The CJ's remarkably consistent terminal decline: No news in the Indiana Newsletter, and plenty of blue-bagged litter to clog the city's storm drains.

Friday was the 4th straight day of a Romeo Langford college choice story with top billing in the CJ's "Indiana Newsletter," finally supplanted today by the opioid crisis, another recurring chestnut that at least constitutes genuine news.

This vacuous irrelevance was accompanied by a fresh spate of unwanted blue-wrapped street spam.

Ah, but we have all been here before.

The Courier-Journal's "Indiana Newsletter": More Indiana coverage, perhaps, but is any of it really news?

When I think of all the possible news of the world, and all the conceivable news in Southern Indiana, and then this being a fairly typical "Indiana Newsletter" via e-mail ... the CJ's terminal decline gets even sadder.

It the best they can do: Sports, entertainment and celebrity hokum.

It's profoundly depressing.

And here:

Down with the Courier-Journal's blue-bag-recycling-hypocrisy. Fact is, it's litter.

Free speech my ass: The Courier-Journal can spin this any way it likes, but it's litter, plain and simple. Why do we allow representatives of the newspaper to trash the city? I'm not sure, but perhaps the city council's forthcoming litter ordinance will take this into consideration.

The Courier-Journal's "Indiana Newsletter": More Indiana coverage, perhaps, but is any of it really news?

When I think of all the possible news of the world, and all the conceivable news in Southern Indiana, and then this being a fairly typical "Indiana Newsletter" via e-mail ... the C-J's terminal decline gets even sadder.

It the best they can do: Sports, entertainment and celebrity hokum.

It's profoundly depressing.

New Albany First's newsletter for April includes condemnation of bridge tolls.

(Submitted ... is it April, or May?)

It's been a busy few weeks for us here at New Albany First. The AMIBA national conference was held in Louisville at the end of March and what an amazing experience for anyone who had the chance to go. Experts in so many different areas relating to independent businesses and IBAs were on hand, the topics were stimulating and those in attendance left the conference with a renewed enthusiasm for the future of indie businesses in New Albany.

We have a couple of events upcoming that we hope that you'll be able to attend, including the "Be Local" Business Expo held in conjunction with Develop New Albany. Add to that a couple of summer seminars and a plan that is brewing for the summer...it figures to be a really exciting time for NA 1st and supporters.
Have ideas for how New Albany First can best serve your business? Let us know at info@na1st.org and let's start a discussion. We're also asking that our members spread the word about New Albany First to other business owners and individuals. While the board has worked hard in building our membership base, a few words from current members would be appreciated.

Be Local.

The AMIBA national conference is over but the ideas and enthusiasm will remain long after. Along with learning new, innovative ways to market NA 1st and ideas for membership growth, we also got to network with other groups and hope to even form a regional association with both established and new IBAs from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. You'll be hearing more about what we all learned in the coming weeks and months.

A huge thank you goes to Jennifer Rubenstein of the Louisville Independent Business Alliance for all her work in organizing this event. We were fortunate that we also got to play a role in the planning stages, but Jennifer's commitment was incredible. We also want to thank her and LIBA for their continued support and well-timed advice for New Albany First.

The "Be Local" Business Expo will be held on Tuesday, May 1st in conjunction with Develop New Albany. Local businesses will have booths set up for the public to browse through between 4pm and 7pm. Booth rental for NA 1st members is $50, non-members is $75. If you're not a member of NA 1st and want to join, we'll give you a $25 discount on your membership when you sign up for a booth at the Expo.

To learn more contact Stefanie Griffith at stefanie@strandzandthreadz.com or call 502.645.6256

Last month, the New Albany First board of directors asked the business membership for their thoughts on the issue of tolling the bridges connecting southern Indiana with Kentucky. It was a unanimous decision from those who responded and the text of the statement released by the board follows:

"Recently, New Albany First polled its membership regarding the possibility of tolls being placed on new and existing Ohio River bridges. We asked if our members thought the tolls would have a negative effect on businesses in Southern Indiana, specifically independent businesses.

"Based on feedback from our members and from our board of directors, New Albany First opposes tolling of any Ohio River bridges, especially the I-64 Sherman Minton Bridge, which is a direct conduit to New Albany. We believe our local independent businesses, especially retail and dining venues, will be negatively impacted by tolls on these bridges."

We thank everyone who responded to our question and provided comments as to why they feel tolls will have an adverse effect on our local, indie businesses.

Let's welcome our newest business members:

Earth's Art
Creative Boutique
Jimmy's Music Center
Feast BBQ
The Dandy Lion

Thanks to them for joining, and to learn more about these businesses check out our "Members" section at www.na1st.org.

