DCM Membership Committee
November 22, 2008

Aubrey, Beth, Pam, Robin, Wendy

1. Welcome Wendy Noel to Membership Committee

2. Current membership is at 321. Robin states she hasn’t received any new memberships since Wednesday which is unusual. Goal to bring 400 new shares by end of April.

3. Brochures and Holders: Suzanne has new holders to replace the old and to place in 10 new locations in Central Durham. She has a list of the ten new locations.
Robin ordered 500 brochures; rather than most being for FM as usual, she ordered mostly light blue and fewer dark blue, which are the FM brochures. 125 for FM, 375 for other. Beth suggested we should start a tracking system to keep track of where brochures are being picked up. Suzanne and Wendy will work together to label brochures placed at various locations. See tasks.

4. Grocery Bags: Pam says BOD had suggested that she narrow bag down to one herself. Pam fills us in that we want to give shopping bags as a premium for this round of new owners. This could be a special item just for these new owners, or it could be kept stocked in store later. Problem is, if this is going to be a premium, Pam thinks we need to go for higher quality bags to make them special enough as a premium,
Bag Options: All bags will have logo and tagline “Eat Local, Y’all” on one or both sides.
a. Around $10/bag for cotton, not organic, sweatshop free, domestic. Logo on one side only, insert on bottom, long handles.
b. Hemp and soda bottle mix; same shape as optiona, no bottom insert, long handles and short handles and extra pocket. 500 count for $10 each.
c. 3,000 count for $5000 total, made in China “sweat-shop free.” Logo can be printed on both sides.
Pam suggests that option c could be an in-store option but that options a & b would be better as premium bags for new members. Beth asks if we’ll make these specific to the sprouting campaign. Pam, “No;” they could be sold at market, as well.

It’s suggested that since this is only going to be for new members and moderate FM booth sales, we should throw out the 3,000 count option. Aubrey suggested it, others agreed.

Robin expresses some concern with price for bags. Pam suggests that we get these 500 bags for the sprouting campaign and have 100 bags to sell left over. Pam gives more thorough description of the two bags that are still options. Option a is made in LA by a seemingly great company, printed at AdSpice, 14x14x6. Option b is printed at AdSpice, 13x15x6. Pam and Wendy agree that 2 handles plus outside pocket make this a more unique bag.
Pam asks if we should settle on one of these or keep looking
Beth suggests that Pam send info and pictures to the membership committee. See tasks.

5. Gift Memberships: Robin brought this up first when Michael stopped by for brochures for FM during the bag conversation. Robin asks if Michael wants to take forms to FM. He agrees. Will promote them, but not start selling them yet. Michael, Robin, Pam took an informal vote to approve gift membership process and form.

6. Community Outreach: Things from last meeting: Some ideas were events, others were people to establish relationships with.
a. Events ideas:
i. Parade- It’s decided that it’s too late to get into that.
ii. DDI- Michael and someone else will go to this.
iii. Third Friday Art Walk: Pam didn’t bring it to the board because she didn’t feel it needed to be approved by board. Suzanne has go-to businesses downtown to whom she could talk and see if we could be there and promote the business. Suzanne and Wendy will work together to get brochure distribution at next Third Friday. See tasks.
iv. Light Up Durham – It’s at ATC on Dec. 5th. Handing out info could be seen as solicitation. Members concluded that it’s not a great event option.
v. Earth Day – April 21 at Central Park. Beth suggests that we should become friends of Central Park before then so that we have a relationship established by the time Earth Day comes around.
1. Central Park Friendship – Stephen is working on it and bringing back to BOD, at which point we will assess Earth Day ideas.

Event options we decide to pursue are ii. and iii. and v.

b. Partnerships:
i. Brochure distribution through owners: We should contact owners to distribute brochures. Two ideas: Should we contact members for ideas about marketing/community outreach or should we ask if members already if they are involved in something that would allow them to distribute brochures.
Note: Suzanne and Carol join meeting at this point
How was market? Carol gave out 6-7 brochures. No t-shirts picked up yet. Not much traffic, but may be picking up.

6b. Community Outreach: Michael will be on The State of Things 12-1 PM.

7. Website: What do we need to add?
a. News about State of Things
b. Mention next owners’ drive
c. Pam says we should demonstrate alliance with other organizations, such as DCPark, and others. Ideas: We could have a Partnerships page or “DCM in the community” as a separate part of the website. Beth: Should we have a box of links to local businesses on our website? We’ll re-discuss what we should call people on links and how to go about doing that at next meeting.
d. Other computer options: Facebook page or “Fan of” page. Wendy will look into this and report back. See tasks.

8. Other –
a. Update on location committee: Pam: have list of criteria; have divvied out short list of locations to check out and will meet again week after Thanksgiving.
b. Beth is working on database; meeting on Monday next. – Need to talk about folding in Gift Memberships to the database. – Deadline Dec. 1st for database is still the goal, but may not be feasible. Beth will communicate with Robin for testing database.

Tasks
Wendy & Suzanne– brochure distribution at 10 new locations; create key to track where brochures are being picked up.
Pam – send pics and descriptions of bags to members present at this meeting, so that we can vote before next BOD meeting
Wendy & Suzanne – Art Walk- Suzanne and Wendy talk about contacting galleries and distributing brochures during Third Fridays.
Wendy – Look into Facebook options and report back.
Suzanne – deal with staffing the winter market.
Beth – update ownership form to include “how did you hear about us?”
Aubrey – write up proposal for membership incentive drive. Send to membership committee members.
Robin – send Beth gift share request form in pdf for website.

Next meeting: Saturday, November 29, 9-9:30.

Agenda: Membership Incentive (Aubrey), report on bag decision (Pam), Art Walk (Wendy/Suzanne).