Taste of Dunwoody 2012 is SOLD OUT

UPDATE:  TASTE OF DUNWOODY 2012 IS SOLD OUT
Let the scalping ticket brokering begin....

Back again for the 9th year in a row is Taste of Dunwoody to benefit Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.  Once again, SDOC is sponsoring the event and my husband and I can't wait for February 3!

Get tickets now.  No really, drop what you're doing, get your wallet, go here, and get tickets.  Back in early December, the event was 25% sold.  It has got to be more than that now.  Last year people thought they could buy tickets the day of or at the door and were shut out.  There were networks of people springing up looking to buy or sell.  Avoid the rush.

Taste of Dunwoody is produced by Dunwoody Friends of CHOA.  All Dunwoody moms and dads, organizing fundraising for all of the funding gaps every pediatric hospital faces.  Check them out on Facebook.  (And if any of the admins from this page are reading - update your info slide, it's about a year out of date.  8^P )  Share the TOD.  Share the FB event info too.

Last year I posted why CHOA fundraisers and support events are so near and dear to us.  Can't think of anything that has changed since then.  Some of you didn't believe my comment about working at the cancer kids' summer camp.  So I dug around and pulled out the camp group picture:

The counselors in their rugby shirts are around the edges and our patients with their siblings are in the middle.  That's one of the official group shots of Camp AOK ("Anderson's Older Kids") around 1995-ish.  It was 103 degrees in the shade and we all had sweat in places we don't discuss in polite company.  The photo was taken the first night of camp after the campers arrived and got settled.  I was the co-counselor of "Cool Chicks Only" cabin.

This summer camp was exactly like any other.  Except the camp nurse was a certified nurse practitioner with an oncology specialty and had to organize maintenance chemotherapy regiments for half of the campers.  Usually that just meant medication in pill form.  A pediatric oncologist was on site at all times.  The guys in the clinic fought over who got up to camp for the week.  The child life specialists (psychology team) sat with the counselors before arrival to discuss each of the campers - who was back this year, who was new, who would never be back again.  These teens saw life and death first hand more than many people do.  Child Life  was always on hand to allow them to talk out their feelings and cope with their own well-founded fears of their own mortality.  That was also the reason for "summer prom":  some of these kids did not live to see their high school senior prom.  But most of the teens in this picture are healthy adults today.

The support programs provided by CHOA through private donations and sponsors are similar to what I have worked with in the past.  Medical care is only the beginning.  For children with serious health issues and their families there's a lot of work involved in finding a new "normal life".  This is what Taste of Dunwoody and other Friends' events are paying for.  Taste of Dunwoody is a lot more than just a party!

Psst - tickets.  Go get 'em.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Dunwoody City Council Meeting January 9.

The short version:  paranoia and hate mail campaigns win the day.  Home based business owners can not expect any rights from this Council.  Except for the right to pay taxes to the city.

The long version:

The first read of the home occupation amendment was converted to a "discussion" per Heneghan.  He insisted that the council "slow down" on its recommendations regarding home business owner rights.  I guess 10 months of discussion is moving too fast for him.

The neighborhood nazis have the ears of the council. Bonser related an anecdote about an "illegal" business causing traffic problems.  She did not say if the people involved in the "illegal" operation were penalized in some way.  Heneghan claimed that the sign ordinance in combination with this new ordinance will allow homes to have commercial signage.  What the sign ordinance has to do with occasional customer contact was never made clear.  Home based operations are not permitted to have signage, period.  Shortal also shot down any expansion of home business owner rights.  He also was skeptical of having a page of links to community organizations on the Dunwoody city government page.  Deutsch explained that the Community Council wanted to streamline the process for home business SLUP applications.  Nall asked questions that pointed out difficulties in the practical application of parts of the amendment.  Thompson and Davis were silent.

There are some glaring contradictions in the "discussion".

Heneghan and Bonser are concerned with "unintended consequences" of allowing home businesses to visit with customers at home.  They were not concerned, however, with the unintended consequences of allowing the same homeowners to raise farm animals in their backyards.  The "needs" of a half dozen families indulging a hobby carry more weight than 500 families making a living.  Hmmmmmm..............

Concerns were expressed regarding "deliveries" at odd hours of the night that would disturb neighbors.  Concerns were not expressed about DeKalb Sanitation or the USPS making rounds as late as 9 PM the past few weeks.  Double hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmms.............

