|
MEETING MINUTES — SATURDAY April 9th, 2005 at 12pm
A solid turnout of members on this beautiful spring day led to an interesting and important meeting that resulted in some important changes in our activities for the coming year.
After pen-trading/selling that commenced at noon, followed by an excellent lunch. President Eric Fonville opened the business portion of the meeting at 2:45 p.m.
1. Date of MICH PEN Show 2005:
It was proposed that a survey be sent out to dealers to determine their intentions on coming to the MICH PEN Show and if a change in date would encourage them to them to be more likely to attend. After a great deal of discussion it was decided to dispense with the survey and to change the date of the MICH PEN Show to October 1 2005. While that is the proposed date of the Dallas Pen Show it was suggested that “it (Dallas …) was experiencing some difficulties …” and that we would choose the date.
Motion by Lih-Tah Wong, Second by Dennis Brown.
The MICH PEN Show for 2005 is to be held on October 1, 2005.
Carried by Unanimous vote.
2. Location of the Show:
(Addendum)The MICH PEN SHOW 2005 will be held Saturday and Sunday October 1st and 2nd, 2005 at the Troy (MI) Hilton Hotel. (Effective April 17, 2005).
A lengthy debate ensued over the location for the show. There was general feeling that Cobo Hall, in spite of its economic advantages (rent and security for the weekend of [removed]) is a less than attractive location for a show. People do not want to go downtown. The building is sterile and little is around it to make it appealing for attendees. Parking, while large in terms of space, is difficult for many to locate.
While many other locations were put forward, no decision was made on where it will be held at this point. Instead a number of other proposed options will be investigated.
One further suggestion, advanced by Sean Stillwell, was utilizing the resources of the Jaycee organization. They take on the responsibility of making all arrangements for conventions and shows and accept all risks. Likewise they handle all advertising. Under normal circumstances they make all the profit for putting on the show for organizations that hire them. It was suggested that they do make exceptions to this rule and may be willing to do some profit sharing. This option will also be followed up.
The Detroit show does have certain advantages over other pen shows. First, it is a non-profit making show (that is not its goal or purpose). Secondly, and as a result of being a non-profit show, it does not overcharge either dealers or attendees.
3. Advertising at the Chicago Pen Show:
Since no location will be decided upon formally until the next meeting we were faced with the problem of advertising the show. It was moved by Andy Rothman, seconded by Doug Ritchie: That “handouts be prepared to distribute at the Chicago Pen Show advertising the fact that the MICHIGAN PEN SHOW will be held on (addendum dates included) OCTOBER 1 and 2, 2005 at the Troy Mi Hilton Hotel and that further details will be announced on our website and sent to all dealers shortly.” The motion carried with unanimous approval.
4. Post-it Note Advertising:
It was decided that we will have “post-it note type pads” (similar to those used last year) prepared announcing this show and these will be sent out to dealers and others to advertise the show. Eric Fonville will look after this. Eric Fonville will be in charge of this year’s show and will have other details prepared for the next meeting. He will also tentatively book Cobo Hall as a “fall-back” location if none of the other locations proposed work out. (Lih-Tah Wong will be assisting him with the show’s major organization).
5. Report on the MICH PEN Show 2004:
The show did NOT lose money; in fact there was a profit of [removed]. Attendance was, to be honest, poor. On Saturday there were only 66 paid admissions and Sunday produced 46 paid admissions. These figures were less than half of the previous year. [removed] was produced by admissions (this figure includes all weekend traders in addition to paid admissions) and [removed] by dealer table fees. Total costs were [removed] while revenues were [removed].
6. Treasurers Report:
7. Mailing Lists and Email Lists:
While we email our meeting information to members the difficulty is that we have email addresses for only about one-third of those members. Even then, despite efforts to update those addresses we still are reaching too few of the members. It was decided that we will both email all members for whom we have addresses and send land-mail information to all members to ensure that we are reaching as many members as we can.
8. June Meeting:
9. Motion to Adjourn: Dennis Brown; Second: Andy Rothman.
Attendance:
Andrew Rothman, Doug Ritchie, Erdvilas Bankauskas, Eric Fonville, Dennis Brown, Sean Stillwell, Don Castle, George Zikakis, Lih-Tah Wong, Stan Goodman, Dicron Mahakian, Michael Krut, Marvin Stone, Greg Zierk, Ralph Stillwell.
|
