April 17th, 2008 Board Minutes

Date: April 17, 2008

Time: 6:30 PM

Place: Precision Flow

Attendees:

Kevin Brady

Heather Plonchak

Miriam Adams

Mark Smith

Kevin Brady opened the meeting

Financial Updates:

In Bob Cranston’s absence Kevin provided the financial update, informing the board that we did not encounter any out of the ordinary expenses this month.

Follow up on outstanding items:

Outstanding Tasks	Volunteer	Status	Open/Closed
Approach John Eichmann of HITS regarding coming to May board meeting and May members meeting.	Kevin	Kevin contacted Tom Struzzieri and Tom agreed that a representative of HITS would speak at the May members meeting, regarding the development of the Cantine property. Kevin will secure the May date.	Open
Review Membership Guide and send comments and suggestions to Heather, via email.	All Board Members	Heather will email guide to all board members. Discussion tabled for next meeting .	Open
Update regarding the phone lines	Kevin	Kevin spoke with Justine and it was agreed that at this point Justine will continue with all discussed duties and will continue to answer the phones. If at some point Justine is not amenable to answering the chamber phone lines we will revisit the topic of the phones. At this point we will investigate a cell phone option as a possible alternative.	Open
What are the benefits to our members as a result of the SACOC being a member of Ulster County Chamber of Commerce?	Kevin	Kevin has not had the opportunity to touch base with Ward however	Open
Follow up with Time Warner to find out if they are willing to provide a reduced rate	Heather	Heather contacted Time Warner and is awaiting a reply	Open
Submit Bios to Heather by March 30	Kevin, Bob, Mery, Sue	Mark ,Mike, Miriam submitted bios all others need to submit	Open
Approach Speakers for upcoming membership meeting	Kevin	John Eichmann/May Lance Matteson/June	Open

General Discussion:

Farmers market has approached Heather and asked if the chamber would be willing to donate $100 again this year. Those present felt that this would be worth while as the Farmers market contribute towards commerce in the Village

We need to revisit highlighting members at the meetings and newsletter or emails. This item will be placed on the agenda for the next board meeting

Speakers for Upcoming Meetings:

Board discussed featuring a speaker or workshop at each membership meeting

Potential list of speakers.

John Mullen was not interested in speaking however Kevin has touched base with Lance Matteson of the UCDC in regards to speaking at the June meeting

Upcoming speakers should be placed on the May agenda so that we can begin to secure the future speakers

In an effort to alert membership of the upcoming speakers Heather will prepare and send the post cards 10 days in advance

Miriam will work with Barbara to confirm upcoming dates and locations and then ask Justine to post the meetings on the chamber website

Month	Speaker	Topic	Assignment to secure speaker
March	Peter Fairweather		Mike
April	Judith Spector	Farmers Market relocation/Saugerties Library	Heather
May	John Eichmann	Development of Cantine Property	Kevin
June	Lance Madison President of UCDC	Ulster Tomorrow	Kevin
July	Wiley Corp	Benefits and effects of Solar Energy	?
August	Kings Hwy Solar Consortium	Status and effects of solar development in Saugerties area	?
September	Bob Yerrick/Greig Helsmoortel	State of Union (Town and Village)	?
October	Town Board Candidates	Meet the candidates	?
November	Maurice Hinchey/Peter Lopez	Promotion of Commerce at the State and Federal level (direct effects for businesses of Saugerties)	?
December	Chamber Holiday Party	No speaker scheduled

Realignment of Committees:

Discussion

Miriam suggested that we tap into resources beyond those members that attend meetings

Community for Commerce (community volunteers)
Loaned Executives and Employees from larger area employers

Heather feels that we should add a newsletter committee

Membership Guide

Mark and Heather will work on a flyer announcing the benefits of becoming a chamber member

Miriam will email board members to remind them to send bio’s to Heather

Heather will distribute the guide to those board members who were not present

Due to the absence of board members this topic will be tabled until next meeting

2008 Goals

A separate meeting will be held in order to firmly establish 2008 goals

Meeting scheduled for April 30^th at 5:30 pm
Board members will be asked to submit suggestions prior to the meeting, via email.
Miriam will compile the suggestions and distribute at or prior to the April 30^th meeting

Established Preliminary Agenda for April Membership Meeting
(April 30^th Kiersted House 6:30 pm)

Established Preliminary Agenda for May Board Meeting

Next Board Meeting Date

Date: Tentatively scheduled for May 14^th

Place: Precision Flow

Time: 6:30 PM

^{Kevin closed the meeting at 9:00 pm}^{Respectfully submitted by: Miriam Adams/Secretary}