MEETING MINUTES
Friday, June 13, 2008
Volume 15; Issue 21


Membership Report
The board officially voted Erin La Grassa in as a member.

The first part of the membership application for American Park & Swap is posted.  This application can be viewed on Webmail.  Please contact a board member if you have any concerns or questions.

Lisa Wolfe has a draft letter for potential members that invites them to a MABE breakfast - after their application has been posted for 2 weeks.


Social Report
Jana Greene is hosting a party on June 20th starting at 6pm at her house.  You can contact Jana for the details.

We still need a social director...anyone? 

Speaker Coordinator Report
June 20 Mark Dreher
June 27 Erin La Grassa
July 4  Holiday Break
July 11 Jim Crossman
July 18 Round Tables


Treasurer Report
The quarterly dues billing went out 6/1.  Please contact Melissa Matthews if you did not receive yours.

Leads Report
06-46, 06-34, 06-17, 21-25, 10-26, 10-17, 32-40, 32-25, 32-28, 28-32, 15-45, 15-56, 05-45, 56-13, 42-13, 42-22, 48-04, 48-35.

Question of the Day 
What do you pay on your lease and CAM costs?  Please include the location (cross streets).

  • The last time I had a lease on a commercial property it was 29 cents a foot.  It was a long time ago in a bad part of town.

  • I got rid of my lease.

  • Lease-less

  • No lease

  • We pay 47 cents a square foot at Mesa at Extension & Main

  • $17 bucks - Cam costs frozen

  • East of 101 on Broadway - 87 cents a square foot and cam charges that adjust annually.

  • I am at Alma School & Warner now and paying $12 a square foot.  I moved across the street to avoid an increase to over $30 a square foot.  (That space is still vacant)

  • We don't rent any space - $0

  • A year-and-a-half ago I was paying 50 cents a square foot and no CAM.  The complex has since sold twice.  We are now paying $1 square foot plus CAM.  Kyrene & Baseline.  If we could move we would. 

  • No lease right now.

  • I don't remember, but I think it was about $12.

  • Work out of home, no lease.

  • I lease locations to people.  Rates for commercial properties will vary anywhere from $12 - $20 or more depending on if it is a shell, doing TI, location, facilities, etc.  I don't understand fixed CAM charges because they fluctuate with the property taxes.  If you have fixed CAM costs you are fortunate. 

  • My lease is about 85 cents a square foot.

  • If you want to be in any of the nice centers you have to pay for it.  We pay $34 a square foot at one of our locations.  Our CAM costs are about $5-6 a square foot.  We pay $19 a square foot at our other location - CAM costs the same.

  • I'm not sure what we pay.  About $5000 a month - maybe $2 a square foot.

  • We own our building.

  • We moved down the same street, same frontage - Went from $22 a square foot to ownership, double the space and paying $14.

  • I don't have a lease.  I have a mortgage.


Notable Mentions
Board meetings will occur on the13th of each month at Black Bear.  If this date falls on a Friday or weekend, the meeting will move to the following Monday.

Some items to note from last week's board meeting...

A member has suggested we approach the SCORE group and have one of their people come in to evaluate our group.  They could evaluate our meeting content and membership and offer advise on how to improve.

The board would like to encourage members use the MABE website their homepage.  We have some new items added that could be very useful.

There was a concern that we should bring the Question of the Day back to business concerns.  Lisa welcomes any suggestions.  The board did brainstormed some ideas.

It was suggested that we could negotiate group discounts from companies such as Office Max.  If anyone has any contacts with some of these places, let Lisa know.

At the July 18th meeting we will have a round table session.  Each table will have questions to answers and the results will be presented to the group.

Another suggestion was to have a classified section on the MABE site. 

Roman Okonowski was at a seminar recently where many people expressed success at finding good employees on Craig's List.  Several other members have also heard success stories about Craig's List.


Main Speaker




Dave Crissman
20+ year member

Member since November 1993


PLUMBING & WATER SYSTEMS

All About Water/EcoWater
315 E Warner #1, Chandler, AZ 85225

Phone: (480) 892-7556
E-mail: ddave.dc@gmail.com • Website: www.ecowateraz.com

ONE CALL THAT’S ALL.
We have been servicing plumbing needs of customer’s valley wide since 1974, offering a wide variety of solutions to water heating needs, including solar; tankless water heaters; and lifetime green friendly water heaters. As water treatment specialists’ we can solve all your water related needs from whole house softeners or filtration to under the sink state of the art drinking water systems.
 
We are Rosie on the house preferred vendors.  IT’S THAT GOOD!



Interviewed by Greg Stewart

Any personal background you want to cover first?
I have to sons, Paul and Jeremy.  Jeremy just got married again. With this acquisition we now have 10 grandchildren.  I have been married to Joyce a long time....twice.

What is your Business background and how and when did you get into ECO WATER?
I started off working at a grocery store.  I went to college during that time.  I started doing plumbing work to put myself through school.  I didn't have experience.  I just pulled out a book and taught myself how to do it.

I was already doing plumbing and people started hiring me to put in water treatment systems back in the 70's.  I saw there was a nice niche there.   ECO is not a true franchise.  I buy a license.  And I can do other things besides sell their products.  I have 15 employees now. 

How did the Name/Pronunciation Change come about, and why did that take so long?
When you hear ECO you want to put an "H" in it.  We struggled with the pronunciation ourselves.  Its a challenge.  Now we just don't care as long as you purchase the product.

What advertising do you do and what do you find effective?
The only thing that has been real effective for us is the Rosie connection.  The home shows have become diluted.  Really not worth the effort.  The Phoenix Home and Garden one is excellent. 

The live remotes have some effect.  It is interesting, if you can get someone to come to your event and there is other stuff going on they will make a purchase.  If nothing else is going on, they don't.

What is your Code of Ethics versus your competitors?
Young people are interested in anything that will make money but they don't have a strong work ethic.  My Code of Ethics probably has a lot to do with the influence of certain family members that had high standards.  My father was a hard worker.  Very driven.  It is hard to get your employees aligned with it. 

What are you doing different this year? How do you find our economy and has it affected your business?
Things change.  Products and services fall in line with what we do and become a part of our offering.  We have recently aligned with Maytag.  Anything and everything sold in a big box is ECO.  And we service all that.  We are going back to our roots.  We are going back to being a service and install company that also offers a product. 

It is hard to hire and train people.  Keep them busy.  Provide for them.  I would like to get leaner and meaner.

You’ve brought back THE DAVE FACTOR? Was that a form of re-inventing yourself? Why did The Dave Factor leave in the first place?
I was pretty uptight when you first met me.  I went through a lot of emotional stress that I thought was affecting my judgment so I backed out.  It was scary to come back.  THE DAVE FACTOR - Getting employees to ask "What would Dave do?"  "How would he do this job cost effectively?"

Tell us about your Hot Water gizmo?
Not many people are aware of the available solar credits.  The  benefit today is that the products have come along.  There are great, green products that can save you money in long run.

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