Minutes:

Minutes of September 8, 2009

Minutes from the Monthly Membership Meeting of the
Doylestown Business & Community Alliance
Held May September 8, 2009 8:10 a.m.
Borough Hall Conference Room

ATTENDEES:   Colette Hearn/Minuteman Press/Sign.A.Roma, Robert Mitchell/Precision Artistry, Rick Kempes/Solicitor, Ellen Mager/Booktenders, Joan Doyle/Borough Council, Bill James/3rd Federal, Molly Lowell/Mercer Museum, John Chapman/Chapman Gallery, JoAnne Shaffer/ Doylestown Music.com, Jim Wessier/Prestige Home Mortgage, Ron Martin/Mortin Kueny Insurance Solutions, Jim Sanders/County Movie Theater, David Pearson/dtown Magazine, Matt Kaminski/DelVal College, Libby White/Mayor, Linda Plank/Doylestown Hospital, Matt Caffrey/Chambers Restaurant, Ken Hackman/Happy Snacks, Nurit Bland, Rich Slabinski/President

PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Rich Slabinski

• The membership cocktail party is planned for Tuesday, November 10, at 5:30 at Puck.  We will have entertainment and nominate the new board members and officers for next year.

• The holiday breakfast meeting is scheduled for December 8, at 8:00 a.m. at Pine Run.

• The 501(c)(3) paperwork is complete and has been submitted to the IRS.  We are currently waiting to hear back if we are approved.

TREASURER’S REPORT – Bill James presented the report. Our ending balance for August 2009 was $7,345.87.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Arts Festival - Rich Slabinski

• Everything is set for the show this weekend.  We are still looking for a few volunteers who can come out at 5:30 a.m. to help with setup for the show.  Volunteers will meet at Starbucks.
• We had a lot of sponsor requests for this year’s show.  Rich and Michael Woods are looking at restructuring the sponsorships for next year’s show.

• Steve Rock who is in charge of entertainment will be stepping down next year.
• Nova has gotten a grant for the arts.  They will have a big piece of artwork on display that will be setup on Donaldson Street for the kids to do ark work on during the festival.
• The Pine Street parking lot is usually empty on Saturday.  This year we had a school step up to do the scarecrow junction on Sunday and we have another school on Saturday doing jump ropes for the kids.

Hanging Baskets – Rick Kempes

• The hanging baskets will be taken down on Sunday, September 27.  Volunteers will meet at Starbucks at 9:00 a.m. and will need to bring a ladder.  Coffee and donuts will be provided.

Shop Local – Ellen Mager

• A really nice event to support your independence was scheduled during the week of July 4th.  This was a children’s event and everything was donated from the community.  To support CB Cares and Habitat for Humanity, non-perishable items and $50 cash was collected for the food pantry.  There was also an Alex’s lemonade stand, the DBCA pledged to match the funds collected. 

• Shop Local gave $500 each to CB Cares and Habitat for Humanity.

Memorial Parade Committee – Rich Slabinski

• Being in the parade last year was great advertisement for our organization.
• Planning for next year should start in October.

Membership  - Joan Doyle

• We will do a membership push at the DBCA tent during the arts festival this weekend.
• A parking letter with a membership press to downtown businesses. The committee will personally visit the downtown business and discuss membership instead of doing a mailing.
• We will start a rolling membership, which would produce an automatic letter that would go out to the member when their membership is due. 
• New to the form this year would be a special donation towards the beautification program. 
• Looking to reach out not just to borough residents but the surrounding communities. 
• Thinking of raising the resident dues by $10, which would bring the membership dues to $35.
• Currently looking into setting up online membership through PayPal.

5K – Margie Adamsky

•  Sending out postcards in early October with hold the date information for the 2010 race.

DBCA Liaison – Joan Doyle

• Borough council is in the midst of doing the budget, which is very tight this year.  All events are being looked at.
• Flowering Basket program is very costly to the Borough budget.  Two interns water the baskets everyday and the public works does the watering on the weekends.
• Bucks Water and Sewer Authority has no hookups available until they expand which at the least will take 18 to 24 months.  The Borough is defending all of our residents and business and is in a very difficult position.  We are not getting a lot of cooperation. Anyone new coming in will be impacting and cannot open up downtown.  Pending hookups will be honored.

New Business 

Clean & Green - Libby White/Mayor

• Clean and green is in full swing downtown.  Volunteers and students clean sidewalks and gutters.  This program will be on going.  We finally have decals to distribute about this program.
• It was mentioned that the Starbucks parking lot is disgusting.  Libby stated that this parking lot is a very hard place to keep clean.  It was suggested that we look into working with the prison to setup cleaning of this parking lot.  Libby said Starbucks parking lot has been a big problem.  The parking lot problem is on the agenda at the next Public Safety Meeting and this will be put before the Borough. 

Teal colored ribbons – Joan Doyle

• Joan thanked the DBCA and volunteers who came out to tie teal colored ribbons around town for Ovarian Cancer awareness month.

Old Business – No update.

Meeting adjourned at 8:55