MINUTES

of the Heart of Texas Bed and Breakfast Owners Association Monthly Meeting

at the Colcord House Bed and Breakfast

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

The meeting of the Heart of Texas Bed and Breakfast Association was called to order by President Becky Hodges, with her statement of clarification that all members present had read the minutes of the previous meeting on-line, before coming to the meeting. All members present agreed that they had read the minutes. Becky asked for additions or corrections. There were none.  Bruce Dyer made a motion that the minutes be accepted as recorded.  Linda Johnson seconded and the motion carried.  Becky stated that the treasurer’s report was also on the web. John Boggs made a motion to accept the report, and Rick Allen seconded.  The motion carried.

Becky thanked Jerry Walters for having the agenda on the web, in advance of the meeting, and advised the group to look for all of these items to be on the web, in the future, prior to meetings.  She stated that the scheduled program by Choice Energy would have to be rescheduled.

Under Old Business, Becky called on John Boggs to read his written report.  John read the report of the committee regarding offering memberships to Associate members,as follows: 

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Associate Member Committee report

Bill Bynum, Becky Hodges, Pam Scobell and John Boggs were in attendance.

Meeting started out with a general discussion about membership as described in the minutes. These provide for two classifications, one “active” members and the second is associate members.   

Section 2.1 of the bylaws states that “Associate members shall be those interested in the bed and breakfast industry, and individuals and companies providing services and supplies.”

As for membership fees it makes no distinction between active and associate members. The committee recommends that the membership for an associate member would increase to $150 per year. An associate member would make application to join and the applicant would be voted on by the membership at the next regular meeting. The Associate members would have a link on our web site and a link to our web site. The associate membership fee would be allocated with $50 for web site maintenance and update, $25 finder’s fee for the person who contacted the associate and presented their successful application and $75 to the general budget. On renewal $50 would be allocated for web site management and $100 to general budget.

Becky asked for discussion.  She asked what changes in the bylaws this would require.  Bruce said that he thought the report is good, and it would give us the opportunity to have other members without a specific description.  It would allow members who are not “active” but want to belong to the Association. Jerry asked if the term associate member excludes B&B owners.  Pam Scobell discussed at length the issues with “web only” B&B owners who want to be members. She stated that allowing this defeats the purpose for people who want to be able to just write a check, never serve or host meetings.  She said that the Association would not gain much from them, for the small amount in fees that we would collect.  She said the Associate membership is for businesses and organizations only, which provide services that would compliment a B&B. (Such businesses as catering, Inn Sitters, Insurance companies, party rental services, etc. were mentioned from the floor).

Becky said that in our current bylaws the description says “supports the B&B industry.”  Joann Heitmiller wanted to know if these members would be invited to the meetings.  Becky and John both answered “yes” but with no voting rights. Rick said they are there to sell their services.  Becky concurred and said that they could also have a link from our web page to theirs.  Becky asked if we need to make a change to the bylaws, regarding the description of Associate members.  Shirley Land asked if the bylaws state that an Associate member has no vote. Becky confirmed that “no vote” is written in the bylaws.

Becky asked for a motion.  Rick asked if we wanted to replace 2.1? Becky said no, not 2.1.  Bruce said to replace 2.2.  Nancy Lamar made a motion that we change the bylaws to change the fee for Associate members, and Bill Bynum seconded it.  Jerry reminded that 3.1 states that active members have a full voting right, and can serve as an officer.

The motion carried and Becky stated that we would amend the bylaws to change the fees for Associate members, and that there will be no “web only” members.

Becky then discussed the membership committee, and said that there was no report. She said that there really was not a distinction between this committee and the committee that had just reported.  Becky stated that Dutch Schroeder had told her that the committee had made an effort to define the difference between a member and an associate member, and that there really was not more to report. 

The next item under old business was regarding the Association brochure.  Becky said that the meeting of the CVB, where she was going to bring up the brochure, was cancelled.  She said that she does know that the CVB will be making some brochures.  One type will be of the various walking tours in Waco. She said that they will be working on it this month before all the tourists start coming into town.  Bruce Dyer offered to provide Becky with a report on the occupancy tax the “in city” members pay.  He stated that we get little in return for our occupancy taxes. Becky agreed to call Bruce for the information and take it to the meeting with her. She will provide a report at the next Association meeting.

