I received more-than-usual feedback about last week's newsletter and summary of Tuesday's Town Council discussion and review of the next steps in the Our Town Planning process. Happily, the comments were positive and underscored the value of the Chamber's efforts to observe and report Town policy-making and local developments.

One of my objectives in chronicling our community's admirable progression toward laying out an optimal path for Basalt, is to facilitate public tracking of the key issues and considerations without necessarily having to attend a bevy of meetings and read all the related documents.

If you missed last week's newsletter, you can now find all the Chamber's newsletters since last summer on our website. They're currently listed by date. Soon I'll add headings.

You'll find lots of definitions of "new media" on line but the most simple I've come across goes something like this:
Lately, an increasing number of members are urging us to beef up our traditional lunch & learn programs and provide a range of classes around specific business needs. In particular, we've been asked to help members market their businesses easily, efficiently and effectively using social media.

We're working out the details, and if all goes well we'll introduce the program in March. We'd love to use as many of our local resources as possible so if you'd like to volunteer to present a class, please send a note with your interest and qualifications. If there's a class you'd like to see on the list, we'd like to hear from you.

The Basalt Chamber of Commerce is pleased to present its 2015 Business After Hours schedule. As usual, we received more applications than months in the year. You'll find some new businesses on the list and a few interesting twists: a January Ribbon Cutting & Open House Party at the Midland Avenue Mall, Block Parties at Willits Town Center and in Downtown Basalt, a November pre-holiday event at Eagle Crest Nursery with the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce, and new ideas and collaborations.

This year we've invited Business After Hours hosts to get together to help build and market each others' events. In addition, we've left two month's open, one for new members to showcase their businesses and the last month to plan a special end-of-the-year holiday event, so let us know if you have a blockbuster event idea.

Thanks to all who submitted applications to host these important networking events. For those who aren't on this year's schedule, we're already looking at new and different ways to engage and support your great community spirit.


As part of our 2015 planning, the Chamber is building member partner programs and crafting new event ideas to offer effective vehicles to recognize business participation. We're inviting sponsors for the new business education collaboration, 2015 annual meeting and reception, summer events, Business After Hours, Set Your Sails student mentorship program, and more. According to your level of participation, sponsoring businesses will receive prominent recognition in promotional materials, the 2015 Annual Meeting, Chamber annual report, publications and selected events. To discuss sponsorship programs crafted to your business interests, please contact us.

 

In case not, I've left it below for one more week. Just head to the bottom of the page for a little "Something Blue" filmed at home on our very own Fryingpan Road and please ask Mr. Diamond to give me a call if he'd like to be the first community member of the Basalt Chamber of Commerce. (Yes, we're still working on getting that show on the road.) I can't tell you how many times I've listened to Hot August Night, one of my favorite albums.