DDBA Board Meeting Minutes

November 18, 2010 at DDBA office, 165 East A St. Dixon, 8:30 a.m.

  1. Meeting Call to Order at 8:33am; Roll Call of Directors/Established Quorum. Present: Jill Orr, Suzie Motley, Kathy King, Rich Mason, Teresa Schilling, Devon Minnema, Bud Fanning.Absent: Bert Gaulke, Steve Lorente. Guests Present: Mike Hamilton, Tom Carrier and Lisa Miller.
  2. Approval of Agenda: Rich 1st/Teresa 2nd/motion carries
  1. Approval of April Minutes: Rich 1st/Teresa 2nd/motion carries
  1. Treasurer’s Report
  2. The standing motion to pay the usual bill covered our monthly bills. Bert was not present to give the Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss statement for the month.
  3. Jill presented two receipts for Christmas Tree Lighting decorations to replace old, worn and broken decorations in the amounts of $503.52 and $63.01 and she returned $10.00 for an exchanged item.. She also presented two receipts for the going away lunch for Debra Dingman and Debbie Conley for $48.73 and a gift for $30.00.
  1. Grillin’ and Chillin’ Committee – Donation Request – Committee Chairperson Mike Hamilton
  2. Tom Carrier was introduced and began by starting a DVD presentation of last year’s event. This presentation is going to be presented to the City Council as part of the grant request for next year’s event. The slide show was received very well. He went on to display the website for the event. The tour included all the pages with an explanation of each page. It again was very well received. Jill next introduced Mike Hamilton, the chairperson of the Grillin’ and Chillin’ committee. Mike began by explaining that the committee was been put together with 70% non-DDBA members and that they have been working hard in raising awareness in the community for next year’s event. He explained that he had made contact with a PG&E representative who has shown great interest in helping to sponsoring the event. Through this PG&E representative other sponsors could be made as well. Mike also went on to propose a sharing plan with several other non-profit groups who would not only help to fund the event, but would also share in the profits. The idea is that with several groups involved that it would be much easier to raise more money to help get the event going to turn a profit. Rich asked questions about this sharing plan and Mike explained that in order to get some outside sponsors it was needed in order to show more community benefit. Lisa Miller also offered some background information which helped to clarify the events that led up to the development of their proposal. Kathy expressed concerns about the closure of Highway 113 andexplained that she was in contact with a city official who thought that it could be difficult to pull off again. Kathy also expressed concerns about the budget and felt that it was important for the Board to review this information before giving a final decision. The visitors were thanked for their presentation and retired from the meeting.
  1. Old Business:
  2. 2011 Budget – The 2011 Budget that was approved by the Executive Board was passed around to the Board members and was asked to be approved. It was explained that the Executive Board members met on Tuesday and went over each line item and felt that it was a conservative draft and would be very effective for next year. Kathy expressed concerns about approving the budget since she really hasn’t had enough time to review it and Teresa also agreed she was not ready to make any decision on this business. It was explained that it was important to get the Budget passed since much of the remainder action items were resting on the budget plans. It was agreed to allow the Board members time to review the 2011 Budget and a Special Meeting was needed to approve the budget and finish the Old Business waiting to be concluded. The Special Meeting was scheduled for Friday November 19, 2010 at 2:15pm at the DDBA office.
  3. Event Approval for 2011 Grillin and Chillin July 23rd – Committee Co-Chairperson Jill Orr: Tabled until the Special Meeting.
  4. Event Approval for the 2011 Wine Stroll August 28th – Committee Chairperson Kathy King: Tabled until the Special Meeting.
  5. Event Approval for the October Halloween Hunt October 29th – Committee Chairperson Teresa Schilling: Tabled until the Special Meeting.
  6. Event Approval for the 2011 Christmas Tree Lighting December 1st – Committee Chairperson Jill Orr: Tabled until the Special Meeting.
  7. Event Approval for the Farmers Market Committee Chairperson Suzie Motley: Tabled until the Special Meeting.
  1. New Business:
  2. MOU Donation request Grilin and Chillin – Jill Orr: Tabled until Special Meeting.
  3. Dixon Chamber of Commerce lease agreement and costs – Jill Orr: Jill was not prepared to address this item so it was removed from the Agenda.
  4. BID process understanding it – Mark Hecky: Mark was unable to attend so this item was removed from the Agenda.
  5. Open Board nomination seats – Jill Orr: The question as to keeping Debra Dingman active in the DDBA Board was brought up. Rich suggested that since we have so much invested in Debra and that since she was the main representative at the California Downtown Association that it would be wise to appoint her as a Board Member. Rich made a motion to have Debra Dingman appointed to the board. Teresa made the second. The discursions began with Kathy brining up a potential conflict of interests between Devon and Debra being family members and sharing seats on the Board of Directors. She felt that there might be some influence in voting between them and it could be unwise if this were the case. Devon was asked if Debra would have any unjust influence on his opinions toward Board Business and he responded by saying that he felt there was no conflict and that he has his own opinions and he would not let Debra opinions affect the way he votes. He did mention that he was sure that there would be discussions about the DDBA issues address during dinners and other gatherings but that in no way would he allow his opinions be affected. Kathy felt comfortable with his explanation and the board was asked to vote. All Approved, motion passed.
  6. Suzie mentioned that it was nearing the time when we would need to rent the tent for the Christmas Tree Lighting event and that we have several events when we need to rent this tent. The cost to rent this tent was $900.00 and since we have several events where we need this same tent rental it would be a good idea to purchase a tent instead of renting one. She explained that by combining the amount we have set aside for tent rental in the budget for several events we could save money in the long run by ownership. It was determined to be a good idea to purchase a tent and we would address this once the budget is approved.
  1. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:33am.