The council expresses concerns about potential parking issues due to home based customer contact.  The same council is not concerned about the inconvenience of street parking for any other reason.   Especially when it is provided by the city as Joe Hirsch pointed out in his public comment. Triple hmmmmmmmmmmmms...........

The council is concerned for neighbors who may be "annoyed" by a home based business.  The council is not concerned about home business owners being harassed by council members' friends in HOAs.  Home business owners have no protection from accusations of "nuisance" that stem from a personality conflict or other frivolous source.  If there is a conflict, the blame will always be placed on the business owner.  I'm running out of hmmmmmmmmmms.

I have no hope that the "discussion" of this ordinance amendment is going to get anywhere.  The general assumption is that all home business owners are careless, evil, and the perpetrators of all things uncomfortable.  Any opinion defending a home business owner that did respect their neighbors was dismissed as an aberration.  Several hundred business owners smeared with a handful of anecdotes with no supporting evidence and no chance for appeal.  This is what Dunwoody calls "transparency in government."  I give up.

I do not and will not advocate violating the law. However tonight's discussion made it clear that homeowners who work from home will not have any rights or protections afforded them.   You can still apply for your SLUP if you insist, but you are subject to wholesale smear campaigns and whatever other tricks City Hall demands.  I predict that most home business owners will default back to "don't ask, don't tell".  The standard, per Bonser, is set by the scofflaws who do not bother to get licensed or pay their taxes.  All others are judged by that lowest denominator.

Is it worth it for a home based business to obey the licensing laws?

I believe not.  There are great expenses in time and effort with no support or positive acknowledgement from the city, and unchecked harassment from community activists.

Should every home based business obey the law anyway?

That's up to you.

To Link or Not to Link - and When

Everyone wants links to their website.  You get more people happening upon your site, and you get better SERPs (search engine results placement).  More links means more eyeballs.  But there is a time when links are more trouble than they're worth.

Back in the day, everybody just linked to each other.  Remember "web rings" and link pages?  That was the beginning of SEO.  But like the rest of the Internet the perception of who links to whom has evolved.

Links to other websites have been used since 1995 to reference related content.  It made it easier for webmasters to connect content without having to duplicate it and take up space on their own server, or to reference copyrighted content that could not be legally duplicated.

When you put a link on your website to another website, you are implying an endorsement.  It's a big sign post that says, "Hey, look at this!  It's good stuff!"  If it wasn't related to your content, or beneficial to your site, you wouldn't bother.

Linking to other sites can have a downside.  It can take attention away from what you're promoting or selling.  If the linked site changes its content, it can reflect negatively on your presentation.

What if there is a conflict between the sites' purposes, regardless of the content?  For example, if the Playboy Foundation wanted to link to Dunwoody Baptist Church, would DBC benefit?  I doubt they would think so because the organizations' philosophies are so different.  Or what if a local city government wanted to link to one of their houses of worship - but only one, out of many in town.  You just ran head-first into the First Amendment, prohibiting the establishment of religion.

Dunwoody City Council is discussing adding links to community groups on its website.  (First agenda item for Monday's meeting.)  Having worked with government entities and organizations with government connections, I am very familiar with this type of situation.

The Background:  The DHA approached City Hall and requested that a link to the DHA be placed on the main page at dunwoodyga.gov, alongside the Chamber of Commerce and CVB.

Problem:  the entire reason for the links to the Chamber and CVB was because of an agreement between those two organizations and city government to create a "unified branding" to reinforce each other.  The DHA was not involved in this agreement.

If the City added a link to the DHA (and ONLY the DHA) in addition to the Chamber and CVB, everyone is between a rock and a hard place.  The Chamber and CVB are bound to a strict style guide in their marketing because of the branding agreement.  There are all kinds of restrictions on how they may or may not use images, logos, colors, etc in all of their materials, including the websites.  It can be a real hassle for each group to distinguish itself from City Hall.  (Ask me how I know....)

So on one side, if the DHA were to be displayed as the Chamber and CVB, they would have to be bound by the same marketing restrictions.  Since becoming more familiar with the DHA, I don't see that happening in this time-space continuum.

