NWLC Meeting Minutes

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Date: March 3, 2008
Location: Sawmill Saloon, Seeley

Present: Waldo Asp, Fred Blake, Chuck Block, Jim Brakken, Earl Cook, Roger Dreher, Jan Eck, Lisa Gabriel, MaryJo Gingras, Ted Griggs, John Haack, Tim Kane, Mike Klink, Sheri Snowbank (note taker), Susan Tesarik (via phone), Susan Wallin, and Lorna Wilson

Budget
Thursday workshops
(Click to see current budget) For the Thursday classes three have no fee. Pamela said that the DNR is picking up the room cost for the shoreline grants and Glacial Lake Partnership (in the Miley or Pearson - $75) The NW Lakes Consortium will pick of the cost of their room (Bear’s Den - $50). Do we want to charge them $15.00 and then they can have lunch? It was decided not to charge them and to tell them that lunch is available on site if they wish. Clean Boats/AIS will be the only Thursday class charging a fee and providing a lunch.
*** It was also noted to keep track of people and provide nametags on Thursday they should still register even if the class is free.

Grants
Jan and Susan T. reported they haven’t heard anything back yet on the Excel or Besadney grants. We should hear something by next week.
*** A motion passed that if by March 15 we do not have $1,000 in grant monies awarded to us we will raise the registration fee to $45.00.

Youth Fund
WAL will subsidize 50% of the youth registration up to $280 (equals 14 youths). The rest of the money must come from a local source. Roger will look for contributions from exhibitors and other business sources. In the brochure we will add a line for youth registration. Under 18 years old they are free.

Subcommittee Updates
Promotions
John volunteered to chair the committee. There were date changes and additions to the draft promotion plan. Click here for the updated version. The changes include:
• Brochure drafted by March 17
• newsletter articles by March 31
• final changes to Tim for the brochure by April 4th
• brochure & poster printing needs to by completed by the Lakes Conference on April 17th.
• MaryJo will handle the printing duties this year.

We will buy ads in local papers (John will compile a list of papers) to run Memorial Day and a week or two before the conference (around April 9th). We will also drop posters/brochures off with tourist information centers and chamber of commerce offices. We are also paying a fee to have Big Top do promotions and on-line registration.

We will print some posters this year (40-50). MaryJo will get price estimates for us. We will also have the poster available on the website, so members can print them a hang them up where they think appropriate.

Brochure
A lot of additions and changes were requested. To accommodate everything Tim will enlarge the brochure to 8 ½ x14. One suggestion for the empty panel is a description of the conference and brief history.
A summary of additions:
• For Thursday for free classes, lunch is on your own. Food is available on site
• For Thursday AIS/Clean Boats has a 25 person max
• Youth registration lines and that under 18 years old they are free
• Statement saying that additional tickets for the matinee performance is available at the door for $15.
• Something about evening performance and if Erin is going to be the opening act
• Vegetarian meal option
• Expanded name lines

Radio
Roger and Waldo volunteered to take care of again-. It cost $160 to run adds last year. We had no say as to the time they were run and it did not appear from the evaluations that they were useful. We will just do the service announcements. We can discuss if any of the presentations could be taped at a later meeting.

Ticket Pre-conference-sales
Roger drafted a letter to be taken to area Lion’s Clubs. Click to see the letter. They will get $2 dollars per ticket and for every 15 tickets sold they will get a complementary ticket free. We will collect the money and extra tickets on the 18th so we would know how many we need to sell at the door.
The volunteers we have so far to contact the Lion’s Clubs are:
• Ashland – MaryJo
• Cable and Seeley - Jim
• Iron River
• Minong and Solon Springs - Lorna
• Siren and Webster – Susan W.
• Spooner – Fred
• Stone Lake and Hayward – Waldo (if Hayward Lion’s is too busy we can ask the Moose Club)
• Birchwood – Mike
For the next meeting report the number of communities that are interested and how many tickets they think they can sell. (We will have ~150 matinee and 400 evening available)
We need to carefully track tickets sold every 3-4 days. We need someone to coordinate these pre-show tickets.
John will ask if the big top supplies the tickets or if it is something we need to do.

Facilities and Registration
Registration Desk
Susan W, Susan T., Tami J and Earl will help at the registration desk. There were some technical issues last year, but things should be better this year.

Lunch/Breaks
Susan W. will meet with Laura around the end of the month. For the box lunches we will ask for packaging that is recyclable. Keep Styrofoam as minimal as possible. Lighter lunch and make it easier to eat with more finger foods. There was a request that we do not have cranberry juice served. For breakfast we will ask for multiple stations to avoid crowding. If you have any meal suggestions contact Susan.

Equipment Assignments
Computer and Projector
Red Arrow – John and back up
Namekagon A – WAL
Namekagon C – Pamela or Tim Asplund
Miley - Lisa
Laukka – MaryJo

Screens - Large one for Red Arrow and smaller one for Namekagon C. John will reserve from National Audio Visual (cost in 2007 -$105.00 for both screens). Ted will pick them up.

Registration/website
Will be up and running when brochure finalized.

Conference Materials
We are still missing a couple of titles and descriptions.
• Student speaker – title and description
• VHS &AIS Update – title and description
• Legislative update – title and description
• Aquatic plant management overview – description
• For Thursday we need the title and descriptions for both the shoreline grants and consortium.

Susan T. volunteered to review and edit the descriptions.

John will order the folders soon.

Registration cost clarifications
If you are a speaker you are free – the returned confirmation letter is their registration application. If they need a room they need to set up their own accommodations (if agreed we will reimburse the room costs, but they still need to make the call to Telemark). Telemark is willing to offer state rates for the rooms (non-agency people would get the rate, but would need to pay taxes).
If you are a committee member and are an agency person you should pay. If you are not and would like to be compensated for your work it has been included in the budget. You still need to register though; it would probably be easiest to call WAL.

Exhibitors
Letter to exhibitors will be sent the second half of March, beginning of April. For speakers, if they are non-profit the table is free. If they are a for- profit they will get $50 discount.

Recognition of Excellence in Leadership and Stewardship of Northwestern WI Lakes
Each county wide group will be asked to nominate one person or couple and submit a paragraph about them. Their names will be announced during the introductions and the paragraphs will be compiled and included in the folder. Jim will coordinate.

Next Meeting
April 7th at the Gov. Tommy Thompson State Hatchery, Spooner 10-12pm.

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