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Saugatuck/Douglas Area Business Association Monthly Business Meeting – May 5th, 2010 Co-Chaired: Angela Holmes and John Jerome, Co-President Minutes: Marilyn Starring, Recording Secretary
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Julie Abel-Jabberdesign, Ben Barton-White House Bistro, Lincoln Brackett-Brackett & Co., Mike Carey-Del Sol, John Jerome-Butler Pantry, Fred and Janet Schmidt, Bill Smith-Parrot in the Square, Marilyn Starring-Star of Saugatuck, Kevin Tringali-Bella Vita Spa, Jodi White-Macatawa Bank
BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Toni Trudell-Park House
AUDIENCE MEMBERS PRESENT: George Waden-Homebodies, Nick Busscher- Experience Marketing (Full Service Event Marketing Company) – Pierre LaVoie-Small Business Association of Michigan, Jane VerPlank-Victorian Inn/Saugatuck City Council Membership
Pierre LaVoie – SBAM reached a partnership agreement last August 1st with SABA. Cost was $10 for each SABA member that entitles all current SABA members to automatically become a member of SBAM – can receive free legal advice - health care –credit card processing etc. SBAM cuts a check back to SABA for $5 per business which goes toward sponsorship and marketing – SABA could possibly use to sponsor Music in the Park. Angela Holmes – Thought we did a 2 year program. Pierre – Will have to check -could be. www.sbam.org/saba – this is our web site with SBAM. Angela Holmes – Need to clarify billboard program – SABA did not contribute any funds to this program - it was totally funded by SBAM. SBAM also has an agreement with Davenport University – offering a 25% savings on attending this college.
MARKETING COORDINATORS REPORT: Janet Schmidt Sparkle: Next Sparkle committee is set for May 21st. 700 ornaments are in production – looks like we are going to have to reorder more already. Last Friday, April 30th the Sparkle storage unit at Blue Star Storage was emptied and those items that were salvageable were transferred to the basement of Chemical Bank. The City of Saugatuck sent their dumpster truck and those items that needed to be discarded were taken to the city dumpster. Sincerely appreciate the assistance Sparkle received from Saugatuck DPW and city clerk, Monica Looman.
Grand Rapids Family Magazine: May issue is now out – we are listed 6 different times including an editorial piece and the newest of our ads “Small Towns Big Fun”. ‘Shoreline’ magazine has 6 pages of Saugatuck/Douglas exposure. Sandra Randolph appeared on ‘The Morning Grind’ and finished up the SABA campaign.
Bill Smith asked who submitted the dates for the Douglas events in the CVB book. Janet Schmidt - Not sure (information is wrong). It was suggested that Saugatuck/Douglas events all come out of SABA so dates can be verified.
Spring Kick-Off was Tuesday, April 13th at The Mermaid from 5-7 p.m. and was extremely well attended - A big thank to Sharon and Pat Shanahan for hosting this event. SABA Service providers were featured. We encourage everyone to shop local, dine local, and use SABA members for needed services.
SABA member only reception at the SCA is scheduled for May 11th 5-7 p.m. and one at the Historical Society’s Pump House Museum on June 2nd 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. The Historical Society event will feature the 2010 exhibition on Oxbow.
Kiosk – last call to get on it before we go to print – will be printing maps in a couple days.
May newsletter will go out week of 17th and will feature Cookies on Call in Douglas and Uncommon Grounds in Saugatuck.
Holland Sentinel ads began April 29th for all 4 partnership members (SCA/SDHS/MSW and SABA) and will run every Thursday for 22 weeks. Merchants wishing to advertise in the Thursday edition for their individual businesses will get the same fantastic rates with readership of 20,000 people. Talk to Janet or call Robert Frieling @ The Sentinel.
June 8th at 8:30 a.m. will be the first SABA hosted brunch for the cast and crew of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels which opens June 25th and is our second year of hosting these brunches. There will only be two this year and if you would like to assist that would be terrific – second opportunity will be July 20th. This is where we have the opportunity to meet, greet and serve approximately 25 cast members in the new lobby at the SCA.
American Cancer Society – Relay for Life June 19 & 20th – Donation Cards - you can have in your store to make a donation to event. August 21st – American Cancer Society – Bark for Life from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. – will be a gathering and a walk.
