Downtown Merchants meet

August 21, 2008 Meeting

Attendees:      Antique Mall            

Sophie &Dutch Swart    

New Beginnings
Baxley's Cleaners      

Madelyn Culpepper      

Barbara James
Ted Everett            

Foster's Folly          

Angel's Buffet
Exclusive Gentlemen    

Nicole Barfield, Washington County News

Our next meeting is scheduled for September 2nd at Celebrations.  Please
be prepared to vote on a name for our group of merchants.  Some
suggestions given at this meeting were:

Chipley Merchants
Downtown Chipley Merchants
Chipley Downtown Merchants
Historic Downtown Chipley Merchants
Historic Downtown Chipley Merchants Association
The Merchants of Historic Downtown Chipley

If you are unable to attend the meeting please call me, Jackie, at
638-0201 and cast your vote or call Trudee at 638-2535.

The Christmas Festival is coming fast.  Plans must be made now in order
for everything to be in place.  We need to know NOW if you want to feature
an artist in your store.  Please let Kathy Foster at 638-7572 know how
much room you can set aside for an artist.    The deadline to respond is
September 2nd.  The benefit of having an artist is free advertising.
There are going to be hundreds of people in town for the parade and Santa.
 This is a wonderful opportunity for people to come to your store to see
an artist's work but also to browse your merchandise as well.  People who
drive or walk past every day will have a reason now to come in and meet
you.

We voted in favor of Washington County News printing the booklets that
will be passed out on Festival Day.  Nicole is working on a template that
will be ready for our approval at the next meeting.  We discussed
featuring an artist on the front of the page and on the back side will be
three stores.  The store ads will include a business card and a coupon if
you so desire.  The coupons will prevent people from simply tossing the
books once the day is over.  We hope they will continue to browse the book
and return to shop at a future date.

Your cost to have an ad in the Festival Book will be $15.00.  We will be
making every effort to contact you in person, but it would be great if you
would be proactive and contact one of us or PLEASE COME TO A MEETING!  I
can't stress enough how fantastic it is to get to know the other store
owners and have developing connections and friendships.

Ads for the Festival will be on radio and tv beginning in November.  You
don't want to miss the opportunity to be a part of the event.

The arts and crafts vendors have asked if they can be allowed to
participate in Festival Day.  They would be set up in the Gazebo area.
We are still trying to arrange for the carriage rides.  We ask that you
contact your church about having carolers on a corner.

We still need two sponsors for Jr. Achievement.  Cost is $50.00.


Jackie Baxley, Secretary  638-0201
jkbaxley@bellsouth.net


Also please note the meeting for September 18th has been changed to take
place at New Beginnings 1367B S Railroad at 5:15PM