CHAMBER CHATTER
ISSUE 3
MARCH 2008
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Chamber Membership
Time for expanding the Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Membership. We will be trying to increase our membership for 2008. We can work together to recruit new members. Individual membership could be easy to strengthen. If we work together as a team and feel proud to be a member of the Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce we will grow bigger and better than ever. Remember strength is in numbers. There has been fantastic turn outs at Buisness After Hours,and the help with different events is growing stronger every day. It's fun to get involved and work together to make a difference in our community and the surrounding areas. The Ambassador's will be out welcoming our new members that we already have for 2008.
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CHAMBER AMBASSADOR'S
Thank you to Phil Tietz, Heidi Thole, & Jessie Ondarko for helping at the 33rd Annual North Country Resort, Retail & Restaurant buyers Show. And Heidi Thanks for being Hostess with the Mostess at the Buisness After Hours at Lucky Moose and Black Tie Limousine . We are very lucky to have such a helpful group of volunteers that meet with the Chamber every month and help with almost anything we need help with.
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BUSINESS ATER HOURS
A Big Thank YOU for the outstanding Business After Hours Hosted by:
Black Tie Limousine Service & Lucky Moose Bar & Grill
Over 60 People attended and what a fun & wonderful night. From Spirits to the Wonderful food that was served it sure was one to attend. Thanks again for getting us all together. Networking and enjoying everyones company made it a very successful evening. You can hire a Limo or eat at Lucky Moose to show your appreciation for there really large effort of making our Business After Hours such a HUGE success.
March Business After Hours
Will be hosted by Marine Max of Walker
March 20
5-7 P.M.
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CHAMBER MEMBER EVENTS
Spencer Ross American Legion Post #134 of Walker hosted a Business Appreciation Night on February 7. We all were given a tour of the newly remodeled Legion. A wonderful spread of food was served. This is a good example of the Community coming together and appreciating all we do together.
Thank you to the wonderful group of people at the Legion.
A Murder Mystery was solved at the wonderful Murder Matey's Event at the Hiawatha Beach Resort. It was the second year for the Murder Mystery Dinner, all that participated had a really fun time.
Eel-Pout Festival brought in over 7000 people this year. We had a beautiful day on Saturday allowing the Polar Plungers a bit of relief. Lots of brave plungers (149) and a crowd of Eel-pouters brought alot of business to the Walker, Leech Lake Area.
Eel-Pout Peel Out had 88 signed up this year for there 5k run/walk. Money raised $175.00 donated to the polar plunge, and $400.00 was donated to the Walker Lions club for Lions Scholarships.
The Annual Resort, Retail and Restaurant Buyers Show was a HUGE success this year. A wonderful assortment of 45 booths made the selection and varitey of product fantastic. Thank you Chamber members for coming to the show and helping us make it worth while for the Vendors that we try to get to come back every year. Any suggestions on how we can keep this going strong, please feel free to let us know at the office.
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WALKER BAY DAYS
We have a very strong committee through the Chamber for the new event that the Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce will take on this year. Our board of directors voted to take Walker Bay Days over from Kristin & Jeff, after they gave there presentation at a Board of Directors meeting. We will be meeting twice a month and coming up with a community event that we hope everyone will participate in. If you would like to volunteer or become a part of Walker Bay Days please contact the Chamber Office. We have alot of really great ideas and with everything it takes alot of help to make a successful event.
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Welcome to New Chamber Members
Pinehurst Lodge Resort
Benedict
Welcome back Chick & Norma, Tom & Patty Knight
Individual New Member
Martin Steffel
from Nevis, Minnesota
Thank you for making the Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce stronger.
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WEB-SITE HIT STATISTICS
Month of February 2008
Number of requests-302,553
Number of Page requests-5,018
Chamber Master Report
Home Page Views
3305
Vacancy Calendar Views
1160
Links to External web-site
1904
Moondance Jammin Country Fest
261
"Sizzlin 17" Moondance Jam
172
33rd Annual Resort, Retail & Restaurant Buyers Show
184
International Eelpout Festival
207
Polar Plunge
102
The two different reports are taken from Yahoo & Chamber Master Programs.
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WEB-SITE HOT LINKS
If you haven't paid for the 2008 Hot Link we will be turning you off on March 15th.
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Leech Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
Coupon Book
The Retail/Service Committee has decided that the chamber needs a better method of responding to requests for information about local businesses. Many potential visitors to the area call the Chamber for an "information packet" about the Walker area. In addition, conferences, seminars, shows and tour groups draw people to the area, and currently only limited information is available for distribution to these visitors. Many ideas were discussed at the Retail/Service meeting and a Coupon Book Committee was formed to flesh out the idea of a coupon book.
The idea of a coupon book was appealing because it allows for year round advertising to a target market (people already visiting Walker or people interested in visiting Walker) The coupon book should also drive customers that may not have left their conference or show otherwise into local businesses. If a welcome packet including a coupon book is given to visitors to events such as the Women's Expo, or tour busses to the Casino, we will be putting our business name and logo in front of potential customers who are already only minutes away.
