The CBA will be holding its Annual Meeting this year at the Cooperative Bank at 201 Main Street at 630 pm.

The Agenda for the meeting is a time for networking and light snacks andbeverages from 630 – 8 pm. Also on the Agenda will two short updates at 7 pm.

Speakers include Tom Coots Co-Chair of the CBA who will be outlining the successes of the past year and the upcoming year’s events and benefits. Also giving a presentation will be CBCC (Charlestown Business Climate Committee) who will speak about the Community Change Program which is a program the city is sponsoring to help neighborhood businesses.

Charlestown Historical Society's and St. Francis de Sales Parish "St. Patrick's Day Party" will be held at the the Tavern on Sunday, March 8th starting at 3 pm.

We'll be there with the legendary singer Jack Dalton from 3:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. We'll also be selling copies of "The Green Square Mile", in the highly unlikely chance you don't have one!

All proceeds from the sale of the DVD & Book have and will be applied to the memorial.

If you can't get by on March 8th, then maybe you can send a donation to help fund our project. Any donation will be gratefully received. You can send a check to:

The Charlestown Business Association kicked off December with it’s Second Annual Holiday Mixer at Sorelle Café in City Square.

This year’s party was open to all CBA Members along with member of other non-profit associations in Charlestown and the general Charlestown public. There were over thirty attendees at the networking function enjoying great food, cheer and company to bring in the season.

“It was a great party, with delicious food and desserts,” says MaryLee Trettenero, of Boston Intuitive, also a CBA Board Member. “It really is a great way to network and meet different people from the business and resident community.”

Sorelle’s served a fine variety of finger foods, sandwiches, salads and assortment of desserts. Thanks to Marc of Sorelle Café and all attendees for coming out and celebrating with the CBA.

This year, the Charlestown Business Association had it’s most successful “Holiday Wreath Decorating” fundraiser in over ten years.

“Considering things are economically tight this year, businesses and residents alike were very generous with their contributions to put up Holiday Wreaths.” said Tom Coots, Charlestown Business Association Co-chair. The morning started off with a Pole Dedication Ceremony honoring the late Willard J. Stievater, a CBA Board Member for over 20 years, ran the Pole Decorating tradition in Charlestown. The first wreath was hung at 121 Main Street in front of Willard’s old office of McCullough Stievater Polvere.

After that, over 20 volunteers from the business and residential community ventured out to decorate Charlestown for the holiday season. “There were over 180 wreaths,” said Karl Hoyt, Charlestown Business Association Co-chair. “With all the volunteers, and youth from the Charlestown Lacrosse Center, we were able to get them all up within two hours,” he said.

The areas decorated include Main and Bunker Hill Streets and some parts of the Navy Yard, thanks to contributions from businesses in that area, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Navy Yard Realty, Navy Yard Bistro, and the Friends of the Navy Yard.

“This year, we solicited extra donations from businesses in the Navy Yard to decorate as much as we could in that area,” said Tom Coots. “More areas of the Navy Yard are also going to be decorated by the Friends of the Navy Yard,” he said.

Included in a donation to “sponsor a wreath” contributors also received a “tag” on their wreath with a Holiday Message on it. All of the efforts of this fundraiser were from Charlestown Business Association Volunteers including, Tom Coots (Cooperative Bank) who coordinated hanging efforts and the dedication and gave the highest donation, Karl Hoyt, Diane Grant who designed all the tags (Diane Grant Design), Jessica Cluff (Paychex), Mark Daly and McCullough Stievater Polvere who mailed out all the donation forms to members, Mary Lee Trettenero (Boston Intuitive) Jennifer Tracy (Callahan Law) Joe McGonagle of Century 21 Realty who laminated all of the tags, and Lysa Miller of Ladybugz Inc. Also thanks to Dan Murphy of the Charlestown Bridge who helped promote these efforts. Special thanks to our very top contributors who really helped with this effort, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Cooperative Bank, Navy Yard Realty and Friends of the Navy Yard.

If you sponsored a wreath and could not find your tag, or your wreath location please contact the Charlestown Business Association at info@charlestownbusiness.com

The Charlestown Business Association is developing a “member discount” program card which members will receive with their membership dues. The membership 2009 card will also serve as the official discount card that can be used at various CBA members’ businesses.

To be a part of this discount program please email us your discount offer and we will post it to our website and add discounts to our newsletters each month. Also included in the member invoices to be sent out in February is a CBA sticker that can be displayed at your business so other members know you are a CBA member and offer a discount or can ask for a member discount.

The Community Change program is a customer loyalty program that rewards customers and benefits the community when cardholders shop at participating local businesses. As a business owner, the program provides an exciting new way to use sophisticated customer loyalty, "cause marketing" and co-operative promotion to impact the bottom line. As a consumer, the program rewards you for staying local!

Businesses that participate in the program offer an incentive or rebate to the consumer for shopping at the business. A portion of this rebate then goes back to the customer on a monthly basis, a portion goes to the local not-for-profit of the consumer's choice, and a very small amount goes to administrative overhead, including a tiny percent to the Charlestown Business Climate Committee.

The purpose of the program is to help businesses build loyalty and frequency with customers by connecting residents to businesses and businesses to other businesses and by encouraging cross-marketing and opportunities for cooperative marketing or purchasing.

The community change program has an online directory that makes it easy for consumers to learn about participating businesses and allows businesses to access their own accounts to review important information about the shopping habits of their customers.

The Charlestown Business Association has created a “Linked In” group for CBA members to join to network their businesses and also post topics, discussions, events and discounts. To join the group please click join http://www.linkedin.com and search for our Group - Charlestown Business Association and request to join the group.

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