Announcements

2009 Accomplishments:

• Set up ongoing collaborative advertising packages through Eureka Television Group and KHUM/Lost Coast Communications.
• Distributed the Local Options directory as an insert in the North Coast Journal.

2008 Accomplishments:

• Independents Week, with tabling, games, and other activities promoting Independent Businesses, including proclamations from the City of Eureka, City of Arcata, and the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors.
• We attended the first American Independent Business Alliance gathering in Austin, Texas, to learn more about running a successful IBA.
• Thanks to Precision Intermedia, we were able to build the HumIBA website and free-listing web-forms responsible for most of our free listings.
• We sponsored Stacy Mitchell, award-winning author of Big Box Swindle: The true cost of mega-retailers and the fight for America's independent businesses. The event was a great success – with attendees including members of the local business community and elected officials – and the locally-manufactured food donations were fabulous.
• We were awarded $5,000 from the Headwaters Fund micro-loans for economic development, helping seed other funding that made the publishing of our first, and very well-received, Local Options Independent Business Directory possible.
• We successfully partnered with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, who designed and sponsored the Local Options Local Food section. We are exploring further collaborations like this for the future.
• We published our first Local Options directory, featuring over 600 independent businesses.
• We saw our first radio and TV commercials and our first collaborative advertising project. Thanks to Laura Montagna, Mo Burke, and the folks at Mercy Me Productions for their enthusiasm to make that happen!
• We exceeded 100 members in our first year, which was actually only eight months, starting publicly in May 2008.