Minutes November 16, 2017


Attendees: Darla Hamlin, Scott Kerr, Michael Babin, Holly Day, Mary Conroy, Margie Hansel, Deb Buxton, Chris Toriello, Mark Gauger, David White, Karen Morrison, Brian Bartlett, Guest Speaker Karen O’Connor

President Darla Hamline called meeting to order 5:40 pm

Darla introduced Karen O’Connor, a former employee of SoftTrac and now with Forager, and online site that works to bring food industry products to market quickly.  She specializes in social media … blogging, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms to draw business to websites and businesses.   Her personal blog is “weekends in Maine” … she feels blogging is a great starting point to market your business.  Your site should provide value, expertise, contain quality content that is time sensitive.  She mentions keeping sites current is very time intense.  The blog should be seemless to your website.  Use photos, lots of them, people are drawn to pictures.  You can also queue blog entries to publish ahead of time, to stay ahead of it.  Respond to inquiries !!  Satisfactory activity is what is right for you, perhaps once a week to twice a month to update.   Consistency is key, so that people can follow you easily, keep titles short, and set up groups of names, hashtags, mentions, then monitor them.  Instagram seems to be her favorite platform as it links easily to other sites, easy to copy and paste, and has good speed tools.

SocialMediaWebinar-NYBA-Share.

Old Business:

Acceptance of minutes from Oct 19, 2017 motioned and seconded, Minutes accepted.

Treasurer’s Report: $2,740.38 checking balance.     $322 in outstanding dues.

Website contact problem has been identified and is being corrected.

New Business:

Spring trade show date is set at 4/26/18, a Thursday evening … 3 pm to 8 pm setup to take down.  Darla will check on gym availability.

January speaker Darla is hoping to have Margo Davies come, who runs Maine Works, a transitional staffing firm placing people in jobs who are reentering society.

Holiday Giving effort by NYBA, it was decided to continue with the stockings for seniors, six names to be obtained by us from Town Office OR the Fire dept. as they also check on the elderly in town.  Karen Morrison will see if she can obtain info from Alan, Greg Payson, or Jason.  Then two stockings will also be done for Holly Ross and her daughter. 

December’s meeting will be a social event on 12/21/17 rather than a business meeting.  Bring spouses and friends !  

Recognition of member accomplishments/awards:

  • Averill’s new website is now active and much more friendly and interactive.
  • Chris and Mark just returned from a fantastic trip to Iceland !!  She is offering free shipping in Dec for products, and discounts, as part of their 90 day fitness challenge.
  • Dave White now has heat in his barn showroom, and while retail is slower now, his ship model  repair business is booming.  His son Carter just won the National Men’s Sailing Championship !
  • Let’s Create Deb Buxton is having an open house craft workshop 11/18/17 at her studio for children to adults, to make Christmas Gifts.  she has MANY projects to choose from.
  • Karen Morrison continues to be extremely busy in her business. 
  • Scott Kerr contines to enjoy a busy and profitable season.
  • Mike is busy and lots of work coming in.
  • SoftTrac is looking to fill a position, sales and demonstration.

North Yarmouth Business Association 2017 Survey is ready to be sent out per Karen M.

Adjourn: 7:35 pm

Respectfully submitted 

Marilyn Matthews