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Waynet
Executive Board Meeting
March 18, 2004
Present:
• Randy Baker,
President (Richmond Power & Light)
• Thomas G. Kirk, Jr., Vice-President/Treasurer (Earlham College)
• Jim Buckler (Richmond WorkOne)
• Dudley Fetzer (First Bank Richmond)
• Chris Hardie (Summersault)
• Misty Hollis (Wayne County Government)
• Bill Pendley (Potter’s Wheel Bed & Breakfast)
• Jane Holman, Executive Director (Ex Officio)
12 Noon – Call to
Order – Randy Baker presiding.
Old Business
The minutes of the Executive Board meeting of March 18 were
approved. Dudley Fetzer made the motion and Jim Buckler seconded.
After discussion on a
request for a fee waiver by Community Christian School, it was granted.
The motion was by Tom Kirk, seconded by Misty Hollis and unanimously
approved.
The balance sheet for
the period January through February 2004 was reviewed. It showed little
activity since it is early in the fiscal year. Revenues were $1,327.50
and expenses $1,860.87. Misty Hollis moved to accept the report. It was
seconded by Dudley Fetzer and approved unanimously.
The Executive Board
considered the budget for 2004 that had been postponed from the previous
meeting. A revised budget was distributed with two revisions
from the previous version (increase
Professional Services from $500 to $740 to cover the fees for hosting
and domain forwarding, and increase the Insurance line item from $400 to
$675). With discussion the budget was moved for approval by Tom
Kirk and seconded by Misty Hollis. The budget was approved unanimously.
New Business
Executive Director’s Report
Jane Holman presented
the Executive Director’s report. The last two months have been spent
coping with the technical problems as fall-out from the Hypervine server
going down for some 12 hours. Although the system eventually came back
up Jane made the decision in consultation with Randy Baker, President
and Chris Hardie, past president to move the site to a new service
provider –amhosting. Part of the site remains at Summersault. While the
change required a great deal of work by Jane, often with extensive
changing of links, she was able to do some much needed house keeping.
Other activities of
the past two months have included Web site maintenance and enhancement
and some initial work on the “Encyclopedia of Wayne County Project.”
The latter project is now on track with Shaun Dingwerth writing the
text and Jane photographing the illustrative material.
The log analysis of
the WayNet site’s uses reflects the down time and the disruption of
service while Jane rebuilt the site.
Jane demonstrated
the new services provided by the amhosting server. The statistical
analysis is more robust and there are additional management features
that will make her job somewhat easier.
Jane asked the
Executive Board for some help in setting priorities. She can set the
priorities but wants to be sure she is on the same page with the
Board. The consensus reached was that the completion of the
Encyclopedia of Wayne County Project and the enhancement of the Web
site were the top priority, with marketing second (or third) and the
conversion of the remaining pieces of the site from Summersault’s
server to amhosting last. Jane is comfortable with that set of
priorities.
Marketing
Committee Report
The Committee and
Jane Holman met with Harry Phillips from RP&L to discuss marketing.
His philosophy focuses on what he calls "Purple Cow" marketing. By
this he means finding the niche for your business and exploiting it.
In the discussion that followed which blended with the next item the
following points were made.
Niche marketing can
involve a focused audience or a focused set of services, but in either
case it is important the organization understand what its purpose is
and focus its attention on meeting that purpose and marketing that
purpose.
He suggested that newspaper and radio advertising might not be the
best advertising media. He suggested such things as appearance at
events and on radio provides free advertising and that paid
advertising might be more effective it is used for sponsored
activities.
Discussion:
membership/budget structure
The above
discussion led back to pick up the January Executive Board discussion
and the tasks it set for itself. To quote from those minutes:
After some discussion, the board, on a motion by Chris Hardie and a
second by Jim Buckler, directed President Baker to appoint a steering
committee to explore options for a 501(c)3 organization.
Randy Baker
reported that with the technical problems that were consuming Jane’s
time this hasn’t been a good time to get the committee started. All
agreed. However the opinion was expressed that we need to move forward
with planning in order to put in place a plan before the budget for
2005 is presented. It was suggested that whatever we do there are
likely to be some expenses and we need to get the plan underway before
the reserves are depleted.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 1:25 PM. The next meeting will be May 20 at 12
Noon, with lunch at 11:30 AM at Richmond Power & Light.
Note: Other regular meetings this year: July 15, September 16 and
November 18.
Respectfully
submitted,
Tom Kirk
Secretary, pro tem
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