Spring Fest 2010

The organisation of Spring Fest 2010 is now well under way and the call for events has gone out to all businesses and community groups to submit events for Spring and Summer. This year we are inviting events of all types from Garden and Spring specific to Food and Wine events.

Wes Fleming, Gold Winner at the Chelsea Flower Show will be speaking at the launch on September 9th at SkyHigh. Further details and ticketing information will follow.

Our Spring / Summer Events booklet will be produced for distribution in the 1st week of September. To be part of the free events marketing programme for Spring / Summer please go to www.villagesofmtdandenong.com.au for futher details. Closing date for events is Friday 16th July. Advertising and sponsorship opportunities will be distributed shortly.

Villages Website

Screen shot of Gold Listing

As the Villages Website draws to a close in it's development stage we really now need your information. Requests have gone out to Gold and Silver members in the Accommodation, Retail and Restaurant categories and the rest will follow shortly. Please now give this your attention as we can't go live without your content. Beta testing is currently taking place to iron out any issues and having full content will assist us with this process. Reminders will be sent out to those that have already been sent requests in case you can not find the original documents.

Bronze and other category members will be sent login details to upload their business details and images directly into the administration system. Gold and Silver members will also be sent logins to amend their details and images in future at anytime they like.

All members will be informed when the beta system is ready for you to view so that any changes or requests can be delat with before it goes live.

Village Gift Voucher Scheme

The Villages Gift Voucher Scheme will go live with our website in July. A full information Pack will be sent out to member businesses so they are aware of how the scheme will work. There is no extra work for businesses as the cards work exactly like credit cards on your eftpos machines. It's an easy way for visitors to the area to spend money at member businesses. They will come in amounts of $30, $50, $100, $200 and $750 and for now will only be available for purchase online through the website.

Monthly 'What's On' Press Advertising

On July 27th, the first of our monthly 'What's On' 36 x 2 advertisements will appear in the Trader Mail. This has been made possible by a Community Grant from the Bendigo Bank for $4760 that we were successful in getting last week. We thank Luan Hanlen and the Bendigo Bank for this generous contribution. This will give us a direct way of communicating our events each month to locals in the Dandenong Ranges. The Grant will cover these advertisements plus editorial space for 13 months.

Village Offer Cards

The Village Offer Cards have been approved and will go to print on the 9th July. If you are a Gold Member and haven't submitted your information yet, please do so before then. A reminder will be send out via email with further instruction if you are unable to find your original request.

Information Point

The Information Point has been costed, approved and subject to Stockdale & Leggo's approval of the layout, will be installed in 2-3 weeks time. Inside, there will be four stands holding 80 DL slots, 3 large posters above for promotion of gold members (above is layout only and not final posters) and general messages about the Villages and a smaller poster with our current event promottion and what's on calendar. Outside there will be a large wall mounted version of our map with a weather proof holder for maps. The overall look is professional reflecting our member businesses.

There will also be another smaller Information Point in Sassafras in the internal space between the Wool Store and House of Coffee. This will hold 32 DLs and also have a large map with map holder externally.

Both Information Points will display the blue 'i' sign so visitors can easily find them.

John Conellan from SkyHigh has indicated that they will be putting in a cafe at the 1000 Steps with space for Tourist Information and be has kindly allowed us to install our Information Point there as well which is great for our businesses.

General Business

Memberships Extended until 30th June 2011

All Villages memberships have been extended until 30th June 2011. This is to fall in line with the financial year and also as the majority of your promotion will commence in July this year. This is an extra 3 months membership for founding members who's faith in the Villages has allowed us to move forward and gather momentum.

Meeting with Shire CEO

Judy and Carl attended a meeting requested by Glenn Patterson of the Shire to discuss various projects that had been tabled with them. Judy reported on the Capital Works budget as it related to the Villages interests in having Parsons Lane Olinda, Woodlands Ave. and Prince Street Sassafras sealed. This was all well received.
There appears to be money in the budget of the SYR for new entry signs which would fit in with the Villages plans for new signage. Glenn showed design drafts for entry and boundary signs. Lisa’s original concept design was shown for the Shire’s consideration and Glenn took that away to be copied.
Judy was invited to submit a letter with our requests in response to their invitation to “add everything we’ve talked about and we’ll have it done by the end of the year”. A very positive response from Shire. Judy is drafting the letter currently and asking to be included in their planning for signage. The signage should be ready to go up in November.
It was also noted that the Shire of Yarra Ranges is changing their name to Yarra Ranges Council.

Masquerade Ball 2010 a Great Success

What a fantastic night it was, from being papped by the papparazzi when you arrived to having magic tricks done at your table. Our first Masquerade Ball was a sell out and a great success raising $8,536 to further promote the Villages. Lots of stories have come out of the night with people saying it was the best night they had ever seen on the Mountain. Many thanks to Andrew for making it all come together and news is that he is hard at work on the next one already which will be bigger and better than this years so keep posted for dates. Thank you to all our sponsors who helped make it possible, SkyHigh, Wild Oak, Olinda Cellars, Seasons at Cloudehill and Pellegrino's and thank you to all that attended and the tremendous effort that everyone went to.