Have developed a give-away bag in partnership with SCA. Will have different things for different groups (including coupons from merchants). Would like to receive merchant coupons (that are to be stuffed into the bag) sooner than later. Have promises or coupons from 40 merchants. PUBLIC COMMENT: None OLD BUSINESS CITY HALL – Jane VerPlank -Will do bottom coat of asphalt on streets today (hopefully) and final coat in the next few weeks, then city will be barrel free until August 15th, when Lucy Street will be closed for construction. Spear Street Boat Launch will open today. School millage passed by a large margin. Township vote passed by 2 votes. Douglas – nothing to report.
Julie Abel – Allegan County Community Foundation – Jodi White and Julie Abel sit on this committee to help keep arts in Allegan funded – program is called ‘Keep Your Arts Alive Allegan County’. Reason this program is being implemented is money that county currently receives must go to housing, food etc. for the needy in Allegan County. (Web site is: www.artsaliveallegancounty.org) Voting will take place via computer, when you vote $1 will go to that organization for funding. Top 5 vote getters will be at an event at the Silo in Allegan, September 24th, 2010 from 7-10 p.m. ticket price $50 per person. Anything funding that is left will be split and go to the top 5 vote getters. John Jerome – Need to send out information to our members on this.
EVENTS UPDATE: Music in the Park – lining up sponsors – bands have been picked.
EVENTS: Bill Smith – Douglas is running its own marketing campaign they have 2 billboards and marketing campaign is being done by DDA.
NEW MEMBERS: Joseph Kostyla – Builder, Hitchcock’s Village Landscape – Experience Marketing – Lana’s Boutique
Nancy Ayers said that Douglas doesn’t have room for SABA to host a Social this year have filled them all. Possibly SABA could make donation or have a card on the table or consider doing next year. We would do prefer to host or do something directly for Douglas –could save SBAM money to fund a band for Taste of Douglas. Events meeting on Wednesday May 19th – 4 –p.m. at Park House will discuss this further.
BOARD BUSINESS – Chaired by Angela Holmes
Secretary’s Minutes – Bill Smith moved to accept March and April2010 minutes and Mike Carey second. Motion passed.
Treasurer’s Report: Jodi White – still trying to finalize Town Crier – should have it done in next couple of weeks. Big expense in April was brochure printing which came to a little over $18,000. Printing project came in $3,000 less than last year. SABA has had a lot of good advertising expenses lately. SABA Bucks – Bill Smith - recognize some as up front income – do a report once a year. Janet should use September 1 date.
Town Crier – Split will be 60% to schools and 40% to SABA. School is looking at buying warm ups for teams (run about $100 each) will encourage schools to work with members who can provide this service. Town Crier had 344 runners in the race this year.
Motion to accept treasurer’s report by Bill Smith and Mike Carey seconded. Motion passed.
DRUG STORE WALL: Fred Schmidt – Wall has 48 spaces – there was a significant turn over 20% didn’t renew and are being replaced. All spots are spoken for – Douglas DDA would like to take a space on the wall – now on wait list.
SABA Bucks: Fred Schmidt feels a SABA buck should be redeemed to accounts payable until it expires. SABA Buck Info:
Only income would apply to purchases of SABA Bucks. Fred Schmidt supplies a monthly balance sheet so board can see what has been purchased and redeemed to date. Lincoln Brackett would like to sell SABA bucks in his store – suggest that he talk to Janet Schmidt. SABA brochure has an ad for SABA Bucks. Janet Schmidt said they are issuing in smaller increments – merchants like to make change for smaller denominations and it spreads them out a little more.
NEW BUSINESS Flower Pot Watering – 2 x a week @ $10 per watering = $20 per week for a total for 12 weeks. Student is hired from when school is out until they go back to school. Merchants are responsible for watering from May 17th to when student begins – early June, and also in-between student watering if plants get dry. Bill Smith made a motion that SABA pay for a student to water the plants twice a week for the summer. It was seconded by John Jerome. Motion passed. Mike Carey asked if we donate money to Douglas to help water their plants. No - Garden Club waters plants in Douglas. Student does every street entrance – bathroom entrance, parks etc.
