GABBING ON

GRAND March/April 2010

BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FROM THE GRAND AVENUE BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

GABA's mission -

"To preserve

Grand Avenue's

unique

urban tradition

and hometown

character while

fostering

cooperative

relationships with

businesses,

government and

the community at

large."

My name is Chad Skally and I am the new President of GABA. Many of you knew my dad, Bill. He was actively involved in GABA during the 1980s and 1990s. He passed away a few years ago, but I know he would be proud of my involvement with GABA over the last several years and my commit-ment for the coming years to help make the neighborhood a great place like he did. I have two personal goals for my term as President. Both involve improving things GABA has done well in the past, but that I feel could be done even better. I have un-derlined where I need your help - you can contact me at chad@skallys.com or 651-298-1188 with your suggestions. The first is providing more resources to our members to help you run your business efficiently and effectively. GABA will con-tinue to hold networking and educational events and I hope that with your help we can increase the attendance at these events. Let me know what topics for edu-cational seminars would be useful. As you may be aware, GABA currently has con-nections to discounted credit card process-ing and trash hauling. We also provide in-formation on crime reports and other re-sources on our website. Please send me suggestions on other things GABA could do to help your business.

The second goal is strengthen our relation-ship with the neighborhood. Over the last several years GABA has worked on numer-ous projects with neighborhood groups and I think there is more we all could do. I en-courage you and your employees to vol-unteer in neighborhood events like the spring clean-up, house tours, and neighborhood festivals. Participating in GABA networking and edu-cational events, and neighborhood events is the best kind of marketing you can do for your business. You will be amazed at how many people will start showing up at your business for services/goods just be-cause they met you or one of your employ-ees at a local event. I have seen it first hand at our tax office and I have fre-quented business on the Avenue that I met at these events. So I guess I have not only set goals for myself but have also set ex-pectations for all the members of GABA to be more involved in association and neighborhood events. See you all at the next GABA Luncheon on April 13 ! Chad Skally President, Grand Avenue Business Association

Thank you to everyone who attended the Annual Meeting on March 4th! There were 110 in attendance and over $4000 was raised for GABA programs and services.

Thank you outgoing Board of Directors, Ben Johnson and Alan Yngve—and Welcome to our new Directors on the Board, Dan George of George’s Shoe & Skate Repair and

Steve Matysik, representative from Macalester Groveland Community Council.

Special thanks to our sponsors: A. Johnson & Sons, Apres Party & Tent Rental, Auc-tion Donors, Axel’s Bonfire, Brasa, Billy’s, Cafe Latté, Chipotle, Coffee News Café,

D’Amico & Sons, Dixie’s, First Grand Avenue Liquors, Golden Fig, JJ Taylor, Macales-ter College, Pizza Luce, Wuollet Bakery, SuperAmerica and event volunteers.

Letter from the President

Inside:

Getting Ready for Grand Old

Day

Doc Chopp Award

Annual Meeting

Photos

Grand News

PCI DSS Compliance

Save the Date

HourCar

Fundraiser

Sunday, June 6, 2010! Grand Old Day serves to promote Grand Avenue and is the primary fund-raiser for GABA. Last year the participation by Grand Avenue businesses was fabulous, and this year it would be great to have even more! GABA encourages you to take part in the event to promote your business to the 200,000+ guests who come to the Avenue that day. Not sure how to best participate? Read on to find out how to get involved in the Twin Cities’ kick-off to summer—right here on Grand!

Outdoor Vending on Grand Old Day • Grand Old Day is sponsored by GABA under a block permit issued by

the City of St. Paul, which means ALL outdoor vendors within 2000 feet of Grand Avenue between Dale and Fairview must receive a Grand Old Day permit from GABA, along with all required City of St. Paul permits. Vendors without appropriate permits will be shut down.

• Grand Avenue businesses are encouraged to get involved in Grand Old Day! If your business will be setting up outside, you must submit a Vendor Application along with a certificate of liability insurance naming GABA as an additional insured. A vendor space is included in your GABA membership for 2010 (there is a late fee after March 1).