On the other side, if the DHA didn't have to follow the same branding style restrictions, the CVB and the Chamber would be on the phone screaming bloody murder at City Hall 2 minutes after the link appeared.

Beyond the implications of the branding project, you have the implied endorsement.  A prominent link by the City to the DHA alone implies endorsement of that organization, to the exclusion of all others.  Every other HOA in town would bristle.  How is it fair for a city government to endorse one HOA but not others?  The arguments over that scenario would make the Chicken Debacle look like a toddlers' playdate at Brook Run.

Hutmacher, in his memo associated with the recommendations (linked above) takes the right approach for any organization faced with the question of building links.  It's a good rule of thumb for any business looking to reference or endorse information outside their own website:

1)  If your business or organization is part of a larger national or international group, consult their guidelines first before adding any more that may conflict.  The memo points out that ".gov" domains have inflexible regulations on advertising private entities.  I learned about that working on websites for both M. D. Anderson (a state-funded hospital) and the DAR (a private organization that was incorporated by an Act of Congress which brings with it responsibilities for their content and the potential for intervention by the Feds.)

2)  Decide what information or content would enhance your site without competing with it. Think about what would make good reference material, or what would make your business or organization appear to be an authority on your subject.

3)  Use a legal disclaimer.  Disclaimers are the final protection between your intentions on your website and a court of law.  But it won't change the visitor's impression:  that your site is endorsing another.  Hutmacher's memo indicates a disclaimer that would absolve the City of any legal ramifications of a link to other content.  In addition, the memo outlines classes of content to be added as community organizations as a whole.  If a single link to a single HOA were added to the exclusion of all others, that would be an endorsement no matter what kind of disclaimer was posted.  But when you add all HOA's, plus houses of worship, and schools etc for good measure, that perceived endorsement is diluted.  The proposed content becomes an authoritative reference on Dunwoody life.

4)  Create a clear website policy going forward regarding the evaluation of links to outside content.  It will make your life much easier when this question comes again.  There will always be something new on the Internet (social media, anyone?) that may or may not be worth referencing.  With a clear focus on your site's goals, you can make decisions about outside links that will strengthen and reinforce your company's web presence equally and fairly even as the Internet evolves.

Business-Related Agenda Items at City Hall on Monday

Attention business owners in Dunwoody:  pay attention to the City Council agenda on January 9.  There's lots of crunchy issues that will affect many in our business community.

(Thanks, John for the heads-up on the agenda)

FIRST READ: Amendments to the Text of Chapter 27, Sections 27-183, 27-185, and 27-1321Regarding Home Occupations in the R-100 (Single-Family Residential) District and“Supplemental Regulations.” 

To review, there are several hundred home-based businesses operating inside of Dunwoody - about 20% of the licensed institutions, according to some estimates.  As of now, unless a proprietor is willing to put themselves through a merciless gauntlet of sequential meetings, city hall missteps, and occasional hysteria, a single customer may not enter a home to do business.  Enforcement is difficult as most of these companies will adopt a "don't ask, don't tell" policy of occasional customer contact and there is a double standard regarding traffic and parking between strictly "traditional" residential use and work-at-home use.

This amendment will allow customer contact by right in R-100 residential districts under conditions that will prevent business traffic (vehicle, human, etc) from exceeding that expected in an active residential community.

Given that a comprehensive zoning rewrite is on the horizon and re-evaluating zoning is always a hazard, I believe that these amendments are very fair both to non-working residential homeowners, and entrepreneurs or business owners who need to use their home for work.

Now with that said...  there is room for improvements.

For example - no one has adequately answered the question, "Why just R-100?  Why not R-75, R-50, etc?"  The city memo points out this discrepancy.  The test case that these amendments were inspired by is zoned R-50, which makes the restriction even more ironic.

Then there is this section:

(11) Home Occupations shall be limited to a maximum of 2 business related visitors at any time. Business related visitors include but are not limited to employees, business partners, contractors, subcontractors, clients, customers, students, etc.

This is new in that customers are not the only ones restricted.  Originally, the ordinance was silent on contractors, et al.  Now there is a limit 2 (or 4, depending on which version goes through).   We're still in "don't ask, don't tell" land.  Contractors for "residential purposes" are not limited.  But if you use your home for your business, and you have a contractor painting or repairing it, is that residential or business?  How would you know?  How would you enforce any penalties for the latter?  These questions can't be addressed in a mere amendment; I look forward to the thought behind the comprehensive rewrite of the zoning code.

