Can you believe its October already? Wow. This will be my last article before we switch over to winter hours at the Visitors Center. Starting Nov. 1, we will be open from noon to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Keep your eyes open for the 2013 chamber membership dues request coming to your mailboxes soon.
Our last business after hours was a wonderful success. It was co-hosted by VelocityNet Internet Services and Lizardhead Cyclery. The food was fantastic, and the networking was great.
Our future business after hours schedule is set through the beginning of next year. On Oct. 25th it will be at the Dolores State Bank. There will be none in November and December and tentatively Riverfront Pizza will host our first one in January on the 17th and on Feb. 21st we will be at the Cortez Cultural Center.
The Dolores Chamber and Dolores Public Library are co-hosting an Introduction to Quickbooks Class Tuesday Oct. 30th from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a half hour brown bag lunch. Region 9 Colorado SBDC and Ft. Lewis College are also sponsoring this event. Topics will include:
How to get through the set up process, creating an effective Chart of Accounts, Small Business Accounting, Strategies for managing cash flow and how to make paying bills less painful. To register go online: www.coloradosbdc.org/workshop.aspx?ekey=170320124
Or e-mail Lynn Asano Asano_L@fortlewis.edu or call 970-247-7009. You do not have to be a chamber member to participate.
Mesa Verde National Park announced their annual Luminaries Tour & Open House from 4- to 8 p.m. Its scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 6. This is absolutely free and is a wonderful event for the whole family. They have free chili, hot chocolate and cookies too.
If you want to participate in the Christmas bazaar, which this year will be on Dec. 1, contact Ruby Gonzales at 882-7717. This is always a hugely popular event.
Our board meetings have been moved back to lunchtime meetings.
The next one will be Thursday, Oct. 11 at noon at the Visitors Center. The next membership meeting will be Oct. 24 at Riverfront Pizza. Dont forget that if you attend our monthly membership meetings we will display your business info or website link on our home page for that whole month!!!
We are also featuring a local business or two on our website home page every month and also a business every week in the visitors center so when somebody walks into the Visitors Center they will see a flyer of that business with all they have to offer. So please get an 8X11 page featuring your business and we will prominently display that in the visitors center seven days a week for you for a one or two week period. The Pony Expresso Coffee Shop and Bakery is planning on a grand opening on Oct. 30th.
The visitors center visitors numbers are up substantially over last year and the sales at the visitors center are also way up for 2012. We hope the rest of the town has seen an increase as well. We will continue to do everything we can to get the visitors to spend some time, and money here in Dolores.