Newsletters

GABA NEWSLETTER MAY 2008

OUR NEXT MIXER IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!  Come on down to Pacific State Bank on Thursday May 8th !

 We’re holding it a bit early this month. The Summer Season is almost upon us and it’s Frog Jump time already! Please join us at: PACIFIC STATE BANK IN ARNOLD (next to the Post Office) They would love to show of their newly remodeled office! THURSDAY, MAY 8^TH, 5:30 TO 7:30. Appetizers will be served and there will be a NO-HOST BAR serving beer, wine and soft drinks. We will be holding a raffle so please bring something fun to share! We’d really like to see you there! We’ve been working on some new projects to try to get more involvement in your business association and we need your input.

INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE

Entry Forms are now available at Mountain Media and Foothill Printing in the Big Trees Shopping Center as well as Pacific State Bank next to the Arnold Post Office and  the Avery and Hathaway Pines Post Offices. If you have participated in the past, you will receive an entry form in the mail. The deadline to enter is June 20^th. There are categories for floats, autos, musical, marching and equestrians. The parade is scheduled for Saturday, July 5^th beginning at 10AM. Highway 4 will be closed at 9:30 AM. The Parade Route will begin at the lower end of the Arnold Byway just east of town and end at Cedar Center. The Theme is “Remembering the Past” and the Grand Marshal is Betty Ann Prescott. Betty has a long list of community activities. Watch the Calaveras Enterprise and thepinetree.net for the article on Betty Ann soon. For more information, contact Bunny Firebaugh at 209-795-4305.

GABA GUIDES

The new guides are out and already one of the most popular things on the racks! As a member, you are entitled to 50 free guides. If you need more, they are available at cost for 35 cents each. Our thanks to Ray Sutliff for delivering guides to many of our members. They are available at Foothill Printing for pick up as well.  If you haven’t got some yet, be sure to go by there and get yours! They are a great marketing tool.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!

Welcome Terra Firma Fitness, Michelle Young Financial and Bookkeeper to Go! Here’s your spotlights!

• AMY RENN

Amy blends her passion for the outdoors and drive for peak athleticism with sound exercise techniques that will inspire and motivate you. A fitness and healthy living advocate, Amy has a Masters degree in Kinesiology, is a certified personal trainer and a licensed massage therapist. Amy enjoys running, backpacking, alpine skiing, nordic skiing, and traveling the world. She is also a lover of natural beauty, and has lived in Bear Valley and Lake Tahoe for the last ten years. Amy is certified, licensed and insured and continues to expand on her knowledge with continual learning. Her services include Outdoor Fitness Training and Massage. Check out her website at www.terrafirmafitness.com

• JILL HARLOW

Need a bookkeeper or financial advisor, but can’t seem to get out of the office? Bookkeeper to Go is the solution for you! Jill Harlow, owner and accountant, will come to your location to meet your bookkeeping needs. She is a Quickbooks pro advisor, provides data entry, financial statement preparation, and financial statement review services. She can also file payroll taxes and prepare tax work for individuals, sole proprietors, and S corporations or do the work-up for your CPA.

Jill has been in the accounting business for over 40 years and is dedicated to providing her clients with top-notch service. She is actively involved in the community, serving on the boards of Forest Meadows HOA, Chapel in the Pines, and Soroptomists. She is also a member of the Calaveras Chamber of Commerce and most recently GABA. Welcome Jill!

 

• MICHELLE YOUNG

Choosing a mortgage broker in today’s world means not just receiving an expert mentor through the complex mortgage lending process, but a trusted advisor for life. She is proud to be able to offer you extensive choices and access to information while continuously weighing and balancing your financial interests and goals throughout your changing life.  She is more than a mortgage loan originator, or broker, rather think of her as your Home Asset Advisor, or your Mortgage Planner. She represents many of the Nations largest wholesale lenders, offering you hundreds of loan programs as well as competitive rates and fees. She knows that each customer has specific needs, and she strives to meet those needs with quality service and individual attention. With a variety of loan programs and an established network of lenders behind her, she’s confident that she will find the loan that best suits your needs, and at a the most competitive rate! Check out her website at www.michelleyoungfinancial.com

MALE AND FEMALE SENIOR OF THE YEAR

The Calaveras County Commission on Aging needs nominations for the Annual Senior of the Year. If you have someone in mind that you feel deserves this great honor, call Barbara Pollard at 754-5360 for a nomination packet. The deadline is May 12^th so don’t delay!