Referring to the agenda, Becky asked Bruce for his report regarding web pages at BU.  Bruce said that he had made some contacts at Baylor, and had done a search for accommodations on Baylor.edu.  He stated that at one time the purchasing department had sent out a questionnaire on accommodations.  He said that he returned the information and Baylor did include his B&B’s information on the web information.  He said he found two other possible locations, those being orientation and admissions.  Admissions had 10 hotel/motel listings, and a listing of some local B&B’s.  The orientation page had six listings, and Bruce said that he thinks these six offer special rates to Baylor.  Bruce said then there were other pages with the same list. But, none were consistent, and none had everyone listed.  Bruce said that he would continue to look for other places where BU has accommodation listings.  Rick said it needs to be a link under football and basketball, as people coming to the games need places to stay.

Rick Allen gave his report on TSTC and MCC. He said that at TSTC he has a contact, Alicia Flores.  She is in charge of Marketing at TSTC.  He said that he would meet with her in June. Currently TSTC has no web administrator, but the development is in progress.

He then said that he talked to six people at MCC and no one has any idea about accommodations on the MCC site. He said that he had trouble getting in to speak to the correct person and never got any calls returned. He suggested that Warren Johnson might have a connection at MCC.

Nancy Lamar wanted to know if there are operating B&B’s in the area who are not members of the Association?  Jerry said that there were at least a half dozen.

Bruce Dyer suggested that Rick contact Fred Hillis at MCC, for help.  Rick said that he will have met with Alicia before our next meeting.

Penny Mercer stated that she had made a contact to UMHB, but had not had any returned calls. They currently do not offer accommodation suggestions, or any other local information on their web site.

Becky stated that hopefully we can get listed on these sites by football season.

Moving to the next topic, Becky said that the Association in East Texas with which we shared our by-laws, now has a link on their site to ours. Jerry said that they had written a “thank you” letter for the help with the bylaws. John stated that their site looks really nice.

Jerry then reported that we now have a method to ID e-mail coming to our site.  This had been asked about at a previous meeting, and can now be done.  Becky said that Jerry is also setting up a page with all known insurance providers on it.  If you have not, Jerry requested that each member send its insurance provider to him, and include an evaluation and recommendation, especially if a claim has been made.  Nancy said that we should look into a discount, as many of us as there are, if we would all use the same provider.  Pam Scobell and Becky said that they believe they have a really good rate and coverage now.

Under New Business:

Becky said that Linda Williams has brought a proposal for an ad in a lodging guide that will be sent to all prospective Baylor students and/or their parents.  Rick said that Sara Schupe is putting this together. It is estimated that 60K people will see this guide and it will be provided to anyone who applies to BU.  Becky passed around a sample that was done for another college. She mentioned that this company is out of Boulder CO.  The deadline is tomorrow and was extended for us to meet.

Nancy Lamar wanted to know what the cost was and as an Association if we knew what we were going to do?  She also wanted to know if we would get to pick our placement in the booklet.  Rick said 1/8 page is $400.00 and ½ is $800.  He said that the deadline has been extended three times, indicating that she really wants to sell this ad to us. He suggested ½ page.  He said that he felt the price or placement was possibly negotiable.  Suzan wanted to know how long this would last or be out. Pam asked if it would mailed just for the fall?  Rick said he would be happy with once a year.  Becky wanted to know where and how it would be distributed other than the mailings. Rick said to realtors, and other locations where visitors would go.  Rick said that we are also getting 30% off of the price, (the $800.).

Pam Scobell wanted to know how a group outside of Waco got the rights to do this.  She also wanted to know if we could get our Association brochure in the same packet that this piece would be mailed in. Bruce said that there was a print directory years ago. He said he was in it with zero results.  He further stated that he would not vote against this, but he would not spend money on this himself.  Becky agreed, and said that she believes the internet is where people go now. She felt that they would not pay attention to this booklet.  Rick said he believes that there are some who would keep it. Rick and Nancy both commented that some parents and grandparents are not into the computer.  Jerry said if we are going to keep discussing this we needed a motion. Rick made a motion to buy an ad. Linda Johnson seconded.  Becky said that she was against it. She said everyone who calls to inquire at her B&B only refers to the Internet. She said we spend money on Lady Bears ad and got nothing, except good will. Nancy agreed that everything comes off the web. Joann said that she thought it would really help if we can get on the BU web sites.

Susan said everything we are saying is negotiable. She said that she saved money on her web site by negotiating prices.  Jerry said that he had predicted to Linda Williams that the Association would vote against this, so he suggested that if the Association does not want to do it, those who are interested, get together and do it outside the Association.   Becky said that is what we did for the Bridal Show.  There was more discussion about the internet, and Jerry reminded that if you are not listed in the “top ten” of a search result, the odds are that one who searches will never see your site. 