(NAC editor's note: Five exclamation marks were excised from the preceding by means of the handy OveruseBot)

March 2012 "be local" newsletter from New Albany First.

First, we want to welcome our newest members, Vetiver Aromatics and Robyn Davis Sekula. You can learn more about them at our website www.na1st.org

Our last "be local." seminar with Idealogy's Allen Howie was our best attended to date with well over 30 people in attendance. Our thanks go to Allen and Stefanie Griffith, owner of Strandz and Threadz, for hosting.

March is going to be a busy month for New Albany First. We have a Meet and Greet/Wine Tasting at NA1st member Keg Liquors - New Albany and the American Independent Business Alliance International Conference at the end of the month in Louisville. Most of the NA1st board will be in attendance and you can learn more about attending below. If you do want to attend some or all, please let us know at info@na1st.org so we can have a good head count. This is an exciting conference with some incredible speakers.

Have ideas for how New Albany First can best serve your business? Let us know at info@na1st.org and let's start a discussion. We're also asking that our members spread the word about New Albany First to other business owners and individuals. While the board has worked hard in building our membership base, a few words from current members would be appreciated.

Have a great March, hope to see you at our event or at the conference this month.

Be Local.

Our next meet and greet will be at The Keg Liquors in New Albany on Thursday, March 15th from 6pm - 8pm. Turtle Run Winery will be sampling their wines as well. Take this opportunity to meet local business owners and talk with potential new members of New Albany First.

"Building Community Prosperity from Within" - that's the theme of this year's AMIBA National Conference, to be held in Louisville from March 29th through April 1st. If you can, please attend at least a day to learn more about independent business alliances and how they can work for our community. Click on the link to learn more.

Our local office of the Indiana Small Business Development Center is offering a marketing seminar on March 8th to be held at IU - Southeast. Please click on the link to learn more and to register.

The ISBDC is also offering a Quickbooks workshop this week on March 7th and 8th. They are offering NA1st members $25 off the cost of the workshop. Contact Blayr Barnard directly to request this at 812.952.9765

Also, we're pleased to announce that Mrs. Barnard has agreed to present our next "be local." seminar on how the ISBDC can help new and existing businesses, event details to come shortly.

New Albany First's newsletter for January, 2012.

(NA First's page at Facebook is frequently updated. You are encouraged to "like" it, and to participate in the ongoing discussion.)

We hope everyone had a great and productive holiday season of 2011. A number of projects are being discussed to better serve the independent business community in 2012, including partnerships with Ivy Tech, IU Southeast, Develop New Albany and the Urban Enterprise Zone. Our "be local" seminars continue as well into the new year. We're excited about the upcoming year, the challenges it will bring and the success we hope to have in helping our independent businesses continue to thrive.

Our "be local" seminar series returns on Thursday, February 2nd starting at 7pm at Strandz and Threadz, located at 322 Vincennes Street in New Albany.

Marketing a Small Business in a Tough Economy


Join us as Allen Howie of Idealogy Marketing + Design shares insights into how a small business on a tight budget can still market effectively by focusing on the right customers, building a memorable brand, having a smart plan and looking for unusual tactics that can cost little but produce a lot.

There still are local sponsorship options for the Go Local, Grow Local 2012 AMIBA national conference to be held in Louisville in March. Contact Andy at newalbanyfirst@gmail.com for more information.

A look ahead at 2012

We'll be inventorying all local, independent businesses in the New Albany area to make it easier for businesses to network together and use each others' services. The more we can do that, the more money stays in our local economy.

Our "be local" seminar series will continue with some great topics/speakers already being lined up. These seminars are being presented, free of charge, to the public to help our current business owners, but also to encourage new ones. We were very happy to see Ryan Rogers, owner of the soon-to-open Feast BBQ, at our last seminar. That's what we hope to continue to do.

We will continue to work on partnerships with various groups. The possible projects with IUS and Ivy Tech are particularly exciting and we look forward to continuing to work hard to make them a reality.

A website should be up in a matter of days. There have been some delays, but we're excited to get it going! It will include a membership page with links to all of our business members websites. The webpage will continue to expand as time goes along.

We plan on bringing in another speaker this summer/fall. We'll have more on that in the future.

Obviously, membership recruitment is huge for us. Any help that our members can provide would be appreciated. Whether it's just a matter of telling fellow business owners about us or participating directly with the board on recruitment strategies, we'd love for you to get involved.

Thanks everyone.