And for today's giggle:

(18) Home occupation with customer contact shall not include the use of a dwelling unit for the purpose of operating a massage therapy, psychic, fortuneteller, tattoo, and/or body piercing establishment.

I am still waiting for any member of city government from the council on down to state with a straight face why this sentence is necessary.

There is also no condition expressly stated that would ensure that a business based in a home would remain a residence.  Not that it would ever be permitted to happen but I can just see someone trying to pull a fast one by opening a business at home, then saying, "Oopsy-daisy!  I need to expand, let's rezone to retail."  Um, no.  It's not worth the inevitable hassle and bad karma.  Just put it on the record that home-based businesses have to remain a residence first and you spare yourself a ton of drama down the road.  

I am glad to see this type of legislation finally being added and I look forward to showing the skeptics that the ~500 home-based business owners are not a threat to their homes.

2)  "Branding" (read:  redevelopment) of Georgetown

Here's the link.  

First thing you notice about these proposals is how they are awash in the currently fashionable, politically-correct buzzwords of "multi-use", "mixed use", "transit village", "transit-oriented",  "transit-friendly" "livable centers", and "(insert niche group here) - friendly" .  Once you sweep away all that static and get down to the legitimate suggestions, there's an interesting mixed bag.

Next thing you notice is that every one of these plans suggests the construction of more-than-single-family density on any piece of land available.  Townhomes are multifamily housing too, gang, so think carefully how that conflicts with the general public consensus of "no more higher-density" housing.  Either the company that created this plan thinks we're not going to notice the conflict, or they don't care.

Different pages have conflicting recommendations.  Page 24 recommends more "open spaces/parks" but elsewhere in the document, those same open spaces are recommended for some kind of housing.  Can't have it both ways.  The example of the old Shallowford ES site stands out.  Why not make this a recreational space as a buffer between the commercial and residential areas (can the gymnasium be renovated or is it beyond repair?) instead of more townhouses?  

I would be cautious about building communities on the promise of access to bus stations.  MARTA is notorious for changing schedules or deleting routes altogether.  What would happen if you built a nice community with the promise of transit access and then MARTA pulled the route?  Who is willing to gamble that much time, effort, and money when the "mass transit" draw isn't guaranteed - and why?

Page 6 of the zoning analysis is an example of what I described before as an overly-objective analysis of a business use that disregards the realities of the consumer's use of it.  They showcase an image of the Georgetown Kroger as "undesirable" because it has "parking out front" and is "auto dominated".  No kidding, Kojak!!  When shoppers go to the store to stock up, they drive their cars and they want to park out front!  Sounds pretty darn desirable to me.  Even the Dunwoody Green Market packs the parking lot with minivans and SUVs, not bicycles.  They all vie for the closest space too, no one wants to walk an extra 10 -20 feet back to their car!   This is what happens when you guide your "sounding boards" with static pictures separated from real-life property usage and elicit emotional reactions separate from their actual behavior.  I don't think the person(s) who wrote this was stupid - but they believe that we citizens are.

On the other hand, the proposal is also surprisingly specific about the business opportunities in this region.  The housing (proposed and current) will cover almost every demographic:  older seniors, younger couples and singles, and families with children.  So your potential customer demo is:  people who are alive.  About 2 miles away is Perimeter Mall and you also have Dunwoody Village nearby.  The report points out the potential competition, but also the opportunity for a different business approach.  The opportunity is ripe for businesses that are:

a)  small enough to not be able to afford rent at the Perimeter

b)  large enough to require a storefront

c)  not currently available in Dunwoody Village

d)  can market to any of the above age demographics and/or their subgroups

e)  is locally owned to appeal to the community spirit.

See page 49 ("Retail Targets") and the "Detailed Market Assesment Report".  Not only does it line up the dots, it connects them for you.  IMHO, best part of the whole report.  

Local entrepreneurs and niche marketers rejoice - this is your place!