• Members who will not be setting up outside of their business, but would like the space in front of their business left open need to sub-mit a Vendor Application indicating so.

The 2010 Grand Old Day Parade Theme is: SUMMERTIME FUN! Judges will award a trophy to the best float/parade unit. The parade is beginning at Fairview and ending at Dale.

WHO ATTENDS GRAND OLD DAY?

Over 200,000 people drawing from the greater

Twin Cities metro, regionally and from neighboring states.

The average age is 36.8 41.1% are 18-30 44.4% are 31-50

55.1% of Grand Old Day guests are female.

Annual Household Income: $35,000 - $74,999 (42.1%) $75,000 or greater (31.3%)

73.2% of Grand Old Day guests have attended the

event before. Average number of times at-

tended: 8 66.9% attended the previous

year

Average time spent at Grand Old Day is 4.5 hrs

Ad equivalency of 2009 Grand Old Day PR: $ 75,533.00

T-Shirt Sponsorships

The 2010 Grand Old Day t-shirt sponsorship is a fabulous opportunity for GABA members to gain additional exposure by having your logo on the Grand Old Day t-shirts. The t-shirts are worn by vol-unteers on the day of the event, and additional shirts are given to sponsors (a total of 400+ shirts). The t-shirts will feature the Grand Old Day logo on the front and the logos of t-shirt sponsors on the back. Sponsors also receive recognition and a hotlink on the Grand Old Day website. The t-shirt sponsorship is $600. Please contact the GABA office to become a t-shirt sponsor: 651-699-0029. This is a first come first served sponsorship. Digital copies of your logo (300dpi) must be re-ceived by March 25, 2010. Send logos to jaimee@grandave.com. Logos will be printed in one color.

Getting Ready for Grand Old Day!

Do you have an idea for a new activity or area at Grand Old day?

Call the office! 651-699-0029

Sponsorship of Grand Old Day activities is a great way to gain a high level of exposure through the event’s advertising and public relations!

IDEAS FOR PARTICIPATING IN GRAND OLD DAY: be in the parade * tell guests about your business/product/service * sell select items (t-

shirts, tank-tops, flip-flops, sunscreen, sunglasses) * give out info about upcoming

events/sales/performances * keep your business open * send a postcard to your mailing

list inviting customers to visit your booth * redeem the postcard for customer

appreciation discount/gift * use the postcard as a ‘pass’ to come inside your business for

customer appreciation activity (sit down, cool off, get 10% off) * hand out coupons good

for the next week/month encouraging guests to return * take photographs of guests

enjoying the day, tell them to visit your website to view the photos * collect e-mail

addresses and e-mail the weblink to view the photos * have a drawing and use entries to

add to your mailing list * get your logo on the Grand Old Day t-shirts by becoming a

sponsor * have a fashion show * live mannequins outside or in your storefront * do

Grand Old Day make-overs, show before-and-afters * have a contest for best Grand Old

Day photo/video—have people visit your website to enter * have a Grand Avenue

scavenger hunt—guests must take cell phone photos of items they find * cutest baby

contest * submit items for the Kiddie Parade gift bags * sponsor an activity or

entertainment in the family area * not going to be open on Grand Old Day? Encourage

your employees to volunteer * collect donations for a non-profit—food, toys, clothes, cell

phones, Locks of Love * give away items with your logo—shirts, hats, fans, temporary tat-

toos, headbands, wristbands, frisbees, visors * plan to play music outside? Call the office

for an Outdoor Amplified Sound & Entertainment Permit * invite a local celebrity to your

business * coloring contest—winning picture printed in your next newsletter or on your

website *

Outdoor participation during Grand Old Day requires submitting the

Vendor Application and certificate of insurance.