BUSINESS LICENSE FEE: Marilyn Starring - Since Saugatuck is no longer collecting a business license fee a sub-committee of SABA business owners was formed named Saugatuck Business Organization. Brent Birkholz/Harbor Duck – Mike Carey/Del Sol – John Jerome/Butler Pantry – Sandra Randolph/Good Goods – Marilyn Starring/Star of Saugatuck – Fred Schmidt – Lisa Lungaro/Macatawa Bank and Angela Holmes/Century 21. Saugatuck merchants are being asked to contribute the $150 license fee to continue to support the free shuttle service from the high school, foot patrol/goodwill ambassador Officer Bob with any additional monies left over going to Holiday lighting. All monies collected will be kept in a separate fund and will be used for Saugatuck projects only. Business community was caught off guard when city council elected not to collect these fees on April 12th due to a legal proceeding several years ago which does not allow cities to collect more than what it costs to produce a business license. It was estimated that if a fee were to be collected it would be less than $15 per business – it was determined not to collect fee at all. Letter was sent out by the city on Monday, May 3rd explaining what happened. A letter was sent out by Saugatuck Business Organization today. Door-to-door visitation will begin end of this week to seek donations from Saugatuck’s business community. It is planned that this would only be a 1 year venture and by next year there would be a mechanism in place such at Principle Shopping District, Business Improvement District or Business Improvement Zone to collect monies from businesses to support such projects. Free shuttle service runs $6,000 and Officer Bob runs $6,000. Will have to see how much funding is collected to determine how much of these services can still be provided. Bill Smith asked why not just raise SABA dues and also provide shuttle service between Douglas and Saugatuck? Not everyone belongs to SABA, and it happens to be a Saugatuck problem that needed our immediate attention – possibly in the future something could be worked out. Angela Holmes stated that SABA did hire and pay for free shuttle service from Saugatuck to Douglas for certain events. Marilyn Starring – Also have Harbor Duck that has a business that provides transportation between towns as well. Kevin Tringali – Why don’t we make the people pay to use the shuttle. Marilyn Starring – This has been discussed, but want to save that as last resort. People who are parking at the high school because space is not available downtown, as a great deal of parking is taken up by business owners and employees who park there all day. Since there is no enforcement of the parking ordinances and our customers are the ones who are being inconvenienced by having to park at the high school, and a Saugatuck survey that SABA did just over a year ago it was determined the keeping the parking shuttle free was very important. Most people coming into a new town are very hesitant about getting out and just walking around. It had been suggested (about 6 years ago) that city put in a sidewalk from the high school to downtown, with directional signage showing it is just 3 short blocks, and to add low impact lighting for safety purposes. This suggestion was not acted upon. People don’t want to carry a lot of packages around and have to carry them back up the hill. Just the right thing to do – adds to the character and ambience of the town.
Business Signage – Survey is out – hope everyone has taken the opportunity to respond to it.
SPRING PREVIEW: In Saugatuck it was a decent day. John Jerome indicated that a lot of sales were during the day, and evening was slightly down. The numbers of cards for the drawing were up from last year. Bill Smith - Douglas had 1/6 the sales of last year – from 5 to 9 p.m. virtually no traffic in the stores – although there was an hour wait to get into restaurants. Too much competition from other area events going on i.e. graduations, fireworks etc. Should possible look at changing the event to a different date – create a drink ticket to be redeemed at a local bar. Need committee to change event to be more responsive, and better for the merchants. Should still continue to do Spring Preview for both towns. John Jerome – Please don’t be offended but there is the perception that Douglas is closed – need to improve that image. Will talk about this at the next events committee. Janet Schmidt – board give us this month and at June meeting we are going to put together some dates and plan of attack – better to have something and promote it. Couple other good things coming back to Douglas – Center Street Bistro coming back and will be open for lunch. Winner of Spring Preview drawing was 48858 zip code – from other side of the state. Back Bay – Mike Carey wanted to bring to our attention that a SABA member Eldon, from Back Bay recently passed away. Could we send a plant or flowers? Angela Holmes – It has been the board’s position not to send something when a member passes away, as it could become quite expensive line item. We should provide information if people would like to send condolences. Will also look into what it takes to do a memorial plants, as we need to do one for Frank Rojek as well. Marilyn Starring will follow up with city to get information about memorial plantings .
DATES TO REMEMBER:
SCA – SABA Member Only Reception – Tuesday, May 11th from 5 to 7 p.m. Lodging Owners – Tuesday, May 18th Ride the Star of Saugatuck at either 1 or 3 p.m. (must call Marilyn 857-4261 and make a reservation) and reception at White House Bistro at 5:30 p.m.
NOTE: Marilyn is inviting all SABA members and their staff that would like to take a complimentary cruise on May 18th to call and reserve a spot for either the 1 or 3 p.m. cruise. Star of Saugatuck will offer another date in June, which is to be determined.
Pump House Museum – SABA Board members Reception – Wednesday, June 2nd from 5:30– 7:30 p.m. Chain ferry will be operational (weather permitting) from 5 to 8 p.m. – Cost $1.00 per person each way June SABA Board Meeting, Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. – Saugatuck City Hall Music in the Park – Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 – 7 to 9 p.m. – Wick’s Park
Meeting Adjourned |
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