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JULY 2004 MINUTES
July Meeting
Minutes
(Word Doc)
Minutes of July 1 2004 meeting – held at the Mt. Airy Fire Hall
President Tim Barkley called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m.
Introductions followed with the following in attendance:
Mike Zimmer, Attorney
Audrey Stapf, Stapf Crafters
Cheryl Knight, NWSB
Jim Gill, JMG
Archie Rogers, Rogers Engraving
Kaye Kolb, Rohrbaugh’s
Ray Miller, New Horizon Van Lines
Tim Barkley, Barkley Law Office
Billie Wilkinson, F&M Bank
Jim Bear, F&M Bank
DJ Fenton, Stauffer Funeral Home
Lou Naecker, JM Fritz & Co
Howard LeRoux, Mt. Airy Dent Repair & Touch Up
Carol Blackburn, The Gazette
Ken Matthews, Freedom Carpet Cleaning, Inc.
Steve Edmondson, Catonsville Homes
Gina Posey, Frederick News Post
Keir Knight, Plain English Writing & Design
James D Jones, NetPay2K
Ellie Bonde, Blossom & Basket Boutique
Andrew Williamson, Chiropractic First
Mary Schultz, Chocolate Treasure Chest
Kevin O’Neill, Kevin & Co. – REMAX Realty Group
Bob Craney, IHS Financial
Sudha Kaista, SK Printing
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Treasurer’s Report: Cheryl Knight (for Denny Ahalt)
Balance stands at $6,871.56
Minutes from June approved: Motion from DJ Fenton, seconded by Ellie Bonde
Social:
Catonsville Homes will be sponsoring our next networking event at the
Nottingham neighborhood on Monday September 13th from 4 til 7pm.
Pane n Vino exchange – October 11th
Membership Drive at Century Ford – November 16th.
Membership: Audrey Stapf
New members announced – we welcomed five new businesses in June.
Chamber brochure/applications are available for all members to distribute.
Display/holders were given to five businesses to distribute more.
Government Relations: Michael Zimmer
Maryland Sec of Transportation Robert Flanagan will speak to us on Thursday
October 21st. Details to follow.
Carroll County Chamber Report: None
Ambassadors: Ellie Bonde
Reminded members of the welcome packets – she would like one or two pieces of
promotional materials from each member, 30 of each please. Tri-folds and
business cards work best – please no books.
Items can be dropped off at the Blossom and Basket Boutique.
Advertising/Marketing: Keir Knight
The new Chamber brochure/applications are a great way of recruiting new
members – and are also a very useful resource for finding member’s phone
numbers.
Our advert appeared in the Gazette Community Guide – that ad featured the
name of every single Chamber member and filled an entire page!
We also advertised in the MAYAA Babe Ruth baseball programs.
The Chamber website will soon be featuring a page dedicated to the Mt Airy
Economic Development Commission. Hosting this will be a great bonus to the
Chamber as it will bring in even more visitors to the site. The page will be
sponsored by Illiano Properties.
OLD BUSINESS
Telephone bills: Carol Blackburn explained that we were being billed
for long distance but that has now been cancelled. A discussion followed that
dropping a physical phone entirely and keeping just voicemail would allow the
number to become "mobile" as anyone could pick up messages. It was agreed that
the number should remain the same since it is on so much literature, in phone
books etc. The outgoing message would be educational, point people to the
website.
Carol’s motion was seconded by Audrey Stapf and passed.
Business Fair funds: Tim Barkley proposed that we issue a "top-up" to
the Elementary School PTA to round off the Chamber’s contribution to their
computer fund. That would be around $200. Tim’s motion was seconded by Ellie
Bonde and passed.
Funds could also be used as seed money for the phone directory project as
well as next year’s Fair.
Electricity Deregulation: A meeting will be held on June 30th.
The MD Public Service Commission recently said that the average bill has been
rising by around 25% - with the default rate likely to be around 36%. Increases
can be reduced by pooling purchasing power and buying electricity in bulk.
Carroll Co Chamber has completed the BG&E co-op. For the Allegheny co-op we
are looking to get a 4 mega-watt block (added to the BG&E 7MW, would bring total
of more than 10MW and greater sway).
The co-op would be looking for a 10-15% increase, held over three years.
A reminder that Allegheny residential rates will be de-regulated in 2008.
The two representatives from our Chamber to the co-op approval committee will
be Frank Illiano and John Medve.
THERE WILL BE NO AUGUST MEETING
Motion to adjourn from Audrey Stapf, seconded by Archie Rogers.
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