Hi Everyone:

This message board is something new Melissa has set up for us. I think it will be a great way to stay in touch with the membership and allow for a free flow of ideas, comments and suggestions.

Board Members in Attendance:
Lisa Wolfe
Bob Busch
Greg Stewart
Barb Kollman
Chris Curran

Location: Black Bear Diner at noon

Membership vote: A motion was made to bring Erin Jaikes in as a member. The motion was seconded and the Board unanimously voted Erin as our newest member. Welcome!

Discussions were had regarding attendance of members and that it's imperative of all members to make attendance a priority and if an absence is to occur, that you contact a member for an excused absence.

It was suggested that a member of SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives) be invited in to evaluate our group to give us some tips on membership, meeting content and any other concerns that may arise. Input from the membership would be very welcome on this topic.

In an effort to make MABE top-of-mind, it was suggested that members could make the  MABE website (www.MABE-online.org) your home page when you go on the internet. While it may take some time to get activity on the site through the forum, etc., if the site is your home page, you might be reminded to use it/review it more often. Board members, Chris, Greg, Lisa and Barb agreed to give it a try.

There was a concern brought to the attention of the Board that the Question of the Day should return to more business-type questions. PUH-LEASE! ! Send your questions to me. I've defaulted to the silly ones for lack of a topic. If you have a question you want to poll the group on--by all means, let me know. I did get a good list of questions from the Board and hope to get tons of suggestions from the membership. We're also going to reserve a speaking date to give a list of 4-5 questions to each table for discussion and then present the results to the rest of the group. That should cover a lot of ground in very short order.

A terrific idea was proposed by Chris--he suggested that MABE could negotiate some membership discounts through Office Max, Costco/Sam's Club, FedEx, UPS, etc. If anyone has any contacts at any of these or others, please let me know. As I can, I will start making calls and seeing what we can bring on board for the group. This would be a significant cost-savings that just might help defray the cost of membership over the course of the year. Attaboy, Chris!

Another idea submitted was a classified/for-sale section on the MABE website. Chris advised that he had some office furniture and equipment available for sale, and being able to post it on our site would give our membership an opportunity to get some good stuff, cheap!

As you can see, it was a very productive meeting. I would invite any member to join us at any of the Board meetings. Just let me know so I can make a reservation. We will be continuing to meet on the 13th of the month at noon at the Black Bear Diner. If the 13th falls on a weekend or Friday, it will move to the following Monday.

Make it a great day! See you on Friday.

Lisa Wolfe