The Coupon Book Committee has met several times and discussed a number of options for advertising to this type of potential customer. The committee identified the following items they believe will be critical to the success of the coupon book:
First, the coupon must have value from the consumer's standpoint. They need to see the value right away so the coupon book gets used. Tie the coupon to a purchase amount to encourage sales (ie. Buy one, get one 50% off; 20% off purchases over $200...), but don't be afraid to limit each consumer to use each special only once.
The coupon book will be valid for a period of one year, so the committee is asking that each individual business honor their coupons for this time period (likely April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009).
Where possible, use time-limited specials. For instance, buy one get one free on item#1 until Sept. 30, then 20% off item #2 until Jan 31, then get a free?? with the purchase of item #3. By utilizing your ad this way, the consumer is more likely to keep the coupon book than discard it. Time limited specials have also been found to drive additional traffic, often spurring a previously unplanned trip, by making the coupon book valuable for a longer period of time, and by increasing the number of items on special to appeal to a broader consumer base.
The Chamber is teaming with the Pilot-Independent to sell ads to the local businesses, design the individual ads and print the coupon books. The Chamber will not make any money from the coupon book, and the Pilot has agreed to provide their services for an amount that just covers their costs. The Committee looked at 2 other options for designing and printing the coupon books and chose the Pilot based on their cost and quality.
The Pilot staff will be coming around to local businesses to get ads for the coupon book. Only Chamber Members will be allowed to advertise in this book. Initially, 10,000 copies will be printed. Advertising members will be allocated 100 coupon books per advertising page, while the remaining will be distributed by the Chamber. The book will be full color, with your ad and coupons on both sides of the page. The book will be roughly 3.5" by 5" which easily fits into shirt or pants pockets.
A great deal of work and planning has gone into this idea, and the Committee thinks that a well designed coupon book full of valuable coupons that are good for a full year can really increase traffic into the stores of each advertising retailer.
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GUIDELINES FOR READER BOARD ON HWY 371
Priority will be given to Chamber sponsored events and events that involve the community as a whole. After that it will be decided on a weekly basis (not daily) as to what events have been submitted ( by community organizations) and which of those events are of interest to the largest number of tourists. The Reader Board can not be used to advertise individual business activities( such as sales, promotions or events that they are hosting) other than the hosting of Business After Hours.
E-Mail Guidelines
The Chamber will forward information that is of interest to it's membership. It is asked that all members and organizations be considerate to how many e-mails they request to be forwarded and to be aware that the chamber e-mail should not be used as a form of advertising.
At all times we encourage members to go th the Events Calendar on Chamber Master to add their events, this will then be posted on our website. The more events that are posted there the better it will be for the entire membership.
The final decision for reader board messages and appropriate e-mail will be up to the Chamber staff's digression, with the option of bringing all issues to the board of directors.
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"Marketing your Cass County Business"
A group of northern Cass County Chamber directors and myself have been meeting monthly to discuss and educational event for business owners that we would like to sponsor together. "Marketing your Cass County Business" is tentatively schedule at Deep Portage on April 2, 2008 .
We are planning to invite 2 speakers to discuss marketing issues specifically for northern Cass County businesses. The first speaker, Adeel Ahmed, of the University of MN. will provide an analysis of the retail trade area, including accommodations. This information will make it easier for local businesses to identify their strengths and waknesses and how to position themselves to better market their products and services. The written report will include a comparison of neighboring counties and examine the "pull facto that Cass County businesses have or how much of our revenue comes from outside our county.
The second speaker, Pat Swartwout, of CLC, will present a Marketing 101 discussion on positioning and the competition. Wrapping it up will be a panel of local business owners to discuss how their own marketing plans and how they will use this information. Roy Huddle of Huddles Resort and John Wetrosky, of Silbaugh's Department store, have committed to this and I will add a few more with some returned phone calls. The event will last from 10AM to 2PM with networking, lunch of soup and sandwiches and a cost of $20.00 per person.
At this point we are looking for chambers to partner with. If you can commit to selling $250.00 worth of tickets to your chamber members, I will put your logo on the marketing materials as a sponsor. That is only 12.5 tickets, so we thought it would be possible to have 6-7 chambers listed. I will do the same from the EDC and the Initiative Foundation may also provide sponsorship.
Gail Leverson
Executive Director, Cass County EDC
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March 2008 Meetings
March 10, Advertising & Internet Meeting 9AM Walker Bay Coffee
March 11, Accommodations Meeting 6:30 PM AmericInn Walker
March 11, Retail Service Meeting 8:00am Village Square Cafe'
March 12, Ethnic Fest Meeting 4:00 PM Chamber of Commerce
March 14, Coupon Book Advertise meeting 9:00AM Walker Bay Coffee
March 18, Ambassador Meeting 8:00AM Chamber of Commerce
March 19, Walker Bay Days Meeting 4PM Chamber of Commerce
March 20, Chamber Board Meeting 8AM Chamber of Commerce
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MEMBER SPECIAL EVENTS
March 9, Irish Beef Stew/Silent Auction-Immanuel Lutheran Church
March 8, Leech Lake Riders Meeting Cafe' Zona Rosa 6PM- RSVP
March 15, Women's Expo at Northern Lights Event Center
March 15, Ham Bingo 7PM American Legion Walker
March 20 Business After Hours 5-7 Marine Max Walker
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