Meeting Minutes

April Executive Board Meeting

April 14, 2008 12:02pm

Members Present: Vern Koepp, Troy Fleming, Dave Chmiel, Janet Wiener, Randy Isham, Red Berg, Anne Rood. Also preset, JoAnn Belau, Executive Director.
Music & Aet Festival – Board was asked to do the Raffle. Discussion proceeded about prizes. Motion was made by Troy, seconded by Vern to have a total of $1500 in prize money to be given away in raffle, that would come form the proceeds of the raffle. Motion carried. Motion made by Randy, seconded by Vern to have 1-$500, 2-$250, and 5-$100 prizes. Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report – Balance as of 3/31/08 - $21,748,67. Motion made by Vern, seconded by Randy to approve report. Motion carried.
Bob & the Beachcombers – Looking into a FREE summer concert. More information soon.
EDA Breakfast 5/6/08 from 7-8am in Unity Banks East side.
Wine Tasting – We currently have 10 $50 food sponsors, 7 vendors, and approx. 75 tickets sold.
Co. Fair Booth – JoAnn wants to look into sharing an unmanned booth with North Branch Chamber or Chisago Tourism again this year in the business building. Motion made my Red, seconded by Randy to do this. Motion carried.
Motion made by Randy, seconded by Troy to adjourn @ 1:08pm. Motion carried.

General Meeting

March 26, 2008

12:00pm Bulrush Rush Hour Bar & Grill

26 members present
Featured Business – Minnesota Advertising & Design
Speaker – Tony Thomann – Central MN Jobs & Training Services
April Featured Business – East Central Energy
Door Prize Winners –
- Shirt & discount on screen printing from Minnesota Advertising & Design– Carl Knutson
- Water bottles from Lake State Federal Credit Union – Ron Revere, Sherry Stirling, and
- 2 Twins ticket vouchers from WCMP – Karol Johnston

Board Meeting

March 12, 2008

12:09 pm

Dave Chmiel, Red Berg, Anne Rood, Randy Isham, JoAnn Belau, and Jeff Herman present.
Insurance – Jeff Hermann discussed our Insurance policy. Anne motioned to stay with Auto Owners, Randy seconded, passed.
Jeff discussed chamber members get a discount with the Commercial Group Program; he’ll get JoAnn more information to distribute.
Membership is currently at 56 members
Holiday Kiosk sign – 2 spaces still available. The current signs will be valid until 7/09 due to the lateness in getting the sign done. Discussion proceeded about sprucing it up.
Treasurer’s Report – current balance $19,663.00
Chamber Pages – Discussion about outline and “look” and 2 pages. Will check with papers about making it a better page to benefit our members. Members need to send info they would like included on pages. Red made the motion to continue with both the Scotsman and the Star Chamber pages, Anne seconded, passed.
Featured Businesses – Janet made the motion to draw names from attending businesses for the following months Featured Business. Randy seconded the motion, passed.
Decals – JoAnn had several quotes for decals for our members. Board discussed having clings vs. stickers. More quotes will be given.
Chisago County Tourism Book – North Branch Chamber had approached the RC Chamber asking if we would like to be involved in the Chisago County Tourism Book to help bring more tourism to our county. Anne made the motion to help, Randy seconded, passed.
Board meeting – Due to conflicting schedules, the board meeting will now be the 2^nd Monday of the month.
Music & Art Festival – M&AF asked if the Chamber wanted to do the raffle for this year’s event. Anne made the motion to sell the tickets on the 2 days of the festival & to have 5 businesses (we will ask the following: Lake State Federal Credit Union, Northwoods Bank, Coldwell Banker, Unity Bank, Bulrush and Mike Carroll) pre-sell tickets, with the Foundation to take care of printing the tickets, posters, and POS advertising. Randy seconded the motion, passed.
Adjourned – Randy motioned, Janet seconded, passed @ 1:30pm

General Membership Meeting

February 27, 2008

12:00 Meeting started with 20 members present.

After observing how other local Chambers run their meetings, the Rush City Chamber has changed their format. Business will now be handled by the Board at the Board meetings, and the General meetings will be a social/networking time. We will eat, and then have a Featured Business and Speaker. If you would like to bring coupons, flyers, etc. to put on the tables, you are welcome to do that, and time remaining you may make business announcements. If you have an issue you would like to bring before the board, please contact a board member to be put on the agenda. Thanks, and we hope to see you at the next meeting!

Executive Board Meeting

February 13, 2008

12:03pm meeting called to order

Dave Chmiel, Troy Fleming, Vern Koepp, Red Berg, Anne Rood & JoAnn Belau present.
Membership – 41 members/4 new members this month/ 25 waiting on renewals
Janet Weiner & Randy Isham arrived @ 12:11
Audit – Chamber portion finished, Foundation, not.
Check Signatures – Red brought up that he thought we should have two signatures on all checks. Vern made the motion to have two signatures on checks and have 3 signers, President, Treasurer, and Executive Director. Anne seconded, passed.
Business Expo – Good turnout. 4 new businesses joined. Discussion proceeded about having another one and when Pro-rating would begin for businesses. Deadline to have information to JoAnn for the Community Guide is April 1^st.
Dave mentioned signing Thank You cards for new members.
Wine Tasting – Anne checked into Community Center $50. Would like to have a St. Patty’s Day event with beer and wine. $25/couple and $15/person. Vern motioned to move forward with the event contingent on getting the insurance and permits. Randy seconded, passed.
Chamber Pages – JoAnn will look into distribution zones for Scotsman, Post, and Star.
Treasurer’s Report – Balance as of 2/8/08, $19,699.84
Foundation – Dave will be meeting with the board of the Foundation.
Adjourn – Troy motioned to adjourn @ 1:18pm, Randy seconded, passed.

