“Working at the Prince Edward County Chamber of Tourism and Commerce has been an amazing learning experience. I am enthusiastic about meeting all the new people, whether it is on the phone or in person. With the help of my informative co-workers, I should be able to assist people in answering the questions they have and I hope I will be able to continue to fulfil these duties for years to come”, states Alex.
Alex will continue to work on the weekends into the fall.

Good news to report! Visitors coming into our office, January to June 2005 versus 2006 are up 16%. Interesting to note, information packages mailed out to the U.S. are up 2% over the same period. Chamber Website statistics also show an increase. In July there were 207,044 hits compared to 161,178 in July 2005:

Webervations: July hits 11,062 compared to 5,076 in June 2006.

Have You Ever Wondered?
With the ever rising price of gasoline, how much of the gas tax ever gets to the building and maintenance of our roads?

“Of the $5.2-billion collected in federal gasoline taxes (2005/2006), Ottawa will spend 17% or $882-million on actual road and highway construction and maintenance. In 2003, Canadian Municipalities spent $6.4-billion on building and maintaining roads. More than 80% of all roads in Canada are Municipal roads.” Excerpt from The Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Beware of Domain Slamming!

In business we all own a domain name on the Internet. This is your piece of real estate on the web and is the key to your online business. Whether it is a .com or .ca or any other type of domain name (technically called URL – Uniform Resource Letter) we all bought it from either an online company or through our Internet Service Provider or our web hosting company. It is part of our business identity.
An aggressive marketing tactic known as "domain slamming" is confusing many domain name business owners, causing some to unwittingly switch Internet service providers and risk bringing their on-line operations to a halt.
You might receive an official looking letter informing you about "expiration notices" or "renewals" usually by snail mail giving the perception that they are the company you have your domains registered with - which isn't the case. What you don't know or read will be used to get you to unknowingly transfer your domain.
The companies using these tactics know you won't read the fine print and/or don't remember where you registered your domain and they count on that.

The more astute registrars (the companies selling and hosting domain names) have backed off these practices due to widespread complaints claiming deceptive practices. At almost any credible registrar you can find a message to their customers warning them to not assume renewal letters or e-mail other than from their original registrar. The attention getter with these "renewal letters" is that they are many times offering a less expensive fee to entice you. This is certainly an instance, amongst many others online, where shopping on price alone is not recommended.

What happens? Businesses don't realize that the letter is NOT from the company they originally registered with and end up unknowingly transferring their domain. If someone familiar with domain renewals/transfers does not handle this process properly, you could cause your Web site to go off-line or worse yet, lose ownership of your domain(s).
If you receive an "IMPORTANT NOTICE" or "DOMAIN EXPIRATION NOTICE" from any registrar who is not the one you originally registered your domain(s) with - simply throw it away.

Regardless of their claims of you missing an opportunity or having to spend more money later - ignore them. Their "notices" are created to give you the impression that they are the original registrars offering you a deal. You send your check; confirm by e-mail and your domain gets transferred to them and you are then their customer. Worse yet, if you realize the error you made, just try to get them to provide a refund or resolve the situation in a friendly and professional tone.
One simple step to take to avoid any problems in regard to your domain collateral is to immediately contact your technology consultant to verify if in fact the communication (postal mail, e-mail or phone) is legit and to get their recommendations. Unless the communication is from the company you originally registered your domain name with and you know that for a fact - most likely the communication is nothing more than a sales letter trying to entice you away.
Protect yourself from companies that will assume you will not double-check their claims. Take the time to note where your domains are registered, read the fine print and partner with a consultant you know can be your advocate on such issues.

Next Meet & Greet:

September 12th – The Miller House, Milford
October 10th – Huff Estate’s Winery
November 7th – The Regent Theatre
December 5th – The Waring House

Don’t Miss Out!

Our thanks to:

Kathy’s Collections, Paper Images, Hip Kids, Ideal Bike, The Painted Peppercorn and Robyn’s Nest and the Bean Counter Café for their hospitality.

SEMINAR 1 - Gaining Business Advantage
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
1 – 4:00 p.m.
Huff Estate’s Winery, (Hwy 62 & Cty Rd 1)

Alison Davies, highly demanded marketing & business consultant and president of More Business Advantages, will help you gain greater understanding on what motivates your customers in order to gain future advantages for your business. You will learn to identify buying patterns based on various “ages and stages”, spot emerging markets, create advertising and marketing initiatives that ‘speak’ to customers and increase their response. This seminar will help you design and implement strategies to build, engage and retain your customer base.

SEMINAR 2 - Beat The Taxman!
Tuesday, October 24th, 2006
1 – 4:00 p.m.
Picton Legion, (Johnson & Main St.)


Stephen Thompson, tax partner with Wilkinson & Company and bestselling author of 'Beat the Taxman! Easy Ways to Save Tax in your Small Business’ will show you how to save tax dollars. You will gain insight on current tax issues, small business matters and learn about new or pending legislation.
This seminar is an interactive session designed to address specific tax issues facing seminar participants – so bring your tax questions and concerns to this seminar! Steve’s goal is to help you come out a winner in the fight to save taxes in your business.

PECCTAC Members: One Seminar: $15; Both: $25
Non-members: One Seminar: $25; Both: $40

BEWARE OF INTERNET SCAMS!
We just received this e-mail and I understand there have been others that have received the same. Never ever give out your credit card information under these circumstances.

Hello Dear, I am Jones Morgan, I will like book reservation for some delegates that will be coming for summit in your area on the 10th September to 20th September 2006. If you have vacancy for the specified period, give me the total cost for the whole period of 5 single rooms for 10 nights for 5 guest. Also, confirm if you will accept major credit card for your payment. Again, Breakfast will be included. Thank you and looking forward to hearing from soon. The total cost should be in Euro. Kind Regards,
Jones Morgan.
+447024017988