Meeting notes for regular business meeting on August 13, 2019
Members Present: Beverly Russell of Sacopee Veterinary Clinic, Cristina Forsyth of Bustle and Grow, Pat Dietzel of Arts Center at 8 Hancock Avenue, Lee Goldsberry of Cornish UCC, Heather Newman of The Local Gear Guests: Brent Tanguay, Karen Tanguay, Bobby Gates, and Barry Gates of Kora Shriners
A quorum was not established for this meeting, no votes were held. June meeting minutes and treasurer’s report will be presented at the September meeting for member approval.
Meeting began at 6:10pm Secretary Report: June minutes were not presented.
Treasurer Report: Money was moved out of the account connected to the now closed Paypal account. The account will be closed in the future. Liability insurance was paid. The July financial report was not presented.
Guest Speakers: Representatives from the Kora Shriners gave a presentation for their Kora Kare for Kids Ride-In and BBQ Competition event. For the past 6 years this event has been held in Turner ME, it will be held this year at the Ossipee Valley Fairgrounds on August 23-25. This is one of their two annual fundraisers supporting the Shriners Hospitals in Boston and Springfield that provide burn care and orthopedic services for New England and beyond at no cost to families. The event is open to the public and they are asking CAB members to assist in getting the word out since this is their first year at this location. Kechi Okwuchi (America’s Got Talent 2017) will be performing, there is a Barn Dance on Friday night, and the Hurricane Mountain Band performs on Saturday night. There will be BBQ Demos and BBQ competition for kids and adults as well as other activities. We will be sharing the event on our Facebook page, please feel free to share it with your business and personal networks.
Membership Committee: No report presented. We are still seeking new members.
Strawberry Festival: 50+ vendors signed up for the Festival this year. $300 of cotton candy was sold at the CAB booth.The Strawberry festival made a profit of $2,450.91 in total. This is $1,183.86 above the profit of last year which was $1,267.05. There are two outstanding member payments for the Strawberry Festival ad and the bill for the Facebook ads has not yet been received. An idea to have local businesses sponsor non-profits at future Strawberry Festivals was discussed as well as offering a discounted price for vendors who choose an early bird registration. This is already offered with the Apple Festival. Thank you to Beverly Russell for chairing and everyone who volunteered to make it a success.
Apple Festival: 29 regular and 6 non-profit vendors have registered with 8 new to the festival vendors registered. Reminder emails went out to previous vendors on 8/5 and applications have been sent out upon request. John DuBois will run the CAB booth during the event, Theressa Harrington will be running the apple pie contest and auction, Patrick Harrigan and David Newman will handle the Utilities. We will need volunteers on Friday afternoon to set up, Saturday for morning set up, work in the booth, to assist vendors, for crosswalk management, and to clean up. Laurie Carr is requesting that someone volunteer to shadow her during the event to manage the entertainment. Her family takes several camping trips in September and it would be helpful for a second person to know how to manage the event in case she is not available. We will be contacting the Stone Ridge Inn to see if we can use their parking lot for the second shuttle, if not we will reach out to the industrial park. We have reserved the front page of YWSG on 9/18 for advertising. We will be reaching out to Sue Melanson about offering past Apple Festival posters in celebration of the 30th anniversary. Sue has offered an original painting that will be featured in the raffle.
On 8/12 and 8/13, Heather Newman spoke with Bob (no last name given) at the Scarborough office which covers the Southern Region of the Maine DOT. He consulted with people in the DOT and they decided we do not need flaggers for the Apple Festival because we are not directing traffic, simply gathering people in groups to use established and marked crosswalks rather than allowing them to cross at any time. We will have volunteers throughout the day making sure the flow of people at the crosswalks is managed.
Christmas in Cornish: Beverly Russell has sorted through the lights, removed the strings that were damaged, labelled and packaged the remaining functioning lights. CAB will wait to make decisions about decorating until Cristina Forsyth has reached out to the Cornish selectmen to see if they formed a park committee and if so, how we will work with them. Pat Dietzel said the Arts Center in Hiram is planning a craft fair community event and would like to coordinatewith CiC’s Polar Express event on Saturday the 7th.
Downtown Restrooms: Beverly Russell has requested someone take over the restroom committee. Anyone interested or looking for more information, please email CAB.
Marketing and Social Media Committee: The deadline for the CAB quarterly newsletter is Friday September 6 for the newsletter to be sent on Friday September 13. Any events, news, sales or other information about your business or organization you would like to have included, please send them to CAB. This is not a member only list, anyone may sign up for the newsletter on the CAB website. If you have an event, class or sale you would like to have promoted on the Facebook page, please send it by Facebook messenger or emailing CAB. Interaction on our Facebook has increased over the past couple of months.
Kiosk Marketing Committee: Two businesses have reserved space in the kiosk for the season. The Arts Center at 8 Hancock Ave has been using it to advertise their events. Reminder: non-profit members may advertise events in the kiosk for free. Next year Heather Newman will step back from the sales side of the kiosk so we will need a volunteer for this. Heather is willing to continue to clean and maintain the kiosk unless the new volunteer would like to do this as well as sales.
Open Discussion: Beverly Russell suggested moving the election of board members and officers to November. This suggestion will be brought to the Board of Directors.
On Monday 8/19 at 1pm the Arts Center at 8 Hancock Avenue will be holding a strategic planning meeting for 2020 to discuss programs to be brought in and to discuss seeking grants to enable them to expand what they offer the community. All are welcome to attend. If you are unable to attend but have ideas or are willing to volunteer please contact smlhiram@gmail.com.
Lee Goldsberry has been Ethel Phinney’s second as the Cornish UCC representative for CAB. Ethel is looking to stepback from some of her commitments for well-earned rest and Lee will be filling in for her. He expressed the desire for the UCC and CAB to work more closely and build a relationship around community service. We will be looking for ways to work together moving forward.
Heather Newman suggested moving the monthly meeting time. Tuesday is a day off for many businesses and during the summer season it is often the only day off for those members. Cristina Forsyth will speak with Lee Goldsberry about the availability of the Cornish UCC schedule and a survey will be sent out to members with a selection of days and times.
Meeting ended at 8:00pm. Next regular business meeting is September 10, 2019 at 6:00pm at the Cornish UCC
Respectfully submitted by Heather Newman