1. Welcome & Call to Order
2. Update re: New Interim Director  & New Interim Secretary
3. Approval of the June 19, 2019 Minutes
4. Financial Report – Ramona Holm
   1. Update re: Reconciliation of Business Recognition Awards
   2. Update re: Reconciliation of Music In The Park 
5. Report re: Membership – Rachael Broderick
6. Report re: Canada Day – Martina Ernst
7. Report re: Sponsorship Coordinator
8. Report re: Gift for Shawn Desjardins – Kat Salvador
9. Report re: Stayner Curling Club & Fundraising for Building Renovations
10. Report re: Chamber Inventory in Tourism Building – Kat Salvador
11. Report re: Market Volunteer & Visitor Information – Kat Salvador
12. Update re: Winter Decorations – Charley Lewis
13. Update re: Remembrance Day Banners
14. Update re: Clearview Chamber of Commerce – Charley Lewis
15. Discussion re: Events. Open to ideas for the upcoming year – Charley Lewis
    1. Stayner Country Christmas (Tree Lighting) - Chair
    2. Business Recognition Awards 2020 – Chair
    3. 1888 Market Place (NEW)
    4. Music In The Park - Chair
    5. Canada Day Celebration - Chair
    6. Stayner Arts Fest - Chair
    7. Business Crawl 2020 - Chair
    8. Workshop Series – Upcoming and Future Ideas 
16. Update re: Crosswalk
17. Other Business

 

General Meeting Minutes
June 19, 2019
217 Gideon St., Stayner
6:30 pm

Attendance: Charley Lewis, Fiona Frustaci, Kat Salvador, Craig Raffan, Cayla Dutka, Larry Culham, Phyllis Cook, Dave Huskinson, Tamara Culham, Lisa Squire, Martina Ernst, Kelly and Karson Kramer, John Broderick, Linda Parolin, Robin Parolin, Petronella Bell, Ellen Craig, Ellen Gerrior

1. Welcome and call to order.

2. New Directors: Welcome and Congratulations to New Director, Craig Raffan.
   
   Shawn Desjardins has unfortunately rescinded his Directorship. The Chamber must now look for a new Director. Interest for the position must be submitted by July 31, 2019, to be voted on by the Chamber Executive.  Announcement of the Interim Director will be at the September General Meeting.

3. Approval of the May 15, 2019 Minutes: It was motioned by Larry Culham, seconded by Craig Raffan and carried.

4. Financial Report: Ramona Holm was absent, so the Financial Report was not presented.

5. Membership: Kat Salvador reported that we currently have 65 members. 
   
   Rachael Broderick has taken over the Membership Coordinator position from Kat Salvador.
    
   A discussion took place about allowing a free membership to someone interested in chairing an event for the Chamber, but his suggestion was discounted. Instead, it was discussed and decided that any lapsed member who re-joins the Chamber part way through the membership year can join with a pro-rated rate, but they must also pay for the following year’s membership at the same time.
    
   It was motioned by Kelly Kramer, seconded by Craig Raffan and unanimously carried that invoices from Ramona Holm’s Quickbooks program will be emailed to members in November for the following year’s membership.

6. Volunteer Coordinator: Thank you to Linda Parolin for agreeing to be the volunteer coordinator.

7. Business Recognition Awards: Charley Lewis and Fiona Frustaci acknowledged the below winners of the awards.  They are waiting on Ramona Holm to calculate the profit/loss of the event.

8. CIP Grant: Deadline for CIP Grant applications are the end of June.

9. Roxodus: Charley Lewis reported that Roxodus has been approved by Town Council.
   Kelly Kramer and Troy Disabato are working on the website cross-promotion of the Stayner Chamber of Commerce and Roxodus, with the organizers of the event.

10. Downtown Beautification: Lisa Squire and Tamara Culham went to a Town Council meeting to present some comments and suggestions about the downtown beautification plans. Unfortunately, their presentation was overshadowed by the Roxodus issue so was not really discussed.  They will go to another Council meeting after July to try again.

11. Upcoming Events:

1. Canada Day: Martina Ernst presented a new $1,400 budget for Canada Day, which was accepted. She also asked for an additional $100 float on top of the budget, just in case it is needed. Approval of the $100 float was motioned by Kelly Kramer, seconded by Lisa Squire, and unanimously carried.
   
