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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLaurel Chamber of Commerce (6)R A 1, R O A D R E I N E R Y C Il 1 E F O S E P H P O W C A M P Laurel Chamber of Commerce "In the Historic Highway Transportation Log Cabin" 108 East Main Street Laurel, MT 59044 Phone/Fax: (406) 628-8105 www. laurelmontana, org Agenda For: Thursday, Board Meeting: 1. Call the meeting to order. ~i. 0CT 2 4 2005 2. Approval of the minutes from the October 13th meeting. 3. Bills presented for payment: a) Ben Franklin - supplies b) Great America Leasing - copier c) Total bills: 7.99 78.39 $ 86.38 Account Balances: 10-14-05: 10-t4-04: Regalar checking $1,244.76 $1,207.19 Money Market savings 5,070.37 2,040.35 Total $6,321.17 $3,247.54 Christmas Decorations Accounts Total Accounts 5. Speaker: Mayor Ken Olson, Jr. Old Business: a) Set date for working on Chrislmas decorations b) Set date for patting up Chrismms decorations 6. New Business: a. Report on the Nomination Committee Meeting b. Christmas Home Lighting Contest progress c. Pick two aames for Newsletter Spotlight on Business d. Set up DSA Committee e. R & P Reports 7. Open Forum 8. Adjourn Meeting VISITOR INFORMATION ° $ 374.06 1,164.93 $6,695.23 $4,412.47 INTERPRETIVE DISPLAYS T O Y E O S A R K L E W I S & C L A R K R A L R O A D R E F I N E R Y C 1 E F J O S E P H P O W C A M P Laurel Chamber of Commerce "In the Historic Highway Transportation Log Cabin" 108 East Main Street Laurel, MT 59044 Phone/Fax: (406) 628-8105 www. laurelmont ana. org BOARD MEETING - OCTOBER 13, 2005 The Laurel Chamber of Commeree Board of Directors met on Thursday, October 13, 2005 at the Owl Junction Diner. Those in attendance were: President Donna Podolak, Vice President Linda Wedel, Secretary Klm Wombolt, Directors: C.J. Dahle, Stephanie Potter, Jerry Bauck, Wes Barley, Glenda Seabrook, and Mike Nardella; and Chamber Members: Dee Dee Crider and Shelly Townsend. Doima called the meeting to order and asked all present to take a moment to bow their heads in silent prayer. Donna asked all present if they had a chance to read the minutes fi.om the September 22"a meeting. Jarry made a motion to approve these minutes as read, seconded by Wes, and all present voted in favor of the motion. Bills presented for payment were: Jan's IGA - $54.80, Ben Franklin - $7.49, NorthWestern Energy - $23.97, Crytech - $24.95, Dynamic Designs ~ $37.90, Qwest - $67.97, Montana Dakota Utilities - $22.39, and Montana State Fund - $335.14. Klm stated that the Montana State Fund bill has increased by about $35.00 since last year. Stephanie stated that everyone's bill has increased. Klm also stated that she would like to lransfer $2,000.00 fi.om savings to checking in order to enver these bills and others due to come in. She stated that the Chamber is doing exlxemely welt since the Chamber is usually very close to running out of money at this time of the year. Mike made a motion to pay ~he bills and to transfer the money out of savings. Stephanie seconded this motion, end all present voted in favor of the motion. Donna reminded all present that there would be a ribbon curing today at Tin Horn Casino located next to Ace Hardware. She encouraged all to lxy to go to this. Old Business: Discussion was held on the proposed changes to the by-laws. Klm stated that the fwst change that was requested by the by-laws committee was on page three, section 4 - vacancies. According the by-laws right now, ifa director is absent fi'om three consecutive board meetings, be/she will be automatically dropped from the Board. Klm stated that most of the director would have to be dropped end most are not aware that they have missed more than two meetings. It was decided at the by-laws committee meeting that the directors should be warned that they are about to be dropped end should be given a chance to let the secretary know if there is a reason why they were not able to make it to the meetings. Klm stated that some of the directors who are delinquent may want to be off the board and just don't know how to go about getting offthe board other than not attending meetings. If a form letter were sent to the directors who are delinquent, this would give them a chance to talk about why they are no longer attending the meetings. Wes stated that he should have left messages on the machine as to why he was not able to attend meetings. He said that he is sometimes called out of town end the last minute and should lmvo left a message to that effect. Stephanie stated that she too has been absent a lot. She said that at times she has every intention of attending the meeting, only to be called out to do something for her business at the hast minute. Glenda stated that ifa director has an excuse, their absence would not be counted against them. Klm asked about these guidelines. Linda stated that in her line of work, everyflaing cotmts towards educational credits, which are earned during Thursday meetings. This makes it very difficult to attend the Board meetings. Klm asked if it would help to change the day of the meetings. She stated tlmt the day of the meetings ware changed fi.om Mondays to Thursdays a few years ago since it w~s very difficult for people to attend on Mondays, especially the bankers. Jnn'y stated that the directors should be willing to admit when they VISITOR INFORMATION · INTERPRETIVE DISPLAYS C S R 0 D S T 0 Y i 0 $ 0 P A K I, E I S C L A K cannot attend meetings that they may have to step down and let someone else take their spot. He stated that he has to close his shop on days of the meetings in order to attend. He said that he is willing to do this in order to be on the Board. KLm asked if attending committee meetings could go towards attending regular meetings as called for in the by-laws. It was stated that if the committee meetings were to count as regular attendance, then they would have to also be counted against whoever did not attend these meetings. Mike suggested that it should be kept to three consecutive regular meetings and not have committee meetings count in favor or against the attendance. He also stated that the wording of, "automatically," be changed to, "may." It was also stated that after two missed meetings, a form letter would be sent to the director. If the director does not get back to the Chamber office and he/she misses one more meeting, he/she will be dropped from the board. Kim stated that the other change suggested by the by-law committee be as follows: page 2, section 2 - selection and election of