MINUTES OF THE
BIA REGULAR MEETING
OF THE DOWNTOWN PORT PERRY BIA
HELD TUESDAY, January 8, 2008 AT 6:00 P.M.
IN THE SCUGOG VISITOR & BUSINESS CENTRE
PRESENT: Chair, Mr. Stewart Bennett
Michelle Belair
Lana Crosbie Terri Venner
Christy Stone-Curry
Susan Clearwater
ALSO PRESENT: General Manager - Kenna Kozak
ABSENT:
Dana Smith Georgia Brock
Julie Brock Mark Ockwell
Marilyn Youmans
1. CALL TO ORDER
The Chair called the meeting to order.
2. DISCLOSURE OF PECUNIARY INTEREST
No member made a disclosure of pecuniary interest in any of the following matters or
3. ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES
i Minutes of the BIA Regular Meeting held November 13, 2007.
RESOLUTION NO: 08- 001
Moved by: Stewart Bennett
Seconded by: Michelle Belair
THAT the Minutes of the BIA Regular Meeting of the Downtown Port Perry BIA held November 13, 2007 be approved.
Carried
4. BUSINESS ARISING OUT OF THE MINUTES
Nil
5. DEPUTATIONS
Nil
6. REPORTS
i. President’s Report Stewart Bennett
Another year, where did 2007 go? All the build up to Christmas and it is gone in a flash. It was, however, a great season for The Wee Tartan Shop and I hope all of you shared in having an increase in your Christmas business.
We are now in gloomy January with February lurking ahead. Your BIA board is working on some exciting new initiatives with more details to come forward at our AGM meeting in February.
The new municipal act is putting some extra workload on us but between Kim and Kenna, we are trying to get all the procedures in place. I would like to arrange a special morning board meeting where we can go through many of the details.
Tonight, I would like to put a list of special events together with each event having a chairman or leader. We will endeavour to have budgets available for each event which will make it easier to manage and evaluate.
Many of us will not be back on the board next year and we will need many of the current positions filled. I would suggest that we establish a nominating committee in the summer to have the new board ready to participate in budgeting, selection of advertising agency, etc. etc. no later than October of 2008.
The board will be elected at the AGM in February but should be involved with the budgeting process that they will have to deal with.
I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2008.
If you don’t like where you are, move.
If you don’t like what you do, change.
If things aren’t how you like them, do something about it.
If you don’t like what we do, then volunteer.
Respectfully submitted,
Stewart Bennett
RESOLUTION NO: 08- 002
Moved by: Terri Venner
Seconded by: Lana Crosbie
THAT the President’s report regarding the new year be approved.
Carried
ii. Advertising Report – Lana Crosbie
BIA ADVERTISING UPDATE
January 2008 report
Happy New Year to Everyone! Here’s to a very successful and prosperous 2008! I wish everyone a year full of success, lots of laughter and good health.
A quick review of the 2007 events:
Ladies Night: This event is held in April every year and continues to be a great success! Each store offers specials throughout the night and the streets are filled with women of all ages. Adding a DJ for music and announcements throughout the evening was a great addition.
2008 date: April 24, 2008
Moonlight Madness: This event is held on the last Thursday in June and this is also a successful event held by the downtown merchants. We also added music and announcements throughout the evening.
2008 date: June 26, 2008
Media Day: 2007 Media Day was another great success. The purpose of this event is to bring Durham and GTA media to Port for a guided tour to gain their interest in Port Perry and surrounding area and in return we would be recognized in future publications and advertising events. We are not going to have a Media Day in 2008 as we felt this needs to happen every other year. However, Taalwood is attempting to work with Durham Tourism to plan a similar day throughout the Durham Region, which would of course include a visit to Port Perry and the BIA would take an active role in the activities planned. Taalwood will keep us informed of the progress.
Come to Port: 2007 was the 3rd time running this event and it was felt by the members that this event be replaced with a Fall Festival.
Movie Night: 2nd annual movie night. Feature film was Shrek 3. There was a good turnout, even though we had to cancel the actual date and re-book a rain date. We would like to run this event again this year in August, hopefully securing the movie Hair Spray. Any suggestions or volunteers would be welcomed.
2008 Date: August 21, 2008 Rain Date: August 25
Candlelight Walk: This was the 3rd annual Candlelight Walk/Tree lighting ceremony, and we had a fairly good turnout even though we had our first winter storm of the year. The tree downtown had new lights put on compliments of The Grenadier and Veridian. The tree looked beautiful throughout the season. We also had Pizza Pizza sponsor a tree, which was lit in Palmer Park, a great addition to the Christmas atmosphere in downtown Port Perry.
Advertising report – cont’d
New Events:
Fall Festival:
It has been discussed with many of the members that we have a “Taste of Queen St.” / “Fall Festival” (name to be determined). A committee was formed in 2007 to work on “Taste of Queen St.” last Sept. however the event was postponed due to lack of time. I believe the committee is re-grouping and will re-instate the plans that were in the works for 2007. If you would like to be on this committee please call Kenna.
