Happy Friday Everyone,

It is hard to believe Christmas is next week. On behalf of the Chamber Board and myself, we would like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!

The Chamber office will be closed from Dec. 24th through January 3rd. Remember to pick up or pre-order your gift certificates by calling 812-934-3101 and we will have them ready for you.

We would like to THANK all the Holiday Shopping Passport sponsors, participating businesses, and everyone that shopped local this holiday season. We are excited to announce that over $102,000 in Holiday Passports were turned in over 4 weeks of shopping. Keep Shopping Local all year long!

The winners of the Passport Promotion Chamber Checks:

1st Place - $300 - Jaime Nobbe

2nd Place - $150 - Meredith Gehl

3rd Place - $50 - Darla Schildknecht

Candy Jar Winner (334 Hershey Kisses) - $25 - Tami Peters

Please visit the Chamber Community Calendar for the most updated events at https://batesvillein.com/events/. Remember to post your events so we can share all the great things going on in our community and with visitors coming to the area.

If you would like to know more about how the Batesville Area Chamber can help your business, please give us a call or stop by the Chamber office.

Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

Melissa Tucker

Executive Director

Check out our Batesville Area Chamber Facebook group Together We Thrive daily as we highlight all of our great member businesses throughout the year. Remember our members can also post your upcoming events and specials too!

Be sure to check out all of our great members by going to our DIRECTORY. For more information on all the benefits the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce has to offer, please give us a call at 812-934-3101 or email us at chamber@batesvillein.com.

The Batesville Area Chamber gift certificates are good at over 175 businesses. These are great gifts for the holidays, just to say thank you, or any reason at all! They come in $5, $10 & $25 increments so call ahead and we can have them ready for you at 812-934-3101. It is part of our membership benefit, so ONLY Chamber member businesses can accept them. All you do is deposit them right into your checking account. Plus you are supporting local too!

I have been asked by our folks in Indianapolis to forward this email to the communities in hopes that you can entice them to complete this survey. They are targeting entrepreneurs in our region that have started their own companies. This is part of our business retention and expansion program with some of the new folks in the Indy office. If you would please just simply forward this email to companies in your communities that you feel should complete the survey. We appreciate it very much! If they have any questions Julie Heath’s contact information is below as well.

IEDC is asking for help reaching out to startup founders to request participation in the IEDC/Startup Genome founder survey. Entrepreneurs may have already received an invitation to participate by Elevate Ventures, an investor, an accelerator, or another ESO. We ask that founders respond only one time. Below are some FAQs about the survey.

Q: Who should take the survey?

A: Founder/executive at a technology-driven or innovation-driven Indiana startup

Q: How is “startup” defined?

A: An Indiana company younger than 10 years

Q: How long is the survey?

A: It takes most founders 12-15 minutes to complete

Q: How is the data collected used?

A: All data is kept confidential. Survey responses will be anonymously aggregated to provide insights into Indiana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Q: Why is this survey being done?

A: Indiana’s new Secretary of Commerce is making entrepreneurship a priority. IEDC’s first step in this effort is an entrepreneurial ecosystem assessment, led by Startup Genome. The survey is a key part of the assessment. Using a combination of global datasets and survey data, Startup Genome’s analysis will shed light on Indiana’s ecosystem stage of development, create benchmarks against peer and top global startup ecosystems, and examine the opportunities and gaps as well as strengths to be capitalized on.

Q: I have questions about this survey. Who can I ask?

A: Julie Heath, VP of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, jheath@iedc.in.gov 463-202-5870

Thank you,

Trevor Lane 

Director, Southeast Region 

Indiana Economic Development Corporation 

1200 West O & M Avenue, Suite 215

t +1.812.599.2416 

Remember that you can post all of your events on our website by clicking on this link: Post Your Events Here.

We are excited about the development of our new smartphone app! Be one of the first to download the new app and receive $5 off your very next order. Use code: NEWAPP

Community Scholarship Finalists:

www.uschamber.com/coronavirus

www.CDC.gov Mass Gatherings\

Indiana Unemployment

Vaccine Eligibility in Indiana Link

Ripley and Franklin County Health Departments

You can schedule your vaccine by calling 211 or visiting ourshot.in.gov! We have appointments available as early as today! RCHD does currently have Pfizer, Moderna, & J&J vaccines available.

For more information, please visit: www.ripleyhealth.com or www.franklincounty.in.gov/countyoffices/health-department.

COVID-19 is on the rise, both nationally and in our community. Listen to Interim CEO Liz Leising as she shares what’s happening inside the walls of MMH, as well as how effective the vaccine has been in fighting the new virus strain locally.

THANK YOU TO OUR CORPORATE SPONSORS!

Batesville Tool & Die, Hillenbrand & Batesville, Hillrom

Margaret Mary Health and Mercy Health

City of Batesville and Media Muse Studios

Batesville Online, Daily News, Duke Energy, FCN Bank, First Financial Bank,

Great Plains Communications, Health Markets Insurance Agency, Izzy's at Hillcrest,

LaRosa's Family Pizzeria, Pro-Prints Sign Imaging, Pulskamps Flooring Plus,

Rowland Graphics, Sharp Painting LLC, Skyline Chili,

St. Andrews Health Campus, Tudor Square Realty, WRBI Country 103.9