2013-09-12 Edmonds Downtown Alliance (BID) MinutesEdmonds BID
Interim Advisory Board Special Meeting
9/12/2013
Attendees: David Arista, Stephen Clifton, Mary Kay Sneeringer, Chris Fleck, Sally Merck, Steve Balas,
Roger Neumeier, Juliana Van Buskirk and Cadence Kerr
Public Attendees: Valerie Stewart (Mayor's Climate Protection Committee) and Greg Urban
At request of Valerie Stewart, public comments were move to the top of the agenda
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
• Valerie attending the meeting on behalf of Mayor Earling, as chair of the Climate Protection
Committee. Valerie presented the committee's green business recognition program and
requested that the EDBID board discuss and consider including and EDBID member as a liaison
for the committee. She will also be presenting to the Chamber and believes the program will
benefit greatly from the three groups working together.
The program encourages waste reductions, promotes transportation alternatives, purchasing
decisions, water use, etc. for Edmonds businesses. Businesses participating in the programs and
meeting the criteria will be recognized as a green business in Edmonds.
David agreed to discuss with the full board at the next meeting and have someone get back to
Valerie at Valerie.stewart@edmondswa.gov
• No other public comments.
ACTION ITEMS FROM 9/5 MEETING:
• Dale Terwedo — City agree (Roger and Stephen) that Dale should only have one assessment due
to the structure of his business and required umbrella corporation. City will determine how to
accomplish, send letter and report back.
• Jeff Taraday and Purchasing Policy — Cadence sent email to Jeff and received no response
indicated that he disagreed with our plan to publish RFP in DJC and also send targeted requests.
Okay to move forward with RFP.
PRESIDENT'S REPORT:
• Delinquencies are running under 10%. Some that have not paid have moved outside of the BID
boundaries. City is working on making those changes to the list. Discussion regarding the other
delinquent members resulted in the decision to split up the businesses among volunteer board
members willing to discuss on an individual basis (in lieu of another letter). Stephen reminded
us that the City does have a way to assist with payment planning if any of the businesses are
having financial difficulties and that they should contact the City directly to work through that
process.
• Paul and David met with Chuck Loomis (Edmonds Community College) to discuss a possible
partnership with the ECC Marketing Course and the EBID. The course is made up of students
with an average age of 25-35 and starts September 23. Outcome was to considerutilizing the
students to come up with a BID census and do member outreach and meeting follow-up through
an in -person marketing/canvasing effort. They thought the students could have form questions
in order to get input on the most important issues from BID members. The Board was generally
enthused by the idea and had the following additional suggestions/ideas:
o Ask each member for 3-5 keywords to describe their business or categorization for
potential key search optimization and for website directory
o A notification of the census/project should be included in our next member mailing
(assessment) to warn business owners and encourage them to participate.
o Ask ECC to build a database that could be used for multiple future projects.
o Make sure the students have the tools they need to speak to members; the City had no
concerns with providing the students with BID member contact information
o Paul is tentatively scheduled to present to the class on 9/30; David asked that Sally,
Juliana or Cadence attend as well — they will decide amongst themselves and let Paul
know.
• Steve brought up the UW program and still believes it would be useful, but general consensus is
that we are not ready for the UW program at this point.
CITY UPDATE:
• Reminder of the PUD program and request to spread the word to BID Members — is it posted on
our website? We neglected to bring flyers to the meeting.
• "Visit Edmonds" Seattle Times insert created and paid for by the City was passed around. The
flyer was inserted in non -Edmonds zip code delivered Seattle Times. The City has a $24K annual
budget for advertising and used a portion of the money to pay for this effort.
• Stephen is currently looking into the cost of the print and online version of the campaign, which
includes banner advertising on the Seattle Times website. The City cannot market targeted
businesses, but they can do "City-wide" advertising and individual businesses can co-op ads on
the same page, if interested.
MEMBER MEETING OVERVIEW/THOUGHTS:
• Lower attendance than expected
• Good comments and Committee presentations were very positive and upbeat
• Rick Steves had a good message
• Bob (brown house) had great comments that showed his evolution from con to pro
• There are still some misconceptions
• We should spend some time with the woman who owns the acupuncture business — she has a
strong background in similar types of community outreach/boards
• We should have include more visual information — pictures of other BIDs — websites, projects,
etc. We should utilize the internet and have a slide show for the next meeting
• We could have been more direct regarding what the actual money is and will be spent on
• Suggestion for new member outreach (from Stunningly Strange) was a very good point
• Committee Breakouts:
o RFP/Branding
■ Good group of people, not enough time
■ Asked for volunteers, had a few interested — Stunningly Strange and Savvy
Traveler
■ Had several differing viewpoints on whether there should be a name like the
Junction or just stay EDBID
■ A lot of concern about how we interact with DEMA, City, Chamber — no one
wants to recreate the wheel or overstep, etc.
■ Committee just needs to meet and finalize RFP
o Business Resources
■ Directory is wanted — online, on street, etc.
■ Digital Direction was of great interest
■ Finding out who is responsible for the directory by starbucks and getting it
updated or removed is a high priority. Chamber is believed to be the owner
o Parking
■ A lot of frustrations about enticing more people to Edmonds — where will they
park, it is already an issue.
■ Ideas included parking at church and having a circulator bus available.
■ Generally need to communicate employee parking program better to BID
members
o Community Outreach
■ Ambassador program was discussed as an idea for BID to piggyback off Chamber
or create own program
■ BID needs a slogan
■ Quarterly (in lieu of annual) meetings were discussed — consider a January
(follow-up) meeting prior to the annual meeting
■ Relationship between Chamber/DEMA/BID was another big topic here
OTHER BUSINESS:
• We received a lot of returned emails from our email invite blast. Cadence to sent updates to
Jenny Shore.
• 2014 Workplan needs to be submitted to Council by 10/31. Original committee will move
forward (no volunteers to replace original group): Kim, Pam, Paul, Cadence and Dave.
Committee will meet week of 9/16 and present at next Board meeting
• General concern about accomplishments this year and Board approval of workplan — agreed
that we have accomplished quite a bit for volunteers, but would like to say that the RFP is out,
the nonprofit is formed and have a workplan by the 10/31 date.
• 501c3 needs to move forward, but may require an attorney. Incorporation of nonprofit could
happen quickly and needs to. Chris will talk to local attorney: Matt Hendricks, Doug Purcell and
Bennett Brothers.
ACTION ITEMS:
• Discuss Climate Committee with full board and determine BID involvement; contact Valerie
Stewa rt
• Contact delinquent members to discuss assessments
• Cadence to ask Cindy for delinquent -only list
• Paul, Cadence, Sally and Juliana to determine attendance at ECC class presentation and date
• RFP/Branding committee to meet and present draft RFP for review at next Board meeting;
Board to bring names for targeted RFP proposers and come prepared with RFP reviewed
• Chris to check with Chamber on removing Starbuck directory
• Stephen will begin sending the parking permit area map with BID notices
• Cadence to send email updates to Jenny Shore
• Cadence to set up Workplan committee meeting for week of 9/16
• Chris to contact attorneys regarding 501c3
• 501c3 committee to present next steps at next Board Meeting
NEXT MEETING at HDR 9/26/13 — we will have three major agenda items from now until
10/31/2013: 501(c)(3), RFP for Branding/Marketing and Workplan
MEETING ADJOURNED 9:30AM