August 2022 Minutes

Baker Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture Board Meeting

Thursday, August 4th, 2022 at Heiser’s Patio at NOON.

Members present: Alissa Miller (President), Tammy O’Donnell (Secretary),Vaughn Zenko(SMART/EMEDA), Beth Epley(EPEDC), Josey Madler(Classy Catcus), Melissa Rost(Museum Curator), Roy Rost(County Commissioner), and Staci Knuths (Mid-Rivers).

Staff Present:  Melissa Higbee, Executive Director and Kassidee Downing, Rec Department Director

Alissa called meeting to order at 12:10pm.

Vaughn made a motion to approve the minutes and Tammy 2nd the motion. All in favor. Motion carried.

Executive Director Report:

Melissa Higbee reported printer has been ordered, arrived, and set it up this month. I am still going to use old printer for black and white printing until it gives out. I will use the new printer for color printing. I also got some positive feedback from NAPA on Crazy Days. Cameron said I am the most involved director he has seen in a very long time and he appreciates me. 

Rec Director Report:

Kassidee Downing reported sports camp was July 5-8. Lowest camp we have had. I think it was the timing of it all.  July 11-15 was Art Camp. It was a massive hit. Definitely my favorite camp so far. 13 in the older kid class and 23 in the day camp. My feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The younger kids’ parents asked for more than one day. Possibility for next year is to maybe, instead of a 3-hour block for littles for 1 day, do a shorter 1-hour block multiple days. Maybe even a separate week from the older kids. The art camp kids were part of the Art Walk. The older kids had professional displays at the Museum. The little kids' art displays were at Baker Furniture on the fridge. People loved it. Kassidee stated she believed that was Vaughn’s idea. Kassidee is currently in communication with Caleb for Youth Soccer in Miles City. We are about to go live with that registration. We set registration at $75 based on previous year’s prices.  I have texted all the previous coaches to see if they are interested in coaching, so far, I have received no’s from all of them. However, Caleb Renfro and Joe Epley have agreed to coach once Miles City sends their schedule to me. Keisha and Victor Wells are also interested.  And we have our Soccer skills camp next week. 24 kids are signed up. Our fall program for preschoolers is Sports Sampler. We will be doing basketball, soccer and flag football. I have permission from Skogan to use the football field and inside for these activities.

 Our elementary program is flag football. We have permission to use the playground at Lincoln. Both Jay and Chad are interested in being on a committee, but their schedules will not work with the times we have for our program. Slick Text-we currently have 42 subscribers. I just received a text Thursday from a parent saying how much she appreciates it because she is not on Facebook and this has been extremely helpful. I anticipate that our subscribers will grow substantially because of our soccer program-Baker kids will be traveling out of town and it's just an efficient way of communicating with our kids. I can also create a separate active text word for just soccer participants. 

Old Business:

Fall Festival Update: Melissa stated the racing ducks have been order. The cost of the ducks was $282.53. The duck tickets from last year are good to use for this year. Melissa reported the bouncy houses from Miles City will be the ones the Chamber will be going with the cost is under $600. Melissa will need to clarify we can put them in the street first. Staci from Mid-Rivers said that they would sponsor the bouncy houses this year. Dean is letting us borrow his picnic tables and panels for the event. We have 4 vendors so far. Fall Festival is Sept. 10th. 2022.

Lucas Meschke Golf Tournament Update: Melissa will get breakfast burrito quotes from Brenda at Thee Garage and from Gettim Here. Melissa will get quotes from both and take back the quotes to the board. Melissa will be contacting Sew What for the bags and bandanas for this event. The Lucas Meschke Golf Tournament is Sept. 17, 2022.

Calcutta Update: Alissa stated that the theme for the Calcutta is a 90’s Theme. Melissa reported Kade Huber is working on the tickets for purchase. The Calcutta is October 1, 2022.

Mini Golf Recap, Crazys 3-3, and Sidewalk Sales

Melissa Reported: Mini Golf went over well. We raised 160 to go back into buying golf greens for the Chamber. Sidewalk sales went great and lots of people downtown. Lots of business participation this year downtown.

Kassidee Reported: 3 on 3

I learned a lot. One of the major changes I will make is to have the liability waiver on the registration. We got everyone covered but it was an unnecessary issue that I created for myself.

Other Old Business: None.

