Friday- December 14, 2018

MINUTES of the MEETING
of the BOARD of DIRECTORS

Friday – Friday December 14, 2018– 8:30 a.m. 34 West Fulton Street Gloversville, New York

Directors Present: Geoffrey Peck, Ronald Olinsky (on phone), Leslie Ford, Gregory Fagan, Travis Mitchell, Timothy Beckett, Terri Easterly, Kent Kirch

Directors Absent: Grant Preston

Staff Present: Ronald Peters, Jennifer Jennings and Diane Meade

Other Attendees: Ashley Onyon Leader Herald, Michael Albanese Legal Council

Public Session

8:30 AM
Call to Order / Introductions/Meeting Minutes:

Chairman Geoffrey Peck called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. He welcomed the Directors and guests to the meeting. Mr. Peck asked for a motion to approve the B.O.D. meeting minutes from November 30, 2018 and the Finance Committee Meeting minutes from November 28, 2018. Greg Fagan motioned. It was seconded by Leslie Ford and it passed unanimously.

Administrative Matters

Chair Report:

Kent Kirch- Rolled right into committee reports.

Conclusion of Chair Report

Committee Reports:

Executive Committee:

This Committee has not met since the last Board meeting.

Governance Committee:

This Committee has not met since the last Board meeting. Diane to schedule next meeting before the end of the year.

Finance Committee:

• Ron Olinsky Discussed cash positions which are fine. Went through Phil Beckets report which worked equally well but we are tweeting a few things getting ready for a year end audit. Nothing out of the ordinary at this stage. We did entertain three guests at our meeting and we discussed what to do with our idle funds.
• Finance Committee is making a recommendation to move that money to get at return on it instead of it just sitting in a money market account. I’ll refer that to new business and Greg Fagan will be making a motion at that time.
• Receivables and payables are fine. We are finally converting over to the ACH payments with no fees and should be going by the years end. That will insure direct payments. Paul will oversee as we get into the process.

Ron Peters – We are good to go now with ACH.

Audit Committee:

This Committee has not met since the last Board meeting.

Building Committee:

• Geoffrey Peck: Building Committee met on December 13^th and the two major things discussed were a) potential tenant for this floor to be discussed more in executive because there is a contract involved. B) Looking at the renovation of the exterior of this building.
• Looking at ways to draw down the funds, how we might finance the cash flow we’ll need. Identify the recourses available and starting to work through the process of obtaining those monies.
• Our architect Dave D’Amore was here to advise us on some of the directions we may need to take in regards to doing the roofing and front façade which is well out of plum but it is also artistically significate to the art deco façade of the building. It will probably be a significant part of the remediation.
• There are three different roof systems on the building all of which have their own challenges. A consulting engineer will be giving a report on this side of the building the two story side, where there is a concrete slab system that has been compromised over the years by drilling through it. They will be taking a look at that as a third party to see if it can remain in place or it has to be replaced. We also discussed removing the building in the back and how that impacts our budget and how we might create a back entrance to the lower level. We thought we might be able to slide it in but it looks like the budget is already consumed by what we have currently. So an expansion of those plans are probably not going to happen with those funds.
• Ron Peters: We did have a Asbestos study done. Very very minor in some of the caulking on the second floor and then the older building on the roof on the one story building. Other than that very minimal which is good.

Membership & Marketing Committee:

• Leslie Ford: Membership and Marketing met on December the 13^th 2018. Leslie brought our attention to several members who had never been adopted as members that we know of, so doing that now. They are: Intelligent Leather Holdings, Holiday Inn, The Family Counseling Center Canada Lake Computers, SWANY America, Fulton Montgomery Community College, The Leader Herald, Ricmar Printing, James Esper Landscaping, Northville 5&10 and Performa Shrader & Shrader.
• We have talked having municipalities being members and we have a very generous gift, a membership piece, ($25,000). It may not be possible for all municipalities to be quite so generous so one of the things we talked about was changing the wording to be “partners” in our language giving us the flexibility to suggest they make a “contribution” based on their annual budget. The discussion was around wanting to engage large and small with CRG and that that was the most important goal. We are recommending a change in the bi-laws to reflect that.
• The other area was setting expectations. Dues, where do we want those to fall? We had different opinions around the table. Should we do that as you come up on your annual monthly date or should we divide that up? We looked at doing it every 6 months which seems to be the easiest and have the freedom to pro-rate if needed.
• Send an annual renewal letter to everyone so they know it’s coming up.
• Switching to a Google Doc so we can share that to help us stay in contact with our members.
• Change of level perks. It’s not really about what they get, it’s more about belonging and contributing to what we do. Ticket stays the same for the Gala.

