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The St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce is pleased to provide this week’s Green Mail, our update on events and issues impacting our Members and our community…
In This Issue
- Free Enterprise Awards Reception May 13
- Members Golf Day May 28
- Join a Clean-Up?
- MPP Jeff Yurek's "Ryan's Law" progress
- Got Talent?
- Lowdown - scroll low... down to the end of the issue
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Chamber Events
Wednesday May 6 - Business After 5
Elgin Business Resource Centre Open House
From the Chamber's point view, our next Business After 5 will be a first because, in part, it's in our own office!
On Wednesday May 6 we're opening the doors at the Elgin Business Resource Centre (EBRC). The EBRC building at 300 South Edgeware Road is where the Chamber offices are located, along with 20 other businesses and services. That's a number that often surprises people, and that's part of the reason the EBRC has asked to join with the Chamber to present an Open House event. We will be featuring Catering By James Meadows, also a business that shares our address here, and we're delighted to welcome the new management at staff of The Beanery to provide full beverage services for us.
Tours of our site, food and refreshments, great door prize draws and more.
Please plan to join us!
As always, admission to Business After 5 is free and open to anyone and everyone from any business or organization that is a Member of the St. Thomas & District Chamber. Bring a guest? Sure, all Members can invite friends and associates. Perhaps you know someone new in town or someone considering an investment in a business here. Please bring them along. The Chamber extends guest attendance privileges on a try it/you'll like it basis. Call us for details because we like to meet your guests, too.
Wednesday May 13 - Free Enterprise Awards Reception
Thursday May 28 - Our 41st Members Golf Day
 Register now, before it's too late, for the Chamber's 41st annual Members Golf Day on Thursday May 28.
Our early-bird sales deadline is this Friday, May 1, and all registrations completed by then save $20 per foursome. Please note that we close registration once we have 120 players registered, and it appears likely we will hit that mark soon.
Unlike most other tournaments, we do not double-up foursomes to tee-off on Par 3 holes. It's our way of ensuring everyone has a comfortable round in an environment that isn't overcrowded!
We'll be off with an 11:00 a.m. shotgun start at one of Ontario's best courses - St. Thomas Golf & Country Club. SCORE GOLF'S 2014 COURSE RATINGS rank our host site as 36th among all courses in Canada!!
Early-bird Single entry price is $149; or a foursome for $575. Price includes 18 holes of golf on the premium course, cart, BBQ lunch, all-you-can-eat dinner buffet, post-game social mixer, amazing prizes and a giant silent auction.
Registration is open now! Contact Member Services Representative Warren Allen at the Chamber office. Call direct at 519-631-1981 Extension 526 or click here to email.
Business & Chamber News
Nice Work!
Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Jeff Yurek will hopefully enjoy some earned sense of a job well done by lunch time this Thursday.
Jeff's private member's bill known as Ryan's Law comes up for third at final reading at Queen's Park on Wednesday. The vote to adopt it is expected after question period late this Thursday morning.
Ryan's Law is named for Ryan Gibbons who died at the age of 12 in 2012 when he suffered an asthma attack at his school in Straffordville. School policy required Ryan's asthma medication not be held by him, but kept locked in the school.
Our local MPP introduced the private member's bill in 2013 after he was approached by Ryan's mother and the Ontario Lung Association. The bill would require Ontario school boards to develop standardized asthma management plans. The bill passed first and second reading but died on the order table at the call of the last election. Jeff re-introduced it after the election. It comes up for third reading debate tomorrow. Passing the vote on Thursday likely means legislation would be in place by the beginning of the next school year this September.
Adoption of private member's bills, especially ones brought forward by a member from the Opposition, is rare but not impossible. MPP Ernie Hardeman's CO Detector bill passed last session, after 5 years of work. The Chamber congratulates and thanks MPP Jeff Yurek for his hard work and persistence on this issue. It certainly proves that one person CAN make a difference.
Bumper Stickers Here!
Could you show a little community pride on your bumper? Then we've got just the thing. The official StThomasProud bumper stickers are available now at the St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce office (300 South Edgeware Road in the EBRC building) and at Railway City Tourism in downtown St. Thomas (at the L&PS Railway Station, 605 Talbot Street).
There's a modest charge of $2 per bumper sticker.
Got talent?
The United Way of Elgin – St. Thomas needs you. They are seeking fresh faces to volunteer as Board members and Campaign Cabinet members. The Board meets monthly and attends a variety of community events during the year. Campaign Cabinet begins in May to plan a program of personal contact with businesses and individuals across the county over the summer and fall. It's a great way to meet people and be part of a vital social resource in our community. To volunteer, call James Todd or Melissa Schneider at 519-631-3171.
Join a Clean-Up Project?
Volunteers Needed for Railway Lands Spring Clean-Up
Volunteers are being sought to help clean-up the railway lands surrounding Elgin County Railway Museum and CASO Station on Saturday May 2, 2015 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Iron Horse Festival, Elgin County Railway Museum and CASO Station are organizing the spring clean-up in preparation for grading and other infrastructure improvements.
To register as a volunteer, click here to email or call 519-207-4000.
On May 2, volunteers should meet at the Elgin County Railway Museum and are encouraged to bring work gloves.
If you would like further information contact:
Gene Nakonechny, Communications Coordinator
519-207-4000
Stamp Out Crime... Play Golf!
