IABA BOARD MEETING

JAN 5, 2020 AT THE HOME OF JANET LOMBARDI

IN ATTENDANCE: JANET LOMBARDI, ANN BOSS0-JOHNSON, SIMONA FAVE, GARY MOLINARO, JOHN NACCRATO, TERRY CERVI, JOY LAWRANCE

Meeting called to order at 2:25pm by Janet. 

Minutes from Dec. meeting were approved as submitted.

Gina suggested that Janet serve as president…all approved.  Vice Pres: Gina was nominated, all approve. Joy nominated as secretary, all approve, Treasurer, Ann Bosso-Johnson…all approve. Membership…Janet suggested Terry – and discussion followed about the duties and challenges of the position. She agreed to take the position, all approved. Two members-at-large – Gary Molinaro and John Naccarato. 

Discussion of website – which has some challenges. Since we want to pay Simona for her services, it’s helpful to know how much time she spends on it. In the past, $150/month was suggested. We’ll go thru the 2020 budget and make a decision at that point.

Janet would like everyone’s photo and short bio for the website.

Treasurer’s Report – Ann Bosso-Johnson:  Ann passed out P&L, budget, State Farm proposal, membership list. Various budget items were discussed. Members who have paid for dinners and do not show up will not be reimbursed. Those who are ill will get credit for the next meeting. Monthly meeting costs will vary depending on the venue and the menus. Board agreed to up member meeting charge to $15.  Membership number is now at 61. There are four past due members. 

Christmas Party report: Gina: Sons of Italy cannot book for early Dec. in 2020 weekends. Discussion of weekend vs. week-night – mid week may be hard for some, but pricewise is better.

Awards – Were very successful, especially the Bravo Award, opening the nominations to other clubs. This should help to get other members attending the event. 

New Business:

Future board meetings:  first Monday of the month is what has been done in the past. Perhaps some can be done on Zoom/by phone, esp. if there’s not too much on the agenda. Gina suggest we meet in person, quarterly. With a phone option, people can attend either way. Time suggested - 6pm. We agreed to meet in person the first Monday of each quarter. Janet will work on getting Zoom set up for us.

Member Meetings:  We looked at the 2019 schedule and possibilities for 2020.  Gina: has talked to members of other clubs and there is interest in doing more jointly. Venues are a challenge – since so many places charge to meet. Janet related that the club used to have a sponsor for a meeting and that person would be able to promote their business. Gina will scout venues and would like to have places set up for the year. A goal is to focus on Business, Cultural and Community each quarter. There was discussion about various programs that may appeal to our members. Round tables could be helpful to members. Biz Bites should stay, and door prizes are good. Gina will send out an email to ask members if they have a place for meetings that we can check out. 

Marketing:  What can we do to help this club grow?  Maybe decals (some smaller than what was provided to us last year); Advertising – we did an ad in Andiamo. The editor will publish the Awards (and photos) we gave out in Dec. Gina will ask about more frequent ads in the publication. Discussed ways to track any people that come to us through that.

Suggestion – new members should have a folder with club information. Maybe some coupons from members. Gina will also find prices on small pins – which people seem to like.

Procedures: Janet went over a list that she has put together – things that need doing through the year and steps to take for meetings, events etc. but do not need to be included in Bylaws. These should help any board members going forward. These are easily changeable or added to/subtracted from.

Future of IABA: Ann B-J – stay business focused, think about an August Italian festival:  Ferragosto; Simona: More business, grown our membership. Work on breaking even financially. Gary: concentrate on quality of membership – people you can do business with, work on a good synergy of good business members; John: We’re all coming to the same conclusion – we’re all Italian, love Italian culture – want to work together; Terry – this board seems so functional, we have great ideas, we can go forward; Gina- we need to grow, we don’t want to compete with the other clubs, sees IABA being a bit more professional, having all our businesses getting to know each other. She wants to add the fun factor! 

In general – we need to do business with each other and give testimonials. During the 30-sec. intros members should talk about what’s new/special in their business. We’re here to build amongst each other. We need to base our success on the quality of members and their levels of participation.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30pm.