Newsletter

1st Quarter 2008                                Chamber@meltel.net                                    320-256-7174

REMINDER: February General Membership meeting Thursday February 21 at noon at Rondezvous Grille.

2008 Home, Health & Family Expo    

This is the time of year we begin to think about planting our seeds for our summer gardens, planters and window boxes. Here at the chamber we are beginning to think about the flower pots that line the streets of Melrose every summer.

These pots beautify our city and make it look welcoming for both residents and visitors. We get many comments about how wonderful our flowers look. Last year we heard that someone had made the decision to move to Melrose based on our beautiful flowers!

Once again this year we are asking businesses to sponsor pots for $25 each to help defray the cost of preparing, planting and maintaining the flowers for the season.

Pledge forms went out in the mail on Tuesday February 19. We plant 111 pots so please take a moment and review the forms and consider a donation, as this is one of the programs we do that really makes our town shine!

Welcome to Melrose Book

    This summer individuals requesting information about Melrose and new residents to Melrose will receive a new version of the Welcome to Melrose Book. A committee of chamber members, the city of Melrose and the Melrose Beacon are all working together to put together an informational piece that will be printed every year, thus eliminating the problem of outdated information that we have had in the past.

Representatives of the Melrose Beacon will be getting out the information to you soon and the best part is if you belong to the Melrose Chamber, you get a 10 percent discount!

We are looking for individuals that have great pictures of Melrose that we could use for the front cover, as well as inside the book to submit them to either the Beacon Office or the Chamber Office. You will receive credit if we print your photos in the book.

    Duck Races, Soap Box Derby, Tournaments, fireworks and more! We are beginning to look forward to Melrose Riverfest.

    Planning for Melrose Riverfest is well underway, however we have run into a few roadblocks which we are working out. We just need your input.

    Due to how the weekends fall this year, many of the area celebrations have been condensed to the June 26-29 weekend. Because of  this, the carnival we have used in the past is unable to serve our celebration. We are in the process of researching options to entertain children, such as inflatable games or children's "church festival" games and more. What would you like to see and how can we recruit volunteers to work some of the games?

    Since the carnival will not be coming this year, we would be able to shorten our celebration to two days and pack them full of events. Do you think that this is a good option?

    There is no gate fee this year. Because of this we are looking for additional ways to realize some  income. We are currently planning a Duck Race Raffle, however the rest of our income is dependent on beer sales. Do you have any ideas that would make us some guaranteed income or any idea of how we can generate more income in the park?

    Please attend the next General Membership meeting on February 21 at noon at Rondezvous Grill and let us know what you think. Can't make the meeting? Please send the chamber an email. chamber@meltel.net

Our next Melrose Riverfest Meeting will be on Tuesday Feb 26 at noon at El Portal.

Tentative schedule for the weekend:

Wednesday

7:30pm Miss Melrose Pageant

Friday

6pm Bean Bag Tournament

7pm Riverfest Idol Contest

9:30 pm Kodiak

Food and Games

Saturday

8am 5K Run

8am Little League Tournament

11 am Melrose Riverfest Parade

2pm BINGO begins

2pm Cross Cut Saw Competition

2pm Melrose Fireman's Kickball Tournament

3pm Soap Box Derby

3pm Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader

4pm Duck Race

5pm St Mary's Catholic Church Mass

7pm Solid night of music by Shaketown and The Buck Band

Fireworks at Dusk

Food and Games all day

Sunday

9am St. Paul's Lutheran Church Service

2008 Membership

    If you have not yet renewed your 2008 membership for the Melrose Area Chamber of Commerce, please make a point to do so today.

       As the economy becomes more questionable, it is easy to see how you may look for ways to cut costs and may consider letting your chamber membership slide. This is exactly the time when you need the power of the Chamber to make it through this economic downturn.

1- The chamber has power together to lobby our legislators. It is very important for us to talk with our legislators about items that impact our daily life here in Melrose including minimum wage, immigration, transportation money and many other items. We can lobby for you!

2- Are you benefiting from the chamber? All businesses benefit directly or indirectly. Does your business collect rosy bucks? The chamber prints those dollars and administers the program so that money stays in Melrose and ends up in your cash register.

3- Events! We bring people to town. During our summer and winter parades our streets are packed with visitors to town. They bring money to our gas stations, restaurants, retail businesses and more. You are not one of those businesses? I am sure you sell insurance, bank with someone, and repair someone's car that works in those businesses that profited. When Melrose is busy, we all win!

There are many more reasons to join the Melrose Area Chamber of Commerce! Call the chamber and we can discuss other items!

Chamber Night at

Melrose Basketball Games

    Come to the Melrose home basketball games on Thursday February 21 and Tuesday February 26 for Chamber Night. We will be hosting a halftime shooting contest and telling people about the Chamber businesses in the program. Planning on being at the game? Please let us know we could use your help!