On Thursday May 7, St. Thomas Crime Stoppers will be hosting its 7th annual golf tournament at the St. Thomas Golf and Country Club, in Union, Ontario. Tournament commences at 11:00 a.m. Golfers can arrive early for golf range privileges. Registration opens at 10:00 a.m.. Parties will be sent off with a lunch and cart, to enjoy a beautiful day on this prestigious golf course. A steak dinner will follow, All funds raised will go to support your local Crime Stoppers program.
Registration has opened and teams can contact CST Heather White at the St. Thomas Crime Stoppers office, 519-631-1224 ext. 153 to secure a spot.
The Benefits of Chamber Membership
 Our Esso Fleet Fuel program reduces your gasoline price by 3.5 cents per litre at more than 1,000 Esso stations in Canada and over 18,000 Exxon or Mobil stations across the US. You can now register as a business or organization, or as an individual. For details just click here.
Two great group insurance plans... One for people, one for property and vehicles:
Perhaps you've seen our ads in the last week on BNN, the Business News Network, promoting our national Chambers of Commerce Group Insurance Program. It brings huge savings on personal insurance such as life insurance and drug/dental plans. Get in the pool! Last year, we welcomed 3,200 new businesses choosing the Chambers Plan for their employees. At April 1, we included 30,506 businesses and 132,543 employees across Canada as Chamber Plan customers. ARC Benefits, with offices in St. Thomas and London, is licensed to handle all local sales and service work on the Plan on our behalf. See their website for more.
Our NOVEX Group plan brings big savings on property and vehicle insurance. It's offered locally through Reith & Associates Insurance and Financial Services. Call 519-631-3862 for a no-obligation quote.
 The St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce has partnered with First Data Canada, a leader in the payments industry, to help your business Sell More and Save More. All Chamber Members are provided exclusive low rates on merchant services; low credit and debit card processing costs, ecommerce tools, mobile payment apps, and a user-friendly online reporting tool to support and grow your business.
- Accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB and Interac
- Online reporting anytime, anywhere
- Choose from a wide variety of payment solutions including; ecommerce, Tap & Go, virtual terminals, gift cards, mobile payment apps, etc.
First Data Canada helps merchants & services say yes to their customer’s choice of payment wherever they may be.
Visit www.ChamberMerchantServices.ca for more information on this exclusive offer and speak with a Merchant Advisor.
Do you like "free" and "easy"?
Did you know anyone in your office can get Green Mail?
It's easy to get and won't cost you a dime.
Subscribe and get your own copy of Green Mail by visiting the Chamber website. Just add your email address to the box on the left and you will receive Green Mail every Tuesday morning.
 Having trouble getting your message or event heard in St. Thomas and area? Turn up the volume with Green Mail’s advertising available to Members only.
Advertising & Promotion in Green Mail
The Chamber welcomes all Members to consider using our weekly Green Mail newsletter, or a separate stand-alone version we call Green Mail Exclusive, as a promotion or communications tool for announcements, business activities and community events.
Green Mail may include up to 3 paid ads or announcements in any issue. Weekly distribution sees each issue reach 2,200 to 2,500 individuals via direct email subscriptions and through posts of each issue on the Chamber website, in our Facebook Group and on our Facebook Page, via Twitter and through the Chamber’s Group on LinkedIn.
An ad in Green Mail can be any size, up to the equivalent of one half of a standard 8 ½” by 11” stationery page. Green Mail Exclusive can carry anything up to the equivalent of a full 8 ½” by 11” stationery page.
Submission deadline for any Green Mail issue is 12 p.m. Friday for release the following Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. All submissions should be provided in a ready-to-publish form, preferably as a PDF, JPEG or PNG file. All content will be formatted to width not to exceed 620 pixels.
Price per insertion in Green Mail is $75. Price per insertion as a Green Mail Exclusive transmission is $125. All submissions are subject to HST. For bulk or long-term ad placements, contact the Chamber's CEO.
Community Service / Public Service?
The Chamber routinely receives dozens of requests each month for ad space to be donated in support of special events and activities. In weeks where our limit of 3 paid ads has not been reached, the Chamber can consider placements for eligible not-for-profit and community services or activities at a reduced rate of $35. It is not possible to donate space.
Give us a look, and give us a LIKE. The St. Thomas & District Chamber's public Facebook page is a place to go for regular updates on local business news and community issues as they happen. Click here for a quick connection. Every week you'll find a path to share and connect to an on-line version of this weekly Green Mail newsletter and, whenever there's news that can impact your business or organization and/or your employees, we post it there.
LIKE our page and stay connected!
Low, down here at the end of our weekly Green Mail, we try to offer up a nugget or two of information that you might find useful in business or social circles. This week, some news you can use as you look to do interviews for summer positions - or maybe just something you ought to share with any job seekers you know and care about.
Click here to read-up on words you should NEVER use or hear in a job interview
The St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce distributes this update on events to coincide with news, plans and events throughout the year. You have received this information as a primary contact designated by your business or organization, or because you have requested a copy.
Please feel welcome to share the information with your colleagues. Copies are also posted for viewing or download on the Chamber's website, through links on social media in our Twitter and Facebook groups and pages, and in the Chamber's LinkedIn Group
Our goal is to inform, not annoy.
If you do not wish to receive this update please let the Chamber know.
Contact us by email or call 519-631-1981
This week’s edition of the Chamber’s Green Mail is sponsored by myFM 94.1
St. Thomas
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