Apologies from Michele Marsland and Paula Barber

Those Present Andrew Briggs, David Rice, Steve Garrett, Simon Fuller, Keith Peacock, Stella Goodman, Nigel Mace

Topics discussed

• Welcome to David Parlby Plymouth Chamber of Commerce
• Subscriptions
• AGM
• Summer function
• Any other Business
• Date of next Meeting
• Plymouth Chamber links

David Parlby discussed the role of the Plymouth Chamber, which has been established over 190 years and its autonomy from the local council and government. He was keen to establish links with our local Chamber, and offered to join with us in a local event of our choice with the Plymouth Chamber footing the cost of this. Also on the table was an annual fee paid by the Plym Chamber, price to be confirmed, which would allow our members to tap into any of the benefits & courses run by the Plymouth Chamber at reduced cost i.e. member costs. He felt this could be beneficial to us as we could offer more benefits for our membership and also help Plymouth Chamber as they would then feel able to speak to local government with more members albeit associate membership. He talked about schemes that may benefit Plympton businesses including The Business Improvement District which if we wanted to tap into, they would steer us in the right direction. This is a way of funding improvements in our area.

Subscriptions

We have agreed that if at annual renewal, our members elected to pay by direct debit they would be offered a 25% discount, this would bring the annual fees down to £30 and hopefully would aide retention. David Rice has agreed to put together a direct debit form for us to distribute at the AGM. We would ask for renewals as from 30th March, allowing members a 3 month period to pay this by.

AGM

Andrew ran through the format which would comprise of:

• Welcome
• Apologies
• Last years Minutes
• Approval of Minutes
• Chairmans Report
• Treasurers Report
• Election of Officers
• Proposer / Seconder
• Any Other Business

This would be followed by a Any questions Panel as already discussed. We would ask all Committee members to forward to me a question that can be used if we have a shortage of questions from our members. These need to be sent to me by Monday 11th April, so we can forward on to the Panel in advance.

Andrew and Nigel have personally phoned all our members to remind them of the meeting and Andrew has also invited the Tamar Valley Lions, Rotarians and the Plymouth Lions to attend our meeting. We are also hoping potential new members will also attend, and Andrew is quietly confident of aprox 70 attending on the night.

Summer Function

Simon is organizing the music and is looking at a band called Decibels which charges £500. Also he has looked at the DJ associated to the Boringdon Golf Club as most cost effective option at £180. He is going to discuss with Paula possible sponsorship for this. Simon also provided menus for us top look at and come back with menu options.

Keith has mentioned another charitable option, this is a young child who lives in Plympton and is seriously ill. His family are trying to raise money for a holiday for him and it was decided that we could help him and Call Southwest at this event.

AOB

Nigel has offered to distribute details of our AGM to Ridgeway businesses and others. Stella will reformat the existing email and print this off for Nigel by Friday.

Steve handed over the accounts to David Rice, who will take on the role of Treasurer. The balance is currently standing at £1,002. On behalf of the Committee I would like to thank Steve for all his hard work in looking after these accounts whilst running our website.

Keith will look at the cost of having something printed for our members Shop window, van whatever stating they are a member of the Plym Chamber of Commerce. These will be provided to all businesses on joining or renewal.

Next Meeting

The Date for the next meeting has been agreed for Wed 4th may. It would be appreciated if anyone unable to attend could email their apologies in advance please.