The holiday season is a busy time on South Granville.
To help you with your planning, please make note of the following dates and opportunities. More details on each item to follow.
South Granville Holiday Shopping Guide
Launch November 22, 2011
Join your neighbours in a fully digital shopping guide to showcase why South Granville is THE place for holiday shopping this year. You provide us with the information, we do the work… and the best part – your participation is absolutely free.
South Granville’s Friends & Family Shopping Night
Thursday, November 24, 2011
For a first attempt, last year proved to be a great success. This year we hope to make it bigger and better.
Vancouver Sun
Advertising Opportunities
Cooperative ads for South Granville merchants have been a strong component of our Business Association advertising efforts. We have booked 3 opportunities this year.
Details to follow, or contact:
Nestor Bayrock
Advertising Representative
604-605-2658
South Granville Holiday Street Entertainment
Mr. Chestnut, Fangago, Gallery Singers and more will make South Granville a festive delight on December 10, 11, 17 & 18, 2011.
Stanley Theatre Presents White Christmas
December 2-28, 2011.
Performances are Tuesday to Sunday.
South Granville Gift Wrapping Service – tentative
We had great fun last year offering gift wrapping services to our South Granville shoppers during the last week of shopping before Christmas. Services were exchanged for a donation to Covenant House and The Coast Foundation. We are in the process of confirming a location to work from and will be looking for volunteers to help with wrapping. Watch for more details.
Help us help you!
If you have special events or promotions during the holiday season, make sure the South Granville BIA gets all your details so we can add our online support to your efforts.
Sharon Townsend
Executive Director
South Granville BIA
Now that summer has come to a close, it is officially time to prepare for the fall and winter months, and protect your employees from this year’s flu. Health and Home Care Society of BC Flu clinics will begin in October 2011 and are quickly booking up.
Now in their 15th year of providing flu immunization, the Health and Home Care Society of BC is proud to be known as the reliable and trusted source for flu shots throughout British Columbia. Vaccines only work if kept in temperature-controlled conditions at all times, so it is critical to have confidence in the agency providing your clinic. Their highly skilled and dedicated Registered Nurses rigorously follow all Canadian health and safety standards and will answer each person’s questions, as well as ensuring the safe disposal of all hazardous waste. Last year their nurses successfully administered over twelve thousand doses of flu vaccine. Client satisfaction evaluations show that their nursing staff provides outstanding service, above and beyond expectations. Read More
South Granville BIA Members: You are Invited
Who said we are not allowed to combine a little business with pleasure!
Mark your calendars. South Granville Business Improvement Association will be hosting our next member networking event on:
When: Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Luke’s Corner Bar and Kitchen – 2996 Granville St (formerly Red Door)
- Appy’s courtesy of the South Granville BIA and Luke’s Corner Bar and Kitchen
- Cash Bar
Please RSVP to Sharon at 604-734-3195 or info@southgranville.org
We would also like to hold our Annual General Meeting at the same time. We promise it will be short. The governance of the SGBIA is important to our existence and we hope by combining our formal meeting with a social event will attract even more participants. Attendance at last year’s event suggests we are on to something!
Formal registration will begin at 5:30 and we will call our brief meeting to order at 6:00. Read More
May 2011 VANCOUVER FAIR TAX UPDATE
On April 21, 2011 members of the Vancouver Fair Tax Coalition (VFTC) appeared before the Vancouver City Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets urging councillors to continue the 1% tax shift.
Those presenting stressed two key points: the importance of a healthy business environment to provide strong employment for Vancouver residents and the need to resolve unfair property tax distribution to ensure Vancouver is economically sustainable now and in the future. Read More
Call 3-1-1. Information at your fingertips.
Just one call will connect you with a citizen service representative (CSR) ready to provide you with the answers to your questions and/or assist you in requesting City services.
Call 3-1-1 when you have a specific:
Request for service (report a sewer back-up, traffic signal out, street pothole).
Request for information (such as permit processing, animal control, building inspections, traffic/parking issues, hours of operation of civic offices and facilities, and property taxes).