January 2008 General Meeting

General Meeting

January 23, 2008

22 Members present
Meeting began @ 12:15
Treasurers Report – handout - $18,487.80
Secretaries Report – on website
Foundation Report – Mike and Joanne both absent
Business Expo – Flyers were available, and Dave explained it, and invited everyone to attend.
Membership Report – Currently @ 31, many 07 members have not paid yet for 2008.
Newsletter – Flyer available
Relocation Packets – We will have relocation packets available at City Hall, Schools, and Realtors. If you would like your information included, please get to JoAnn ASAP.
Community Service Award Banquet – Feb. 16^th @ Big Al’s @ 6pm. Joanne Lofgren-Ploetz is receiving award.
January Featured Business – WCMP (Red Rock Radio) – The Red Rock Radio Family of Radio Stations include:
- Classic Hits 105.7, WXCX-FM, a better variety of Classic Hit Music from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. It’s also the exclusive home for Green Bay Packers football.
- Cool Country 100.9, WCMP-FM, plays a better variety of Coutnry Music from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and today. One of two radio stations that carry the Viking Football broadcasts.
- AM1350 WCMP, plays a great variety of Music from six decades. The “Music of your Life”.

Red Rock Radio does LIVE broadcasts of local events and sports, and is the only local radio station to have their own News Director, welcome Sam Klement.

Business Card Drawings
- 1 Free lunch from Bulrush – Ron Revere – Ron Revere

Tickets to Southern Rock from Grand Casino Hinckley – Tammy Masters

January 2008 Executive Board Minutes

January 9^th 2008 5:15pm

Members Present: Dave Chmiel, Vern Koepp, Red Berg, Troy Fleming, Randy Isham, Anne Rood, Scott Friday, Mike Carroll, and Executive Director, JoAnn Belau

Meeting called to order @ 5:20
Scholarship – We voted to provide a $250 scholarship for RCHS, motion made by Troy and seconded by Vern.
5:30 Janet Wiener arrived.
Networking – North Branch Chamber would like to cross-network with us. We would provide information to members about networking opportunities and vice versa.
Membership & Budget – The Board did a review of the budget and decided we needed to have a strong push to have new members join the chamber, to date we have 21 that have committed. We looked at several events to continue and a few new ones we’d like to try and develop. We talked a about a chamber expo, we’d invite local business to a breakfast event giving board members a chance to have one on one time with current and potential new members. We will hold this expo on the 30^th of Jan from 7 – 9AM Red will check to see about having it is the east suite of Unity Bank East. Troy made a motion and Randy seconded it. JoAnn will put together and direct us what to do. Invite will be via email. Dave would like to do door to door visits. Talk proceeded about an Open House or Expo. Scott motioned to postpone Cookies & Carnations until a later date, Randy seconded.
Citizen of the year will be Jan 16^th at Big Al’s/Eagles Hall 6:00 social, 7:00 dinner and 8:00 program, tickets $12.50.
The chamber will no longer be hosting the Garage Sale, the event although nice for the community was not profitable. Mary Esinger @ the Post has volunteered to take care of it through the paper.
General Meetings - Conversation was had on the day and times to have the general meeting and what the content of the meeting should be. Should it be a detailed review of the board meeting or a light review and an informative speaker? It was decided to continue with the 4^th Wed. of the month @ noon for now.
Audit - We will be having an in house audit of the check books the end of January. These auditing people will be chamber members, however in no way involved with the check books.
Fly – In – The Fly In was discussed and how we want to be involved. More discussion next month.
Parade – JoAnn would like some help this year with the Parade. Scott & Janet volunteered.
Wine Tasting - The wine tasting event we’ve been working on may be turned into a St. Patrick’s Day Wine Tasting/Beer Bash, to draw more people.
Kiosk – If not done by Jan. 12^th, will take business elsewhere. Completed.
Santa Days - We will be getting a refund on money from Oriental Trading for items not used at Santa Days.
Membership signs - JoAnn would like to use little stickers for windows this year instead of the window signs for Chamber members and will check the price.
Fundraiser - The Harlem Ambassadors, a show basketball team has communicated with JoAnn about a show here on Sept. 21. The cost would be $5,000 + motel arrangements for one night. The event would be for one game against a local team we would put together. We would receive1,000 tickets to sell for our profit; however we don’t have seating for 1000. More research needs to be completed so was tabled.
Business After Hours - January 17 will be the North Branch Outlet Center business after hours from 4-6.
Adjourned 7:15pm

December '07 General Meeting

Meeting was canceled! No minutes.