Jim Sellers' Chamber Article for July 3, 2008

Jim Sellers’ Chamber Article for July 3, 2008

It Would Take More Than a Little Rain to Dampen the Poker Run Fun

What a rainy start for the Grand Lake Area Chamber’s first Poker Run of the year. Here’s extending a great deal of thanks to all those who participated, and especially our sponsors, which included the thirteen pick-up locations around Grand Lake. Our winners in the three “fun” categories are: The Acorn, with a total of 18 people on board, won the largest crew award. The oldest crew, with an average age of 59 ½ years, goes to the crowd of senior citizens on Rusty Fleming’s boat. Then, the group that seemed to have the most fun was the boat from Grand Lake RV Park. They were dressed in full gala red, white and blue attire, including tattoos on their faces and one having a long red, white and blue beard. Each of these groups received a prize of $200.00. These particular prizes were sponsored by McKibben & Co. (best dressed crew), Grand Lake RV Park (biggest crew) and Paula’s Acorn and Jim Harbuck Used Cars (oldest crew).

The winners of the poker hand were: Lowest Hand: Elaine Nagel, with a prize of $83.50. Third Place: Kathy Grammer, winning a prize of $250.50. Second Place: Jim Harbuck, with prize money of $501.00. Our first place winner, with three kings and two queens was Steve Collyer, coming in at $835.00.

I would like to thank my staff, Kristal Hodges and Paula Harbuck, and the volunteers for all their hard work during the event. The volunteers were Lisa Garcia, from Lindsay & Associates; Tim Toohey, from Pelican Landing; and Julie Hollowell, from Colony Cove. I would also like to thank our committee members, Rusty Fleming and Brian Ruth. Don’t forget to make plans for our next Poker Run on August 22-23, 2008.

Thanks as well go to those attending our luncheon last week and of course to the Secretary of Labor for the State of Oklahoma, Lloyd Fields, for being our guest speaker. We enjoyed the hospitality of Cherokee Yacht Club and the great meal they prepared for us. A big thank you goes to their staff for great food and service. The next luncheon will be held on July 24^th at Arrowhead Yacht Club. The program will be presented by Lynn Wilson, of the Rogers State University Innovation Center. They will be giving us marketing tips you will be able to put into action as soon as you return to your office.

We hope everyone enjoys a safe 4^th of July week. Don’t forget to go by the South Grand Lake Airport to see the War Birds come in before they do the fly-over at Duck Creek. Tune in to 96.1 FM beginning at 5:00 p.m. for their play-by-play coverage of all the activities on Duck Creek, highlighted by Oklahoma’s largest fireworks display.

MARKETING TIP OF THE WEEK:

One of the mistakes made is abandoning current core customers for “new” customers, lifestyles, niches demos, etc. This is often attempted through line extension (have you used your Pepsi discount card recently?), or by altering our message and media choices to attract other than “center of target” customers. While it may be wise to expand our markets, be cautious not to “borrow” from your current customer base (either in media dollars or media message) to do so.