GIFT BASKETS

Many of you may already be aware of the Gift Basket Program headed by Ray Sutliff. We are trying to assemble gift baskets or ‘Welcome Baskets’ to give to new business folks coming into our area. He’d like to have at least 12 of these baskets ready to hand out. In it he’d like to have coupons and/or small products that represent your business and would encourage people to stop in and see what else you have to offer. Please contact Ray at 795-5394 or raymondemail@comcast.net if you’d like to be a part of it.

CEDAR CENTER’S 4^TH ANNUAL CAR, TRUCK AND MOTORCYCLE SHOW

New this year: CLASSIC MOTORCYCLES!

June 21, 2008-Car show hours are 10am to 4pm, vendors from 10am to 6pm and live music from 6pm to 8pm with Schiraz. The event and Center feature:  restaurants, unique shops, raffles (including a 50/50), live music, awards, food, craft and car-related vendor booths.  All 1983 models and older are welcome.  Pre-register by June 20^th for $20.00 or $30.00 on the day of the show.  All proceeds benefit the Annual Cedar Center Community Events. For car registration information call: Jon at Highland Books 209-795-9423, for vendor information call:  Susan 209-588-0999

 

YOUR AD COULD BE HERE! CONTACT GABAMEMBER@YAHOO.COM FOR INFORMATION!

 

GABA Newsletter February/March 2008

March Mixer Monday, March 3^rd! Mark your calendar!

A new year, a new day and a new host! Our first general membership mixer/meeting of the year will be hosted by the Arnold Chapter of the Moose Club from 5:30 to 7PM. Drink tickets will be available through Ray Sutliff at the event and the Moose plans on having appetizers available as well. The Moose building is located at beautiful White Pines Lake at the end of Blagen Road. There will be a short presentation on what the Moose does in and for our community at around 6:15. Come on down and find out what GABA has in store for you this year and meet your fellow business owners! Please make plans to attend and if possible, RSVP: gabamember@yahoo.com or call our GABA line at 795-0904.

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Planning A Special Event or Sale?

Let us know! We can promote your event on the Website and get the information to where it needs to be! Trisha Frazier is writing a weekly business news column for the Calaveras Enterprise, beginning with the Tuesday, January 29th edition.  She would like to cover any news promoting and supporting businesses and business associations in our county. Examples would include new or changing businesses; new hires and promotions; business association news; special events sponsored by individual businesses, or by associations; and any other news that would be helpful to businesses and of interest to our community. Send your announcements to gabamember@yahoo.com and we will spread the word! 

A special thanks to Randall Turpen and Peter Sansing for helping to load many cases of guides into our storage unit!

Mark Twain St. Joseph Occupational Health Clinic

Mark Twain St. Joseph Occupational health clinic will be opening April 1st.  This is a collaboration with St. Josephs Occupational Health group.This is a new service with huge benefits to our area employers.  They are the pros at worker’s comp and drug testing and pre-employment testing.They are willing to do a presentation for any interested groups- 10 mins, or longer if you want. Would you be interested? Let us know if you would like them to speak at our next mixer.

Welcome to our Newest Board Member, Bonnie Kuhn!

GABA would like to welcome Bonnie Kuhn and Simon Granville of Gold Country Commonwealth to the association.  She owns commercial real estate in Arnold, and has property she is interested in renting. Bonnie would also like to see GABA more involved with local business development and to see some of the older buildings in Arnold revitalized.  She has committed to serving on the GABA board to see some of these goals realized.  We welcome her energy, experience and vitality!

