Chelsea Gift Card Program

Would you be in favor of the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce offering a gift card program prior to the 2010 Christmas Holiday Season?

Customers could purchase a gift card as a gift for a friend or relative to be spent at a Chelsea Business.

I am researching possible gift certificate or gift card programs for Chelsea to use this Holiday season.

We could have an old fashioned  paper gift certificate program. These are inexpensive but difficult to administer. Gift Card programs are expensive for both the customer and the gift card administrator (i.e the Chamber) but are relatively painless to administer. They are actually a credit card (M/C,Visa,Discover or American Express) and technically could be redeemed at any store (not just Chelsea Stores).

Typically a gift card would cost a customer $5 more than its face value. A $25 Gift card would cost $30 to purchase.  A $100 Gift card would cost $105.00 to purchase.  The administrator  would have to purchase these cards in advance (about $1 per card) and offer particular denominations, usually $25, $50, $75, $100.
Given enough time we could have a Chelsea logo put on the card

Chelsea Fair

Chelsea First interviewed 6 great advertising companies. It will be difficult to choose just one.
Great  Job Dania!!

Go to the Chelsea Fair on Tuesday Aug. 24 evening and make sure Mike Jackson gets wet on his tour of the dunk tank!

Chelsea First mid July Update

Our new marketing director,Dania Dunlop Herdon, has been very busy her first few weeks on the job. Dania has been meeting individually with the Chelsea First Advisory board members and the larger Chelsea companies and learning about their advertising and marketing plans. Dania will be working with The Ann Arbor and the Ypsilanti Convention and Visitors Bureau's.
The Chelsea First Advisory Committee and Dania finished the Chelsea First Business Plan. Click to view plan.

Dania completed our RFP for creating a logo and artwork for Chelsea First. It went out to 40+ advertising agencies. If you have an advertising firm in mind let Dania know and she will get them an RFP. The goal is to complete that process by 10/10/10. An aggressive goal that we will try to meet but will change as necessary.

Chamber Membership

The Chelsea Chamber of Commerce is considering changing the membership requirements.
Instead of having membership price based on the number of employees (the method that 98% of Chambers use) to a membership based on benefits. Would you be in favor of such a change?

Interviewing for Chelsea First Position

Four terrific candidates were interviewed for the Chelsea First Marketing position on Monday!
It will be difficult to whittle down the list from such a strong field of candidates. We are one step closer and we will talk to two of the four candidates shortly!
Thanks to Trinh Pfifer,Mike Casey,John Hanifan and Judy Stratman for taking the time to interview our applicants!!

Thank You

A special Thank You is in order for the strong and consistent efforts of Pat Cleary, John Hanifan, Bill Harmer, Bob Pierce, Craig Common and Ann Feeney for spearheading the local Chelsea efforts. These people have epitomized the strengths we as a community espouse. We are fortunate to have had such strong leadership during these difficult economic times.

Thank You to everyone who has contributed time,money and ideas to Chelsea in the last several intense months. Your future input and assistance is essential to the progress we are making as a community.
The Chelsea First Steering Committee is in the process of interviewing candidates for the new Chelsea Marketing Position. Once that process is complete and a person is chosen we will need to give that person some time to meet community leaders and organize information gathered up to this point.
Please be patient. This is a LONG TERM commitment, not a short term fix. I expect many things will take time to develop.

This is a good time for me to review and ask you:
What are our strength's as a community?
What specific areas need attention? (i.e. - a Chelsea Cash Program)
What "low hanging fruit" is out there?
What long term projects should be considered?

By emphasizing "Chelsea First" we will reduce problems and increase the overall effectiveness of our new marketing program.

Vogel's & Foster's Tuxedo Rental

Vogel's & Foster's offers tuxedo Rental for weddings,Prom and special occasions. Convienent, Easy and More than competitive pricing
This Calvin Klein Tux is a favorite.
View all Nedrebo's tuxedos available at Vogel's & Foster's

Great for Chelsea Events!! We SERVICE our Prom customers