Date:                February 21, 2008

Place:              Precision Flow

Attendees:       Kevin Brady, Miriam Adams, Heather Plonchak, Bob Cranston, Mike Campbell, Barbara Budik

Elections

Elections for open board positions will occur at February members meeting

Richard Frisbee is sending out email that he will take absentee ballet and pole the membership

Heather will follow up with Richard to make sure the email goes out tomorrow.  If Richard can not get this out Heather will send this out.

Heather stated that we can accept a motion from the floor for all four ballets to be voted in as board members

4 nominees Mery Rosado, Barbara Budik, Mark Smith, Sue Simmons

  Discussion:

Heather has prepared a draft of the membership guide and has distributed to the board for review

All were in favor for placing the contact information for the board members in the guide

Board members will send comments and changes to Heather via email

Heather presented productions costs as follows:

200 bound color copies 12 pages $324/16 pages $400

Motion:  Bob Cranston motioned to fund a color pamphlet to fund the color brochure

Seconded by Barbara Budik

I Contact (Data Base) 
Justine Smythe currently assumes the following responsibilities:

• Answering the Chamber telephone
• Being the designer/liaison for the Chamber Web site (liaison between the board/members and KathodeRay)
• Updating the iContact database.  (This is contingent upon the board putting together a process that ensured she is kept in the loop regarding incoming membership requests.) 
• Maintain general email box
• Welcome email to new members
• Membership meeting alerts (mail and email)

• Pursue membership renewals. 

• Post cards and/or emails to members about upcoming meetings.

. 

When a new member joins Justine sends a welcome email.  Kevin should be copied so that he can send out a package, inclusive of a letter from the chair and a current membership guide.  This will also include a sticker which the chamber affiliated business can place in their window.  Stickers are currently available.

Justine has agreed to keep the phone lines as this will alleviate the issue with nights and weekend phone calls.

 Mike will have a discussion with Justine to find out if calls coming in to the Saugerties Area Chamber of Commerce number could be answered with the "Chamber of Commerce greeting", rather than "Smythe House".   If there is any expense (extra line, extra phone, . . . the Chamber will pick up the expense).  

Shop Local Campaign 
Membership was very receptive to this campaign   7 members signed up at the meeting.

Richard Frisbee has volunteered to be the first to produce

Heather will follow up with Time Warner to find out if they are willing to provide a reduced rate

The Shop Local Campaign will have to be tabled until the March Meeting due to the availability of the film crew

Elections

Committees

Present the committee roles

Solicit members

Announce committee meetings

Meeting Schedule

Special Events               March 6            6:30 PM            Meeting place TBD        

Marketing                      TBD

Membership                  TBD

Fund Raising                 March 12           6:30 PM            Precision Flow Technologies   

Committees: 
  Discussion

Miriam suggested that the board to discuss the effects of combining certain committees as a result of overlap and limited participation possibilities? 

Some members are more interested in specific committees. General consensus was to keep the committees separate

Mike suggested a high tech committee (for example public wi fi in the Saugerties area)

Barbara suggested that someone from Chamber sit on the EDC as a high tech representative of the chamber

Committees should hold annual elections for a chair and secretary

Report should come out of committee on a monthly basis

Future Membership Meetings:
  Discussion: 

Heather suggested member workshops

Mike brought up having notable speakers at the meetings

Kevin has accepted a position on the board for UCDC

Plan for June/July high impact speaker

March meeting is at Boys and Girls club

Boys and Girls club will announce the Youth of the year Award.  Roland from the Boys and Girls club may speak at the April meeting

Kevin will approach John Eickman of HITS regarding coming to March board meeting and future members meeting.

Barbara suggested that we ask John to address the status of the dam and perhaps we can capture information regarding the Red Hook/Saugerties Ferry.

  Discussion:

Bob asked if the board needed to vote on the payment of the specific bills.

Should there be a process for approval of bills?

Board determined that a vote would only be necessary if a request was made for items that were out of the ordinary and not for routine monthly payments

Miriam suggested that financial updates and other matters be a standard agenda item

  Discussion:

What are the benefits to our members as a result of the SACOC being a member of Ulster County Chamber of Commerce?

Kevin will take on that task

Next Board/Membership meeting

Preliminary agenda was set for next board meeting

Outstanding Tasks:

Motion to close the meeting:  Bob Cranston

Second: Mike Campbell

Meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm

Respectfully submitted by:

Miriam Adams