3 dozen neighborhood business owners attend PNA Business Membership launch meeting

by | Jun 19, 2012

We couldn’t attend last night’s inaugural meeting of the PNA Business Member group, so this narrative is provided by Ann Bowden, Development Director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association.

Lee Harper, Executive Director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association, welcomes Greenwood and Phinney Ridge business owners to the new PNA Business Member group’s first meeting on Monday night.

More than three dozen neighborhood businesses – some long established and some brand new – attended the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Business Member Launch Meeting last night at the Phinney Neighborhood Center to learn the details of the PNA’s new enhanced business membership benefits and plans for strengthening the business community.

For the past several months PNA staff and neighborhood business leaders have been meeting to discuss ways to support, connect and promote the Phinney-Greenwood (PhinneyWood) business community. For much of the last two years, the Greenwood-Phinney Chamber of Commerce has been struggling, in part because of limited time and resources of its members. A Chamber task force formed earlier this year and recommended that the Chamber suspend operations and that the PNA strengthen its business membership, providing the support and infrastructure needed to maintain a healthy business community.

Community events formerly supported by the Chamber, including the Greenwood Seafair Parade, the art walks and the Halloween Trick or Treat event, will now be housed at the PNA, provided they have the support, involvement and backing of the business community. At the meeting, business owners were urged to get involved and help make projects and activities – new and old – happen. “This is not a top-down organization,” noted Lee Harper, PNA Executive Director.

“This (the business membership group) will be what you –what all of us – make of it,” added Mike Veitenhans, who has served as Chamber president since January.

With the dissolution of the Chamber, the task force has now become an advisory group of the PNA Business Membership. At the meeting, businesses were urged to consider joining. The group will meet monthly and is open to all neighborhood businesses. The next meeting of the advisory group is Monday, July 9, at 5 pm at the Phinney Neighborhood Center. Regular meetings times will be determined at that meeting.

New PNA business member benefits are designed to help businesses connect with each other and promote themselves and the neighborhood. New benefits include a profile on www.dophinneywood.com, a new community consumer website that highlights neighborhood businesses and activities: access to new online networking “micro-communities” that group businesses by location and/or business category; discounted advertising rates; and other promotional opportunities.

For more information about the PNA’s Business Membership, go to www.phinneycenter.org/business or [email protected].

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