ABO Guidelines Review:

Diane Meade reviewed a portion of the ABO Policy regarding # 17-01 Board Training and two items needed to be ABO compliant need to be returned: they are The Fiduciary Form and the Conflict of Interest survey.  These were passed out and most returned. Diane Meade supplied everyone a copy the ABO Guidance Policy for their review. Diane reminded everyone that they need to do a review every 3 years.

Geoffrey Peck: Diane will you send out individually what each board member needs? ABO will frown on any change to their paper requests so conversation about maybe changing that were squashed.

Gloversville Downtown Development Specialist Report:

Jennifer Jennings:

• Presented last week at Ptech. They are doing a marketing project for the Coop downtown so I went in and spoke about editorial practices and marketing calendars. Interesting because a lot of the kids talk about going into consumer sales but they haven’t really thought that through, selling to consumers and a great conversation on that end and I have the ag background to say “this is actually really important to you guys” I used it when I worked on the farm, with farmers and with farm bureau. It’s great to get out and get those kids downtown and see how farmers they know are selling downtown.
• My whole career has really been about rural urban connections and relationship building so getting those kids down here was important. Those kids need to be more involved in downtown.
• Ron and I are being interviewed for a documentary today at 1 PM “Glove City is Rising”
• Got the go ahead on the part time admin person. Application end January 11th. Hopefully start in March.
• Work Planning Committee Meeting was yesterday to plan 2019; action items and goals. Finalizing and refined a little bit. So in 2019 we will have more people at the table between CRG and the City to have a constant dialog so we know that were all on the same page and are able to meet the markers not just on my roll but CRG and the Cities.

County and City Reports:

• Invited all to the Caroga Lake Polar Plunge
• CRG projects-

President and CEO Report

Current Projects: 

• Ron Peters: December 18^th is a big date- CFA comes out, Jim Groff and I are driving down for it. We have Pioneer Windows in for 2.2 Million Grant or some kind of Grant Process. They generally come back with some sort of grant and tax credits if they do fund the project. We have the application there for the Tryon Electric, two local waterway revitalization projects in there one for Northville and one for Gloversville and we have the Activities Center Program. We put in for a study, so we’ll see.
• We have had a lot of inquiries that we will go over in executive session. More in the last month the 45 days than in the last 12 months. Getting very active.
• Another call from another DC looking in the area. That’s the 5^th one we have had in the last 2 months. This one is for a modern dry goods company. Not sure we can even meet there height requirements.
• Another is looking to expand a line in Fulton County. Some industrial
• Evolution in the process of working through their first loan. Getting ready to close that. Not sure if it will be done by the end of the week.
• Crosslands Industrial Park will cover in executive.
• Microenterprise closing up in January but will continue the updates. Visiting every 6 month conform with regulations.
• Will hear about our third $200,000 Microenterprise grant money on the 18^th as well.
• Second Wind hopefully opens in 3 weeks and the small restaurant hopefully will get some funding
• We have a tour at the Espuna Monday at 10 am. May be looking to expand
• 3 Distilleries numbers in 30 days or so. Busy time of year. Pretty confident we’ll get them financing the first part of next year. Broadalbin still looking at sites.
• Slates-

Adjournment to Executive Session to Discuss Legal Issues

At 9:28 a.m. Geoff Peck moved for a motion, Greg Fagan motioned to adjourn to executive session Leslie               Ford seconded it.

Recalled to Public session briefly to confirm and approve Executive Board for 2019 Kent Kirch- Chair, Leslie Ford- Vice Chair, Ron Olinsky-Treasurer, Greg Fagan- Secretary. Approved unanimously.

Respectfully Submitted,

________________________________                    _________________

Leslie Ford, Board Secretary                                                      Date