Carlisle Chamber of Commerce
Executive Board Meeting
September 6th, 2007  7:30 a.m.
Carlisle Chamber Board Room, 325 Garfield St., Carlisle, Ia.

Members present:   President Tammy Davis, Dr. Jennifer Olson, Dee Smith, Tom Wagenknecht, Ryan Meierotto 
Also present:  Executive Director Ethel Lee,  Dan Crum  and Shar Pardubsky from the GDM Partnership.

1. Open Meeting and Introductions:  Ethel Lee, Executive Director, opened the meeting at 12:05 p.m..

2. Approval of Minutes:

Minutes of the August 9, 2007 were reviewed.  Motion Ryan Meierotto to approve the minutes.  Second by Dan Crum.  Motion carried.

3. Treasurers Report: 

Ryan Meierotto, Treasurer, reported the following:

•  Reviewed the Treasurer report for August.

• Reported that the City paid $100 of the Monkey Survey

Motion to approve the Treasurer’s report by Tom Wagenknecht, second by Dee Smith.  Motion carried.

4.  GDM Partnership:  Shar Pardubsky

• There will be a Business After-hours hosted by Avondale Animal Hospital coming up.

• Chamber night at Principal Park was successful.  Around 1,200 attended.  The Stars hockey club is also looking at doing a similar event.

• The GDP regional meeting will be held in Indianola in 2007 and in Carlisle in 2008.

• Presented the GDM Affiliation Agreement for the board to conceder.  The dues will increase from $1200 annually to $1500 annually.  Discussion followed. 

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

Memberships:  

There will be a Ribbon Cutting for THE SHOP - following this meeting at 1:30 p.m..  The Ribbon Cutting for the Commons has been canceled.

Annual dues statements will be mailed out this month with payment due by Nov. 30^th. 

Ethel will be submitting Innovativevents for the Celebrate Business Award under the Best Kept Secret category.

Prospective members:

Lanes  -  
Hunters  -              

Directory:  Extra Directories have arrived.

Annual Dinner 2008:  Annual Dinner for Sunday, January 20, 2008.  Brian Brown, Drake Relays Director, has consented to be our guest speaker.  Have contacted Kearney’s to cater again.  The dinner will be held at the new Carlisle Middle School.

Cost of the dinner will be $25.   Ethel would like to recognize the Beautification Committee at this meeting along with the Citizen of the Year and Friend of Ed. 

Committee Updates:

• Revitilization Committee:    The committee is meeting once a month.  They have finalized the survey that we will be reviewing shortly.  Have ordered & received 1000 pens for the promotion.   The Historical Society is going strong.  Wanting to get the DOWNTOWN SIGN project started. 

• Beautification Committee:    Proceeds from the Bike Ride that were designated for next year’s hanging planters amounted to approx. $350.  T-shirts that were not sold at the breakfast will be on sale again tomorrow night at Community Pride night.

• Community Pride Night:    Will be September 7th.  If it is rainy, we will plan on holding the event inside the Commons and HS Gym. 

• Concert in the Park:    Had great weather for this event.  Wright’s graciously let us use the big tent.  So the performers were comfortable while playing for the crowd of 50 or so.

• Light Up Carlisle:    Will meet Tuesday, September 11^th at 8:00 at Moe’s.   Anyone is welcome to attend.

• Grants: Ethel has not received anything on the awards for the two grants that she has submitted.  She is going to prepare another one to MWA for the cost of the footings for the Downtown sign.

• Regular Meeting on Tuesday, Sept 11^th: Will be held at 6:00 p.m. at the Commons.  There will be a ‘Build your own taco’ bar, pop, brownie and ice cream for the menu.  Scott Bush will be our guest speaker.

• 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:

• Survey Update - Ethel shared the final version of the Community Survey that the Revitalization Committee has prepared on Monkey Survey.  Les Hartshorn will complete the link to the Chamber’s web page for us.  300 copies will be printed and promotion will start at the Community Pride Night.  On-line submission will be encouraged, but hard copies will be left at various businesses.  We will put something on Channel 12 and also in the Carlisle Citizen and the Record Herald.

7. New Business: 

• Chryl Stout -  Record/Herald re: Directory - Tammy introduced Chryl Stout, new reporter for the Record Herald.  Chryl will be the one working on the new directory for next year.  Issues from this year’s directory were discussed.  Deadline for the membership drive has been set for the end of this year, so we should have next year’s membership in place.  It was stressed that time is needed to edit the information included and also the advertising aspect needs to be worked on.

• Proposed 2008 budget – The proposed 2008 budget that the Finance Committee has prepared was   discussed briefly but was tabled until the next meeting to allow more time for discussion.

• Downtown Sign – A draft copy of the plans, picture and measurements prepared by Kevin Seiberling was distributed.  Ethel explained that this sign will actually be placed on school property, so she will go to their next Board meeting and share this information with them and ask permission to proceed.  Then the plans will have to be taken to the Carlisle Board of Adjustment because of set-back and sign requirements of the City.  Goal is to get the footings and rock in place this fall.  Ethel will write another grant from MWA requesting funds to get this portion accomplished.  This project will be taken to the regular membership at next Tuesday’s meeting.

• 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, October 4, 2007 12:00 p.m. at the Chamber office.

9. Adjourn:

• Meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Dan Crum
Assistant Secretary