Concern (such as parking tickets, property condition, snow clearing, street maintenance, noise complaints). Read More
Ivar Lester Fossen, 1946-2011
Neighbour, Entrepreneur, Friend
“He was one of the good guys” has been said many times in the past few weeks as South Granville friends and neighbours have learned the news of Ivar’s passing.
Born August 16th, 1946 in Prince Rupert, B.C., Ivar passed away suddenly yet ever so peacefully Friday, February 11th, 2011 at 64 years of age. He leaves behind his mother of 90, Lillian Fossen, his loving wife of 42 years Janice, his two beautiful children Christian (Laura), Kecia (Jonathan), many other close family members, and his special 4 legged girl Sophie. He was a wonderful husband, a fantastic father and best friend to many. He was well known and highly respected in the antiques trade and will be known to many as the proprietor of Guild House Antiques.
In 1998, Ivar and his wife Janice moved their Antique business to South Granville. Almost immediately, Ivar involved himself in the community and spent the past 11 years serving as a Director of the South Granville Business Improvement Association. He was a joy to have as part of the team. His entrepreneurial spirit and pragmatic approach kept the BIA grounded and focuses on things that really matter to the small independent retailer. Always ready to help, always ready to tell a joke or offer a smile, Ivar will be missed by all.
He was one of the good guys
The family invite you to join them for a Celebration of Ivar’s life:
Saturday March 19th, 2011
1-4pm
Masonic Hall
1495 West 8th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
South Granville BIA Board Vacancies
The South Granville BIA’s Board of Directors governs the association on behalf of all members. Its purpose is not only to ensure continued financial viability and commitment to the constitution and by-laws, but also to advise, govern, oversee policy and direction, and assist with the leadership and general promotion of the South Granville BIA so as to support the organization’s mission and needs.
The South Granville BIA bylaws indicate that the board shall consist of 12 members. There must always be a minimum of 5 property owners or tenants to ensure a broad range of member representation. In the event of a vacancy, the board is required to appoint someone to fill a position until the next AGM (Aug/Sept) when the membership would have an opportunity to elect the appointed member to a subsequent term.
The SGBIA currently has 2 vacancies that it is required to fill.
The board is currently developing a list of members it would like to interview for the vacant board positions. If you are interested in becoming involved, and wish to be considered for a board positions you must have been a SGBIA member in good standing since at least September 1, 2010, and own or rent a property within the geographical area as specified by the City of Vancouver SGBIA Bylaw.
If you are eligible and interested, please contact Sharon (our BIA Executive Director) by email at info@southgranville.org. Please include a short bio that indicates your business information and any related experience or interests you may have that will assist the board in evaluating all applicants in the context of SGBIA’s business objectives, bylaws, and conflict of interest guidelines.
Hairspray
The Stanley Theatre production of Hairspray is set for May 7 – July 10. We are crossing our fingers for an extended run. For those who have not seen the Broadway stage production, rent the movie version and enjoy the fun, music, and the adorable Edna Turnblad played by John Travolta.
Hairspray is a promotional gold mine. Can you find a tie-in for your business? Hair Salons… how about a Hairspray special or a beehive contest? Buy a pair of tickets to give away to one of your loyal customers and add to your customer database. Maybe it is as simple as encouraging sales staff to wear 1960′s clothing. Sometimes retail folks need to smile… just a little. Customers will love it.
Hairspray is a promotional gold mine.
Why is the Stanley Theatre so important to the economy of South Granville? It is a matter of math. When the Stanley has a production, they draw 550-650 patrons into our area for every performance. How significant is that? Well, it works out to about 159,250 annual visits, or 9 charter buses full of people—365 days a year.
Whether patrons buy $12 in parking or spend $75 for dinner… or perhaps make a note that they would like to come back when they have more time to shop, or they buy that fabulous pair of shoes just before the show… we should never underestimate the economic benefit of having such a dynamic force in our community.
Let’s take every opportunity we can to celebrate and leverage a valuable part of our community. It costs us nothing but gives us everything.