directors. She stated that the by-law committee omitted a sentence at the end of the paragraph, that was suggested be put back into the by-laws. Kim stated that this would give the board a way of making sare that someone who may not be good for the Chamber not be allowed to stay on the board forever. She stated that while everyone on the Board has been good for the Board, there might come a time when that changes. This would give the board a way of getting this person offthe board while being able to save face. KLm further stated that sometimes the directom get major bm out and with this s~ipulation, it would give them a chance to take a year off and rest from all of the many things that the Chamber does. She stated that directors can be involved in the Chamber even if they are go offthe board. The sentence that the committee would like added, is as follows: "No Board member may be elected to two or more consecutive three-year terms. At least one year must separate each elected three-year term." KLm stated that this does not include the Executive Board. A person could still serve three years on the Board as a director, and then serve as Vice President, President, and Past President. Jerry made a motion to have these changes made to the by-laws. This motion was seconded by Glenda, and all present voted in favor of the motion. Klm was asked what more has to be done in order to get the by- laws changed. KLm stated that she would have to contact every Chamb~ membea- and let him or her know of the proposed changes and give them ten days to respond, lfall agree, then the date has to be put on the new by-laws as to the day of the changes. A copy of the new by-laws has to be sent to the State and to the I.R.S. Mike said that he knows of non-profits that did not notify the State or Federals of their changes to the by-laws. KLm said that this may be so, but it is not too much lrouble to notify these entities and this would insure that the Chamber not be in violation of any rules. Discussion was held on proposed changes to meetings and committee meetings. Those present were not sure if the committee meetings should be held after the regular board meetings. Sometimes the meetings run over and it is difficult to take more than an hour for the regular meetings. It was stated that the Chamber needs to have two monthly regular board meetings in order to get everything done. This part should not change. New Bosthess: KLm asked the Board if they would again like for the Chamber to sponsor the Christmas Home Lighting Contest. Shd explalned that an ad is put in the Outlook asking residents to enter into the contest. A letter is also sent to the past participants asking them to again be listed on the Christtnas map. Ads are sold on the back of this map. Cenex or CHS is asked to sponsor the p~Snting of 2,500 Ckrismms maps. Three $50.00 prizes in the form of Laurel merchant bucks are given to the residenls who win the contest. KLm said that this project brings a small amount of money into the Chamber. C.J. stated that everyone makes a big deal out of Lanrel being the City of Lights and this map helps to add to that. It was decided that the Chamber should again sponsor the Christmas Home Lighting Contest and that KLm should get going on whatever needs to be done to do this project. Mike stated that he would like to see the Chamber implement a plan where there is a theme and where the Laurel residents are invited to participate. He said that this would be a community wide project in which each different street would do something like have a certain type of decoration or this decoration could be some{hing for the whole town. Since Laurel is the City of Lights, a certain type of decoration could be made and sold to each different resident. Something like a flag in order to show support for the ~'oops, or something like that. The Chambar could be the sponsor and have other groups go door to door to sell these decorations. The group would receive a percentage fi.om sales. Someone like Ken Miller could be contracted to make these decorations. The money received from this projec~t could be used to purchase more decorations for the business district of Laurel. If the costs could be kept down to $20.00 or $25.00 per decoration, more people would purchase these. It would be a way of selling the Laurel Christmas spirit. Mike stated that it is too late this year to start on this project, but it is something that the Chamber could begin working on at the start oft. he New Year. Donna stated that Mike should be the chair of that committee and he could get things going for this. Discussion was held on setting up a date for working on the Christmas decorations. Kim explained that this could be done now on a Saturday or Sunday morning or it could be done the Saturday before the decorations are put up. She explained that if the work is done now, it is a lot warmer out and more people may show up to help. If the work is done the day before putting up the decorations, the decorations are loaded onto trailers are ready to be distributed to the areas where they are to be hung. Klm stated that the decorations are always put up on the Sunday during Thanksgiving weekend. Kine said that the Schesslers prefer the decorations be put up on that date. Donna asked all present who would be able to help put up the decorations. All present stated that they would not be able to help with the decorations on that weekend. Mike suggested contacting the Schesslers to see if they would like to change the date. Khn said that she would not call them since they plan around this certain date and she would prefer not to make them angry. Donna said that ¢l?e w~uld call them to see if they could move the date up by a couple of weeks. The R & P Reports were handed out to all present. Open Forum: Mike stated that he read the minutes fi.om the last meeting in which Richard Bernhardt spoke at the meeting about running for the office of mayor. Mike said that he hopes that the Chamber is not endorsing a candidate for political office. He further stated that as a member of the Billings Chamber, he knows that the Billings Chamber does not get involved in politics. Kim stated that the Laurel Chamber is definitely not endorsing anyone for political office. Richard asked if he could speak to the Chamber. She further added that Mayor Ken Olson will be at the Chamber's next meeting to speak to the group. Kim stated that it is important for everyone to stay informed and this is a good way to do that. The meeting was adjourned.