hall Sessions Room. We want you to know that any member is invited to attend this meeting. We will have a standing “member comment” agenda item during the first 15 minutes of the meeting. You are welcome to bring your ideas and opinions to be heard during this time.

Store Front Businesses: We need your help! We are looking to post our membership application in each store front business around town. We will provide you with a brochure stand as well as the updated tri-fold membership application (design by GeminEye Images, printing by Realty Works). If you are willing to help promote the NHBC, please contact Ron Miller (Ace Marketing), Membership Committee member, at ronm331@yahoo.com. We will be “making the rounds” to drop off the brochure stands in the coming weeks.

Did you know? We have a Marketing/Advertising/Public Relations Committee! This committee, headed by Gardner Graves (Realty Works), is responsible for promoting our events through newspaper, TV, radio and other media. This group also sends out articles regarding businesses and is currently developing a New Hartford tourism brochure/map. They meet Wednesdays from 8:00 – 9:00am. If you are interested in being a part of this committee, please contact Gardner at gardner@realtyworksct.com.

Upcoming Member Events: We have developed a calendar of member events for September and October:

1. September 23, 7:00pm @ the Town Hall Senior Center – Small Business Opportunities during Demographic Change.

We will have open networking from 7 – 7:30 and at 7:30 Marcia LaReau of Forward Motion, LLC will speak about current demographic changes and their impact to small business cash flow. You don’t want to miss this learning event.

2. October Member Event:  Date TBD – Personal Fitness as a Business Owner- Join owner Tim Calder @ Personal Best Fitness Training (http://www.timcalderfitness.com/) (in the Maradino’s Plaza) for an evening of fitness tips…bring your water bottle and dress ready to burn some calories!!

Farmers Market: Any business interested in being the “feature business of the week” at our Farmers Market booth, please contact Dawn Whalen via this email address: nhbusinesscouncil@yahoo.com. We have all of September and October available.

Facebook: We have a facebook page… search New Hartford Business Council and become a fan. Please send your newsworthy items to nhbusinesscouncil@yahoo.com… we’ll post your business announcements.

New Hartford Day: New Hartford Day is scheduled for Sunday, September 19 and we will have a booth to encourage new members…please stop by and show your support of the business council. If you would like to help out at the booth, please send an email to nhbusinesscouncil@yahoo.com.

NHBC Web site. We are in the final stages of design for our new web site. Stay tuned for an announcement coming soon.

Congratulations to This Year’s Scholarship Recipient

Congratulations to Kristen Dombrowski, the 2010 Business Council’s Scholarship recipient. Kristen, who is from New Hartford and is a member of the 2010 graduating class at Regional #7 received the $1,000 scholarship which is annually awarded by the New Hartford Business Council to an area graduating senior.

Kristen led a very successful high school career including serving as Class President. She ranked #4 in her class and won the Regional #7 Superintendent’s Award and CABE Award for leadership; she played soccer, participated in indoor track and was the softball team captain. Kristen is attending Babson College in the greater Boston area and she hopes one day to be an entrepreneur.

Congratulations again to Kristen, and the best of luck to her as she embarks on her college career.

From left to right are Phil Havens and Dawn Whalen, Vice President and President of the New Hartford Business Council; Kristen Dombrowski, NHBC Scholarship recipient; Kim Trumbull, NHBC Secretary and Carole Monroe, NHBC Treasurer. Photo taken at Northwest Community Bank by Susan Wacht of GeminEye Images.

NHPlus Hosts Yellow Pages, NHBC Directory To Move To Own Site

NewHartfordPlus, a member business of the New Hartford Business Council, is now hosting a Yellow Page Business Directory. The NHBC Members’ Directory is no longer a section of NewHartfordPlus; however, NHPlus has incorporated the member businesses into our Yellow Page section. The NHBC is in the process of developing its own website where its members will be listed.

We welcome all businesses to our Yellow Pages, which offer a low-cost opportunity to make your services easily accessible to residents of New Hartford and surrounding communities. Please email us at newhartfordplus@gmail.com if you would like to take advantage of this business opportunity, or if you have any questions.