Called to order at 6:07 by Ellis as acting chair
Sheila, Mehdi, Abbie, Tim, and Angel
1) Minutes
The November 13 board meeting minutes were approved as written
2) Treasurer’s report
Expenses for 2017 were $12,148.04 Income $13,067.75
Budget for 2018
The treasurer presented a draft budget which was amended with these changes: 1) Allocate $700.00 for a 2-page ad in the Citizen at year’s end for a “Year in Review” like the Frederick Chamber did; 2) Allocate $500 for expense and income for social media cooperative advertising; 3) present a balanced budget by indicating deficit spending as coming from reserves.
A motion to approve the budget was passed
3) GBACC Bucks
The GBACC bucks need to be vetted to make sure all the businesses listed are members in good standing. A new JPG is needed for the newsletter
4) Jan 22 membership meeting
The bylaw amendments will be sent out as a special bulletin to the membership, presented at the meeting and voted on at the next membership meeting. The draft budget will also be sent out as a special bulletin.
Sheila will purchase snacks and drinks for 20 people.
A draft agenda was presented and the board agreed that it would attract more attendance if we had a special speaker. Mehdi agreed to prepare a 15-minute talk about Bitcoin and electronic payments. This will be strongly publicized.
5) Shred Day – April 28
Tim will work on a press release, Abbie will post on F/B, Ellis will prepare the ads and flyers. It was agreed to ask Jerry to help with the other tasks, such as getting sponsors, confirming All-Shred, distributing flyers, and so on.
6) Advertising program
A co-op advertising program for 2018 was described by Ellis. There will be 3-4 placemats in full color with the map on the back. GBACC will pay for some space on the front and will use that space to promote activities such as Shred day, Wine & Chocolate, etc. We will also try an EDDM card as we did for the Expo with GBACC buying some space to promote activities. The full-page co-op ad in the Citizen will also be three times a year.
We will also develop a mechanism by which members can advertise on social media. Mehdi will work with Ellis on this.
A motion to adopt the 2018 advertising program was passed
7) Biz 101
The November board meeting set the next Biz 101 for Thursday, February 22. Christina has agreed to have one of her employees lead the class. The topic will be some aspect of advertising.
8) Web site
Despite repeated requests the web site has not been kept up to date. Ellis will send a note with a deadline to Phil.
9) Calendar of events
The latest version of calendar graphic was displayed
10) Admin Assistant
The possible admin assistant has not worked out. There was agreement that Ellis may ask Jerry to help as needed.
11) Membership
The January renewal letters have been sent. The proposed budget includes an expectation to recruit 20 new members in 2018. Tim has prepared a list of businesses in the Directory which are not GBACC members. We need to start the recruiting process.