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Board of Directors | Meeting Minutes | Join ABA

Mission Statement

The Annapolis Business Association is a non-profit consortium of businesses and individuals with the shared interest of maintaining and improving the climate for conducting business in Annapolis. Our values and goals include:

• Representing the Annapolis business and professional community by communicating the Association's views on matters that affect business in our area
• Improving the appearance of downtown Annapolis
• Developing programs to enhance commerce
• Monitoring legislation effecting Annapolis businesses and professionals
• Promoting Annapolis as a premier visitor destination and good place to live and conduct business
• Effectively communicating with current members and promoting our organization to attract new members
• Working with other organizations that share our goals, values and objectives

Our membership includes 126 businesses in and around Annapolis, including retailers, hotels, restaurants, law firms, and service companies, to name a few.

Strategic Initiatives for 2007

• Institute an advertising/public relations effort to make businesses and individuals more aware of the ABA and what we do for the community
• Improve the appearance and functionality of the website including establishing links with as many business and organizations as possible
• Implement a program to promote Park & Shop including advertising, signage in the garages and window decals for participating businesses
• Plan and host an Annapolis Business Summit involving the ABA, community leaders, city government officials, and representatives from all area business associations
• Improve communications and working relationships with the other business associations in the area, i.e., Maryland Avenue, West Street, Eastport, and West Annapolis.

What ABA Does in the Community

• Manages and pays, in partnership with the City of Annapolis, for all the hanging flower baskets and pots throughout downtown Annapolis during the Spring and Summer
• Coordinates and pays for the downtown Holiday decorations; the combined total for the flowers and Holiday décor was over $65,000 in 2007
• Promotes and manages the Park & Shop program which allows participating business to offer discount parking for their customers
• Acts as a liaison between the business community and the Annapolis City Government
• Established and monitors the Traffic Advisory Radio program
• Sponsors and manages the Midnight Madness I and Midnight Madness II shopping nights
• Developed and hosts the annual “TasteBuds” food and wine gathering fundraiser
• Provided the Navy flags which are displayed downtown during Navy football weekends and events
• Provides discount credit card processing through Heartland Payment Systems

If you are already an ABA member, please make an effort to become more active. We need your help to achieve our goals. Join your peers at the bi-monthly meetings. The time commitment is only one hour, one evening every other month. Contact a neighboring business and talk to them about joining the ABA. Volunteer for the Marketing Committee, we always need people! And if you really want to get involved, let us know and the Nominating Committee will consider you for a position on our Board of Directors.

If you are not currently a member, please consider joining us to help make Annapolis a better place to live and work.