Minutes: March 2014 meeting

[Christel Manning]

The Economic Development group met on Monday, Mar. 10, 2014, from 6 – 7:45 pm at 333 Front Street. Present: Christel Manning, David Hunter, Pat Bissell, Melissa Waldron, Lee Cruz, Chandra Roxanne

Items discussed:

1. Planning for Riverfest 2014. Melissa added several more info points to Riverfest website, including the magician, band, etc., all with hyperlinks so viewers of the site can get more info. We also followed up on last month’s volunteer list (most people had not yet completed their tasks) and added a few more. Please check the following list and put your items on your to do list now!!
   1. Fundraising: David, Christel, and Pat’s donations will cover musician. Still need to raise funds for publicity (cost of posters, etc.) plus we would like to be able to pay the band at least a nominal fee. Melissa to speak to Kerry at FH woodworks; Ihsan to contact Fab’s cleaners and another place on Quinnipiac Ave.
   2. Band & beer: Carlos was not present, so Christel will follow up w. him about this.
   3. Publicity: Lee will follow up with Anastasio about banner; Christel will look into reusing last year’s poster (possibly make fewer but larger posters to put on side of houses).
   4. Events: It would be nice to have a several water-related organizations offering information about fishing and boating. Christel will contact QWRA (the will bring canoes) to see if they also want to give a short presentation about the Q river; Christel will also call Lisa to see if the Coast Guard can come back this year; David will contact the state about sending someone to let people sign up for fishing licenses.
   5. Dining Out Night: Next one will be in April; location TBA.
   6. Soup Night: Sunday, March 30, location TBA.  
   7. Vision statement: Chandra and Christel presented a rough draft, and those present made several helpful suggestions. C & C will revise and hope to present at next CSNA general meeting.
   8. Strong School: Lee proposed renewing our contract with Yale law students so they can help us with this; everybody supported this.