Spring flowers are abloom (those that didn't get torn to shreds by the storm early Friday morning), the bees are abuzz and everything is anew here in Logan County. With a slight breeze, the sun shining warm and the colors coming back to the landscape, we can almost forget the ruthless winter we just barely escaped and feel alive in this new season.
Speaking of the start of things, we have much to talk about this week, and after the Chamber Board meeting Tuesday morning, we may have even more to discuss in the next newsletter.
Exciting days are ahead!
MEMBERSHIP SURVEY
There are still a few tweaks to be made and the final board approval to be gained, but next Friday we will be announcing the start of our Annual Membership Survey and we want everyone who can to take it. We will administrate the survey through Survey Monkey, but if you want to do it on paper, let us know and we will get you a copy.
Don't worry about it being a laborious survey. There are nine questions and the last question is for your name so we can ENTER YOU IN A PRIZE GIVEAWAY! That's right, if you take our survey you are entered into a drawing for a prize, and these prizes are nice!
The plan is for the Annual Survey to normally be either late or early in a year - sometime in that sweet spot between the Tobacco and Heritage Festival and our Annual Dinner - but this year we are using the information from the survey to have some cold hard data while we set our long-term goals for our upcoming Chamber Strategic Plan.
RETAIL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
A few weeks back I teased on this blog about some information we were able to get from the TVA and the wonderful Melissa Halsell, who is the program manager for economic development. Melissa provided us some great places to start in looking to either bring in new or lost retail back to Logan County.
We have taken many proactive steps already and will be using the next few months to weave together both a short-term and a long-term plan. Look for more on both plans in the coming months, but for those of you who missed the numbers we provided a few weeks ago I leave you with this:
We "leak" or spend outside of Logan County about $13.5 million in food and drink dollars. That is $490 per person or $1,960 per family of four spent somewhere else on dining.
We "leak" out a little more than $25 million in money spent in grocery stores.
We also "leak" out more than $9.5 million in clothing purchases.
We know these levels of leakage didn't happen overnight and we don't expect for it to quickly change, but what we can start doing right now is supporting our retail base here, identify what we are missing and begin the recruitment process. Stay tuned for more information about our retail development program!
RIBBON CUTTING AT BROOKS & HENDRICKS
We had a wonderful crowd Monday for the ribbon-cutting event at the new law firm of Brooks & Hendricks. The weather was just right, there were many members who showed up to support Ami and Joe, and the country ham biscuits were sublime! The law firm is located on 4th Street in Russellville just across from the Justice Center.
Let's also make sure we show up this coming Monday to the RUSSELLVILLE AREA TECH CENTER at 10 a.m. for their ribbon cutting of their new student store. Let's have as many members as possible showing up to support the students!
Ribbon cuttings/events coming up:
Russellville Area Tech Center – April 13 @ 10 a.m.
Lewisburg Bank (Hopkinsville Road in Russellville location) – April 28 @ 7:30 a.m.
Southpoint Risk Advisors (merged Jesse L. Riley & Son Insurance and the Insurance Place) – May 6 @ 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. with ribbon cutting at 8 a.m.
We will also be having a Tea and Networking hour at Creekwood Nursing and Rehab Center on April 22, starting at noon.
That's it for this week. Next week, with a board meeting, another ribbon-cutting, and some exciting programs getting underway, it should make for a Jim-Dandy of a newsletter!
So, remember to get out and smell the roses (or insert name of presently blooming flower or weed here) but just make sure there isn't a bee, wasp or hornet inside. I'm not saying my snout has ever been stung while sniffing a flower, but I'm not saying it hasn't either...