December 16, 2019

The December 2019 meeting of the Keytesville Chamber of Commerce met at the Café at noon on Monday, December 16th, 2019. Members in attendance were President Carla Watts, Nancy Coy, Laurinda Littleton, Wende Huntsman, Becky Bentley, and Casey Imgarten with Jenna Wagner (last month’s free meal recipient).

President Watts called the meeting to order and asked for a motion for the secretary’s minutes to be approved. Nancy moved the secretary’s minutes to be approved with Laurinda seconding that motion. All members present voted favorably.

The Treasurer’s report was presented by Treasurer Nancy. Carla mentioned that the account is low due to our biggest expenses for the year in purchasing our fundraiser prize, as well as the expenses for the Christmas event and decorating contest. The winners of the contest for homes were 1st Marilyn Calvert ($100 prize), 2nd Cammie Benson ($50 prize), and 3rd Eddy Smith ($25 prize). Businesses 1st place was Regional Missouri bank ($100 prize) and Price Museum got second winning ($50 prize). These were the only two business entries. Susan asked for a motion to approve the treasurer’s report. Becky made a motion to approve the treasurer’s report with Laurinda seconding. All members present voted favorably. Nancy made a motion that we have Cheryl Jackson audit the checkbook. Laurinda seconded this motion with all voting in favor.

Under old business, it was agreed that a few people did all the work for the Christmas event, so hopefully next year we can get more volunteers. Becky suggested starting the parade with a banner and thought it would be nice for the chamber to have an entry but it not be judged. We discussed that we were not able to find anyone to sing, but Becky wondered about having the Christmas bells ringing at the Methodist church. Overall it was agreed that the event was very nice. We had a nice crowd, some really good parade entries, and good food. Carla will send Thank you letters to those that helped.

Under new business, we have sold 23 tickets for the grill. We have 4 more months of selling so we are off to a good start. Carla has mailed several out and will be hand delivering the rest in the coming weeks. Several people have asked about the Keytesville shirts we are selling on Saturday, so we will get some to those people this week. The Free Meal recipient for this month is David Gaines with Economic Development.

Nathan Asbury suggested we promote our businesses by having one business a month do a 10 min presentation. The goal is to inform each other about the details of their business so we can help promote them in the community by networking. We all agreed that it was a good idea. We will start in January and let everyone know who will be presenting so they can prepare and so if someone wants to attend a particular presentation they can.

Volunteer of the year for 2020. A few names were mentioned but they had already been chosen. We will keep thinking on this and Carla will try to come up with a list of past ones so that we know who has already been chosen. Officers 2020: Laurinda, Clayton, and Nancy all want to give up their positions. Carla will ask Susan Creason and Melissa Wilhoit if they are interested in any positions. We will discuss this more next month.

In other business, Becky mentioned that Bingo makes good money and we could do it once a month or so. She was thinking you may need to have a license to do so. We will think about this for the future. Laurinda mentioned that Holly was wanting to sell ornaments at the winter event but we ran out of time. This is something to think about for next year along with magnets. Laurinda was asking for ideas on Finnell fund projects. Becky is wanting to start a shooting range for the 4-H kids. If they can find a small tract of land in the country Finnell could buy some supplies for them and a sign.

The date for the next Chamber meeting is set for Tuesday, January 21st since Monday is a holiday. Becky made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Wende seconded it. All members present voted favorably.