New Business:

Schedule Evaluations of Positions: Executive Director and Rec Director Position

The board will visit via email in creating a self-evaluation form to give to the employees. Then go over the evaluations at a set time the board has agreed on via email.

Other New Business: None

Reports from Members:    Josey (Classy Catcus ) reported she has been really busy with weddings and Crazy Days was a lot busier on Friday than on Saturday. It was a good turnout though on Friday. Roy Rost County Commissioner stated that the Bonneville Bridge Project will be done at the end of the month. Ismay Bridge will be next. Melissa Rost Museum Curator reported it’s been a busy summer; Fall Festival is coming up and the museum with be painting pumpkins at the Fall Festival. The museum will be partnering with Fort Pecks Language and Culture Dept. The museum is having a fundraiser with Back-to-School pictures at the museum in the school house. Tammy (Fallon County Times) reported she is working on fair and back to school issues for the paper. Vaughn (SMART/EMEDA Director) reported the Baker Art Walk was a success. Thanks to Melissa Rost, Melissa Higbee, and Beth Epley. Clint won people’s choice. We will be doing it again next year. Clint Lesh has his art work still for sale at OS Brew Pub. If the artwork sales he will be donating 10% back to the Baker Arts and Culture Council. Baker Childcare Project needs 370 signatures for the petition. Monday is the deadline to turn in the signed petition. This weekend we will be at Runnings and Reynolds trying to get more signatures. We are raffling a limited edition of Kraft Mac n Cheese Ice Cream. BSB moving along. ADA entrance is getting completed however we still need someone to do the concrete ramp. Tammy suggested Sawyers could do it. Haunted House is coming up. Lily Hoeger will be the creator of this year’s event. CGI was going to come film over fair. Now it looks like September 6,7, and 8 is when they will be here. Vaughn said to send him pics of Fair, 4th of July, Fall Festival etc. to give to CGI’s team. Vaughn stated he went to the Red Ants Pants Festival to represent EPEDC. He is on EPEDC’s board and they received $1,000 from Red Ants Pants and $5,000 from the Montana Community Foundation to do a Placemaking Contest in their region. Placemaking is taking an underutilized part of your community and turning it into a public space that is appealing and useful. Re-Imagining Rural’s Tara Mastel was at the festival and asked if the Real-Estate Housing Co-Op could present as one of the innovated projects across Montana. Vaughn said he agreed to present for Re-Imagining Rural on Oct. 8th 2022. Vaughn would like to state EMEDA has an advertising grant for events that doesn’t get used often please contact him if interested in using this grant for an upcoming event. Staci (Mid-Rivers) reported she is the Mid-Rivers give back representative now. This is to help Fallon County/Baker for the better. Stacey states there is a generic form on their website to fill out for sponsorships. Staci said that she would like to see Mid-Rivers sponsor the bouncy houses for Fall Festival. They have a banner and bubbles to use doing the event to show they sponsored it. Beth (EPEDC) reported an Excel Training is coming up please join us if you need the training or a refresher. The dates for this training will be October 10 and 12 from 5pm-7pm. EPEDC has a Business Development Center Survey for everyone to take. This survey will help them get a feel of the need for a Business Development Center here in Baker. Beth reported 25 people showed up for the Show Me the Money workshop with USDA. Placemaking Contest Grant will be opened next week. Beth stated you could do gathering spaces, lighting, ect. Private Businesses are ok as long as it is open to the public. Christmas in the Park is coming up we need a committee if you want to join us. Also, looking for lights for this year. The park got vandalized last year and lights were broken. If anyone has extra lights, we need some. Alissa (EPEDC) reported that FADA presented at the workshop in Ekalaka. GTA is coming out soon on August 12th. This grant helps by equipment. Promo video is being released from Barkely’s and OCC Legacy Cuts. Tourism Grant is open right now. Deadline is September 15th. Alissa reported there will be a suicide prevention training in Glendive on September 14th 8:30am-12:30pm. This is a free training and lunch is provided. FADA received a grant to put this training on. Alissa stated she is now at 20hrs with EPEDC. Beth Regan passed a message through Alissa about a training on substance abuse coming up in Glendive on August 9th from 8am -12pm at the Toepke Facility Center. This is a free training.

Adjournment: Josey made a motion to adjourn at 1:00pm and Beth 2nd the motion. All in favor. Motion carried.

**Next Meeting Thursday, September 1st, 2022 at NOON at the Lakeview Country Club**