Organizing for localism, with coffee.

New Albany First's guest, Jeff Milchen of AMIBA, returned to the upstairs meeting room at River City Winery on Saturday morning to continue the discussion about strategies to build independent local businesses in New Albany.

It was a strong turn-out, and I'm grateful to Stacie Bale of Earth Friends Cafe for the coffee ... it had been a long Friday evening of localism in practice (not theory).

Special thanks go to Andy Terrell, who has been putting together the pieces of the NA First puzzle. I duly resolve to be of more help in this effort.

I'd also like to recognize council candidates Diane Benedetti (on the right) and Eddie Hodges, who attended the Saturday morning session, and Steve Burks (council candidate) and Jack Messer (mayoral candidate), who came on Friday night.

October 28: Localism in practice, not theory.

Leticia Bajuyo’s “Brew History: All Bottled Up” began coming down. The New Albany Public Art Project Bicentennial Series installation commemorating New Albany’s breweries and taverns was intended to be temporary, but we'll miss it.

At the opening reception for "Powering Creativity: Air, Fuel, Heat," a joint exhibit of Ohio Valley Creative Energy and the Carnegie Center for Art & History.

Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance, rallied the New Albany First crew upstairs at River City Winery.

It was Larry Schad's 70th birthday party, too, and Chef Matt prepared a feast, including these duck wings and veggie tray.

Music by Toledo Bend, as booked by The Dandy Lion boutique and shop.

"New Albany is a city of entrepreneurs": That's why New Albany First is needed.

Andy's eloquent letter speaks for itself. Before I turn it over to him, permit this reminder about the many conceptually unified events tomorrow evening: Art and beer and localism, all at the same time.

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(This is a letter to the editor I wrote and submitted to the Tribune, but it doesn't appear that it will get printed before Jeff Milchen's visit. I decided to post it here instead.)

New Albany is a city of entrepreneurs. That's the base idea that New Albany First, New Albany's Independent Business Alliance, uses as our foundation. An independent business alliance is not just a "buy local" organization although educating the public on the benefits of supporting locally-owned, independent businesses is a primary goal. An IBA is an organized group of entrepreneurs banding together to raise awareness, promote education and foster an atmosphere of working together to make their community better.

As New Albany First organized, we realized that one way we could help was by hosting seminars and speakers that could promote the importance of localism and encourage prospective independent business owners. In recent weeks, we've started a seminar series with local business owners telling their stories, good and bad, and explaining their passion for what they do. The conversation has been fascinating and we will continue that conversation in the coming months.

We're also bringing in Jeff Milchen, the co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA). Jeff will be giving a talk on Friday night, October 28th starting at 7 pm at the River City Winery in New Albany. He'll be speaking about the importance of localism with a question and answer session to follow. Then, on Saturday morning the 29th at 10:00 am, Milchen will present his workshop "Strength in Numbers" which will look at how organized IBA's and other groups can work in their community. If you intend to come to the workshop, we urge you to also attend Friday night's talk as both events work in conjunction. Both events are free and open to the public.

On behalf of the board of directors for New Albany First, we're very pleased to be able to bring Jeff to New Albany, especially now when localism has become such a hot topic in our area. We hope to see many of our fellow southern Indiana residents attend. New Albany is a city of entrepreneurs. We at New Albany First urge you to think about that and to "be local.".

Andy Terrell
Director, New Albany First

NA First newsletter.

(submitted)

First, we want to welcome two new board members for New Albany First. Ann Streckfus (Earthly Goods.com) and Katrina Jones (Antiques Attic) have both agreed to work with us on the board of directors. We want to thank both for joining us as we continue to grow and improve.

We also want to thank Stacie Bale (Earth Friends Cafe) for her help and work on the board of New Albany First. We're sad that she isn't working with us on the board anymore, but know that she'll remain an advocate for our mission. We look forward to continuing to work with her in the future.

Lots of things happening around the area over the next few weeks starting with this weekend. Of course, this Friday and Saturday, we're pleased to bring Jeff Milchen to New Albany. Both events will be held on the 2nd floor at the River City Winery. Friday night's talk will be on the importance of localism and will include a Q & A with Jeff. We'll get started at 7 p.m.; the doors will open upstairs at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jeff will present his workshop "Strength in Numbers" which is a look at the organizing of local businesses. The workshop will begin at 10 a.m. Coffee, drinks and pastries will be available.

If you're planning on attending the workshop Saturday morning, we encourage you to try and come Friday night as well as the two work in conjunction. We split the two on purpose to give business owners a chance to attend at least Friday evening. In the past, we noticed that some events like this were being held too early for local business owners to attend and wanted to make sure we gave them the opportunity to hear Jeff speak.

This is a big event for us and we hope that a good number of our fellow business owners and community members will attend.

