Coon Valley Area Business Association
Meeting held January 7th at WCCU.
The meeting was called to order at 5:15 by Carol Olson.
We heard from Scott Starch of Midwest Family Broadcasting who talked about upping our Facebook presence and possibly considering doing some radio spots highlighting events in the area rather than individual businesses. The goal would be to bring people to town to see what we have to offer. He left information with Geoff Lenser and will leave him any additional information as he gets it. He would also be willing to talk to individual businesses about advertising.
Geoff Lenser also had information from KNEI out of IA. They have a segment where they highlight 4 businesses at a time per spot, for a cost of $400 a month. Each business would pay $100. These are 12-15 second ads that run 20 times in the month. IF you are interested, contact Geoff at Legacy for more information.
We discussed creating a scholarship fund with some of the Trout Fest proceeds and possibly some of the bingo proceeds. Carol is checking with the state if bingo money can be used this way. We decided on a $250 scholarship that would be open to the Westby Area Schools. Garland McGarvey suggested contacting the Norse Fund for more help. A motion was made, by Larry Servais, to go ahead with the scholarship, and seconded by Frank Mathison. The motion carried.
We discussed the creation of the Soup Supper event. Geoff Lenser contacted the Legion for possible dates and reported that January 26th was available but no date in February. We decided that January was too soon to get it organized, so Geoff will check on dates in March. We discussed having music, possibly Dan Sebranek or the Driftless River Band. Each business would be asked to bring a roaster or crock pot of soup. We will discuss this further at the February meeting.
We discussed Trout Fest committees and decided on the following: Food-Marie Glover, Bar/Beverages-Geoff Lenser, Advertising-Linda Schulte, Stage Sponsors-This is to cover the cost of the band and help advertise the businesses that sponsor the stage. So far we have Carol Olson (CV Tele. CO.) Jill Gettleman (WCCU) and Nancy and Dale Wedwick (Anderson on Central). We will gladly accept more sponsors. Vendor show-Jill Gettleman, Pancake breakfast-American Legion, Bobber Drawing- Karla Lewison, Kids games-Youth Association(Jill would contact them) Bingo and kids fishing have no volunteers yet. Bags tournament –Geoff Lenser. We also decided to pay out 80% of proceeds from the bags tournament instead of100%. A motion to pay out 80% was made by Geoff Lenser and seconded by Frank Mathison. The motion carried. If you can think of any other areas not covered here, please let us know. Garland McGarvey said that the Westby Car show, that will happen the same day as Trout Fest is adding a car ride at the end of their event. He said he could plan the route so the cars come through Coon Valley and hopefully stop at the Village Hall. We also decided to help each other cross promote our events.
Bingo is February 1st. We will have pork loin, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn and dessert. It will be a freewill offering again as that has been a success. We will need donations of bars for dessert. Let Carol know if you can do this. We need help setting up tables around 3pm that day, and some help in the kitchen and selling cards.
Remember to pay your dues, $75. You can bring it to the next meeting or drop off at the telephone co. with Carol.
Our next meeting will be February 4th. A reminder email will be sent with the meeting location and agenda. We will hold election of officers at this meeting.
A motion to adjourn was made by Geoff Lenser and seconded by Beth Hanson. The motion carried.
Karla Lewison