Kevin Brady called the meeting to order at 6:39 p.m.

Business began with a description by Reverend George Hart (Centerville United Methodist Church), who heads up the Saugerties Area Council of Churches and Sue Andersen, who is the representative to the Saugerties Chamber, from the Council of Churches, and is resondible for their Christmas Toy Store.

The Reverend's talk is summarized in a handout he provided, which can be found HERE.

Beyond what's in that handout, we learned that the food pantry operates for 2 days and 1 night per week, and that they are able to buy someone between $2 and $3 worth of food for each $1 they spend.  We were really impressed with all that the Council of Churches does for those less fortunate in our community.

We then moved on to a discussion of the upcoming Not-for-Profit-themed members meeting.  Mark indicated that the participating groups were Saugerties Historical Society, ArtLab, Artists Studio Tour, Farmers Market, Saugerties Area Council of Churches, Esopus Creek Conservancy, Ulster-Greene ARC and possibly Susan Weeks' "Healthcare is a Human Right" organization.  It was decided that each group should have approx. 5 minutes each to speak, so as not to have the meeting go on too long.

Next topic was Hors'n Around Saugerties, past and future.  For the past, Bob and Beth are still getting together to work out the exact figures for expenses and income.  Bob reported that the overall income from the auction was $56,400.  The individual artists' checks have gone out, and that totaled $14,737.50.

As for the future, Kevin and Tom Struzzieri connected and Tom is OK with Danette working in a major role on the 2009-2010 version of Hors'n Around Saugerties.  There was a unanimous vote to have the money doling out percentages for the 2009-2010 season change to 34% charity, 33% artists and 33% Chamber.  This was partly in reaction to a general vibe from our Treasurer that when the dust settles on his calculation of Hors'n Around expenses vs. income, the Chamber will not have made as much money as the effort expended warranted.

Regarding the topic of "publicity photo taking/submission", Mery reaffirmed her goal of taking photos at our events and getting them at least in the local weeklies and possibly in the Freeman and other papers.  Nancy Campbell will be a back-up person for Mery, if/when Mery cannot make a meeting/event.

"What's Happening in Saugerties" Kiosk . . . Mike Campbell reported that with the work on the Flea Market, he didn't have much chance to focus on writing up the specs for a call for proposals.  He reported that an alternative and simpler idea has come up . . . to enclose in glass or plexiglass the poster in the bricked-in wall along the Partition Street side of the Tango Café.  This will be given a further look (width of sidewalk, proximity to exhaust fan, etc.) and a decision will be made soon.

Member-to-member discounts.  We're getting closer (6 or so submissions), but we haven't yet achieved the 10 submissions we would like, to get this idea off the ground.  Mark Smith showed the design for the membership card.  Everyone liked it.  The only suggestion was to add the year.  There was some discussion about whether the discounts should be for 1 person per business or the full set of employees for each business.  It was decided to start out with 1 person per business.  The next update to the application will ask if the member wants to offer a discount to other members.

The Garlic Festival recap was that there was good cooperation with Ulster County Tourism (shared booth/some of their people filled in) and that Saturday was a good day, with lots of visitors, balloons handed out, etc.  Sunday was a rainy slog.

Flea Market recap was that the crowd size seemed to be somewhere between the first event (Oct. 2008 - largest crowd) and the 2nd event (June 2009 - smallest crowd).  People seemed happy with the vendors/variety.  It wasn't mentioned, but there needs to be more focus on food vendors.  There was discussion about a performer who used drug references in his songs.  All seemed to agree that for a family event like the Flea Market, this should be avoided.

Recap of upcoming Chamber members meetings:

• Thurs., October 29th (Not for Profit) meeting at Kierted House
• Thurs., November 19th meeting at the Exchange Hotel renovated back room, featuring the artists (Jean Campbell and Jacquie Roland)
• Thurs., December 17th end of year party, either at the Lazy Swan Restaurant or at the Renwick Clifton House

Ideas for speakers as we move into 2010 were Holley Carnright (Ulster County District Attorney), Steve Finkle (Kingston Economic Development), Central Hudson's almanac guy and Bill Fpleging and Minda Zetline ("The Geek Gap").

Bob agreed to help close on the documentation we need to get together to get our 2nd $500 Quadricentennial payment.

Kevin Brady will talk further with Ward Todd about a possible swap in memberships.  (Ulster County Chamber membership in ours.  Our membership in theirs.)

Mike noted that he applied for a PayPal credit card, to avoid having to put a lot of expenses on his own credit card.

The agenda we drafted for the October 29th members meeting is:

• Member intros
• Each NFP presenter gets 5 minutes to talk about their organization
• Quick member-to-member discount reminder
• Calls for volunteers - 2009-2010 Hors'n Around Saugerties and this December's Holiday in the Village

 Prepared by Mike Campbell.