We certainly want to thank our primary sponsors for the evening, River City Winery and Destinations Booksellers, as well as our supporting NA First members: EarthlyGoods.com, Mind's Eye Creative, Antiques Attic, New Albanian Brewing Company, and Gahan Architectural Veneer and Panel. Thanks to all of you for making this possible.

There are some other great events being sponsored by New Albany First members on that same evening. From our friends at the Carnegie Center:

"Check out everything you can do in New Albany on the evening of Friday October 28 - all within two blocks.

*Opening Reception for "Powering Creativity: Air, Fuel, Heat", 6:00-8:00 pm at the Carnegie Center, presented with Ohio Valley Creative Energy

*Deinstallation Celebration for "Brew History: All Bottled Up", 6:00-8:00 pm, New Albanian Brewing Company Bank Street Brewhouse, across Bank St. from the Carnegie Center

*Unveiling of NABC's IX – Ninth Anniversary Ale, an Imperial Smoked Chocolate Port Barrel Stout, in honor of their 9th anniversary of brewing

*New book "Sculpture and Design With Recycled Glass" available, featuring "Brew History: All Bottled Up". For sale courtesy of Destinations Booksellers, which is celebrating 7 years in New Albany in October 2011

*Presentation and Discussion on Localism and Independent Businesses, 7:00 pm, River City Winery, 321 Pearl St.

*After Party in the NABC Parking Lot, Featuring Music by Toledo Bend (courtesy of The Dandy Lion) 8:00 pm"

It should be a great night in New Albany!

Our friends at the Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA) will also be hosting Jeff on Thursday evening, Oct. 27th at 5:30 for a discussion entitled "Job Creation: Myth vs. Fact" to be held at Interactive Media Labs, 124 North 1st St., Louisville. Afterwards, a members-only reception will take place. New Albany First members will be welcome to attend that reception.

LIBA has been very generous in their help (and advice) to us over the past few months. We're talking about ways to partner up in the future not the least of which is the upcoming AMIBA International Conference next spring. We thank them for the support they've shown us thus far.

Finally, the second of our 'be local' seminar series will take place on Tuesday, November 15th at Destinations Booksellers starting at 7 p.m. Scheduled panelists include Todd Antz of Keg Liquors and Blayr Bernard of the Small Business Development Center. Make plans to come and join in the conversation as we learn more about one of New Albany's newest businesses and how the SBDC can help prospective business owners achieve their dream.

More info will be on the way, but New Albany First will be hosting the 3rd annual Read-a-thon at Destinations Booksellers during Holiday Fest this year. We'll be raising money for the New Albany-Floyd County Animal Shelter. If you'd like to participate either by sponsoring a reader or reading yourself (it's fun, I swear!) then let us know.

We hope to have our website up and running soon so that you'll be able to find all of our members listed in the database and keep up with events. It looks like it's going to be a very cool website and we can't wait to unveil it.

Speaking of those events, please help us spread the word about Jeff Milchen's visit. We're asking for RSVP's although they aren't necessary. We've had contact with groups from both Indianapolis and a Cincinnati suburb who are interested in coming as well, plus Bloomington and some folks from Louisville who have expressed interest. As great as that is, we truly want this to "be local" with a great turnout of New Albany residents. You can help us achieve that.

New Albany First upcoming events include information session, entrepreneurship seminar and a special guest.

(Submitted)

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I wanted to fill you in on a few upcoming events that New Albany First will be hosting.

This Thursday, September 8th from 6p - 8p, we'll be hosting a public information session at the New Albanian Brewing Company on Grant Line Road in the Prost room. Many of you have attended one or more of these already and we certainly welcome to you to stop by and meet each other and potential members.

On Thursday, September 22nd we'll be having the first of our local entrepreneurship seminars again to be held at NABC Grant Line Road from 7p - 8:30p. NA First members Gary Humphrey of River City Winery and Roger Baylor from NABC along with Allen Howie of Idealogy will be discussing the issues facing opening a restaurant in New Albany with Allen talking about branding and marketing. One of the main goals of any independent business alliance is the encouragement of new locally-owned independent businesses in our area. This is one way we hope to fulfill that goal and with more seminars already in the works, we feel this is a great way to do that.

Finally, on October 28th/29th, we're very pleased to welcome Jeff Milchen to New Albany. Jeff is the co-founder of the American Indpendent Business Alliance (AMIBA) which is based in Bozeman, Montana. Jeff will be giving a keynote presentation on Friday night, Oct. 28th (time to be determined) and then a workshop the next morning. Both of these events are being hosted by the River City Winery. Jeff is an internationally known advocate for independent businesses and is highly sought after, so we're really happy he's going to come to New Albany to talk with us. More details on this to come.

Thanks to all of you for believing in this project and for your support.

Andy Terrell
Director, New Albany First