Crisfield Chamber of Commerce – monthly Board of Director’s meeting – April 9, 2009 – 12 noon – upstairs Tawes Museum

Present: Chris Sterling, Chris Tyler, Steve Marshall, Tom Shores, John Phoebus, Mary Beth Pruitt, Sandy Atkins, Courtney Flaherty, Pat Carson, Sue Heath, Jay Tawes and Debbie Jankowski.  Absent: Mike Milbourne, Patti Marshall, Billy Drewer and Bill Buttrill.  A quorum was present.

A motion was made by John Phoebus to accept the previous minutes, seconded by Chris Tyler.  No opposed.

Treasurer’s report – Tom Shores:  Tom gave the treasurer’s report and Jay Tawes, Finance Chairman, reviewed the Contingency Fund.  Motion made by Steve Marshall to accept, seconded by Sue Heath.  No opposed.

Guest Speaker – Carolyn Marquis:  Carolyn is with the “Friends of Crisfield”, which made a presentation on the Main Street Project and gave handouts.  Their plans are to help revitalize Crisfield and to generate some interest in the town.  They are working on getting their 501(c)3.  Their web-site is www.friendsofcrisfield.org.

Office Report – Valerie Howard:  (1) Valerie announced the “Business After Hours” scheduled for tomorrow (Fri., April 10th) at the Tawes Museum.  We are co-hosting with Scott Tawes to introduce the new owner of Side Street Restaurant, now called “Olde Crisfield Crab & Steakhouse”.  (2) Valerie is working on the Crab & Clam Bake and has tickets for sale in the Chamber office.  (3) Also working on the National Hard Crab Derby. (4)  Valerie is still working on the new web-site with Terry Pehan.  (5) She is also working with Ecomony Printing about re-doing the Crisfield map/brochure.  (6)  We have a few items that need to be brought before the Finance Committee, such as an ad with Delmarva Quarterly.  Valerie will give information to Jay Tawes.

Old Business:

Cruise Ships – Chris Tyler:  Chris announced the she and the museum would help meet and greet the cruise ships when they come into the Crisfield City Dock this summer.  We will greet them with a crab necklace and maps of Crisfield, for their convenience.  We are asking for store owners to consider giving the cruise boat visitors a small discount.  Sandy Atkins and Jay Tawes have some crab necklaces left from last year and will get them to Chris Tyler or Valerie.  But we probably do need to order some more necklaces.  A motion was made to order more necklaces if needed, by Sue Heath.  Seconded by Tom Shores.

Flower Boxes – Sandy Atkins:  Sandy Atkins and Sherree Marshall will be working on the  Main Street flower boxes in May.  If anyone would like to help them, please contact Valerie at the Chamber office.  A motion was made to allocate $250 towards flowers for flower boxes by Sue Heath, seconded by Tom Shores.

Business Grant – Chris Sterling:  Chris will be working on the business grant application and it should be ready to Chamber members by the end of April.  The grant is to help local businesses with business improvements, such as reviving a store front or signage.  The grant would be a 50/50 match.

Scholarships – Pat Carson:  Pat stated that they have received some scholarship applications and will set a cut-off date soon and then start reviewing them.

New Business:

Crab Derby Concert Committee:  Chris Sterling said that the Crab Derby concert committee will start meeting in a couple weeks.

Event Planner report – Allison Castellana: Allison has meet with the American Legion a couple times and is working on a possibility of 2 different events with them.  One being “Thunder on the Bay”, which would be a bike weekend, maybe in October.  The other one is having a local band on the Legion grounds, which is called “River Jam”, that will possibly be held in June.  Also, Allison is working on a special event, to be held Saturday, July 4th, after the “Just Folks Festival” at the City Dock.  Allison’s event will be a “Freedom Fest” to be held in the Somers Cove Marina from 6:00-9:00 p.m.  It will focus on our local hero’s, veterans, troops, etc.  Allison is collecting photos of local men and women who have served in the past or are now serving our country.  There will also be live entertainment, games for children, food, etc.  Another event that Allison is working on is a cruise aboard the “Steven Thomas”, which will be held on Friday, July 17th.  Allison also asked if we could get the showmobile painted, because we will be using it a lot in the upcoming months.  She would like to get ECI to paint it and we would just pay for the cost of the paint.  Allison will find out exactly how much the cost would be.  A motion was made by John Phoebus to accept, Debbie Jankowski seconded.  Also, Allison thanked the Crisfield Chamber for a donation of $300 to do a television commercial for Crisfield, which is now airing.

Quarterly Financial Report – Jay Tawes:  Jay gave a quarterly report on the Chamber’s finances.  He gave a handout to Board members.

Membership:  Chris announced that Courtney Flaherty has accepted the position of Membership Chairman.  Courtney will meet with Valerie and start helping with Business After Hours and also help with promoting memberships to businesses around town.

Boat Docking Contest:  Chairman of the boat docking for the past 3 years has been Dan Kuebler, who stepped down from the position.  The new chairman of boat docking is Steve Flaherty.  We thank Steve for taking over the position of such a large event.

Crisfield Heritage Foundation – Chris Tyler:  Chris stated that the Elder Hostels start up again this spring, with the first one being April 26th.  She also said that they have re-done the gift shop in the museum and have a lot of new items in the shop.  Please stop in and take a look.

Somers Cove Marina Commission – Jay Tawes:  The commission will be meeting this coming Monday and have a full agenda.  The budget should be ready at that time.

We thank Waterman’s Inn for a great lunch.  Motion made to adjourn meeting at 1:30 p.m. by Steve Marshall, seconded by Chris Tyler.

Prepared by:                                     Submitted by:
Valerie Howard,                                 Mary Beth Pruitt,
Office Secretary                                 Board Secretary