Penfield Town Supervisor
George Wiedemer Presents
The State of the Town Address

Wednesday, February 13
11:45am-noon (networking)
noon-1:15 pm (lunch and presentation)
Shadow Lake, 1850 Five Mile Line Road

This annual event is a great opportunity to hear Penfield Town Supervisor George Wiedemer give updates on past developments and future initiatives for Penfield.

Members: $15 Guests and Residents: $20

Please mail reservation by Feb. 8 to: PBA, P.O. Box 268, Penfield, NY 14526 or contact Lynne Crawford lcbiz@rochester.rr.com or 585-671-9102

NEW! Monthly e-Newsletter

We are proud to announce that this, The eBusiness Wire, is the first of of the PBA e-newsletters that will be sent out on a monthly basis. The eBusiness Wire will include the following:

• PBA Business of the Month
• Welcome to New Members
• Upcoming Events
• PBA Announcements
• Member News
• Communiy News
• Informative Articles
• Sponsored Ads

As we continue to release the monthly eBusiness Wire, please feel free to comment and offer feedback to help shape this into an invaluable tool for our members.

NEW! PBA Business of the Month

Each month the PBA will be recognizing a distinguished PBA member.

How Are They Selected
Members may nominate one another by downloading the nomination form (PDF) that will soon be available on the PBA website. Winners will be chosen based on their contributions to the community, outstanding professionalism, member-to-member relations, and their good standing as PBA members.

What Do They Get
Winners will have their company name and logo prominently displayed on the PBA website, the monthly e-newsletter, and the quarterly printed newsletter. Winners will also receive a letter from the PBA President, an award certificate, and a sign of distinction that may be placed at their place of business for the month. The PBA will also issue press releases to all local news organizations announcing the recognition.

Penfield Symphony Orchestra Selects Winners of Young Artist Competition

Since 1982 the Penfield Symphony Orchestra has sponsored a Young Artist Competition. Named for Jo Amish, who served as principal second violinist for more than thirty years, and underwritten by her children, the Young Artist Competition is now in its twenty-eighth year.  Over thirty high school juniors or seniors have appeared in concert with the orchestra.

The 2008 first place winners are winners are Fairport senior Greg Hammond, trombone, and Livonia senior Andrew Hawk, piano.  Third place winner is violinist William Cho.  Hammond and Hawk will each be featured on the February 11 concert of the PSO, “Be Our Valentine! Music You’ll Love.”

The PSO is proud to have sponsored young artists from the Rochester area and beyond since 1982.

Gymnastics Training Center Celebrates 20th Anniversary

This past October, the highly heralded Gymnastics Training Center (GTC) under the much-honored leadership of Sarah Jane Clifford celebrated its 20th year in business. For the last 12 years the GTC has been housed in a 22,000 square foot facility at 2051 Fairport Nine Mile Point Road in Penfield.

The GTC is currently running gymnastics and cheerleading classes for boys and girls from beginning levels to highly advanced levels as well special programs for disabled children. 

“Fit by Five,” which presents an outstanding physically based preschool learning experience for toddlers is also offered. Also, The Botsford School of Dance, which provides world-class programs from pre-ballet to advanced levels, is based at the GTC.

All this is done at the GTC on a continuous year-round schedule. It has an enrollment of over 2,000 students.

Sarah Jane Clifford is a founding member of the Penfield Business Association.

Congratulations to Sarah Jane and the Gymnastic Training Center for such a huge accomplishment! For more information about he GTC, call 388-8686 or go to www.gtc-rochester.com.

PHS Varsity Baseball – Will Work For Trip

Each spring the Penfield High School Varsity Baseball Team goes down to South Carolina to play in the Hawaiian Tropics Baseball tournament. The trip is usually funded by the booster club and parents.  This year, the players have determined to raise funds by working for their trip and are challenging local businesses to help support them in their efforts.

From now until April, members of the PBA have the unique opportunity of helping these players by having the players help them. Players are willing to put in 2-4 hours after school at various local businesses performing hourly tasks. In lieu of pay, the businesses would make an equal amount donation to their trip. For example, if a student athlete does filing or answers the phone for 4 hours at $7.50 an hour, the business would donate $30.

If you are interested in participating in this creative fundraiser, please send an e-mail to both Jason Kanzler (jason.kanzler@gmail.com) and Brian Bezek (mbezek@rochester.rr.com), copying Jeri Kanzler (jkanzler@rochester.rr.com). The e-mail should include business name, location, type of work, contact, estimated duration and any other pertinent information. Jason and/or Brian will schedule the work and reply back with details.

Checks should be made out to the Penfield Baseball Booster Club and mailed
to: Chris Potter, 2300 Nine Mile Point Road, Fairport, NY 14450. 

Their trip is in April, so act now and support the players in their efforts!

The Penfield High School Varsity Baseball Team and the Penfield Baseball Booster Club thank you for your support and invite you to come see them play.  The game schedule is posted on the Penfield School District site at: http://www.schedulesonline.org/ (pick Penfield, Varsity and Baseball from the dropdowns).

Please Note: Players cannot participate in any physical labor or medical/pharmaceutical related tasks. Possible opportunities include office work, computers, mailing, copying, phone work, research, etc.

