October 21, 2009

Portland Buy Local October Board Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Portland Downtown District Conference Room

Board members in attendance: Bill Duggan, Nancy Lawrence, Susan Tran, John Rooks, Stuart Gerson, Briana Couryene, Joan Leitzer, Chris Buzby, Kathy Palmer.

Advisory Board members in attendance: Elise Loschiavo, Jan Beitzer

Susan opens the meeting. The Board reviews and approves the minutes from the September meeting.

Brianna gave an update on Membership

• The budget is still under review with the Membership committee.
• Jan gave us an update on bidding out the ad sales for the membership directory. She advised us to increase the print run to 20,000 over 15,000 to increase the likelihood to attracting bidders.
• Jan will talk to the brochure service to determine if using a service would be a good fit for us. She will check with CVB to get specific numbers.
• Jan also made a suggestion that we could hire someone to make another distribution in early November. Sue suggested that that could happen in conjunction with the holiday posters.
• We discussed the possibility of distributing at Band Bs as well.
• John to follow up on Credit Card processing.

Sue updated us on Marketing:

• The photo shoot went well, but we did not get as many underwear shots as we wanted.
• The recommended shot was presented.
• There was discussion around the effectiveness of it without the underwear very visible.
• Nathan will do the next two shoots (Holiday and Valentine).
• The marketing budget was unanimously approved a t$6,500.
• John is going to speak tonight at the Androscoggin Leadership Development Institute to talk about Buy Local and sustainability.
• Downtown Worker Appreciation day was a success. Anecdotally, coupon redemptions were very strong. We ran out of packets early on in the day, so next year we need to make sure we have more. Need to bulk up on most supplies. After 10:00 we ran out of most supplies. Should state “why supplies last.”
• Please let us know if there are items for the newsletter.
• Bollard is offering a special rate for early bird advertisers.

Bill updated us on Finances:

• We have healthy account balances and are in good financial standing.
• Just filled 990 with IRS and we have had to upgrade to 990EZ due to income increase.

Sue discussed the Revised Economic Impact Study:

• The CLUE Group has agreed to do the study for $7000.
• Timeline is to have the study completed and published in May 2010.
• We have $6700 in grant money for funding of this project. PIBCA would need to put in $300.
• The board voted and approved the project.

Other business:

• Annual meeting is next Wednesday from 6:00 to 8:00pm at Sebago. Set up help is appreciated around 5:00pm.

Meeting adjourned.

Minutes recorded by John Rooks, Secretary