GBACC Board Meeting January 14, 2019 Minutes | Greater Brunswick Area Chamber of Commerce

January 14, 2019, 6:35PM.

Adam called the meeting to order at 6:35PM.

Roll Call

Present: Adam; Sheila; James; Ellis; Mehdi; Donald; Tim.

Minutes

Minutes from last meeting. Sheila moved to approve. Seconded by James. Unanimously approved.

Reports

PRESIDENT

Working on outreach to membership. Plan to visit businesses here and talk to them regarding why they are in GBACC, what we can do for them.
Way to find retention rate for membership? Burress has that information, but would have to search for it. Estimated to be about 80-85, where we lose 5 and gain 5 every year. We sent an inquiry to members about why they were dropping, but did not receive a response. Burress sent letters to members what may have to be dropped, and already received one response to renew.

VICE PRESIDENT

SECRETARY

Sending out Newsletter at different times to raise engagement, going to try Thursday mornings.
Send any content to James by early on Wednesday.
Start a spotlight for businesses. Make sure to have the same standards for selecting those businesses so as to not favor any one member over another.
Business spotlight v. welcoming a new business to GBACC.
Working with Mhedi to have Go2s automated social media posts with emails.

TREASURER

Budget presentation by Burress.
Review of Budget.
GBACC Bucks – $25 and they can redeem at businesses. Did not use last year, but can be useful to get people to events.
Keep GBACC Bucks for this year and try to use them. Will use the first GBACC Bucks at the upcoming Membership Meeting and will be advertised in the Newsletter.

James moves to approve Budget. Mehdi Seconded. Unanimously approved.

House Keeping Activities

Mehdi has admin rights to establish Google Drive. Mehdi will try to reset those passwords for treasurer, vice president, and secretary.

LONG-RANGE CALENDAR

Board meetings on second Monday of the month at 6:30PM.
Member meeting on January 28th, 2019. Go over the year’s calendar and go over expectations; increase member involvement for events via committees and ask those members to become involved in GBACC events. Need to put meetings on the calendar/website. Burress to send out postcard. James to update Newsletter.
Schedule Member Meetings once a quarter (January, April, July, October).

WEBSITE REVIEW

Abbie updated some membership details.
Phil has control of website.
Suggestion to have everyone go through website and take notes and provide suggestions.
Nomination of Donald to update the website. Go on Go2s to post comments on website by Friday afternoon.

NEXT LEVEL BUSINESS CLASS

WELCOME TOTES

Table go-to person until next meeting. Solicit volunteers at the next member meeting.
Picking dates for packing and distribution, tentatively March 1, 2019.

CO-OP ADVERTISING

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). 6 routes in Lovettsville and Brunswick. 15 cards last year for 8,100 cards being sent out. Divided into 8 small adds. Cost designed to cover printing and postage. Next one scheduled for February 4th, and is now full. Requests by some non-members to get add space. CM Bloomers has been paying 160% of cost to be on ad. Bicycle show also asked. Mehdi discussing cost of sending out EDDM. Boosting the EDDM with social media. Take a percentage off the cost and boost it on social media within a 10 mile radius of the mailer. Social media would give us metrics to see engagement. Do a few runs through March to see if it is working and worth boosting the EDDM. Motion by Mehdi to continue with EDDM, plus boosting on social media on a trial basis through March. Seconded by James. Unanimous approval. Burress to develop newsletter content for this.

ANYTHING FOR CONSIDERATION AT NEXT MEETING

Frederick Chamber add in the FNP. Place something in the Citizen? Use the Community Directory? Burress and Time to discuss content and bring back to the Board.

Burress moved to Adjourn. Sheila seconded. Approved unanimously.

Meeting closed at 7:50PM.

Minutes submitted by James Rippeon.