PAWS ON GRAND — SUNDAY, AUGUST 1

Row 1: Chad Skally, GABA President, addresses the crowd. Jason Koenig, Brad Broekema and Shane Montoya from Keller Williams/The Odd Couple Team. Elizabeth Norton Cermak and Cory Cermak from Cooks of Crocus Hill, along with their son. Row 2: Beth Bergman, Wet Paint and Dennis Walston, HealthEast Grand Avenue Clinic. John Rudolph, All American Auto, Jerry & Dan George from George’s Shoe & Skate Repair and Jessica Girard, Flirt Boutique. Marlene Killa from Authentic Con-struction and Andy Gesel from BankCherokee. Row 3: Entertainment was provided by vocalist Erin Schwab

Photos by Brett Bacon.

Annual Meeting Photos

Congratulations to the 2010 Doc Chopp Award Winners

Peter & Linda Quinn Owners of Cafe Latté, Bread & Chocolate and Quince

The Doc Chopp Award is given to Grand Avenue business people who have totally committed themselves to individual business success as well as the success of the Grand Avenue Business Association, Grand Avenue and thus, St. Paul. It is the most prestigious award GABA presents each year. The award is named for Dr. William Chopp, a dentist who practiced on Grand from 1946 to 1976 and who took a personal interest in the development of the avenue. He was affectionately known as Doc Chopp.

Make sure to stop in to Cafe Latté to congratulate Peter & Linda!

New Openings: Affordable Accounting, 1283 Lincoln American Mortgage & Equity Consultants, 827 Grand Grand Avenue Chiropractic & Acupuncture, 976 Grand M&I Bank, 522 Snelling Ave S. Mod&Co, 758 Grand Steele Fitness, 857 Grand USA Tae Kwan Do, 758 Grand Farewell: Starbucks, 857 Grand Stems & Vines, 917 Grand

Grand News! Fein Stringed Instruments and Live Green Apartments are 2010 Bicycle Friendly Busi-ness Award Winners. Part of the League of American Bicyclists, The Bicycle Friendly Busi-ness (BFB) program recognizes employers’ ef-forts to encourage a more bicycle friendly at-mosphere for employees and customers. The program honors innovative bike-friendly ef-forts and provides technical assistance and information to help companies and organiza-tions become even better for bicyclists.

The PCI DSS Compliance standards impact all busi-nesses. Take the case of the small restaurant in Lodi, CA – population 69,000. The restaurant used a third party merchant account provider to process credit cards, and there was a breach at the third party merchant. It turns out that the restaurant had unknowingly stored some credit card records on it’s system as part of proc-essing sales, which is against the rules for PCI DSS com-pliance. Visa and MasterCard fined the third party provider, who passed the fine on to the small restaurant - $27,000 – even though the records were not part of the breach. The breach had nothing to do with the stored information, but the fine came anyway. Imagine what the fine would have been if the breach was actually related to the stored files. And if you are wondering why they would pick on a small business, consider these two facts. First, there is a lucra-tive black-market industry in selling stolen credit card in-formation, and the technology to do so is getting better and cheaper. Second, over 80% of credit card breaches take place at small businesses. If you process credit cards, you need to comply with the industry’s PCI rules. The rules, which vary based on the number of transactions the business processes each year, require organizations to look at internal controls re-lated to how credit cards are handled and processed. Non-compliance with PCI comes with heavy fines of up to $500,000 and $300 per transaction (see why the fine for the restaurant doesn’t look so bad?), but it also comes with some insurance. If a breach takes place while the organization is PCI compliant, all fines are waived. Think of it as credit card breach insurance. The deadlines for PCI conformance have all passed, even

if your business wasn’t even aware it had started. There is no doubt the risk has moved to the local merchants, whether you know about the change or not. Visa won’t care if you are not a ‘computer person’. To be clear, it is fairly technical, but once in place, every-one is better off. Your business doesn’t need to worry about its main source of revenue collection, your custom-ers don’t need to worry about their information being sto-len, and the credit card industry can re-focus efforts on new reforms. Take the advice of the Lodi restaurant owner. He said, “All someone had to do is tell us ‘you can’t do that’. We would have changed it.” For your own benefit, I’m telling you. Brian Gramm is the President and Founding Partner of Milo Belle Consultants, 957 Grand Ave.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS)/ Brian Gramm, Milo Belle