BTW - "Branding" takes up only a couple of paragraphs and finally gets mentioned on page 52.  In general I am not impressed with a lot of the suggestions because of the "buzzword bingo" mentioned above but I do believe they are on track with suggestions of a focal point in the PVC farm.  This *is* the place to elicit a positive emotional bond - like The Farmhouse in Dunwoody Village.  IMHO, it's a good idea to have some kind of symbol and expression of pride in every commercial center in town.  The Farmhouse will always be "THE" emotional heart of the city but if you strengthen the identity of other centers as well, the whole city will benefit.  Don't underestimate the value of symbolism in this process.

That's enough for one day.  Back to work!

World Peace

Ran across this while sorting files on my server.  From Snowpocalypse 2011.  Just seemed appropriate.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Finishing only those work tasks that are absolutely necessary before kicking back and ringing in 2012. I hope the new year is a wonderful one for all of you!

From Good Day Atlanta on Fox 5: Business Moms Find Ways to Work from Home

Business Moms Find Ways to Work from Home: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Channel 5 had this segment on Good Day Atlanta this morning about full-time moms who find a way to make a living even as they manage their homes and raise their children full-time.  None of this is new, by any means but it's an important reminder that economies and personal circumstances are constantly changing and people have to find a way to make a living by thinking outside the box.

A few thoughts on the video segment:

1)  I hate the term "stay at home" mom (or dad).  "Stay at home" implies you're not working and nothing could be further from the truth.  I prefer "full time" mom/dad.

2)  While moms are still the ones that struggle the most with whether to work full-time inside or outside the home, a growing number of dads are facing the same decision.  According to the 2010 Census (whose statistics I'm crunching for a new page on the Chamber of Commerce site) about 6% of full-time parents in Dunwoody are dads!  That's up from zero not too long ago.

3)  The one drawback of the story above was over the issue of childcare for work-at-home parents.  The mom with her four daughters hanging on her while she's working is completely unrealistic.  As I said in a post about 1 1/2 years ago, working from home is not a substitute for child or family care.  Work-at-home parents have to ensure that their charges are provided for, either by dividing their time equally, or working during school/daycare time.  To its credit, the story did showcase how some moms were using local daycare for their children while they worked.

4)  Working from home, either by telecommuting or entrepreneurship, is not a fad, or a hobby, or an oddball  threat to our residential neighborhoods.  There are several hundred home-based operations in Dunwoody alone.  (Another statistic I'm working on for the Chamber.)  I propose that work-at-home families and home-based businesses can preserve the residential neighborhood by providing income to pay the mortgage when the economy fluxes.  If you think a home-based business ruins a neighborhood, what do you think a series of foreclosed homes will do to it?  Time to take this movement seriously when the Zoning rewrite takes off.

5)  Check out Bob L's post outlining possibilities for future growth in town - or the lack thereof.  A strong business community is not the enemy of comfortable residential neighborhoods.  On the contrary it is what keeps residential taxes reasonable.   Those of us paying taxes multiple times because we are employers and business owners as well as homeowners say "You're Welcome".  Further, there is no clear line between "us and them"; those angelic homeowners and demonic business owners. Many of your neighbors are both.

In June the Dunwoody Chamber is putting on a Business Expo in a joint effort with the Sandy Springs Chamber (one of my many web projects in coming weeks).  If you are able, go on down and meet some of the local businesses and I'll bet you will see and learn about a lot of people you already know as residents.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year to all of my visitors!

RIP to another Dunwoody business

From Dunwoody Patch:

Red Mango in the Dunwoody Hall Shopping center has closed its doors.
The store opened in September 2010, with a grand re-opening in April.
Sunday, the store was shut down, because sales were lagging.

Open Mike Tuesday:  the trend to "buy local" has reached fever pitch in the last couple of years.  From major national PR efforts like Small Business Saturday sponsored by American Express, to the Dunwoody Chamber who has been promoting Dunwoody's local business community since 2008, to the latest effort by the Patch in union with Artichoke Designs in the Williamsburg shopping center via the 3/50 Project.  Lots of stats about how much small local businesses support the economy, how the majority of taxes are paid by the business community and how Dunwoody homeowners will pay lower taxes if the business community is strong, yadda, yadda, yadda.  I'm all for it too because my own firm caters to these small businesses, creating websites that will enhance their visibility and sales on a budget they can afford.

I'd like to hear from you.  Comments are open, you can be anonymous if you want.  There are no right or wrong answers here.