The New Guides Are Now Available!

The newest version of the Arnold Area Guide is hot off the presses! Each member is entitled to 50 free guides. You can pick up your copies at our mixers or at Foothill Printing in the Meadowmont Center. After that they are available in any quantity to members for our cost, 35 cents each. The guides will be distributed by the Visitor’s Center in Angels Camp and at Travel Shows in the L.A. and Bay Area. They are also available throughout the county on racks.  These guides are a great way to promote our area and your businesses and actually account for a large percentage of the GABA budget each year. So please rember to pay your dues. Thanks To those of you who have already submitted your dues this year.  We really need the rest of you to take care of this little task as soon as possible! Remember, for less than $10.00 per month, GABA is the ONLY entity that promotes and markets YOUR business exclusively.  There are many benefits in being a GABA member and you are supporting your local community as well. The deadline is March 31^st and there is a $20.00 late fee beginning April 1^st.

Spotlight: SierraSentry

SierraSentry is a mountain home services company that provides a wide-range of personalized services for primary and second homeowners in Calaveras County. What Does SierraSentry Do? We provide homeowners with piece of mind by giving them a connection to their mountain home while they are away. We provide both regularly scheduled services
and hourly services.

Regularly Scheduled Services–We go by and check on their place, inside and out, and provide a personalized password protected online report with photos for them to review. This service is proved on a contract basis and ranges in price depending on how often we
visit and how long the contract is for.
Hourly Services –Some of the hourly services that we provide are; opening up and closing up/winterizing, turning on the heat, stocking the fridge, meeting service people, coordinating repairs, arranging snow removal, picking up mail, etc. We will undertake any reasonable task to make a clients mountain home ownership more pleasant. We have been servicing home owners from Forest Meadows to Camp Connell since 2005. We are dependable, professional, licensed and insured. References can be provided.

Spotlight: Mountain Media

Mountain Media Technology Center is your local, Central Sierra’s #1 technology supplier, installer, and service center of electronic equipment. The Company provides a complete local consumer electronic resource and offers all the products, tools, and services to support complete business solutions. Mountain Media is a licensed contractor for both residential and commercial applications. When you visit Mountain Media Technology Center, you can be assured to be in the care of high technology professionals that are concerned only about your complete satisfaction … our #1 objective! Mountain Media provides custom installation of A/V (Audio/Video) products, such as Home Audio (CD Players, Speakers, Receivers, Whole House Audio, Line Conditioners, Wire/Interconnects), Video (DVD Players, VCR Players), Displays (Plasma & LCD, Rear Projection, Projectors and Screens, CRT Tube HDTV, Remotes). Services provided include Custom Home Theater Installation, Whole House Audio and Video Installation, Home Communications Installation comprised of digital phone systems, networking wireless LAN, Satellite installation for HDTV, high speed Internet and XM or Sirius radio. Smart Home Installation including lighting control, HVAC control, IP security cameras, and just about anything you wish to control. Mountain Media’s charter is to become the local leader in proving unmatched professional quality electronic goods and services with what the customers want without compromise.

Avenue of Flags

The Arnold Chapter of Veterans needs our help! The have 50 American Flags, 25 for each side of the Highway, and would like to erect a parade of flags on Hwy. 4 beginning at Meadowmont Center and proceeding all the way to Muetterties at the end of town. They need YOU to mark a pole or building with a white arrow pointing up to the place they can affix a permanent bracket. The bracket will be approximately 8 feet off the ground. They will then come around just before Veterans Day, Independence Day, Memorial Day and possibly Flag Day-put the flags up, and then remove them shortly after the holidays. What could be easier for us and create a more proud display for our town???  The Boy scouts will be helping to affix the brackets and they plan to do the work about the end of March. Please get permission from whomever you need to and let us know soon where these arrows will be. Let’s get together on this one!         

The Independence Day Parade is Already in the Works!

