Date:               August 13, 2008

Place:             Precision Flow

Time:              6:30 pm

Attendees:

Kevin Brady

Mike Campbell

Mark Smith

Heather Plonchak

Miriam Adams

1. Financial updates and necessary discussion

·         Balance remains steady, nothing out of the ordinary to report

·         Miriam indicated that the Health Insurance rates will go up as of 10/1.  We are awaiting increase from Erin Nevins.  In addition, we will inquire about additional carriers and benefits

1. Fuel Oil Plan

·         Kevin touched base with Josepha today and Josepha was not able to secure any additional information, to date.

·         Ulster County Chamber is not offering a fuel oil plan this year

·         We have not been able to secure an exclusive arrangement, to date

·         Board will present all options to the membership and decide on vendor(s) after open discussion

·         Bob has investigated gas plans and will develop a document to present to the membership at the August meeting

·         Kevin will gather all recent developments regarding fuel oil options and create a document that can be presented to the membership at the August meeting

1. Kathode Ray 

·         Justine will relinquish duties as webmaster

·         Mike has indicated that we should have one person as point of contact for information that is provided to Kathode Ray for website postings

·         Website needs thorough review, Mike and Mark would like to go through the website and assign ownership of items that need to be changed or maintained at our September board meeting.

·         Kevin suggested that the “Benefit to Members” should listed be on the website

·         Kevin has offered to allow the Precision Flow web designer to assist in future developments regarding the website

·         There should be one point of contact from the board that communicates with both the webmaster and Kathode Ray

1. Membership guide

·         Heather feels that we should introduce the membership guide in 2009 due to the fact that we are now into August and the guide is not complete

·         Kevin suggested that we send out 2 letters.  The initial welcome letter for new members and a letter for members who are renewing

·         Heather is still in need of board member bio’s

1. Advertising

·         Miriam suggested that we organize a committee in order to secure discount advertising rates, for chamber members, with several of the local publications, radio stations, etc

·         Heather and Miriam will work together to contact interested vendors and kick off the project

·         Miriam suggested the possibility of having the vendors present at one of our chamber meetings and would like to aim for the October meeting in an effort to have advertising secured for the holidays

·         Mark suggested that we host a Saugerties Chamber business to business expo in 2009

1. Goals

·         Miriam will send out the possible goals, to board members, via email

·         Board members will be asked to review the document and respond with comments

·         Miriam will gather comments and present at the September board meeting

·         The final document will be presented to members at a future membership meeting

1. Review of Speakers/Dates/Locations for upcoming meetings

·         August 27^th at Village Pizza

·         Frank Falatyn/ Solar Consortium will be the speaker

·         Peter Lopez has also asked to speak in the evening

·         August 27^th 9-11 the Small Business task force will speak

·         Mike confirmed that the Bob Yerrick and Greg Helsmoortel will speak at the September membership meeting

·         October meeting scheduled at the Clark House may not be well attended as a result of the distance.  Board has agreed that we should change the location

·         Mike has suggested that we feature The Clark House at the October meeting.  Mike will discuss this with Christine Clark

·         Heather will arrange photos of Clark House for viewing at next meeting

·         Kevin will approach Markertech to speak at October meeting as well as host the meeting at Markertech

1. Committee discussions

·         Flea market plans are well underway and on schedule for October 18th

1. August Membership meeting Agenda

·         Kevin will kick off the meeting and introduce speakers

·         Frank Falatyn Solar Consortium

·         Peter Lopez

·         Fuel Plan

1. September Board meeting Agenda was discussed and outlined

1. Open Discussion

·         Sue Leblanc approached Heather and asked if the chamber would provide a letter which stated that the Chamber was in favor of raising the fee or the parking meters, as discussed at the July membership meeting

·         It appears as though the members of the Saugerties Chamber do not have access to benefits of the Ulster County Chamber.  The benefits apply to the Saugerties chamber as an organization not at the member level

·         Kevin will approach Ward Todd of Ulster County Chamber regarding a reciprocal membership, without the exchange of monies

·         Board discussed discontinuing morning meetings due to poor attendance.  All agreed for future scheduling

·         Bob and Kevin are still working on the data base and will share with the other board members once complete.  

·         Mark will review the data base and update the membership data (email ,addresses, phone numbers, etc)

·         The organization SAGE (Saugerties is About Growth Experience) is seeking donations for their upcoming youth awards event, Oct 5^th.  Heather asked if the chamber should have a booth or make a donation. Kevin will approach SAGE and find out what they are seeking in order to determine if there is a need to participate.