Becky asked if we were ready to vote. She said that there had been no decision as to how much we would vote for.  Shirley said that she thought a quarter page is not a bad size. She asked how much that was. It was restated that it is $650. and then 30% off.  Rick said that he suspects that we can get it for 40% off. He suggested we offer $400. for a quarter page. Jerry reminded that we had already asked her to extend the deadline twice. Rick made a motion that we offer a maximum of $400.00 for a quarter page.  The motion passed and Pam Allen told Linda Williams that she would get the ad with Logo ready and e-mail it to her. Rick said that Linda should do the negotiating.  Jerry asked if we also get the free listing of each member. Rick said that we do.  Jerry said that he would prepare the list from our web site and get it to Linda.  Then he said that we were supposed to be in the book three times, a list, the ad and also on a map.  Pam Scobell echoed, that thought.  (Linda Williams came in later and said that she would not do the negotiating and Susan M. agreed to take that on.)

Jerry then made a motion "that the Association  consider providing a credit card terminal and account for the beginning and smaller B&Bs who do not feel that have enough business to justify their own equipment. The member users would divide the $6 monthly statement fee among themselves and each user would pay his own transaction fees. Once the account and terminal are set up, the Association would bear no expense. I also move that a committee composed of some or all of those who are interested in such a provision work out the details, which might include how the treasurer will disburse receipts, how the monthly fees will be paid, etc., and working out the details necessary to expedite this plan."  Nancy asked why we don’t all do that.  Jerry said that he needs a second. The motion was seconded by Penny, and carried.  Jerry then explained how the process would work , for anyone who wanted to participate. Jerry stated that a setup fee was not discussed, and that he would check on that.  There was lingering discussion of the various prices and fees that members paid for their machines and for the fees each vendor charges.  Becky said that if the Association could pay the $50.00 for the machine it seemed ok, but we need to see about the setup fee.  There was further discussion about the bookkeeping that would be involved.  Bruce suggested that the motion be tabled and those who need this should discuss the logistics and bring back to the next meeting.  Becky made a motion to do so and Rick seconded it.  The motion carried.

Jerry asked of we need a recruiting committee, or an effort of some kind to recruit new members.  He said that he thought we needed as many members as we possibly can have.  Linda Williams said she thought that was a good idea, but there should be some qualifications for members.  She said that she assumes that since B&B’s are official business that new prospects would be credit worthy and pay taxes, etc., but it should be required.  Bruce and some others listed names of B&B’s in the area who are not members.  Linda Johnson questioned how much room we have for the meetings if we get too many members.  Having the meetings at other places or co-hosting meetings was discussed.

John Boggs suggested that we need to know what the long-term vision of this organization is. Further he suggested that the executive committee meet and determine what that vision is, exactly…what are we trying to accomplish, like a mission statement.  Jerry said that we could do more, be more, and be a help to new B&B’s.  Bruce mentioned that everyone should watch his “soapbox” speech on Channel 10 regarding the new four-star hotel, when we have the B&B’s already here.  It was then stated that when the Association formed, it was the hope to make Waco a B&B destination like Jefferson or Fredericksburg.  He said four-star hotels do not attract visitors, but B&B’s do.

Applause!

Penny said that she does not believe that we should turn away new members. Becky said that the question is more of whether we want to actively recruit, not that we would turn away any B&B that seeks us out.

Rick said that he agrees with John, that the organization does not have a clear vision.  He made a motion that the President appoint a committee and that John be a member.  Becky opened the floor for volunteers. Linda W., Becky and Marsha, will join John on the “vision committee.”  Shirley seconded, and motion carried.

Jerry asked about an application form for prospective Associate members because we should begin recruiting them. Bill suggested that we start with recruiting the vendors that we use. Jerry asked how do we approach then to pay $150.00?  Joann said that they will get more business.  Rick said we already have a committee for the associate members, and that he would be on the committee to help recruit Associates.  Becky said that we now have a new assignment for the associate committee, and that they will take on that assignment.

Becky asked if there was any other new business. Bruce made a motion to adjourn, and Bill seconded it. Hosts Rick and Pam Allen served delicious refreshments.

Minutes recorded  by  Secretary, Penny Mercer

TREASURER'S REPORT

Beginning Balance.........April 30, 2005.................................................................... $1,550.40

Ending Balance..............May 31, 2005.................................................................... $1,550.40