Doc. #2007- 55

Membership/ Public Relations Committees
Cayuga Lake Watershed Network
August 14, 2007
Fayette NY

Present: Sally Eller, Keith Tidball, Kevin Zippel, Sharon Anderson

1. The change to the Bylaw was reviewed and no further changes were suggested.

2. Ten-Year Anniversary Celebration – Working title “Love Your Lake”
The campaign is to capitalize on the 10-year milestone, to begin as soon as practical and culminate in August 2008 at Lakefest. Purpose:
· :gain financial sponsorship
· increase awareness of the organization
· increase membership

The Outreach Committee will be invited to a joint meeting to look for ways the committees can work together. Sharon to discuss with Outreach Committee.

Partner with the Cayuga Wine Trail (CWT) and the Cayuga Lake Scenic Byway. maybe they can help sponsor our events, at least we can try to have reciprocal memberships. do they have significant anniversaries also?. In advance of the Sept. meeting Kevin will make contact with CWT. If he has no luck he will ask for assistance from Keith. Annie Bauchman, Lakeshore owner, is a possible contact. She has been involved with the Fayette comprehensive plan. The CWT is part of the larger NY grape and wine foundation.

Sharon will contact the CL Scenic Byway. They are an all volunteer group and may not meet before the committee’s next meeting.

Ideas for campaign slogan included: Love Your Lake; Love Your Lake --Jump In; Love Your Lake — Invest in Your Lake; Cayuga Lake Matters - jump In, or Cayuga Lake Campaign - Jump In, Vistas, Vineyards and (some water word starting with a v). Seneca Falls uses Wine, Women and Water. The slogan, logo and any associated items (T-shirt, bumper stickers, hat, banner, brochures, etc.) need to be simple, effective, cool. CWT marketing staff may be helpful in this area. All are to continue thinking about potential themes for the Sept. meeting

CLWN CWT CLSB
vernal pools? Vineyards Vistas
Watershed Wine
Lake Look

Sally knows a person who did the banner for the Ovid library. She will check on price. Sharon noted Kinkos charges $8/sq foot for vinyl.

Ideas of activities include:
· Lakefest at a winery
· Train trip from Cayuga Village area
· Campaign to recruit Cornell, Wells and Ithaca College students as members. Kevin has contacts with the Herpetological Society who might be willing to push the membership.
· Seek out a Sorority or Frat that is looking for service projects and willing recruit members on campus and help with Love Your Lake activities
· Check Wells College for student groups or events.
· Be involved with Cornell’s spring sustainability conference
· Look for ways to involve Cornell’s Natural Resources Dept.(Chair is Marianne Krasny)
· Winery weekend themed around the lake
· MV Manhattan – lake cruise and cocktails
· Bird migration event such as having a mist nest to catch and release birds. Try Friends of Montezuma and Lab or O.
· Herpetological event to tie in also with the “year of the frog” international groups are promoting
· Activities related to the Scenic Byway, this could tie in with the brochure on water resources that the Watershed Network will begin soon.
All are to continue thinking about potential activities and bring to the Sept. meeting

3. Committee Chair – Kevin agreed to serve

4. Membership Update:
Renewals have gone well and financially we are more than ¾ of the way to our goal. More effort is needed on recruiting new members. Sally will talk to assessors for Ovid, Lodi and Romulus to see if they can provide lakeshore property owner names and addresses.

Kevin need 2 more letters and to hunt down complete addresses for some. Keith suggested checking Peoplefinder.com, yellowandwhitepages.com and yahoo people search

Sharon met with Steve Mount, a member of the Finance Committee. They began planning for the annual donor campaign to be undertaken in Nov. and drafted conversation ideas for contacting both people who have renewed and those who have not. Kevin and Mary volunteered to make calls. Sharon will send the suggested text to Kevin and find out if Mary is still willing.

NEXT MEETING: Sept 11, 5:00 at Goulds Pumps (pre-Board Meeting)
Proposed Sept Agenda:
1. Membership Update
· Obtainment of lakeshore property owner names and mailing addresses – Sally
· Report on membership numbers and dollars -- Sharon
· Update on annual donor campaign -- Sharon
· Update on calls to renewed members – Kevin
· Update on calls to lapsed members -- Sharon
2. Love Your Lake
· Contact with CWT – Kevin and Keith
· Contact with CL Scenic Byway – Sharon
· Contact with Outreach Committee – Sharon
· Costs of printing a banner -- Sally
· Thoughts on the name for the campaign – all
· Draft plan for campaign including timeline, who is responsible, and what resources are needed
· Decide how to present to Board
3. Other business
4. Set next meeting date
Submitted by Sharon Anderson