Does being "local" really make a difference when you shop?  Do you see shopping at a locally-owned enterprise as an imperative to sustain our community?  Or does it come down to trust in the brand, regardless of whether it is "local" or not?  Do you even see the correlation between where and how you shop and the success of Dunwoody?   Why do enterprises, like Red Mango above, fail?  Why do other succeed?Are there reasons not to patronize the smaller businesses or localized shopping centers in Dunwoody?

Share your thoughts when you have a moment this week!

My Dunwoody Christmas Wish List

Fresh blood, fresh ideas are coming in January.  I don't believe for a minute that the "vacation" time during our holidays will be empty.  I can smell the brainstorming from my own office.

Here's my wish list for the consideration of the seven "Santa Claus"s that will take their seats in a couple of weeks.

1)  Create a law/ordinance/directive to clarify the distinctions between commissions officially organized by the government and local advocacy groups. If someone gets appointed to a commission, and they're already serving on the board of (for example) the DHA, the Chamber of Commerce, the Nature Center, PCID, any other civic association, they have to resign from that board before accepting the appointment.  Either be a government-level arbiter that is able to assemble and balance all of the needs of the different groups in the city, or be a private-sector advocate for one small segment of it.  Pick one.  When a person serves as both private and public officials at the same time, the potential for conflicts of interest abound, and could potentially involve legal action via the Department of Justice.  No one has time for that.  Just avoid the conflict up front.

2)  Put the everyday needs of the everyday Dunwoody citizen at the center of the zoning rewrite.  Too often the zoning codes that the commissions sat around masturbating to had more to do with  superficial appearances and less to do with how the residents themselves use the goods and services provided by Dunwoody's business community.  For example, whose idea was it to not have easy-to-read "OPEN" signs on storefronts in Dunwoody Village???  Or to have lighting that makes menu boards and drive-throughs difficult to read?  What dumb mistakes!  When I'm running around with kids and getting errands done before school pickup times, I have to look quickly to see if the store I want to use is open.  If I don't see a clear "OPEN" sign, or other easy-to-read signage from my car, I'm not stopping.  So, Almighty Commission Members, how exactly did your ordinance benefit me, the Dunwoody Homeowner, with this aspect of the ordinance?  You didn't.  You made it difficult for me to get the resources I need close to home.   And this is just one example.  You have a chance early on in the life of Dunwoody to create ordinances that make life easier for the citizens.  Don't repeat your past mistakes.  This is a living city, not a replica by Norman Rockwell where ceramic dolls sit where you place them and do nothing.  Create ordinances FOR the residents' practical needs, not separate from them.

3)  While on the subject of the Zoning rewrite, incorporate the fact that different segments of Dunwoody have entirely different characters.  Some are strictly single-family residential.  Others (like the PCID) are different.  All are going to require different standards of zoning to match their character.  Don't punish the non-single-family regions for their existence.  In fact, it's the PCID's commercial nature that makes Dunwoody feasible.   Remember how DeKalb County was happy to siphon our taxes and yet not provide the services we paid for?  The situation is similar.  If Dunwoody is happy with the money PCID generates, then makes it difficult for them to function with overly-restrictive ordinances, then the government has become a clone of Vermin (sic) Jones' administration.

4)  Last one on zoning, I promise.  People are choosing to use their homes and property for a greater variety of activities.  Each activity may or may not be a threat to the "residential nature" that we purchased our homes for.  I don't believe that anyone in their heart of hearts gives a damn what others do on their property, so long as they don't have to deal with it.  That's not unreasonable.  There's potential for a lot of leeway.  Write your residential zoning codes with an eye toward flexibility within a defined limit, as I described a few months ago.  Make sure Code Enforcement is sufficient to handle the full daytime population when questions or problems arise.  You'll spend less time rehashing Every. Single. Thing.  a homeowner wants to do with their home and more time "fixing stuff".  ;-)

5)  Best thing I've read from a council member so far was in the Crier this week.  Excerpt below.  Full article is here:

In an interview later in the week with The Crier, Davis said the first thing he was going to do was obtain an office. Wright has not used one very much.
“I’m going to be in the office on a regular basis,” Davis said. ....
Davis said he intended to hold regular office days to which the public will be invited.

