Carlisle Chamber of Commerce
Executive Board Meeting
August 9th, 2007  7:30 a.m.
Carlisle Chamber Board Room, 325 Garfield St., Carlisle, Ia.

Members present:   Vice President Dane Wright, Ryan Meierotto and Dan Crum.  
Also present:  Ethel Lee, Executive Director

1. Open Meeting and Introductions:  Dane Wright, Vice President, opened the meeting at 7:36 a.m..

2. Approval of Minutes:

Minutes of the July 5, 2007 meeting were reviewed.  Motion by Dan Crum, second by Ryan Meierotto to approved the minutes.  Motion carried.

3. Treasurers Report: 

Ryan Meierotto, Treasurer, reported the following:

  •  A check was received from the Shacklee Corp. for $300.00.

  • Received a notice from Dainty Mini Storage that storage rate will rise to $65.00 for storage of chamber items. 

  • Two CD’s at Great Western Bank are coming due.  Rates were reviewed from both Great Western Bank and Peoples Bank.  Following discussion, motion by Dan Crum, second by Ryan Meierotto to renew with GWB for 15 months at 5.55%.  Motion carried.

4. GDM Partnership: Shar Pardubsky was not present.

5. Executive Director Report:    Ethel Lee was reported the following items:

Memberships:  

Ribbon Cutting for the new Middle School is to be Sunday, August 26th - 3:00 p.m.

Ribbon Cutting for the Commons will be before the Regular Chamber meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 11th.

Prospective members:

School Street Scholars & Day Care  -  80 School St.
Kees Camp  -  155 N. 1st Street
The Shop  -  (next to Lola’s)            
Jodi Buresh  -  Buresh Home Solutions

Directory:  Extra Directories have arrived.

Annual Dinner 2008:  Annual Dinner for Sunday, January 20, 2008.  The Drake Football coach has resigned.  Ethel has called the Drake Athletic office.   The Secretary is out of the office until next week.  Ethel will see if perhaps Tom Davis would be available.

Committee Updates:

  • Train 844: Train 844 was in town.  Mayor Randleman declared June 28th as ‘Union Pacific Railroad Day’.

  • Shaklee conference: Friday, June 29th.  The dinner at the school went well.  Thanks to Dane Wright for moving rock and attaching the plaque.  Mayor Randleman declared June 29th as “Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee Day”

  • Revitilization Committee:    The Committee is working on material that shares history of the older buildings downtown.  Bob Betzer is collecting some additional information to include in the brochures.  There was a meeting on August 8th for a group headed by Mary Sue to form a Historical Society.  The next Revitalization Committee meeting will be held on Monday, August 27th at 12:00 noon.

  • Beautification Committee:    Have received the check from MWA for the $2500 grant.   Have had a lot of good comments.  The committee would like to do again next year.  The brackets will need to be replaced because they are not sturdy enough.    Have received only $25 from the article that was placed in the newspaper, so will run something again.

  • Carlisle Sizzling Saturdays:    These were not as successful as we had hoped, but the vendors and downtown businesses want to do it again next year.

  • Community Pride Night:    Will be Friday, Sept 7th.  Kris Cooper from the school and Ethel have started working on this.  Dr. Lane has said to plan for 1600 people.

  • Pride Ride:    Saturday, August 25th.  -  There will be a Breakfast from 7:00 am – 12:00 pm.  Orange T-shirts with the same design as last year will also be sold.  A check from Casey’s for $300 has been received to help sponsor this event.  General Mills will be donating the pancake mix.

  • Concert in the Park:    Will be held Sunday, August 26th starting at 1:00 pm at North Park.  The Urbandale Jazz Band is coming.  Lenny Hudson and the Hartford Trio will also perform.

  • Night at Principal Park:    Thursday, August 2nd  -  Bus will be available again this year.  Carlisle will provide the buns for the cookout. Tickets are $3.00 for the game, $5.00 for game and tailgate.

  • Light Up Carlisle:    There have been a couple of meetings already.  Will be sending out an e-mail asking what  Businesses want to be included this year.

  • Grants: Ethel has applied for a grant through General Mills for $15,000 for the Downtown Carlisle sign.  If you have not gone onto the website to make a comment yet, please do so.  We are also applying for a Prairie Meadows grant of $10,000 that is due next week.  Attended an Iowa Arts Council workshop on grants this past Tuesday evening.  Not sure yet if there is any kind of grant that the Chamber can apply for or not.  There is money for Historical restoration, so think the proposed Historical Society may apply.

  • Workshops: Attended the Warren Co. Great Places workshop this week and plan on attending the next meeting that is next Tuesday.  At this meeting it will be decided if an application will be submitted for the entire County.

  • 2007-08 Budget and statements: Ethel will get with Ryan and set a date/time to prepare the 07-08 budget and review current membership list for annual dues statements.

6. Old Business:

  • Golf Outing - July 27th.  The number of sponsors was down. 

7. New Business: 

  • Survey- Monkey survey is available on line for residents to take.  Discussion on printing some surveys off having residents fill out the at Community Pride Night and then giving them a some type of prize such as a pen or key chain as an incentive to take the survey.  Ethel will look to see what other items might be available.  There is really no way to give a prize by having the survey done on-line.

  • Gittomer Live – Discussion on what to give to the Partnership for Gittomer Live.  Motion by Dan, second by Dane Wright to give $100 to the GDM Partnership to support this seminar.

  • Sept Program – Scott Bush will speak at the September Program but would like $100 for reimbursement for expenses.  Ethel will inquire as to what expenses there would be and see if any business would like to sponsor Mr. Bush.

  • Ethel Lee asked if a nominating committee should be set up to find officers for next year.  Consensus was that Ethel and officers would line up people to serve.  There was also discussion as to roll of the Executive Director for next year and her evaluation.  No action was taken.

8.  Next Executive Board Meeting:

  • Next Executive meeting will be on Thursday, Sept 6th at a time to be announced.

9. Adjourn:

  • Meeting adjourned at 8:20 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Dan Crum
Assistant Secretary