March 7, 2008

=?Cp1252?Q?Mich=E8le_M=2E_Meagher?=
OR What’s a girl with an accent to do?

Light dawned on Marble Head this week, or as James Joyce would have phrased it, I had an epiphany. I finally figured out who the heck ?Cp1252?Q?Mich=E8le_M=2E_Meagher?=? is.

That’s what has been showing up in my mail program as the sender of Chamber Connections. Now I know the answer. It turns out that Constant Contact doesn’t support diacritical marks in subject lines. Who knew that the computer formula for “è” could be so long? I have to admit the extra “l” people insist on giving me rankles me more than the missing accent grave, which replaces the “l.” It’s one thing for someone else to inadvertently misspell Michèle, but for me to have to intentionally misspell the name of my mother’s first born child? Non, c’est impossible! What’s a girl with an accent to do? Why, change the sender to “Chamber Director,” bien sûr! Just in case you want to spell my name the way Lucille intended, here’s how:

• For PC users: after activating your num lock key, hold down the ALT key and type 0232.
• For Mac users: while simultaneously holding down the Option + ` keys, type e

Changes to the website
Patricia Carney of Walden WebWorks has been hard at work and we invite you to roam around the site as we recently have made some significant changes which you will find below. As we add other new features, I will keep you posted.

• In Business Directory, you'll find members listed by category. (In the near future, members will also be listed alphabetically and you'll be able to search for a particular member as well.) Our goal is to have the alphabetical list and a search feature uploaded next.

• In Newsletters, you'll find the current issue of Chamber Connections, the Chamber's ezine and an archive of where 2008 issues will reside. There’s a new feature called Chamber Member Showcase, highlighting Chamber member email campaigns powered by Constant Contact. Are you using Constant Contact? Send me an example and we will pop it up on the website!
  
  
  You’ll also find a Style Sheet for Chamber Connections submissions. The Chamber is spending a chunk of time each week formatting your submissions: editing for format, finding links, adding links, opening up attachments, etc. Going forward, you will need to adhere to the Style Sheet guidelines. Make the editor (me) happy by following the instructions so I can easily cut and paste. Make yourself happy when you see your business promoted for free to Chamber members!

• In Storefront Initiative, you'll find information about an exciting new program developed by the Arlington Redevelopment Board, along with all of the details in PDF documents for you to easily download.

Ready, Set, Network!
More than 40 people were on hand for Thursday’s breakfast seminar led by Andrew Winig of ImprovAndy. Attendees representing Allar Long Term Care Planning, Ambit Press, Ameriprise Financial, An Apple A Day Acupuncture, Arbonne International, Arlington Medical Aesthetics, The Arlington Shopper, ARTBEAT, The Creativity Store, Boston Business Builders (8 folks!), Cambridge Savings Bank, Card Concierge, Coach LizBlu, East Cambridge Savings Bank, Edward Jones, Imprintastic!, Robbins Library, Wanamaker Hardware, Watertown Savings Bank, Young Adult Vocational Program participated in interactive exercises and practiced getting the most out of networking.

Nancy Gentile of Robbins Library assembled a collection of books relevant to the seminar and Jan Whitted of ARTBEATChamber Members’ is looking them over.

Here is a close up of the kinds of books Nancy made available. When the Chamber uses the Robbins Library for a seminar, there will be a table just like this. The sign says that you can borrow any of them that day. The library is part of the Minuteman Network so bring along your library card and you can take the book home with you!@

What is Andy doing? Playing the piano and leading everyone
in singing the Leadership Song at the end of the seminar.

Mailing List Improvement

Providing access to the Chamber’s postal mailing list (never ever the email list) has evolved over the last five years. When I first arrived, members and nonmembers alike paid to use the list. Then we changed the policy: members could have unlimited free access to the mailing list in label format; nonmembers (profit or non-profit) paid a fee of $100 for a one-time use of the list. Thanks to Justin Heath at The Computer Cafe, you now have an enhanced option: members can receive the member mailing list in an excel spreadsheet making it easy for you to perform a mail merge. This is an exclusive Chamber benefit. The policy for nonmember use of the postal mailing list will not change.

Why the delay? The Chamber has been burned several times by people (some members, some not) who have used Chamber mailing information to send out a mailing implying a relationship with the Chamber they did not have. I was concerned that would happen even more if we provided information in an excel format. However as I write this, I realize that in each of those instances someone has either “scraped” the information from the website or used the Chamber’s print directory. The Board believes we should be with the times, not behind them and agreed with Justin. I was being overly cautious.

While the format in which you receive the information will change, the procedure for obtaining it has not. You need to send me an email accompanied by the document you will mail. You must agree it is for your business’s purpose only (not to be used by you for non-profit fund raising). Anytime you use the list you must send the Chamber a copy of the document first to avoid the problems cited above.