Merchants meet

The Merchants of Historic Chipley will meet Oct 7th, 5:15 PM at Southern Comfort Bed Bath and More, 1367A South Railroad.

Minutes from Sept. 18 meeting:

The Christmas Parade is set.  Insurance will be covered by the city.
 
Sherry Biddle and Mike Lee, Bank of Bonifay, will co-chair the Halloween event.  Discussion is on going about how to involve as many merchants as possible.  Donna Gunter will make a flyer for businesses to display in their windows.
 
Charles Frye came to our meeting representing 3 Blue Grass Bands.  They are looking for a place to play once a month for free.  The best date for them is the 2nd Saturday of each month.  Trudee offered to help him make the arrangements with the city. More information will be available later.
 
Karen Roland, Arts Council, and Kathy Foster have found approximately 12 stores to display art work during the Christmas Festival.  Other artists will be able to display their work at the train depot, but they will be required to pay a fee. 
 
Barbara James and Jackie Baxley will be contacting businesses to advertise in the program for the Christmas Festival.  Ads cost $15.00 and are due Nov. 3rd.
 
Donna Gunter has done an awesome job planning the Festival.  Some of the activities and participants are a live nativity scene, continuous music groups and soloists from 10:00 - 3:30, Bonifay Dance Studio, the bands from Chipley and Bonifay, continuous reading of Christmas stories, free cookies and punch, food and drinks for sale, buggy rides, free giveaways.
 
We talked about having a card that shoppers would need to get punched in each of our stores before they could enter any of the giveaways.
 
Our next meeting is October 7th at Southern Comfort.  Be ready to discuss your needs for your business so we can be organized when we meet with the grant writer.  It was thought the grant writer would meet with us on October 23rd but she has had to reschedule.  We will try for a November meeting.
 
 
Jackie Baxley, Secretary
kbaxley@bellsouth.net