May 2010 Newsletter

Thank you new and renewing members

Bay Street Shoes
www.baystreetshoes.com

Budge Law Offices
www.budgelaw.com

Bungalow Pottery
www.bungalowpottery.com

Butter Bakery Café
www.butterbakerycafe.com

Christensen Group
www.cg-iri.com

Cooks of Crocus Hill
www.cooksofcrocushill.com

Dendros Group
www.dendros.com

Eastside Coop
www.eastsidefood.coop

Ethos Law
www.ethoslaw.com

Ingebretsens
www.ingebretsens.com

Kitchen Window
www.kitchenwindow.com

Linden Hills Coop
www.lindenhills.coop

Little Wine Shoppe
www.thelittlewineshoppe.com

May Day Café
(612) 729-5627‎

Mosaic On A Stick
www.mosaiconastick.com

Rat Race Studios
www.ratracestudios.com

Salon EQ
(651) 646-8700‎

Skally’s Tax Service
skallystaxservice.com

Wedge Coop
wedge.coop

June 1 Networking Event

7:30-9:30 a.m.

Midway Stadium
1771 Energy Park Drive
St. Paul
saintsbaseball.com

We are thrilled to be gathering on the first Tuesday of June at Midway Stadium, home of The St. Paul Saints. The Saints are longtime, active members of MetroIBA, donating gift cards to all new members. Enjoy coffee and pastries from Ginkgo Coffeehouse, and special “breakfast cupcakes” donated by Flor De Lis Cupcakes.

Tom Whaley….will be our speaker. The title of his talk is “Make A Different” (no that is not a typo!)
The St. Louis, MO native is a recovering attorney whose baseball career began accidentally in 1992 when he sold an outfield wall billboard, program ad and four season tickets to the general manager of a moving company as they stood on the courthouse steps following a hearing. From 1993-98, he served as the Saints’ Director of Operations and Assistant General Manager.

After 4 years away, he returned to the Saints, assuming his current position as executive vice president responsible for business development. We are looking forward to hearing more at the June networking event. Hope to see you there!

Independents Month

MetroIBA, and other alliances around the country have deemed July “Independents Month,” an entire month to “Celebrate our INDEPENDENTS!"

We are excited about the following 25 retailers who have agreed to participate in this first annual promotion. 

Amore Coffee
BankCherokee
Bay Street Shoes
Bibelot Shops
Birchwood Café
Black Dog Café
Butter Bakery Cafe
Electric Fetus
Eye Deals
First Tech Computer
Grand Hand Gallery
Ingebretsens
Izzy's Ice Cream
Keys Café
Kitchen Window
Linden Hills Coop
Mama's Pizza
Pea Pods
Smitten Kitten
Steve Be Yarn Goods
Treadle Yard Goods
Trotter's Café
Warners' Stellian
Wedge
Wet Paint

The great news is that all who wish to support locally owned businesses can be a part of this fun event. Pick up a form at participating retailers. Visit as many of the retailers as you can during the month of July. Each time you visit, you will get your form initialed and your name entered into a drawing for $1,250 in gift cards from the merchants. The merchants will also be offering a special deal to participants who play! It’s a win-win! The winning name will be drawn on August 16.

Letter from the President

Independent Business Alliances with longer history and larger membership provide examples to METROIBA to follow.
Mary Hamel, our Executive Director, recently attended a national meeting of IBAs and came away with information from many of her peers.

The one common ingredient which each of these IBAs share that is vital to their success is strong membership involvement. Last month I asked you what your passion was and how you would become involved. Well, I’m asking again, and I’m going to keep asking because your talents are needed if we are going to be what we were formed to be. Think about getting involved with our marketing, public policy or education committee. Call or email Mary or me. We’d love to hear from you today.

Members in the news

Kudos to Summit Brewing Co for winning the World Beer Cup Gold Medal for their Classic English Style Pale Ale http://bit.ly/c95Te7

Congratulations to the following member businesses who made City Pages 2010 “Best of” list!

Garrison Keillor, owner of Common Good Books for best local columnist
Micawber's Books for best (new) book store
Magers & Quinn for best (used) bookstore
Wild Rumpus for best Children’s Bookstore
Electric Fetus for best CD store
Seward Coop for best natural foods store
Midwest Mountaineering for best outdoor store
Smitten Kitten for best place to buy sex toys
Lucia’s Restaurant for best service
Barbette's for best wine list
Tea Source for best tea shop
Summit Brewing Co. for best local brew

Please continue to support these -- and all -- our member businesses!

Advocacy

Thanks to Harvey Zuckman owner of First Tech Computer (the oldest retailer of Apple products in the nation) for helping us spread the buy local message in Uptown. Harvey hired two experienced canvassers to flyer the entire Uptown area with information about MetroIBA and why it is important to support locally owned businesses. Each interested retailer was left with a “Thank You For Supporting Our Independent Business” sticker.

Harvey is a longtime community activist and member of MetroIBA. We are grateful for the work he has done for locally owned businesses. And YES, he sells iPads! www.firsttech.com

Thank you to the following volunteers for their ongoing contributions to MetroIBA:

Misty Havens
Alex Hamel-Snapp
Julie Warner

Membership Renewals

It is renewal time for many of you. Please know that your prompt response is appreciated. Your first notice will arrive electronically by email. Payment can be made by check or online at www.metroiba.org. Multiple notices cost us time we would rather spend advocating for your business.

If you have questions about your renewal status, please contact Mary Hamel at 651-387-0738 or mary@metroiba.org.