Minutes of Annual Membership Meeting
Minutes of Annual Membership Meeting
Date: April 21, 2007
Present: approx. 62 members and guests attended at The Mountain View Grand Resort
Events: We started with a social hour with hors d'oeuvre and cocktails at 6 PM.
Opening remarks were made by our new board member Chris Diego of TMVG followed by dinner.
Sally started the business portion of the meeting after dinner by introducing the board members, and discussing the various projects that the board has worked on this year, such as the Expo, the Gateway Magazine, the Relocation Guide, the mixers, etc. She asked for volunteers from the general membership to become more active with the various committees.
A motion was made, 2nd, and passed to accept the nominated board members.
Next, the Business of the Year award was given by Jerry Hite as last years’ recipient. This years’ recipient was Barry Normandeau of Normandeau Inc. for his involvement in numerous beneficial community drives. He is involved on various levels with GREAT, BEDCO, our chamber, and others. He generously gives services such as trucking deliveries, door prizes, introductions to government officials, etc....We congratulate him for his achievement and thank him for his service.
Next a motion was made, 2nd, and passed to accept the budget as presented.
Alice DeSouza then spoke about the NH Dept of Tourism and Travel, and what she perceives as their role in promoting NH as a destination. She talked about the depts. efforts to advertise winter this year...before we had any snow! She spoke about Governor Lynch's television commercial when he was skiing at Cannon. She discussed the print, TV, and web ads that NH is running solo, as well as in partnership with others all over New England. She suggested that everyone go to the seminar being held at Berlin Tech on May 16+17 by Roger Brooks. It is about promoting tourism in NH. She said that when we have events coming up, to let her dept. know...maybe they can help or add to it somehow. She suggested we not think in terms of our individual towns but in terms of Coos County as a whole. We can all benefit by the successes of each part.
Melissa Ogle, a liaison from Senator Sununu’s office. He is in DC right now, so she represented him at our meeting. She talked about how her office could help citizens and groups who might be having a problem with the federal government. Her office also helps groups with projects such as the areas broadband connections, and getting channel 9 back onto the DISH network. She also said that they are happy to help when any of us go to DC, with having a tour of the Capital Building or the White House.
Rob Larson of our local GREAT (Groveton Regional Economic Action Team) group. He wowed us with the astonishing progress that GREAT has made in just its one year of existence. He spoke about the re-branding of Groveton, the connection of the Northern Forest Canoe Trails on the Connecticut River, the Bio mass project, the dream of a technology park in Groveton, and the re-vamping that will happen on Groveton’s’ main streets. He discussed how active GREAT is with many different economic, social, and government groups who are all working toward bettering our county economically.
Dave Keenan of the NCIC (Northern Communities Investment Corporation). He discussed how his companies’ loan funds, equipment leasing, help with facilities development and ties to other resources like CEDC can all work toward the betterment of business in our area, and therefore impact the creation/maintenance of jobs in the north country. Kathy Conway, also from the NCIC talked about the economic development side from a social standpoint. They recently sent out surveys to our entire county to find out how the citizens actually feel about what our county needs. They can then take these results and work towards goals that our population desires. Like bringing broadband to the area.
Last, but by no means least, Peter Riviere of the CEDC (Coos Economic Development Corporation) talked about what his organization can and has done to promote better living and business capabilities in Coos County. The CEDC does subordinate loans working with banks and other institutions; they manage Lancaster’s Industrial Park, projects that are involved with infrastructure such as roads, phones, broadband, etc... They were much of the driving force that finally got our tower built up on Mt. Orne. The current project is trying to bring wireless capabilities to Coos County. It’s a 12 million dollar project. He, like Kathy Conway, wants to change the conversation when discussing our area from one of depressed, sad, and poor to positive and growing. There will be a quarterly meeting of the CEDC held at the Cabot Hotel in Lancaster on May 11 at 7:30 AM. They will be discussing the results and implications of the county wide survey mentioned by Kathy Conway. If you are interested in going, you can email him from the CEDC website, or call their office in Lancaster.