We have begun the process of Parade Planning! The date is Saturday, July 5^th.  We are still working on a theme. We’d like it to have something to do with area history and would welcome ideas! The route will be the same as last year-Arnold Byway to Cedar Center. We hope to change the detour a bit this year. Instead of winding through on Elizabeth and coming out on Patricia, we’d like to use Mustang and come out on Calaveritas. This is a much friendlier route for motorists. We’d also like to allow some parking in Cedar Center and get a marching band or two. If you have any suggestions or ideas we would welcome your input and help! Please contact any of your Board Members and welcome to the Parade Committee!

Meet/Greet/Membership Committee

Jean Turpen reports that this committee will be meeting on Thursday, February 28^th, 9AM at Bristol’s. She has been on maternity leave after the birth of her son (what a cutie!) and will be returning to work soon. She will be contacting those of you who have been working with this committee to make sure you can attend. Patty has been working on a brochure and it will be ready for discussion at the meeting.

One of our Board Members is available part-time. If you are looking for a part-time employee please contact Sande Roberts. 

Greater Arnold Business Association Newsletter      November 2007

OUR ANNUAL FUNDRAISER DINNER IS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15^TH!

Make plans now to attend our most important dinner of the year at Snowflake Lodge!  We have traditionally made this our Holiday dinner and fundraiser. We will be having a Silent Auction and a raffle. The funds raised are used to promote YOUR businesses so we are asking everyone to bring a donation. Networking begins at 5:30 PM with a no-host bar serving wine, beer and soft drinks. Our program starts at 6:30 and dinner will be served at 7:00. It will be a Prime Rib dinner with all the ‘fixins’ served buffet style. Reservations by Monday the 12^th are a must. If you are requesting a vegetarian entrée we must know by Friday, November 9^th.

DATE: Thursday, Nov. 15^th

TIME: 5:30 to 8:30 PM

PLACE: Snowflake Lodge

COST: $20.00 per Person

MENU: House salad with raspberry vinaigrette, Prime Rib, baked potato, seasonal vegetables, dinner rolls and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

RSVP: 795-0904 or reply to email at gabamember@yahoo.com

SPEAKING OF THE HOLIDAYS

Yes the year has flown by and it’s almost Christmas again. The Lighted Snowflakes will appear along the highway before Thanksgiving weekend. We still need volunteers to help with the boughs and bows. They need to be cleaned, assembled, hung up and taken down. We also need a space in which to work. This is one of the least expensive and most visible ways we have of dressing up the town for the holidays. Please leave a message on our GABA line if you can help. We’d also like to REALLY encourage everyone to string up the lights and make our town as festive and welcoming as possible.

WEBSITE UPDATES

Please take the time to check out our website at greaterarnold.org and make sure your listing is correct. Remember you must have your dues paid and current to be there. If there are any discrepancies be sure to contact Marla at gabamember@yahoo.com      We will be posting news, events and COUPONS on the Website soon so be sure to bookmark the page and take a look every now and then. The newest version of the GABA Guide is going to the printer on November 2^nd and whatever is on the Website is what will appear in the printed version of the guide.  We are printing 20,000 copies and they will be distributed far and wide.This alone is well worth your dues of only $100.00 per year!

SPEAKING OF DUES

Everyone is receiving this newsletter via “Snail Mail” so we can include your GABA application. If you would like to get the email version only, please indicate it on your application and make sure to fill it out and return it soon! This will insure uninterrupted coverage for you on the website and in the guide. We also need to know what YOU want from GABA and what you would like to see happen in Arnold over the next five years. The Board needs your input! Please write any suggestions or comments on the back of your application. We would like to get as much input as possible so we can keep your Business Association vital and working for you!

SAVE $100! The Calaveras Chamber of Commerce is offering memberships to any current GABA member for $100 off the regular price. This is a one time, new member offer only. Join both GABA and the Chamber and your GABA Membership is virtually FREE! Membership rates in the chamber are based on company size. For the smallest business this special membership offer would be $75. For details of the activities of the Chamber see their website at calaveras.org. If you have ever entertained the idea of becoming a Chamber member, NOW is the time.