Learn more about the requirements of PCI Compliance during the next Education & Development Luncheon:

PCI DSS Compliance:

What you need to know to make sure you are covered

Tuesday, April 13 11:30am—1pm

Salut Bar Americain, 917 Grand

Presented by Chris Maxwell, Vice President for Milo Belle Consultants

Learn more about: • Deadlines for compliance • The costs and potential non-compliance fines • What to do to make sure your business is compliant • Top 10 Myths about PCI DSS Compliance

$20 to attend—includes lunch. RSVP by April 9 to jaimee@grandave.com

Save the Date! Happy Hour at Tavern on Grand with members of Visit Saint Paul

(formerly the Saint Paul Convention & Visitor’s Authority) Thursday, April 22 - 4-6:30pm

Spring Crime Prevention Meeting

Wednesday, April 28 Send your employees for a crime prevention refresher!

RSVP to jaimee@grandave.com

Help bring an HourCar to the east end of Grand Avenue

Chipotle at Grand & Victoria is partnering with GABA & SHA for a fundraiser to help bring an HourCar to the east end of Grand Avenue. HourCar is a car sharing service with 25 hubs in the Twin Cities. Two cars are located on the west end of Grand. There is a matching grant available

and only $2000 more needs to be raised to bring an HourCar to the east end of Grand.

Present this flier to the Chipotle on Grand on April 10 from 5-8pm and 50% of your purchase will support the HourCar!

Executive Committee: President: Chad Skally, Live Green Apartments, 298-1188 Vice President: Open Secretary: Rick Fiebiger, phresh spa salon, 227-6371 Treasurer: Kathy Brudevold, Sevenich, Butler, Gerlach & Brazil, Ltd, 690-1040 Directors: Node V – Cretin to Snelling Ginny Rostberg, BankCherokee, 292-9200 Jada Breuer, Karma, 291-1997 Node IV – Snelling to Lexington Greg Roedler, Baby Grand, 224-4414 Jim Fritz, The Wedding Shoppe, 298-1144 Node III – Lexington to Milton Sarah Paul, D’Amico & Sons, 227-9933 Nathon Park, US Bank, 229-6123 Node II – Milton to Avon Elizabeth Norton-Cermak, Cooks of Crocus Hill, 228-1333 Paul Dzubnar, Green Mill, 698-0353

Node I – Avon to West Seventh Brian Muller, Edward Jones, 224-3072 Dan George, George’s Shoe & Skate Repair, 227-8258 At Large Shane Montoya, The Odd Couple Team, 492-6423 Tricia Mattes, Saint Paul CVA, 265-4900 Community Representatives Steve Matysik, Macalester-Groveland Comm. Council, 699-4937 Lisa Erickson, Summit Hill Association, 222-1222 Staff: David Regan, Executive Director Jaimee Lucke Hendrikson, Program Director Jena Branch, Intern Beth Ishikawa, Intern

GABA BOARD O F D IRECTORS AND S TAFF

All board of directors are volunteers to their positions. If you are interested in joining the board or have questions about GABA, please contact the GABA office at 651-699-0029 or contact any of the above members.

Grand Avenue Business Association - 867 Grand Avenue - St. Paul, MN 55105 - 651-699-0029

Schedule of Events

• 10 - HOURCAR Fund-raiser at Chipotle, 867 Grand / 5-8pm

• 12-26 - Grand Avenue/Ordway promotion for South Pacific

• 13— GABA Luncheon at Salut—Topic: PCI DSS Compliance / 11:30-1pm

• 22— GABA Happy Hour/Meet & Greet with Saint Paul Convention & Visi-tors Authority at Tavern on Grand / 4-6:30pm

• 28—Spring Crime Preven-tion Meeting

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30

April 2010

Upcoming Meetings & Events: