Meeting notes for regular business meeting on November 12, 2019
Members Present: Candace Gooch of At Once All Agog, Beverly Russell of Sacopee Valley Veterinary Clinic, Jeff Gilliland of Sacopee Valley Veterinary Clinic, Cristina Forsyth of Bustle & Grow, Theressa Harrigan of Theressa Harrigan LCPC, Patrick Harrigan of Better Homes and Gardens The Masiello Group, Teresa Drown of Bangor Savings Bank, David Newman of The Local Gear, Heather Newman of The Local Gear, Terry Belair of Terry’s Uniques, Laurie Carr of Your Weekly Shopping Guide, Pat Dietzel of The Arts Center at 8 Hancock Ave, Lee Goldsberry of the Cornish UCC, Brad Perkins of Finley’s Fine Firs
Meeting was called to order at 6pm by Cristina Forsyth. A quorum was established.
Secretary Report: Heather Newman presented the minutes from the September 10, 2019 meeting. The minutes were sent out to members by email. No discussion about the minutes. Cristina Forsyth made a motion to approve the minutes. Jeff Gilliland seconded the motion. The motion was approved. A quorum was not met at the October 8, 2019 meeting, there were no minutes.
Treasurer Report: Beverly Russell presented the financial reports for 9/1/19 – 11/11/19. We did not reach our goal for memberships. We budgeted $5200, actual was $4600. The profits from the Strawberry and Apple Festivals helped make up the difference. The Festival Buttons have been paid for with a small profit. Christmas in Cornish buttons will be available at At Once All Agog. The restrooms have been closed and winterized. The last payment has been made for cleaning, we are waiting for a bill from Paul for the winterizing. The scholarship funds have been set aside for January. Patrick Harrigan made a motion to accept the report. Teresa Drown seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
Meeting Time Survey Results: A survey asking about preferred days to hold the monthly meeting was sent out to members. There were 23 responses. The 4th Thursday of the month received 10 votes, keeping the meeting on the second Tuesday of the month received 8 votes. Lee Goldsberry will check the Cornish UCC schedule to make sure the date is available. Beverly Russell made a motion to change the monthly meetings to 6pm on the 4th Thursday of the month starting in January 2020 contingent upon the Cornish UCC being able to accommodate the change. Candace Gooch seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
Christmas in Cornish: Candace Gooch has the reading at the Bonney Memorial Library set for Friday December 6th at 6pm. The tree lighting and caroling is scheduled for 6:30pm. Monique Guptill is coordinating cookies and cocoa and contacting the Sacopee Valley Community Band for Friday night. Beverly Russell and Teresa Drown will contact local churches to see if there is a children’s choir available. Heather Newman sent a flyer to the High School to offer volunteer hours to students. All flyers for volunteer requests must have a disclaimer stating MSAD 55 is not affiliated with the event. This year the decorating of Thompson Park and the tree is being done in conjunction with the Cornish Parks Committee and Cornish Selectmen. CAB is providing the PA system and Cristina Forsyth has dropped off lights at the town hall. Laurie Carr has additional lights and will contact Kay from the parks committee. Terry Belair has bows from last year and she will get them to the town hall.
We have 4 teens who have volunteered to assist Santa for the Saturday Polar Express event. At Once All Agog has donated the toys for Santa to give out. Sacopee Valley Veterinary Clinic will give a $250 sponsorship for the event. The Arts Center at 8 Hancock Avenue in Hiram is offering a craft fair from 11am-2pm on Saturday December 7th with vendors, lunch, music, and an ornament craft from Good Buddy Farms. There was a request to have a map printed on the tickets for the venues outside of Cornish.
Laurie Carr has the front page of the shopping guide open for December 4th. The top part of the page will have information about the Christmas in Cornish event. The lower part of the page will have spaces for business advertisements. Businesses interested in this opportunity should contact Laurie at 625-4334.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: We need people to bake cookies for the Friday night event. Cookies need to be packaged in bags with 2 or 3 cookies per bag. Please contact cornishareabusinesses@gmail.com if you are interested in donating cookies.
The park is being decorated on Saturday November 16th at 10am.
Apple Festival: The Apple Festival did have a profit $1000 this year despite having the increased cost of the second shuttle. Feedback from vendors, downtown businesses, and community was overwhelmingly positive. Any problems shared were accompanied by suggestions on how to improve and offers of help. The post festival meeting with the Cornish Selectmen was positive. They reiterated the town’s support for hosting the event at the park. Suggestions for next year include blocking off the spaces downtown along the park and the downtown businesses to enable emergency vehicles safe passage and give the parking shuttles a place to stop safely. A community member offered to make parking signs for the East side lot. Brad Perkins has metal A-frame signs that he will donate for this purpose. It was suggested to make the signs generic “Festival Parking” with removeable cut out apples or strawberries.
Open Discussion: Beverly Russell will be sending in the application for the Strawberry Festival shortly. She has been seeking new vendors for the event. She will have an emergency plan with the application. There are no plans to close High Rd for this event.
Teresa Drown is collecting business cards and flyers for the Bangor Savings Bank Small Business Saturday gift bags. Businesses belonging to Buoy Local, the rewards will be increased for customers on Small Business Saturday (November 30th).
Check your spam folders for CAB emails. Members should be receiving at least 2 emails per month from CAB.
The CAB Quarterly Newsletter will be out just before Christmas in Cornish. Deadline to submit events or information is due by 11/27/19.
A suggestion was made to contact the senior advisor at the high school about volunteer opportunities with CAB.
Our new membership software offers a 30-day email reminder before the membership needs to be renewed. If you do not hear from CAB, please contact us.
Cristina Forsyth has contacted Krista’s a couple of times about the Christmas party and has not yet had a response.
Beverly Russell suggested looking at area events outside of Cornish that CAB could work in partnership with to expand support outside of the immediate Cornish area. The goal would be to have a plan in place for 2021. Brad Perkins suggested reaching out to businesses in those areas to involve them in CAB. There was discussion about how CAB can be a better support for businesses in the area, including inviting towns to become CAB members.
There was discussion about the possibility of hosting a business expo to showcase to residents what area businesses have to offer the community. This was also mentioned at the Sacopee Valley Professional Networking meeting on November 5, 2019. Standish area businesses are starting their own business association and this would offer a good networking opportunity for CAB.
Pat Dietzel mentioned Maine’s bicentennial next year and suggested a business event related to this. She has been working to get the Governor to come out and speak at the Arts Center.
Brad Perkins mentioned the local meetings discussing homelessness in the area. CAB does not have a stance on this issue and any members interested in learning more about any upcoming plans or meetings should contact the Cornish Town Hall for more information. (The group has been having their meetings at the town hall, but is not organized by the town.)
Voting results for 2020 Officers, Board Members, and Chairperson of the Board: Nominations were accepted by 11 people with Theressa Harrigan volunteering at the meeting to be the Clerk for 2020.
Cristina Forsyth – President/Board Member Heather Newman – Vice-President/Board Member Beverly Russell – Treasurer/Board Member Theressa Harrigan – Clerk Patrick Harrigan – Chairperson of the Board Teresa Drown – Board Member Terry Belair – Board Member Brad Perkins – Board Member Bob Cyr – Board Member Candace Gooch – Board Member Pat Dietzel – Board Member Paul Watson – Board Member
Candace Gooch made a motion to vote on the slate of nominees with the addition of Theressa Harrigan as Clerk. Beverly Russell seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
Jeff Gilliland made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Terry Belair seconded the motion. Meeting was adjourned at 7:38pm. Next regular business meeting is December 10, 2019 at 6pm at the Cornish UCC.
Respectfully submitted by Heather Newman
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