A SAD GOODBYE

 We are very sad to announce the closing of Calamity Joan’s Bakery. Pat and Ann have decided to make the move North and tried selling the business but had no takers so they will be shutting down the bakery in mid-November. The breads and doughnuts were the best we’ve ever had in our community and will be greatly missed! We wish them all the best!

BOARD MEMBERS NEEDED!

We have not had a general election for the Board of Directors in the past few years. Many of the members of the Board have served far beyond their appointments due to that fact. It is now time to solicit volunteers, nominees and candidates from our general membership! Our Bylaws state that a Board Member must attend at least 7 of the 12 meetings per year. Board meetings are now held on the second Monday of the month at 5:30. The date and time are flexible according to the needs of the majority. The Board consists of 3 officers and 5 directors and each serves a 2 year term beginning in January. Please consider serving or nominating someone to serve! You may write in your nominees or check the box on your membership application.

MEET AND GREET COMMITTEE

There will be a meeting on Monday November 5^th at 5:30 at Round Table of the Meet and Greet Committee. Great progress was made at the meeting in September and we need to keep the momentum going! Please let Jean Turpen know if you are interested in helping with this vital committee! 

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

 * Colleen’s Corner *

Colleen’s Corner, located at 1284 Oak Circle in Cedar Center, is a full service, upscale salon that allows customers to meet their beauty needs while experiencing a small town atmosphere. Owner Colleen Brophy has been in the business since 1983 and specializes in hair styling, coloring, and permanent make-up.  Since the opening of Colleen’s Corner in February of 2006, the salon has also offered waxing, manicures, pedicures, and ear piercing. Colleen Young is the resident Nail Technician and Pedicure Specialist. Eventually, Ms. Brophy would like to expand to offer more services including massage. Colleen has recently added a new stylist, Paula Marwin. Paula comes from Carson Valley with 30 years of experience in all areas of salon work. She is a great asset and is ready for walk-ins. In addition to running the salon, Colleen stays active in the community.  She would like to see the town of Arnold ‘fixed up’ and beautified for a more relaxing stay in the pines. Her vision is an asset to GABA and we hope to keep her busy!  She is also the event coordinator for the Chapel In The Pines Extravaganza held in July and involved with the Hospice Golf Tournament at Sequoia Woods in June.  In her spare time she enjoys running, skiing, biking, and kayaking.  If you haven’t been in to see the shop, or haven’t yet met Colleen, it is well worth the visit!  

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

* Dorrington Realty *

Dorrington Realty Associates, Inc, purchased Dorrington Realty in November of 2006, by  principal Owners, Linda Payton and Claudia Holzemer .  The firm specializes in residential real estate sales, management and vacation rentals.  Dorrington Realty services, Camp Connell , Dorrington, Blue Lake Springs and the Greater Arnold Area.  Dorrington Realty provides the extra professional, hands on care that today’s clients are looking for, whether it is listings or managed properties.  Dorrington Realty provides year round drive bys, maintenance, repairs and preparation for winter weather needs. Dorrington Realty also provides its clients with a deep knowledge of the local real estate market.  Claudia has over 33 years in commercial and residential real estate experience.  .  She and her husband were frequent visitors both in the summer and winter months’ starting in the mid-70’s and have owned their place in Dorrington since 1986, moving here permanently in 2005.  For the future, she would like to see the town develop a master plan, specifically for the down-town area.  GABA, she feels, can help develop the vision by gathering ideas from our members and working with other organizations in the community.  Perhaps in her spare time, when not skiing, hiking, kayaking or remodeling homes we will see her involved in this effort!  Welcome Claudia!

BUSINESS NEWS

Mountain Media would like to let everyone know that they have a new technician on board. His name is Michael Stewart and he is certified on PC’s and Apple products. Their favorite tidbit about him is that he is a hero from the Iraq War and a great guy to boot.  He will be their special guest at the November dinner.