MINUTES of Thursday, September 17, 2009 7:00 pm at The Port Rowan Community Centre
The meeting of Long Point Country Chamber of Commerce was held on September 17, 2009 at the Port Rowan Community Centre at 7:00 p.m.
Those in attendance were Cindy Vanderstar, Al Freeman, Evan Engell, Sue Esseltine, Joyce Doerksen, Madaline Wilson & Lois Lounsbury.
Treasurer's Report--Copy attached
Madaline made motion to accept treasurer's report as submitted. Al seconded the motion. Carried.
Golf Tournament--We had 9 teams and 9 sponsors. We made $850. Evan purchased over $650 in prizes from local members for the tournament.
Parking Issues at Long Point were discussed. Day Use parking at the park can accomodate 1000 cars. Rate Payers want council to hire a bylaw officer to have cars towed. Evan will send a letter to Council to consider other options before a decision is made on hiring more staff.
Harbour--New docks on the west side have been installed. Transient parking so boat owners can dock overnight will be available.
Update on Park--The preliminary drawings have been done. Different ideas have been presented. $125,000 has been allocated for park project hopefully for 2010.
Festival By the Bay is November 13, 14, 15, 2009. The Villages will be holding their event just on Saturday. The Chamber have rented the Port Rowan Community Centre for Saturday and Sunday--Vendors will be set up there.
The Free Methodist Church ladies will be looking after the food booth for Saturday.
Cost for Grant--Evan looked at what the cost would be to hire someone just to do grants. Cost would be about $4,000 /grant. We decided that this is too much. Evan will draft up a package for one of the grants and send to Al & Cindy to critique. We can use this plan as a basis for other grants.
Beautification Committee & Information Booth-Madaline Wilson
The information booth is still open. They are having their potluck dinner for the volunteers on September 23. The Port Rowan booth was #1 for the County this year. They found that the high area of traffic is from Toronto. For those on Facebook--"become a fan of Long Point" on the Norfolk County Page. We are trying to get more "friends" than other parts of the County.
The Plants are still doing well. With regard to Christmas decorations, different ideas were discussed. The store fronts need to light up their windows as the streets are vey dark at night. Al made a motion that we give Madaline $100 to get started with Christmas plans. Madaline seconded the motion.
Madaline will have Katie come for October meeting and do a report.
Darlene Smith has been part of the information booth for many years. She is moving to Port Dover. Madaline will give Darlene and Mark Fulton both a special invitation to the AGM.
There will be an events meeting at Evan's house on October 1--brainstorming meeting to make plans for the upcoming year.
Cindy, Evan and Lois will meet early next week at Evan's office to discuss plans for the AGM--7:00 p.m. Annual General Meeting will be at St. Williams Community Centre on November 19, 2009. More information will follow--we will be sending out nomination forms for the different awards next week.
PLEASE NOTE THE CHAMBER WILL BE HAVING THEIR ELECTION OF OFFICERS. WE ARE A VIBRANT, ENERGETIC GROUP LOOKING FOR NEW LEADERS. WE MEET ONE NIGHT PER MONTH AND WE NEED YOUR INPUT. If you are interested in becoming a director, please contact either Evan Engell at 519-586-8509 or Lois at 519-586-2762 ext. 201.
Randy Mawhinney has asked for a letter of support regarding converting the lots on Hastings Drive to residential. Evan will send him a letter advising that this is not a Chamber issue.
Morning meetings--We decided that we will discontinue having the morning meetings as we are not getting any more members out.
Accounts Receivable--$765 has been collected; $898 has been written off and $1386 still to collect.
We discussed the possibility of the Ferry service running from Plainsville Ohio to somewhere near Clear Creek.
The next meeting will be October 16, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. at the Community Centre.