Report - July 08

• British BIDs have invited renewal of the annual subscription, this year amounts to £881 however, this would be cost prohibitive so I have suggested a revised renewal figure of £300. Currently awaiting their response.
• Meeting held with the lead Agency for the Dorchester Christmas Lights to discuss ways in which we can help and assist them, as well as discuss ways in which they may spend our donation.
• The Retail passport Pilot is underway and has received a good response. Companies who have taken advantage of the offer of the training day include Goulds, Loders, Taste and Multivolt
• Other courses run so far include:
  • Customer Service Course - Creating a positive experience, well attended and good, positive feedback from attendees.
  • Courses run overall to date have been donated to DBID with an overall value of £6000, which has been accounted for. The cost to DBID is £25 in respect of venue hire and 5 days of PG's time.
• List of businesses that have attended courses and received free training to appear on website with a link to offer other businesses to contact us if they are interested in being involved.
• Voluntary Contributions are being received, notably £2000 from Dorset County Council in support of the Sunninghill Bag Project as well as The Keep Military Museum, Frazer Deakin Associates and others. These are expected to continue to come in and will also appear on the website.
• Website design meetings are underway, further information at the next meeting but we aim to have the directory entry process up and running by the end of August with the live launch later in the Autumn. All BID businesses and voluntary contributing businesses are entitled to have a presence on the Dorchester website with no charge, please contact the BID office for more information and book your free web presence. Please note that we are also taking extremely seriously the need to keep the BID website up to date in order to communicate with the BID businesses.
• Meeting with Resort Magazine to discuss possibility of editorial for Dorchester as well as preferential advertising rates which was attended by PG, Keir Francis and Tim Batty.
• Under Town Promotion Mission, DBID has sponsored Dorchester Carnival £500. A small element of approx £70 used to purchase bunting to ensure that the bunting did not stop at the end of the pedestrianised area of South Street and continued all the way to the end. In addition to this for the £500, DBID were the sponsors of best fancy dress and best shop window display. The DBID logo appears on both trophies.
• Request that Richard Southam undertakes the job of compiling the twice yearly newsletter to be issued in autumn, to report of the summer and what is planned for Christmas and in spring to report on Christmas and what is planned for the summer.
• The BID office is still waiting to move, the intended new site will be in an office above Words Etcetera. There are some issues but will be discussed when firmer details are known. Further report in September.
• " Bag Project Update: The children chose six final designs, they have been in to Dorchester to carry out market research with both businesses and consumers to ask their opinion on design, logo pricing etc. The winner has been chosen which does correspond with the outcome of the research. The order for the bags has been placed with Clever Baggers and we are awaiting delivery. DBID has received a very generous supply of prizes for the School and the Children. Lisa has a full financial report on this. The first suggestion was that we would donate 1p to the School for every bag that has been sold however, this would equate to £45 so I suggest that this is increased to 2p per bag, meaning that the School would receive £90.
• Series of Meetings with Dorset County Council:
  • May - David Walsh
  • June - Tim Westwood.
  Discussed several issues with both to establish what they already have planned and how DBID can work in partnership with them where our missions cross over. The topics covered included:
  • Park and Ride - possibility to add another bus and another stop in the town itself in addition to the stop at Colliton Park
  • Complete pedestrianisation of South Street and time scale (expected to be Christmas)
  • Who would DBID need to gain permission in order to make roundabouts more attractive (Town Council and WDDC for signs in Dorchester, directional signs - DCC, Tim Westwood)
  • Logistics of Land Train and it's place and possible routes within the proposed development of Charles Street and development of Brewery Square
  • Signage including brown signs and whose responsibility are they.

As a footnote, the first official canvas and cotton Dorchester Bags are now printed and available for any BID business that would like to either have them for their staff to buy at cost price or sell to the general public for £3 canvas or £1.50 for cotton - They look great and should be quite popular. Contact Phil at the DBID office to place your order 07799 494886.

Letter to BID Businesses August 08

Dear DBID partner,

It has been three months now since the Dorchester BID officially launched back in early May and we have already made some good progress on a number of projects. You may have seen in the local press that we held a competition for the design for this year’s reusable shopping bags. We have now manufactured the bags using the winning design and can supply quantities of the fabulous Dorchester canvas and cotton bags. A number of stores are already stocking these in town and if you would either like to do the same, or just want some for your staff, contact us at the office.

Training to the value of £6000 has already been provided to BID business. Covering a range of business topics, the attendance and feedback have been excellent. If you are interested in hearing about the subsidised and even free training available, it is critical that you contact us as soon as possible. We do not want to spend ££££'s of your BID levy on mailings, we would prefer to communicate about important events/opportunities via email and local press so please give us your email address if you can. Of course, not everyone has email so we are happy to use the post if this is your preference.

The Dorchester BID Company has negotiated a special deal with Resort magazine that will potentially give Dorchester and our businesses a much larger presence in this well-read publication and hopefully, a larger share of visitor trade in Dorset. We are aiming to have a four page article in the Autumn/Winter edition (circulation 80,000) enticing visitors to come to our town laced with lots of good reasons to visit Dorchester and sprinkled with adverts from a growing list of Dorchester BID businesses. The first 20 businesses to join us in this venture will get a £50- £100 subsidy from DBID against advertising costs. The more advertising we can add to the article, the more editorial we will achieve for Dorchester. Call or email to secure your subsidy.

Free Website entry for all DBID businesses

Have you registered on the DBID website yet? If not, please go to the website (register page) and register your business and email address at www.dorchesterdorset.co.uk (here!). An immediate benefit will be early inclusion on the official Dorchester website where you can have your own page complete with a photo of your business (inside or out), a location map, a link to your own website and even 10 search engine keywords 'dorchwords' that will help people to be directed to you when they type in one of your words into our on-site search feature. The best thing of all is that as a DBID partner, this will not cost you a penny!

Register today, help us to help your business flourish and start benefiting from one of the most exciting and significant initiatives seen in Dorchester for decades. We have more training planned for October, just ask!(see training page)