The meeting began at 6:30 PM. We found out that the Moose Tracks cafe within REI closes at 5:30 PM, and it may be closing altogether in May, so that won't work for people who wanted to get food there and bring it to the meeting.
We discussed our membership numbers. As of April 14, we had 52 members signed up, though the fees had not yet been deposited into the club treasury. We have had 44 renewals, of which 42 came from the discount offer listed in the newsletter. 8 members are new members.
Funds in the treasury are rather low. The current balance is $1274. If we ordered T-shirts, we would be down to about $200, and a newsletter run is averaging around $220. A T-shirt printing runs about $1000. The membership funds ($610 waiting to be deposited) should cover those expenses. The budget for next year will be released next month.
We thought about dropping off our newsletter, schedule, or brochures at REI and other stores. The newsletter can get dated after several months, but we could duplicate a schedule insert inexpensively and put it in with a brochure.
We discussed what would be announced at each Monday night skate. The list includes:
These duties will be rotated among board members. Randy will do the announcemens on April 21 and 28; Gina will do it on May 5; Bruce will cover the Friday Fitness Skate; and we would talk to Susan Stasel about doing these announcements on May 12 at Big Rivers.
We discussed REI as a meeting place. For the most part, there is general agreement that REI is a good location and that we could get more participation from other club members. A couple people are concerned about drive time coming from north of REI on 35W. REI has either the third or the fourth Thursday of each month available, and after discussing our availability, we agreed to have board meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month. The exception is May, when the meeting room isn't available on Thursdays. We agreed to have the meeting on Sunday, May 18 before the Big Rivers trail cleanup. Also, we noted that REI is willing to give support to our club and that they would provide some form of sponsorship. Building this relationship would help in turn with giving our club some exposure.
We discussed sponsorship programs. Adam and Rollerbob asked about how our sponsorship program would work. Randy would like to talk to Twin City Sports magazine, Play It Again, and REI. We chose a sponsor letter that shows a potential sponsor what our club can do for them. We also discussed the concept of sponsorship levels and what we would seek from sponsors. We are more interested in getting percentage discounts than in getting monetary grants, because a discount is more valuable to members and will attract new members. We decided on a target of a 10% discount, and that the benefits we provided to sponsors (such as listing on the Web site, listing in the newsletter, links, and so on) would be negotiable from that as a base. The Web site, and probably the newsletter, should list our sponsors and what our members receive from them.
We discussed Allan Wright's proposal for sponsorship. He is starting a new affiliate program where a member who finds Zephyr Inline Skate Tours (or Active Camp Adventures or Active Culture Tours) through the MISC web site will receive a 10% discount on their tour. MISC would also receive a percentage as a commission. We debated whether the commission to us was a good idea or not, but we decided to go with this program. We also planned to ask Allan if he would give a discount to MISC members who book their first tour without going through our Web site.
We also discussed Noelle's proposal. We do not want to get involved in her battles or disagreements with Allan. We discussed a counter-proposal to her latest offer that would not involve a conflict with the FreeSkateLesson.com program. We probably won't be able to put her logo on T-shirts because of the time constraints for printing, but we can mention her discounts on the Web site and on the newsletter.
We will ask Rollerbob and Adam (of Adam's Inline) to see if they are interested in giving discounts to club members.
We discussed some brochures and flyers that Randy had written up. We discussed prices and the membership form in the brochure. We will work on the brochure ideas some more and discuss them at the next meeting. As far as flyers go, color copies are kind of expensive, but black and white flyers will be cheaper. It would be nice to stuff these flyers in with Rollerbob and Adam's orders, as well as in the Great River Roll and the SUN 75. Bruce and Randy will work on these.
Finally, we discussed T-shirts. The yellow color from last year was bright and got us some notice. We discussed colors for a while and decided to resolve the issue via E-mail. The goal is to have the T-shirts ready for pickup on the picnic on May 17. Since it takes two to three weeks to get the shirts printed, we need to decide by April 25. We also need to get the sponsors decided upon by then. If a sponsor wants to give us a monetary contribution, we can include them on the shirt; otherwise, mention on the Web site and the newsletter should be sufficient.
The trail cleanup is set for Saturday, April 19 at 9:30 AM. Randy will send out a reminder of the event. We also mentioned that we should have a disclaimer and removal instructions for the E-mail list.
We discussed the upcoming picnic. Gina and Randy will work on it. Rollerbob will be there, along with a representative from Robichon's and Kirsten (who is she?). The Rollerdome may not have their information ready in time for the picnic. Mike Merriman is back from Florida and will probably be able to help with the slalom course, along with Mark "Crazy Legs".
We talked about having a Sunday afternoon family skate with parents and kids. We will think about starting this in mid-summer, and we will talk about it informally to see if there is interest.
The mplsfridayskate.com web site is down because Rob didn't pay for the domain. We will check into this.
The next meeting is set for Sunday, May 18 at 11:00 AM at REI. This is just before the Adopt-a-Trail at the Big Rivers Regional Trail, which is 1:00 PM that afternoon.