Advertising opportunity

OHVA MEMBERS: I have info on a new advertising opportunity for all of you to consider. Dwight Redmond from the Villages is introducing a Club Epicurean.  He will be selling memberships to people in the Villages to be in Club Epicurean. Your questions are what can Club Epicurean do for OHVA members: Maintain 10,000 members all of whom dine out  to 7 times per week (with 1 to  3 quests each, the meals total from 60,000 to 280,000 per week. Help you create and supply exclusive incentives that will bring their club members to your establishment.  Publish your incentives on their web site, and in their quarterly magazine, which will be distributed to all club members and placed in other select locations. E mail customers additional values. What do they need from us: An exclusive incentive for all of their card carrying members Basic information to be displayed in their quarterly magazine and their customer web site. Their goal is to increase our business and   awareness to Old Homosassa and at the same time give their members real value. He has proposed giving OHVA a 2 page spread in the magazine, featuring each member with their offer/ coupon, this magazine will run from May to Nov. At  "NO CHARGE" to OHVA MEMBERS  make your own offers of discounts on certain days Suggestions: Dine with us on Mondays and receive a free cocktail or beer.  10 or 20 % off  jewelry sales , or $2.00  off Nature Coast Friends of Blues Concert.   If we have enough interest he will come to our meeting on May 10th.  Please consider this as a great way to break into the Villages with no up front cost for the advertising with lots to gain. I am going out on extend invitations to new possible members to meet with our SCORE counselors and get OHVA re-organized. Look at the BIG picture, what advertising for Old Homosassa will help increase awareness for everyone and bring new customers for the whole area. We have stumbled a little in our first year of OHVA, but don't give up on us now, we are a work in progress, and baby steps are better than no steps. Please plan to attend and share on May 10th, Neon Leon's at 5:30 pm Thanks Judy Dickerson?Chairperson OHVA

Dinner Invitation

Lorraine and I would like to invite everyone to an open house at our restaurant on  Monday,May 10 at 5 pm....we will be serving a complimentary buffet and drinks will be available.. cash bar...The purpose is to re-establish an advertising co-op of local businesses. Please consider the value and importance this group offers for all of our businesses. Some volunteers from the SCORE program will be here to speak BRIEFLY about supporting us. They are specifically bringing in a gentleman that has experience in helping form groups exactly like ours. They were instrumental in helping form the Inverness Old  Town Assoc. which now has over 150 business members. I must say I had very little interest in bothering with these folks until I met them and heard what they have to offer at NO COST to us. How many of you have people lined up at your doors to help you. I can't even get paid employees to help me! They simply want to help us organize and promote  a very special place and they have experience doing this, without any agenda or personality conflicts. There are no 16 week classes required to attend. They will make some suggestions and be on their way. If we have future questions they are always available. They are retirees with the time and knowledge and DESIRE to do legwork that we don't have time to do.            Some of us recently spent a great deal of time trying to convince the Homosassa Rotary to hold their annual chili cook-off in Old Homosassa which has potential to draw many. The same Rotary who asks us all to support them financially all year, and whose members own businesses that  trade with many of us decided to go to the mall parking lot  in Crystal River with their event rather than here on the side of the Homosassa River. This is NOT a petty issue. With a united voice the members of the Old Homosassa Village Association who shared an opinion on this matter decided to send a letter to the Rotary, and rightfully so,  letting them know that later  on this year when they again need donations they can pass by our businesses and go back up to C.R. for help. I will not mention other names but myself and some others have terminated our relationship with a particular businessman who played a key role in this decision and we will transfer our accounts to a member of our organization. As we identify other businesses involved in the rotary we will consider further boycotts. That is simply how capitalism works.          Old Homosassa has been ignored and passed over because we are out-of sight-  and out- of -mind. PLEASE, please, please, consider attending or sending a rep. on your behalf. This group was first organized with this purpose in mind and as we began to explore other potential purposes we got off track a bit and some felt the group may not fit their individual needs. We now have stream-lined the functions of the group and much can be done with e-mails. Together we can accomplish much with a very small amount of time and energy required from any one individual. Mostly we need to be able to "piggy-back" and look real tall when we need to. This meeting should not require more than an hour of your time and you have to eat somewhere. Thank you all in advance for your consideration.       Sincerely     Mitch and Lorraine      On behalf of THE OLD HOMOSASSA VILLAGE ASSOCIATION

April Meeting

OHVA MEMBERS: Just a short reminder that our Apr. meeting will be on Apr 15th at 6pm at the Museum Cafe (this is the 3rd Thurs) since I will be in Pa visiting my daughter. I have extended our invitation to Ralph Russo and Fred Herzog of SCORE to join us in a round table discussion of our marketing of Old Homosassa. Ralph asked me to have you all bring your concerns, questions and our thinking caps to brainstorm. Ralph is very much in favor of our developing more awareness for our small community and all we have to offer. He has a great deal of experience in marketing and Fred has worked with many other groups like ours. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend this meeting and let's join together in our mission for the good of all of us. Have a great Easter, looks like spring may really here. Thanks Judy Dickerson/Chairperso