PRESENT:   Marla Beaty, Sherry Frick, Bonnie Henriksen, Marty Licke, Derek Rolle

ABSENT: David Marty, Barbara Mason, Sue Mattson, Ron Oleheiser, Deborah Page

CHAMBER STAFF: Bud Stone, Deb Birkeland, Jennifer Gooch

CALL TO ORDER: Bonnie Henriksen called the meeting to order.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: As per his request, Paul Frick is to be removed from the committee list. Marty Licke moved to approve the March 13, 2001 minutes, with the revision; Sherry Frick seconded, motion carried.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS
May 7 - Customer Service Council, FISH Video – The FISH workshop on May 22 at the college was touched upon. The idea of having a FISH speaker at the February annual dinner was discussed. No action was decided upon.

June 4 - Riverfront Development

July - Chamber Golf Outing & Fun Day – Derek Rolle passed out copies of the draft he had prepared of the Request for Proposal that is to be sent to selected golf courses. It had been decided that rather than choosing the venue for the Golf Outing on a rotational basis as had been done in previous years, the venue would be chosen based upon bids sent in by area golf courses. The bids are to be in by May 4, 2001 and will be available for review at the next Program Committee meeting scheduled for May 8, 2001.

The formation of a sub-committee that would be responsible for the acquisition and award of the prizes was discussed. A list of last year’s sponsors will be available at the May 8 meeting and will be divided and committee members will begin lining up this year’s sponsors. Bud will be contacting the hole sponsors from last year.

August –Juan Lazo, the State of the City

September – Bonnie will contact Chris Chandler from Linking Learning to Life regarding an education topic speaker.

October – It was decided that the law enforcement topics would be moved out into October. Possible speakers would be Pat Medure and the new police chief.

November and December – These months were discussed as possible months in which to schedule a business oriented topic such as e-commerce. Minnesota Technologies was mentioned as a possible source for speakers.

January – This month was mentioned as a possible month for Joe Sertich / NETU (North East Training Unit)

OTHER: Bud spoke of the Chamber of Commerce, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and their new partnership. He addressed the issue of being proactive and staying competitive in an expanding marketplace. He went on to explain the concept for the new travel planner and web-site and extolled their benefits. 

The Chili Cook-Off was revisited. It is the opinion of the Program Committee members that the Chili Cook-Off could be a much larger and more successful event with stepped up planning and involvement. The possibility of combining it with another event was discussed, but no action was decided upon. Sherry Frick made a motion for the Program Committee to co-sponsor the Chili Cook-Off next year; Derek Rolle seconded; motion carried.

Meeting adjourned.

NEXT MEETING: 
The next meeting will be held at the Depot Conference Room on Tuesday, May 8, 2001 at 8:15 AM.

Submitted by: Jennifer Gooch