Outstanding idea, and one I hope is maintained throughout this administration.  In the future Dunwoody will probably have its own civic complex and our elected officials can probably count on office space there.  Until that day arrives, a local office space is a sound compromise.  I'll add a few points to it.

• Create an office space for ALL SEVEN council members for this purpose.  Get everyone who is able, to hold regular office hours.  Divide the cost seven ways.  Not only will the citizenry benefit from knowing where and when to go to talk to a representative, "office hours" can help council members contain their city responsibilities and separate them from home/family/personal responsibilities.  
• Invest in an office space away from Dunwoody Village or from the commercial area around City Hall.  Get closer to the average citizen, like the majority who didn't vote.  For some reason they feel that their opinion is not worth casting a vote.  Find out why.  Go outside your normal mindset and meet some Dunwoody citizens you wouldn't meet ordinarily.  You may find a new supporter or even a solution to a future problem that you wouldn't have if you hadn't stepped outside your comfort zone.  
• Be careful out there.  No one should use an office space alone, no matter where it is.  Some scum have no problem knocking over banks near Dunwoody Village, don't make it easy for them to come for you.  
• Even after Dunwoody builds its own civic complex, it's going to be necessary to go OUT TO people to meet them and hear what's happening on the street outside of election campaigns.  People let their guard down when on their home turf, even around the swimming pool of their local swim/tennis club or apartment complex.  It's amazing how open your constituents will be if you chat while they're wearing little more than their underwear.  You can also consider holding city council meetings in various places outside city hall, a suggestion I made some time ago on John's blog when he opened the question about how to develop Brook Run.  You've got school buildings, a theater (if it's ever renovated), churches, synagogues, the J, the library, and even picnic pavilions in parks.  You reached out to the public where they were during your campaigns and it worked - you're elected.  Keep up the tradition now that you're in office!

Just five items.  Not too much for Santa to ponder, right?  

Obligatory work comments:  "vacation" is a relative term.  My "vacation" will be made up of proposals to those companies that requested them, starting projects on new contracts, and lots (LOTS....) of system upgrades on my hosting server.  Lots o' new goodies for the good boys and girls to use on their web services for Christmas and Chanukkah!  If you'd like to chat about an idea for your website or other Internet outreach, you can contact me 24/7 at www.sdocpublishing.com.  I will always find time to pencil in one of my neighbors for their project.  

Here's another hint:  keep your eyes peeled for the Chamber's Business Expo to be unveiled in January.  Lots of local business by your neighbors making their living.  You'd be amazed at what big  things are happening right here in town.  

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukkah, Happy 2012 to everybody!  Unless I hear from some of you before then I'll see you next year.

In time for Christmas - the latest email scams

Scammers don't take a break for Christmas and there's a new addition to this year's crowd.  Email scammers are taking advantage of business owners who are up to their necks in email and may be too harried to look closely at the emails they are replying to.

The latest scam is a fake Better Business Bureau (BBB) complaint.  Here's a screenshot of one I got the other day:

No one wants a BBB complaint on their record, right??  You're dealing with so many customers at the busiest time of the year, plus getting your finances straight for tax season, plus duties at home.  It's easy to panic and just click on the link and see what's happening.  Don't click.  Resist the urge.

Like many spoof emails there will be attempts to fake the "@bbb.org" address and use formal business-speak. However the syntax and grammatical errors are typical of someone who uses English as a second language.  The clincher is the email link you are asked to click.  

When you hover your cursor over the link, the URL that appears has nothing to do with the BBB.  In fact if you do click on it, it will redirect you several times until you end up in a site hosted in India.  (Special trick you do through a firewall on full blast and several backup antivirus programs.  Don't try this at home, kids.)

A similar scam making the rounds is the "ACH payment rejected" scam email.  If you do a lot of online payments (say, for payroll, or for federal or state business-related taxes) this one may scare you too.  You are not going to be contacted via email with generic language if an electronic payment fails.  It's a scam.

No matter how crazy it gets, don't panic and click links on emails that threaten you with late payments or a bad business rep.  No reputable institution is going to ask for your personal identification like driver license numbers or social security numbers.  Nor will they ask for your bank passwords, account numbers, etc.

If you have any doubts about an email you receive, call your bank or the BBB directly and confirm the information.

Hang in there!  Only 12 more days til Christmas!