Aug. 27, 2014
GDCA Chamber Board Meeting
Present: Peggy Nevsimal, Jerry Sands, Scott Hunter, Sheryl Moore, Bob Valen, Kevin Portch,
Debbie Starkey and Kerry Higgins.
President Kerry called the meeting to order at 5:45 pm.
Scott moved to approve the July minutes, Bob seconded the motion. Motion approved.
Financials: Attached.
Debbie S. presented a new rental agreement with an increase in rent sighting the additional
space rented (basement), high usage of the facilities with chamber activities and higher than
expected utilities that the rent needed to increase to a total of $225 per month for rent.
Bob moved and Sheryl seconded, motion passed.
Harvest Fest: Attached
To date we have: 25 vendors and 5 BBQers. Peggy is still in need of volunteers. It looks
like a good idea to add Sunday to the rosters of days. So we will need workers at the beer
garden for Sunday.
Tentative Retreat dates: Nov. 7th, 8th and 9th. Everyone is supposed to check their schedules
and get back to Peggy to confirm the date with her so she can book the lodge for us.
It is possible there will be a new business in the Coulee. A couple of young men have
approached the chamber to see if we could help with finding space for their specialty car parts
production company. The business is currently located in Louisiana and they are hoping to
locate to this area.
Economic Development/Schools: Debbie S reported that the group took a tour of the middle
school. The group was excited about the facility realizing that it can house many of ideas on the
wish list the community has been talking about. A wellness center including a swimming and
therapy pool, local governmental offices, incubator businesses, a community center and class
rooms for extended learning. During the tour Superintendent Dennis Carlson noted that if the
property was sold to an entity that has different boundaries than the school district, then the
people of the area that would be losing property would need to be reimbursed for their lose.
However if an entity with the same boundaries as the school district purchased the property,
there would be no loss of property to folks within the school district boundaries. They would
still be owners of the property. Debbie S has notified Bob Valen, a board member of CAPRD,
which happens to have the same boundaries of the school district. Bob stated that he would be
taking this information to his next CAPRD board meeting.
Upcoming projects: Lodging tax requests for cities and counties, RFP for Carnival, Membership
packets, Sponsorship packets, and donation requests for Vintners/Brewers.
Peggy’s earlier schedule for vacation as the last 2 weeks of Sept has changed. It now is planned
for the last week of October for 1 week and an additional week to be determined.
Feed back of the lodging results needs to be gathered to be presented to the cities. We will
look at our tracking of our social media and any information we can gather form the
hotels/motels and other additional information available.
The Governor gave $150,000 for emergence advertising for the devastated areas due to the
wild fires and storms. They will run a fall and spring campaign showing tourists that our area is
still wonderful to visit and come on back and stay with us. GCD area will be included in the
advertising.
Visitations to the dam were up but the casino visitors were down significantly.
The lodging dollar request will be for all we got last year and hopefully a bit more. Peggy will
take all the pertinent stats available to help with the funds request.
Bob V moved that we no longer receive and reimburse the Ridge Riders their funding from
Hotel/Motel tax. Scott seconded. Motion passed.
Peggy has applied to become a notary.
Bob suggested that Rich Button be invited to the debriefing of the Saturday market. The
market will be looking for another venue for next year.
Suggestions for market improvements include matching canopies.
SCJ Alliance, Urban Planners have approached Electric City about town consolidations.
Chamber suggests that SCJ Alliance facilitate, at no charge, some of the early meetings. We
would like them to show some commitment prior to working on the project for a fee. When
charging for their work, they could lose their objectivity since they could profit from certain
results.
Peggy will invite a representative from SCJ Alliance to attend our next board meeting.
Meeting adjourned 7:35 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Debbie Starkey