July 2021 Meeting Minutes

Freeport Merchants Association
Meeting Minutes
July 22nd, 2021

Present:
Chase Barfield
Ethan Barfield
Yolanda Ellis
Aaron Ellis
Bill Blanken
CJ Chonbeck
Kelly Cash
Anna Bonner
Lori Logue

Next meeting: August 19th, 2021, 8:00am, Blount House

1.) Announcements

 Current Membership Total: 45

 Current account balance: $4303.00

 Expenses:

• $39.87 Publics

• $4.99 GoDaddy – removed going forward

 Event Committee:

• We raised a little over $2000 - $2400 – final total is still not in as we are waiting on 2 checks in the P.O box

• Need a second P.O box key – Chase will follow up on checks and get key in someone else’s hands to be able to check mail

 Membership Committee:

• New Member: Westonwood Ranch – Kelly Cash and Anna Bonner

- Nonprofit that provides life skills, job skills, social skills, and job training for teens and adults with autism and others differently abled

- They are looking for businesses who are willing to hire and allow them to come in and shadow

- Looking for those who would like to come to them and interview, share your knowledge and skills and work with them

2.) General Discussion

Referring Service Providers:

• Hammock Bay Facebook Group, Next Door – people are constantly asking for what they need.

• Those of us who are in the Hammock Bay group can monitor and refer members of the FMA as well as note those businesses that are not yet in the FMA, send them to Bill and he can work on bringing them into the membership

• Lori will monitor Next Door for the same.

Utilizing Bing as well as Google:

• Google has many search restrictions. Bing does not and posting on Bing will also populate Yahoo and Duck Duck Go.

• Example: If someone searched Freeport Chamber, we could have that term

• Chase will look into developing search terms, create the verbiage, and send out to see if anyone is opposed.

• Members should register their business on Bing even if it’s a home-based business.

• Bing also gives points for using their search that you can trade for gift cards.

Facebook:

• We can target very well where people live – people within 20 miles of Freeport

• Advertise something along the lines of “If your looking from someone local…”. Chase will create some verbiage and ask for input edits

For our Members Businesses:

• Bill Suggests – we go to Google and write a review. With this, when people search for your type of business, you will come up higher in the search

• On Facebook as well, add a review as well as liking and sharing each other’s posts.