2008 Date: August 29 & 30??? Needs to be confirmed
Mom Makeover - Mother’s Day:
Taalwood is working on an event for that Special Mom out there “Mom Makeover” (name to be determined). People would be encouraged through advertising media to enter a “Special Mom” into the contest by providing a photograph and a written story as to why the person nominated should win the Mom Makeover. The Makeover process would include many members of our BIA for clothing, jewellery, make-up, hair etc. Taalwood is looking to have CTV as a media sponsor. Many more details to follow, we are hoping to start the promoting of this event in February and run it until Mother’s Day.
Taalwood Media:
Taalwood Media will once again look after our marketing for 2008. Taalwood Media assists the BIA in their marketing strategies and plans. We met with Marcia today to discuss current events, new events, new ideas etc. Marcia has several new ideas planned for 2008 and will continue to work with us on our current events and promotions.
The 2007 media marketing was done through the following mediums:
Radio Print
KX 96 FM Port Perry Star
Classical 96 FM Scugog Standard
CFRB Curious Country Shopper- Day Tripper Destinations (Co-op Advertising)
Going Places
Focus on Scugog
Toronto Star (focusing on Zone 8 and Zone 9 regions) BIA does co-op advertising with other BIA members on the Toronto Star ads. According to the participants this is a very successful way to advertise. Taalwood has also mentioned when we run a Toronto Star ad we see a spike in the website activity. If you would like further information on co-op advertising please call Taalwood Media.
T.V.
Compton Channel 18
Please share your thoughts and ideas on any of our advertising efforts as well as our events. One way to be successful is to work together as a team. We all have the same motivation, which is to be successful in our business and bring people into our beautiful town and give them an experience they will never forget. I wish everyone a very successful and prosperous 2008!
Proposed 2008 Dates
Ladies Night April 24, 2008
Media Day Cancelled for 2008
Moonlight Madness June 26, 2008
Come to Port replacing event
Movie Night August 21, 2008 (rain date Aug.25)
Queen St./Downtown Fall Festival Sept. 2008 (needs to be discussed and confirmed)
Candlelight Walk November 21, 2008(changing to a Friday night)
We need to form committees for all of the above events. We would like a BIA member to choose an event and then form a committee to assist with all of the preparation that goes into each event. If we want to make all events successful it takes the efforts of many people. We are always looking for new ideas; help promote the businesses in the BIA area, which includes your own and get involved!
Advertising report – cont’d
Discussion notes:
-Looking into creating a Makeover contests for the Mother in your life. Contest to start April 1st with a draw date of Mother’s day. Looking into sponsors from various shops in relation to a spa day, lunch with mom type of prize. Possibly have CTV midday show as a sponsor and promoter.
-There will be a bi-monthly meeting set up with Taalwood Media the web provider to give on-going feedback during the year.
Looking into getting Chex tv carry advertising during the Olympics.
Christy mentioned someone she was talking to at Brocks was interested in volunteering to help organize. (Leslie)
Committee chairs for the coming year’s events:
Ladies Night – Christy Stone-Curry
Media Type Day – Stewart Bennett
Moonlight Madness – Dana Smith
Movie Night – Lana Crosbie
Taste of Queen – possible volunteer Christy mentioned.
Candlelight Walk – Terri Venner
RESOLUTION NO: 08- 003
Moved by: Stewart Bennett
Seconded by: Christy Stone-Curry
THAT the Advertising report be Received for Information.
Carried
iii. Treasurer’s Report – Michelle Belair
Year end reporting to date looks like budget is on target. There were a few outstanding invoices yet to be approved and paid.
There is a need to have a more comprehensive breakdown when processing events costs etc. This way each event will have the hard costs tracked which will be easier to maintain and build on for the following year. There has been some coats going into the wrong categories over the course of 2007.
Michelle, Lana, Kenna and Liz will get together to itemize the 2007 year and create new G/L accounts for the coming year. Then the new year’s budget can be set.
The budget must remain the same if not increase in order to compete with Walmart coming in.
Will have to allocate more into the admin costs to help with the grow there.
RESOLUTION NO: 07- 004
Moved by: Lana Crosbie
Seconded by: Susan Clearwater
THAT the Treasurer’s report be Received for Information.
Carried
7. CORRESPONDENCE
Nil
8. OTHER MATTERS
BIA is looking into creating a Makeover contests for the Mother in your life. Contest to start April 1st with a draw date of Mother’s day. The committee will be looking into sponsors from various shops in relation to a spa day, lunch with mom type of prize. Possibly have CTV midday show as a sponsor and promoter.
A bi-monthly meeting set up with Taalwood Media the web provider to give on-going feedback during the year.
BIA is looking into getting Chex tv carry advertising during the Olympics.
Committee chairs for the coming year’s events:
Ladies Night – Christy Stone-Curry
Media Type Day – Stewart Bennett
Moonlight Madness – Dana Smith
Movie Night – Lana Crosbie
Taste of Queen – possible volunteer Christy mentioned.
Candlelight Walk – Terri Venner
By-Laws - New by-law examples provided by the township have to be reviewed and modified for the BIA, morning meeting times to be set up to review with the Board.
Need to look into creating a Movie policy that will better reflect the interests of the downtown merchant businesses that are directly affected by the film shoots.
BIA is looking to possibly attend occasional council meetings to help with the communications link between the township and the BIA.
9. NEXT MEETING
AGM – to be held on Feb 12th at Francesco’s. with coupons again this year. Looking at nominating the Business of the Year award again for the BIA.
10. ADJOURNMENT - 8 pm
