Minutes of the June 1^st 2009 Meeting

By Kathi Mowery

Call to order 6pm by President Joe Sharp.

Member Concerns: Rod Taylor reports his daughter is much better, chronic pain is now gone. Thanks for all our prayers. Ron Tinker’s aunt Beatrice Lewis passed away and he was out of town tonight attending the funeral as a pall bearer. Please keep the Lewis family and Ron in your prayers.

Reading of Treasurers Report by Joe Sharp.

Membership Report by Kathi Mowery, club is now at 109 members, had several renewals at the May Cruise In and added 3 new members: Roy Lynn, John Rider, Scott Perkins.

Tee Shirt Sales info: must sell more to break even on expense of purchasing shirts. Possibly need to get sales area down to street level to help increase purchases.

Staff Shirts info: anyone not using their staff shirts is requested to return it to the club for distribution to other working members.

Cruise In Report by Bob Anderson: (to be submitted to Ron for newsletter)

June 2009 Newsletter

Public Relations

Two articles referencing the Cruise-In made it into the Cleveland Daily Banner with the first appearing in the “Community” section on May 15^th and another stand-alone piece on the 17^th.  Unfortunately the article and photo that were submitted to promote the May Cruise-In on the Wednesday before the event were nowhere to be seen.  This marks the second time that the Banner has failed to run submittals promoting our event. 

The Chicago-based KruzinUSA.com social networking site for hot rodders that was to feature our April event has still not launched.  It was scheduled to go live on Memorial Day.

Cruise-In

With the threat of rain in the forecast and two auto-related events that drew large crowds, the May Cruise-In was estimated to be in the 400-425 range or a little more than half of April’s count.  Apparently the forecast also kept the model car exhibitors at home with approximately a third of the entries of the previous month.

The program opened with the Cleveland Middle School Dance Team under the direction of Kelly Owens performing a routine to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”  The team recently performed the same routine during a competition at Disney World where they took First Place.  For this event the opening was modified to reflect the spirit of Memorial Day with the prayer and the National Anthem following the opening dance routine.  The month’s theme “Saturday Night at the Movies” tied into our support, such that it was, for Tunes 4 the Troops and featured music from the movies.  Vehicles that entered the event and donated to Tunes were given red, white and blue “Support Our Troops” vinyl clings provided by Razzberry’z Gift Shop.  The event raised $246.00 in donations plus $211.00 from the 50/50 program.  In addition a total of 111 CD’s and DVD’s were donated.  However, before we do bodily harm patting ourselves on the back  $140.00 of the $246.00 and 102 of the 111 CD’s/DVD’s donated came from just three MainStreet members.  They were the only members known to have contributed.

The event stage was sponsored by O’Reilly Auto Parts of Springfield, MO and featured the “Boogie Men” who were well received and will be invited back next year.  It should also be noted that the event stage was set up and taken down without any damage, as were the other canopies.  Apparently there is one advantage to fewer people working the event.   Sponsors in addition to those named previously, were Cleveland Media Blasting who sponsored the DJ and Easy Auto supporting the model car contest.

June will feature the “TV Dinner’s Cruise-In” with the DJ playing music from past and present TV shows.  In a salute to Hee Haw the event stage will feature the “Denham Brothers” who will entertain the attendees with their considerable talent.  Pioneer Credit Company is sponsoring the Denham Brothers performance.  The Walker Valley High School “Mustang” Dance Team will perform the opening number to a new routine choreographed by the 125 Dance Studio of Cleveland.  Clean Tools of Westmont, IL is providing Glosser packets to the first 300 vehicles entering the Cruise-In, and for the community service portion of the program everyone is invited to chill out with the Bloodhound and tip a pint.  Cleveland Media Blasting will again sponsor the DJ and Easy Auto will continue to sponsor the model car contest.

New Business: Reading of new cruise in guideline flyer by Joe Sharp. These were handed out at the May cruise in at the entrance area.

June 6^th club social has been cancelled due to health issues. Luke Souther will be having surgery Friday.  Club passed around and signed a get well card to be mailed to Luke.

Fund Raiser: items provided by Joe sharp & Bob Anderson,  net proceeds approximately $86.00.

Items and winners:

            Fire extinguisher            Mrs Torp

            Coffee mug                   Bill Fox

            Model car                    Joe Sharp

            Car shower curtain       Stacy Bowen

            Tee shirt                       Claude Shell

            Oil pan & tire cleaner    Joe Westphal

            Resist all cleaner kit      Jim Seitz

July fund raiser will again be provided by Joe & Bob

Next Cruise In June 27th 2009

Next Meeting July 6^th 2009

FINAL ITEM BROUGHT UP: concerns regarding lower 50/50 sales. Suggestion made by Marie Indovino to charge $1 admission at entrance gate per car instead of selling 50/50 tickets. That would average $400 without any having to walk such a large area.  Betty Messer advised the gifts last month helped encourage people to purchase tickets and believes that would benefit each month to promote the event. Also helpful to have people list their names and phone numbers on tickets so they do not have to be present to win. Also might be advisable to have a tent set up at ground level for selling 50/50 tickets. Stacy Bowen advised this type of change would have to be advertised in order to let the public know of the change of operation.  Joe Sharp accepted all input and suggested we all think about the event and have further discussion at next months meeting before making any changes to current procedures.