Twitter and Facebook
Did you know that South Granville is active on Twitter and Facebook? Follow us, Friend Us and make sure we do the same in return!
http://twitter.com/southgranville
http://www.facebook.com/SouthGranville
Hashtags – to all our SG Tweeters
For those of you who are currently utilizing Twitter, you most likely know about and use hashtags.
It pays to use South Granville friendly hashtags, such as #onSouthGranville, #yvr, #style, #homedecor, #beauty, #foodies and #art, as much as possible, when talking about and marketing your businesses products and services. These hashtags, when combined with #yvr can help get your message out to a larger audience.
It is equally important to add a link to your website, blog or Facebook page, in the form of shortlinks (see bit.ly or other) to draw people to the bigger story eluded to in your tweet, and to bring people to a place where they can see more of your products and services.
Your South Granville BIA has helped to bring online awareness for South Granville by utilizing South Granville friendly hashtags. Marketing experts say that we all benefit from any and all publicity about the neighbourhood. A prime example has been the news of Anthropologie moving into our shopping district in 2011. The news has certainly caught people’s attention—so much so that our @SouthGranville Twitter username and the hashtag #onSouthGranville sat on the local Vancouver TrendsMap for almost 2 days.
For anyone familiar with Twitter and how it works, you know that this is no small feat, and for the many people following what is happening locally via Social Media (or following the local trends), this is a popular place to show up (or to trend).
Are you looking to learn more about Twitter and Social Media? The BIA is in the early stages of planning some hands-on workshops for its members—stay tuned! In the mean time, you may find this helpful:
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
South Granville has gone Mobile
The South Granville Business Improvement Association (SGBIA) has stepped on to the leading edge of Retail Website Design and Technology by launching its new mobile website. This new mobile version of the site can be found at the same URL as South Granville’s main website and will automatically detect when you, as a mobile user, connects to the site and will display pages specifically formatted for a mobile device.
We know that a robust delivery system and the selection of information, is important to shoppers on the go and southgranville.org is poised to deliver. The South Granville mobile site has been designed for cross-platform use, which means any smart phone can access the site without requiring a visit to the App Store or specific downloads, or constant updates.
Having South Granville accessible to its customers any time, any where is the future for retailing.
Engine Digital, based in Gastown, worked with the SGBIA to create a streamlined and intuitive suite of information that will allow you to now be able to search South Granville business listings in a mobile friendly environment while you are here and on the go. You can also now more easily find South Granville restaurants and eateries utilizing embedded, mobile-friendly, maps, find info and hours on current exhibits in Gallery Row, search for special offers from your favourite South Granville shops, restaurants and services, keep up with your South Granville Blog, and find out What’s Happening in real-time on South Granville, with a mobile Events Calendar. We are also very excited to be connecting this mobile site, to an archive which provides an opportunity for you to connect with, and tour, some of Vancouver’s rich 125 year History, preserved in almost every corner of this historic Vancouver neighbourhood—all at your fingertips and all in a format that is easy to read and easy to navigate.
Sharon Townsend, executive director of the South Granville BIA says, “Mobile phones will overtake PC’s as the most common Web access devices worldwide by 2013. We believe this to be a first for Vancouver community shopping. Having South Granville accessible to its customers any time, any where is the future for retailing. There is so much more we plan to do—it is all very exciting.”
If you have discovered this blog post from your smartphone or mobile device, you’re already here. Have fun exploring! And watch for more to come.
Several SGBIA members have called in the last few days, hoping I can help them sort out the tax assessment notices and perhaps project what sort of impact they might expect on their property taxes. If anyone ever said property tax calculations were easy—they were lying. In fact, I have a conspiracy theory that suggests it is purposefully clandestine to avoid honest and loud scrutiny.
Here is what we know:
There is no real way to look at your assessment notice and be able to determine what your tax bill is going to look like in July. The best you can do is determine how much your particular property has increased/decreased compared to the entire commercial property class roll within the city. I am being advised that on average, properties have increased 11% this year. If your assessment went up 12-15% that would suggest (as best as we can speculate at this point) that your taxes will not change significantly from 2010. Read More