Wegmans Offering Shoppers Club for Business

Wegmans has designed a program to help make organizational purchasing at Wegmans QUICK AND EFFICIENT through the use of a Shoppers Club for Business card. This “all-in-one” program can benefit your business for a variety of reasons.  Check out some of these helpful features and benefits:

• Personal Customer Service
• Systematized Tax Exempt Recognition
• Consistent Low Prices
• Pin Protection
• Automatic Shoppers Club Discounts
• Corporate Gift Card Program
• Notice of Upcoming Events and Promotions
• Complimentary Subscription to Menu Magazine
• Variety of Payment Options:
  • Non-Revolving Credit Account - No interest is accrued on accounts paid in full by the end of each month.
  • Company Check Payment Authorization – We offer both Paper or Electronic Check payment.
  • A “Cash Only” card which can be used in conjunction with a credit card and recognizes your tax exemption when applicable
• Multiple Cards and Accounts
• Electronic Statements

The Shoppers Club for Business payment system is designed so that members can shop for individual or bulk products without involving large amounts of paperwork – or time!

For more information, contact:
Michele C. Rowley
Sales and Merchandising Coordinator
Business Marketing Group
585-273-6249 Work  / 585-273-6252 Fax
michele.rowley@wegmans.co

10 Tips For Getting Users To Your Website
by Christopher Herlong - Owner, Gooey Cat

1. Keep It Fresh
This is the most obvious tip, but often the most neglected. Whatever you do, don’t let your online content get stale or have the impression of being stale. Even if your content needs to stay consistent, create something that needs updating – such as monthly coupons or seasonal promotions that are clearly dated with expirations. If you are having difficulty getting your site developer to make changes in a timely fashion, investigate solutions that allow you to update the content on your own.

2. Make It Sticky
Make your site “sticky” so that users won’t want to leave. Create something of value that engages your users and encourages participation. Examples include current events, informative articles, searchable databases, games, contests – anything that makes users want to come back and visit your site.

3. Empower Your Clients
Provide online services to your clients –whether it involves submitting data and requests, paying invoices, searching for product information, or making purchases through a shopping cart. The more you enable your users, the more loyal they will become. With the current technology, data-driven solutions are a very viable option.

4. Establish Keywords
Meta Tags are still very important for the Search Engines that employ “spiders” to “crawl” and index your site. Keywords are the phrases that users type into a Search Engine as they seek sites like yours. While it is desirable to be found by many different keywords, you want to use as few as apply. Each keyword is assigned a percentage of site relevancy, based on your total number of keywords. For instance, if you have 10 keywords and one is “hammer”, the Search Engine considers your site to be only 10% relevant to hammers. If “hammer” is the only key word, the search engine considers your site to be 100% relevant to hammers, assumes that the user will probably find what she is searching for, and deliver your site at a higher ranking in the search results.

5. Get Linked
Ensure that many different websites link back to your site through HTML hyperlinks. Google is constantly changing how it ranks search results, in part to elude those who are determined to beat the system. However, one of the ways Google currently determines the relevancy of your site, is to determine how many other sites link to yours. If there are 1,000 links to your site, then there is a pretty good chance that your site and service is of value to others. By being a PBA Member, you’ve already created your first external hyperlink from the PBA website. Additionally, always include your URL on all printed material that your business distributes.

6. Network
You are already ahead of the game on this one. As a PBA Member you have already joined your first network – a place where users can find you without having to directly navigate to your website. Continue networking online and create profiles within applicable business groups and Wikis on the Web. You may want to avoid the social networks as they are typically not appropriate for businesses. Instead, check out professional sites such as LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) or special guild sites that cater to your particular industry.

7. Send an eNewsletter
Sometimes you have to remind people of your service/products and the value you have to offer. Send out monthly newsletters by email to your existing customers. This means that you’ll need to start requesting email addresses from willing individuals. But be sure to avoid the legal issues involved with spamming, and always include your contact information and a way to opt out of future mailings.

8. Write a Blog
I have to be honest, that for me, this particular action item took a little convincing. For one, who has the free time? But there is actually great value in this for some industries. By writing informative articles about your business, offering tips and tricks, and sharing personal experiences, you are creating an additional presence on the Web that can help convey you as an expert in your profession – not to mention, add another external hyperlink to your collection. By using a service like Google’s Blogger (www.blogger.com), your articles can almost instantly be available for display in Google’s search results. You can also easily tap into Google Ads and start making money on page views of your blog. To further illustrate, imagine typing in a keyword of “window renovations + Rochester”. You get a bunch of results linking to generic company websites, but one is a blog where the author describes in great detail how to do window renovation and then includes a link to his service website. By offering insight into his trade, the author has created an opportunity to convince you of his authority on the topic, and has a really good chance of retaining any future business from you.

9. Develop Micro-Sites
If you have specialty products or services, you may want to build mini-websites that focus solely on a featured item. Micro-sites can include feature-specific content, games, clubs, chat rooms, etc. These micro-sites typically have their own unique URL and can be found inside and out of your main business site.

10. Create a Widget
Widgets are stand-alone applications that can be viewed online or can be downloaded to the desktop. Widgets are usually free to users and offer significant value to the user through a user-engaging experience. The business value of these widgets is the great opportunity for branding and mass-exposure on a national scale. The technology for this is just catching on and you will see a wave of widgets hit the web over the next few years.

We want to hear from you!
Email us your articles for inclusion in The eBusiness Wire.

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