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The Ashland Business Association (ABA) is planning new meeting hours, more educational meetings and stronger connections with town government and the community for 2016. In addition, the group is redesigning its website, www.ashlandfirst.com, to be more user-friendly and provide better exposure for local businesses.
“We want the ABA to be a more visible resource and easy for local business and consumers to find,” Alex Carleton, ABA president, said. “Importantly, we want to be ‘stone soup,’ where each member adds their unique talent, and the result is more amazing than any one person or business.”
Last fall the group revamped its logo with a more contemporary look. “Graphic designer and ABA member Julie Nardone helped us think through our vision,” Carlton said. “People often cite the train tracks that run through the town as a reason that the town can’t have a vibrant business area. We opted to embrace this challenge and look for the opportunity. The new logo reflects something unique about Ashland, the railroad tracks that run through it, and uses the tagline, ‘Keeping business on track.’”
For 2016 the ABA will add more first Tuesday of the month business meetings (Jan. 5, Feb. 2, March 1, May 3, June 7, July 5, Sept. 6, Oct. 4 and November 1). These meetings will provide more opportunity to present valuable topics, Carlton said. Also, the meeting time will change from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and the ABA will add several ‘lunch and learn’ meetings that cover specific topics of interest to business owners.
The Tuesday, Jan. 5 meeting will kick off the new year with a presentation on the work of the Ashland Emergency Fund, the ABA’s nonprofit partner. The remainder of the meeting will be interactive and used to discuss goals and new ideas for the upcoming year.
“The ABA wants to be something of value, an effective resource for community businesses to be successful,” Carleton said. “We want to increase the benefits of belonging to the ABA, get people talking about local businesses, identify and promote important issues, such as localism, and highlight businesses that exemplify that.”
For more information, email info@ashlandbusinessassociation.com, call 508-735-9473 or visit www.ashlandfirst.com.