The January Business Roundtable will be held at the Viet Nam Café in Telford. Please note that we will be meeting on Wednesday, January 10 to accommodate the restaurant’s schedule. They are not open on Monday and Tuesday. The time is still 12:30 pm. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. In February, we will return to the normal schedule of Tuesday lunches.

The main topic for discussion will be the new and improved Souderton-Telford Main Streets Website.

RSVP to pam@stmainst.org or 215-723-6627.

The most popular feature on our website has consistently been the Business Directory. With the new website, the Souderton-Telford Main Streets has moved into a new era of interactive updates for the Directory.

For Souderton and Telford businesses that do not have a page, you now can register and log on to create it yourself. Complete the basic form with all the contact information, your website if you have one, a short paragraph about your business and upload your logo and a photo. How easy is that? The STMS staff will double check the submission and post it into the web directory.

If you already have a listing, you will still need to fill out the same form and attach the logo and photo. Why would you want to do this? You will then be able to log back in at any time to update the page yourself, keep your photo current, change your business hours, and add a new website.

Souderton-Telford Main Streets has FREE MONEY!!! Did that get your attention? If you are planning exterior work on your building this spring, now is the time to apply for a Design Challenge Grant. This is a 50% matching grant up to $2500 per building for each of the four years of the grant program.

If you don’t know where to start on your exterior improvements, design professionals who are volunteers from the Design Committee will spend an hour consulting with you for free. Submit this form to request help. Then complete the simple two-page grant application and include a description of your proposed project in words and pictures. The Design Committee meets on the third Tuesday of the month to review the applications.

Please note: The application must be approved BEFORE the work is done. Several projects that would have been eligible missed out because they submitted after they did the work.

Free, easy and downtown will look great! What more could you want?

The 48th Annual Souderton Holiday Parade was a huge success. Over 1600 people walked or rode in the parade and over 75 units participated. The entire parade route was lined with spectators who found the day seasonably cold but not unbearable. If you missed it, check out the photos taken by Janine Bergey along the parade route.

We want to thank our partners- Souderton Borough, Souderton Police, Franconia Police, Souderton Fire Department and Fire Police, North Penn Goodwill, Souderton Area School District, Grace Bible Church and all the volunteers who made the day run smoothly.

The sponsors whose support made the entire day affordable also deserve thanks: Hatfield Quality Meats, Franconia Heritage, Landis Supermarket, Sine’s Five and Dime, Richter’s Drafting and Office Supplies and Barrie Audio-Visual.

The 2006 Parade Committee will meet on Tuesday, January 16 at 7:30 pm in the STMS office to discuss how to improve next year’s event. Anyone who has a constructive comment to add to the discussion is welcome to attend and participate in the wrap-up.

Bear in mind that we have one year to get things running as smoothly as possible. 2008 is the 50th Anniversary of the Souderton Holiday Parade!

Come help us make positive things happen in our downtowns. Join a committee and be a part of the excitement. All Committees meet in the STMS office at 18 Green Street.

• Design Committee, Second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm
• Promotions Committee, Fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:30 pm
• Organization Committee, Fourth Thursday of the month at 7:30 pm
• Economic Restructuring Committee, First Thursday of the month at 8 am
• Business Roundtable, Second Tuesday of the month at 12:30 pm at a different restaurant or location each month January 2007 is an exception with the Roundtable on the Second Wednesday to accommodate the restaurant.

Winter weather may arrive this year. If it does, we will use the following meeting cancellation policy.

Listen for the Souderton Area School District cancellations on the radio or television or at www.soudertonsd.org.

• If they cancel school for the day, all STMS meetings are cancelled.
• If they delay school by an hour or more, all morning STMS meetings are cancelled. Evening STMS meetings will be held as scheduled.
• If they send the students home early, all evening STMS meetings are cancelled.

Many of our volunteers need to be flexible to handle kids who are home from school unexpectedly. There is also the safety factor. No meeting is so important that it is worth anyone risking bad road conditions.