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RP BizArts

Chicago, IL
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The Rogers Park Business and Artists Networking Group was formed in May 2001 as a way for local business owners and artists to promote each others skills through the power of networking.
RP BizArts holds two meetings monthly—a Breakfast Meeting on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, and an After-Hours Event on the last Wednesday of the month - the breakfasts usually run from 7:30 9:30am and the after hours from 5:30 8:00pm. The locations for the events change, as they are hosted by different neighborhood businesses each time. rogerspark.com and The Rogers Park Business Alliance co sponsor the events. The host of the event, or co-host, generously offer food and beverage. The fee for either event is $5.00, with those costs covering administrative costs of organizing the event, though the fee is waived if you are an RPBA member or advertiser at rogerspark.com. (see January 12, 2010 letter explaining pricing policy)

Rogers Park Biz ArtsMeetings are open to all Rogers Park businesses, artists and community residents, so get involved! Come meet your neighbors, enjoy great local food, learn what others are doing and promote yourself.

Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list, to be sure to receive announcements of upcoming BizArts networking Events.

For more information about BizArts, please contact rogerspark.com’s Events Coordinator, Eve Brownstone at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Effective with our January, 2010 meeting, the Rogers Park BizArts encourages, but does not require its participants to support our local food pantries by bringing at least one canned good (or make a like kind cash financial contribution, which will go to the designated pantry).

For the first third of the year (January through April, 2009), we presently intend to distribute all donations to the Good News Community Kitchen, which serves meals to people in need.

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Rogers Park Business & Artist Networking attendees:

In May of this year Rogers Park Business & Artist Networking Group (now fondly known as “RP BizArts”) will be celebrating our ninth year of hosting networking meetings. We are excited to see that these events continue to draw strong crowds of local business people, artists and other community members, all sharing an interest in promoting themselves and their businesses and/or art projects and to learn more about what other community members are doing.

Initially RPBizArts was a grass roots operation. At the end of each breakfast meeting during our early years, we sought volunteers to plan and moderate the following month’s meeting.

In time, BizArts organizers saw that we needed to add structure to assure the continuity of these events. DevCorp North (now, Rogers Park Business Alliance (RPBA)) stepped forward, and joined the staff from rogerspark.com to assure that events are properly planned and moderated.

Around six years, with DevCorp’s urging, BizArts began hosting monthly “After Hours” gatherings, to go along with our monthly breakfasts.

Each month new businesses or organizations take turns hosting these events, offering them a chance to promote themselves. We always appreciate the generosity of the host organization or business who offer complementary food and/or beverage.

At our year end meeting in December, BizArts organizers from RPBA and rogerspark.com recognized that economic challenges made it less feasible for our two organizations to devote resources organizing and staffing BizArts functions without charge. Mindful that entry fees could discourage attendance, we sought to establish a reasonable fee structure that will promote strong attendance at events, yet help event organizers absorb some of the cost incurred in organizing, promoting and staffing these events.

As a result, effective with the January 2010 meetings, we will charge attendees a $5.00 cover charge, with that charge covering the cost of attending the event - to be able to participate in the networking event. Current RPBA members and advertisers of rogerspark.com will be exempt from paying this cover charge.

We hope you understand that we deem this step necessary to assure continuity of well run networking events, which inure to the benefit of all businesses, artists and residents of the Rogers Park community.

Meanwhile, we encourage you to monitor BizArts developments through any one of several mediums:

a) websites of rogerspark.com or RPBA (rogers-park.com)
b) follow us on Facebook
c) subscribe to e-newsletter services at either rogerspark.com or RPBA.

Thank you for your continued support;

Organizers of RPBizArts Networking Events