Date: April 21, 2007
Present: approx. 62 members and guests attended at The Mountain View Grand Resort
Events: We started with a social hour with hors d'oeuvre and cocktails at 6 PM.
Opening remarks were made by our new board member Chris Diego of TMVG followed by dinner.
Sally started the business portion of the meeting after dinner by introducing the board members, and discussing the various projects that the board has worked on this year, such as the Expo, the Gateway Magazine, the Relocation Guide, the mixers, etc. She asked for volunteers from the general membership to become more active with the various committees.
A motion was made, 2nd, and passed to accept the nominated board members.
Next, the Business of the Year award was given by Jerry Hite as last years’ recipient. This years’ recipient was Barry Normandeau of Normandeau Inc. for his involvement in numerous beneficial community drives. He is involved on various levels with GREAT, BEDCO, our chamber, and others. He generously gives services such as trucking deliveries, door prizes, introductions to government officials, etc....We congratulate him for his achievement and thank him for his service.
Next a motion was made, 2nd, and passed to accept the budget as presented.
Alice DeSouza then spoke about the NH Dept of Tourism and Travel, and what she perceives as their role in promoting NH as a destination. She talked about the depts. efforts to advertise winter this year...before we had any snow! She spoke about Governor Lynch's television commercial when he was skiing at Cannon. She discussed the print, TV, and web ads that NH is running solo, as well as in partnership with others all over New England. She suggested that everyone go to the seminar being held at Berlin Tech on May 16+17 by Roger Brooks. It is about promoting tourism in NH. She said that when we have events coming up, to let her dept. know...maybe they can help or add to it somehow. She suggested we not think in terms of our individual towns but in terms of Coos County as a whole. We can all benefit by the successes of each part.
Melissa Ogle, a liaison from Senator Sununu’s office. He is in DC right now, so she represented him at our meeting. She talked about how her office could help citizens and groups who might be having a problem with the federal government. Her office also helps groups with projects such as the areas broadband connections, and getting channel 9 back onto the DISH network. She also said that they are happy to help when any of us go to DC, with having a tour of the Capital Building or the White House.
Rob Larson of our local GREAT (Groveton Regional Economic Action Team) group. He wowed us with the astonishing progress that GREAT has made in just its one year of existence. He spoke about the re-branding of Groveton, the connection of the Northern Forest Canoe Trails on the Connecticut River, the Bio mass project, the dream of a technology park in Groveton, and the re-vamping that will happen on Groveton’s’ main streets. He discussed how active GREAT is with many different economic, social, and government groups who are all working toward bettering our county economically.
Dave Keenan of the NCIC (Northern Communities Investment Corporation). He discussed how his companies’ loan funds, equipment leasing, help with facilities development and ties to other resources like CEDC can all work toward the betterment of business in our area, and therefore impact the creation/maintenance of jobs in the north country. Kathy Conway, also from the NCIC talked about the economic development side from a social standpoint. They recently sent out surveys to our entire county to find out how the citizens actually feel about what our county needs. They can then take these results and work towards goals that our population desires. Like bringing broadband to the area.
Last, but by no means least, Peter Riviere of the CEDC (Coos Economic Development Corporation) talked about what his organization can and has done to promote better living and business capabilities in Coos County. The CEDC does subordinate loans working with banks and other institutions; they manage Lancaster’s Industrial Park, projects that are involved with infrastructure such as roads, phones, broadband, etc... They were much of the driving force that finally got our tower built up on Mt. Orne. The current project is trying to bring wireless capabilities to Coos County. It’s a 12 million dollar project. He, like Kathy Conway, wants to change the conversation when discussing our area from one of depressed, sad, and poor to positive and growing. There will be a quarterly meeting of the CEDC held at the Cabot Hotel in Lancaster on May 11 at 7:30 AM. They will be discussing the results and implications of the county wide survey mentioned by Kathy Conway. If you are interested in going, you can email him from the CEDC website, or call their office in Lancaster.