November Policy Committee Meeting Minutes

DCG / Policy Committee Meeting
Meeting Minutes

Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at noon

Meeting held at Old Armory Steak and Seafood

In attendance: Wade Luther, Amy Schofield, Dennis Stuber, Karen Eckford, Kristen Cobb, Carol and Roger Jellenik, and Jamie Bennett-Bane


Agenda:

1. Welcome & Introduction
2. Steps of Planning Process
3. Mission, Vision & Goals
4. Vendor Permit
5. By Laws
6. Meeting Schedule – January 27, 2010
7. Other Items
8. Adjournment

Wade started the meeting by thanking everyone for coming. We had a working lunch and the next meeting will be a working lunch as well.

2. We discussed the planning process and the steps to the process.

a. Formulate Mission, Vision, Goals: Wade revamped the mission, vision, and goals. Wade is encouraging us to blog about the new statement. Encourage our counterparts to comment and give their feed back as well.
b. Downtown Assessment
c. Inventory of Physical / Human Capital
d. SWOT Analysis
e. Generate Alternatives/Remedies/Potential Projects/ Strategies
f. Establish Evaluation Criteria
g. Evaluate Alternatives/ Remedies/ Potential Projects/Strategies
h. Present Final Alternatives

3. Mission, Vision & Goals: Orignial

Mission: With the coordinated efforts of local merchants, artists, businesses, neighborhoods, civic and community leaders the mission of the Downtown Camden Guild is to create and implement a unified vision for Downtown Camden that will align with the redevelopment goals of all stakeholders involved in seeing the City and its commercial core prosper.

Vision: The vision of the Downtown Camden Guild is to allow downtown business owners to take part in revitalizing Downtown Camden into a destination that is a thriving, livable, and walkable arts, entertainment, and shopping district for residents and visitors to enjoy year round.

Goals: Participation in the Downtown Camden Guild will give each business or property owner located in or around downtown a collective means by which to contribute to our goals of:

1. Economic redevelopment through business recruitment, business retention, and preservation of the heritage of the central business district;
2. Representation on all issues vital to the success of downtown;

3. Effective marketing strategies for the promotion and growth of downtown and its business community within the City and expanding to other markets; and

4. Coordination of programs and events to benefit the downtown core, greater Camden community, and regional area.

Homework: Comments and Feedback on Mission, Vision and Goals. Go to the blog and post your opinions. If you don’t want to blog please email. We need feedback to make this work!

Mission, Vision, Goals: REVISED

Our Mission
A commerce association whose mission is to represent local business interests and maintain a sense of civic pride in the City of Camden's historic business district.Our Vision
To organize an entity that will engage the downtown business community in activities that will promote the future growth, prosperity, and economic well being of its members through advocacy, community outreach, beautification, and events programming.Our Goals
1. Be an advocate for members on commercial, municipal, and regional issues.2. Engage the public through community outreach to garner public support.3. Enhance the physical environs through beautification projects and the pursuit of grant funding.4. Plan events to increase exposure, foot traffic, and a sense of civic pride in the historic business district.


4. Vendor Permits: The permit ordinance is now in the hands of the city attorney. Once he has combed through it, the permits will be presented to council for approval.

5 Bylaws: We dissected the 5pts bylaws and we came to the conclusion that it’s a great blueprint to model our organization after. The major thing that we need to do is change the name to Downtown Camden Guild.

The Executive Board will consist of 9 members; President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, two members and an affiliate.

Downtown Directors: Directors of Arts, Director of Retail, Director of Service, and Director of Dining

Ex-Officio Officers will no longer be referred to as that, we will refer to them as an affiliate member. We will have one voting member.

Equine Community Liaison
Fine Arts Center Liaison
Historic Camden Liaison
Carolina Motorsports Parks Liaison
City of Camden Liaison
Kershaw County Chamber Liaison
Kershaw County Economic Development Liaison
Kershaw County Library

Committees (Participation on at least one committee is recommended)
Programming
Policy

We combined the committees into just two.

Wade will work on simplifying the bylaws and have them ready by our next meeting on January 27, 2010.

Wade will ask Merritt McHaffie, the Executive Director of the Five Points Assoc., to come and speak at the next at-large meeting,

We will decide on dues- funds will be used for “in-house” expenses

6 Other Business: Edwin will be doing a “Presidential Letter” to encourage attendance and to explain that there is a purpose.

Christmas Tree Lighting on November 29 and Dec 4.
Next At-Large meeting December 15, 2009

Meeting was adjourned.