   Martina is also looking for volunteers to help with Canada Day festivities.  Summer student, Kenzie, will be there to assist but another 5-7 volunteers are needed. A post about volunteers will be put on Facebook
    
   Larry Culham is helping with the parade and the Heritage Society is looking for more people to be in it. The parade starts at 11:00 am.

2. Music in the Park: John Squire Sr. will remain as the Chair for the remainder of the year. A new Chair will be chosen for next year.

3. Stayner Arts Fest: Coming up on July 6^th. The event will take place at Station Park.

4. Witches Walk: At the May General meeting, a motion to increase the Witches Walk budget to $1,000 was motioned. After much discussion, it was motioned by Larry Culham, seconded by John Squire Sr. and carried.

5. Stayner Country Christmas (Christmas Tree Lighting): Craig Raffan expressed interest in Chairing this event for 2019.

6. Duck Race Day 2020: It was discussed that a Chamber event during the Kinsman’s Duck Race Day is not being well attended so it will either have to change or be canceled for the future. It was decided that the Chamber will still encourage involvement for the event with local businesses by asking them to decorate their windows with duck themed displays, having a sidewalk sale, etc.  It was also suggested that the Chamber could sell popcorn on the main street.

7. Mothers Day Basket 2020:  Linda Parolin has stepped up to Chair this event.

8. Business Recognition Awards 2020: Fiona Frustaci is interested in Chairing this event again next year but has requested that someone else take care of the bar.

1. Business Crawl 2020: Kelly Kramer is interested in Chairing, but she will report at the September meeting whether this will be possible for her or not.

10. Workshop Series: The upcoming workshop on theft prevention and a round-robin has been canceled due to not being able to secure a police officer to speak about theft prevention.  The next workshop is on Oct 2^nd and will be on Goal Setting. It is requested that ideas for future workshops be suggested.

12. New Event Ideas:

1. 1880’s downtown Market: Charley Lewis has suggested the idea of a downtown market each week in the summer (day of the week to be discussed) that would take place on Stayner’s main street downtown, in front of the shops. The idea is to encourage people to walk downtown to go into the shops while also looking at the market booths outside of the shops. The Thursday market will still remain as-is.  Larry Culham mentioned that back when Stayner was very young, Saturday was the day that farmers came into town to stock up on supplies for the week, so Saturday would be a significant historical day to hold the market.

2. Tractor Search (Working Title): Kat Salvador suggested the idea of a tractor or farm implement search, where old, rusted and unusable pieces of farm equipment are donated, and the Chamber asks local artisans to paint them bright colours in rust-proof paint.  The equipment will then be placed in designated locations around Stayner or Clearview as a landmark that is distinctly ‘ours’.  An additional idea would be to have the date that Stayner, or Clearview, became a town hidden somewhere on the piece of equipment. It would be fun for people to hunt for it.

3. Chili Cookoff: Phylis Cook suggested the idea of a Chili cookoff, charging $5.00 to participate.  Phyllis will re-join the Chamber and Chair the event.  The event date was discussed for the middle of September.

13. Branding: The idea was discussed that Stayner should maybe brand itself as a farming town. There was discussion about a Facebook campaign for public input (what does Stayner/Clearview mean to you?) and a hashtag for the campaign.  Larry Culham pointed out that this was already done several years ago, and the data should still be available through Clearview Township.

14. Clearview Chamber of Commerce: The idea of changing the Stayner Chamber of Commerce to the Clearview Chamber of Commerce was once again brought up.  It was decided that this is something worth investigating.  President Charley Lewis will be pursuing information on this process.

15. Chamber Revenue Increase: Charley Lewis brought up the discussion that the Chamber needs to find a way to increase its revenue. Membership does not bring in enough revenue for the Chamber to do anything significant. She would therefore like to see the Chamber hire a part-time paid position for someone to go after sponsorship, and work on money making ideas/events for the Chamber.  Larry Culham mentioned these types of marketing/fundraising positions have a direct correlation of money secured to salary paid.

16. B&B Destination: Charley Lewis would like to make Stayner a Bed & Breakfast destination for tourists.  She would like to try to get people to open their house as B&B’s because Clearview has many walking/biking trails.  We can work with Tourism office to map out routes.  She would also like to create a B&B/Airbnb list that can be provided to visitors to the area.  How to start a Bed & Breakfast could be a good workshop idea for the future.

 Next General Meeting will be September 18, 2019

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