Winter Membership Meeting – We have scheduled our Winter Membership and Board of Directors meetings for Wednesday January 9, 2003. The membership meeting will begin at 11:00 a.m. at the Community Center. A light snack will be served and members are encouraged to bring family or friends. We will make every attempt to have you on the road by 1:00 p.m. Topics will include economic development, finance report, update on the program of work for your chamber throughout 2003, and a special presentation from Citadel Broadcasting. The Board of Directors will hold a meeting immediately following the membership meeting. General business will be discussed and members are welcome!

Radio Show – “A Playground for All Seasons” has been broadcast weekly since September on radio station KBOI in the Treasure Valley. After receiving positive response from Treasure Valley residents we have been experimenting with the format to make it more of a news and information broadcast. We appreciate those Stanley Basin based members who have contributed to the program. Weather conditions permitting, we will have two representatives from Citadel Broadcasting at the winter membership meeting to further explain the details of our developing program. As the show continues to gain audience there is an excellent advertising opportunity for chamber members. If you can’t make the meeting, we will send pertinent information via mail or email regarding this program.

2003 Membership Drive – By the middle of January we will have wrapped-up our 2003 membership drive, with this years effort nearly 80% completed. The two newest membership opportunities, Banner Ad program and Weddings & Reunions rack card and special web page, have gone well with over a dozen businesses signing up for the rack card and six additional businesses subscribing to the Banner Ad program. By January 10th we will have our database complete for these programs as well as our Membership Directory and be in position to send things to the printer. We have also seen an upswing in members purchasing picture space on the web site. Some of you included photos with your membership renewal and some didn’t. We will be contacting those members we need to get a picture from in January. Remember to call Greg if you have any problems, questions, or comments regarding your chamber membership.

www.stanleycc.org – Our new web site has proven to be very successful, drawing over 30,000 visitors who have learned about our area and been directed to local member businesses. Not only is the site more complete and easier to navigate, it is also optimized for good placement in the important search engines... so more people are finding our site. Visitors to the web site were up 96% in June, July and August of 2001 compared to the same period in 2000!

Please take the time to check your llisting, links, and general information. If you find a problem, give us call as things can generally be remedied in a day or so. As mentioned above, for those businesses paying to post a picture of their business on the site, we need the picture. We can receive the picture in digital form or original photograph and will make every effort to contact those persons paying for this service but omitting the photograph with their membership renewal. Also, if you are a member business who has paid for a listing in the Weddings & Reunions piece, be sure and check the corresponding information under that heading on our web site.

2003 Volunteers – Here we are in the cold of winter and some of us are already beginning to look towards the warmth of summer. Over the years the volunteer staff recruited by the Forest Service to work in the Tourist Information Center throughout the summer season has proven to be invaluable. Typically seniors wishing to spend three or four months in the Stanley Basin volunteer for the positions available. Job duties include answering phones, monitoring lodging availability on a daily basis, guiding tourist to places of interest and passing out literature. Carol Cole of the SNRA serves as the Forest Service coordinator for the program and has been invaluable assisting chamber staff in finding and funding the program. Ads are placed in various publications to attract potential volunteers and prospects are screened. The Chamber pays a stipend per diem, and the Forest Service kicks in funding as long as it is available. We hope to have a staff of four full and/or part-time volunteers to work at the center again this summer. If you know of anyone that is interested, please contact Greg as soon as possible!

Update on Inquiries – After a sluggish late summer and early fall, requests for information have picked up dramatically in the last several weeks. We are receiving six to eight phone calls per day along with a half dozen requests coming from our site. Since the closure of the Visitor Center in October and the subsequent transfer of office phones, mail, and email we have responded to:

Phone Call Inquiries – 137 – year to date 1,513

Website Inquiries – 144 – year to date 731

Brochures & Information Packets Mailed – 52 – year to date 1,066

Total Responses – 333 – year to date 3,310

Please note: These numbers do not reflect the inquires received and responded to throughout the summer season (May through September). We have mailed fewer packets of information this fall than in the previous two and we feel this is in direct response to the great information our web site provides visitors. Our phone conversations indicate that visitors are checking our site and then calling or emailing with questions. We’ll continue to track all inquiries and provide updates with each newsletter.

Chamber Winter Operations – With the closure of the tourist information center in October the 800#, local phone, mail, email, and electronic files were transferred to marketing consultant Greg Edson’s office in Twin Falls. The Tourist Information Center will open for the summer season in May. In the meantime, Greg can be reached at 1-800-878-7950, 774-3411, or via email at gedson1@mindspring.com.

Last...But Certainly Not Least...Thank you to all chamber members for not only your membership but for your support, feedback, and contribution to the chamber. For a small community with a Chamber of Commerce our size we have garnered a very positive reputation throughout the state. We have also made a positive impression on our visitors as well as those persons seeking information about the basin. This year will bring more challenge and opportunity as we continue to enhance the services we offer members and the public. We will continue to develop the Sawtooth Salmon Festival, our web site and information pieces and most of all relationship with our members. Your chamber can’t continue to develop as your marketing arm without your support and feedback. So, please contribute where you can, with your membership renewal, feedback, and participation where and when possible. On behalf of the Board of Directors and Staff we wish all of you the very best in 2003.