The meeting of the newly restructured Tarkio Chamber of Commerce was held at 6:00 p.m. on November 1, 2023. The meeting was called to order by Brooke Vette. New and old members present were: Jennifer Peregrine, Haley Wright, Afton Hannah, Lori Seymour, Brooke Vette, Melissa White, Johnnie and Sondra Davis, Autumn Murry, Kari Taylor, and Ashlee Driskell.
The previous minutes were approved.
The Second Harvest/Backpack Buddies sent a request for the chamber to sponsor a child. Lori explained about the program. The cost of this is $175. Melissa moved to approve and Lori seconded.
Bylaws: Members need to go over bylaws and make changes at the next meeting. These are very outdated.
• The chamber is in need of 2-3 more board members according to the bylaws. This is something chamber members are asked to consider in preparation for the next meeting. Lori and Johnnie explained the benefits of more members on the board and everyone agreed this is necessary.
The current file storage system is out of date. The members will be updating the current system and moving it over to Google Docs so it can be easily shared with members.
A mission statement is something the group needs to come up with.
Ribbon cuttings/business openings were discussed, along with guidelines for this. The chamber needs to do ribbon cuttings for the following businesses: Nautihairs, Lea Sutter Photography, and The Roost. Jennifer is going to talk to business owners about a date for ribbon cuttings. All three of these will be done on the same date. Ashlee will talk to the newspaper to advertise.
Member letter: Members discussed the letter going out to current, past and prospective chamber members. These will be worked on before the next board meeting and get approval to send out after the next meeting.
Shop AC Night – Chamber members would like to have shirts to wear while shopping or representing businesses that night. This is in the works with White Tee’s. The design idea is: “Put your $ where your heart is buy local #ACisAwesome.”
Online (website, point of sale, Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram) – Members would like to look into having an online store. The chamber is currently using Facebook, but members would like to add Tiktok and Instagram to reach more people. In the coming year, members would like to use the social media outlets to spotlight businesses, have a “business of the month” (voted on by the community) and get people excited about our community events.
Shirts fundraiser – White Tee’s will be working on designs to push out as a fundraiser to the public.
The chamber is now registered with the Secretary of State.
Calendar of Events
• Members will work to create a calendar of events in Google.
• December 2 – Reindeer Run, 8:00 a.m.
• December 2 – Tarkio Christmas Celebration with a theme of “Pancakes and PJ’s.”
There is an ad for the Grimm Turkey Drive. Members voted to pay this bill. The turkey drive provides a Thanksgiving dinner for seniors in Atchison County, through Community Services, Inc. and Ministerial Alliance.
The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m. The next meeting date will be December 6 at 6:00 p.m. at The Roost, on the Early Bird side.