Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce

Committee Minutes Form

 

This form is to be utilized by all Chamber Committee’s to record the official minutes of each meeting.  Upon completion it should be submitted to the chamber office by the last day of each month for duplication and inclusion in the Board of Directors packet sent to each Director prior to the board meeting.

 

The regular/special meeting of the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce Government Relations Committee was held on October 7th at 10:30 am/pm at The Bank of Cooperstown.

 

Present: Marc Kingsley, Scott White, Rob Robinson, Bob Consigli

 

The minutes from the previous committee meeting held on September 9th were approved/disapproved.

 

The following was presented, discussed and action items for the Board of Directors and/or Committee

noted:

  1. Natural gas update.
    1. Rob stated the DEC has issued the process on 10-6-08.  The Otsego County Chamber

Education Committee is working on the details for an upcoming natural gas seminar.  Will

have more information at the next meeting.

  1. MSG update
    1. Marc has been researching this topic.  Has called several key people in Manchester, Tennessee

in regards to a similar event called Bonnaroo.  Marc stated that all of the information gathered has

been positive.  Traffic appears to be their number one issue.  Marc is writing a draft position letter

for the committee and board to review.

  1. GO21
    1. Marc updated the committee on a meeting with Pamela Mann in regards to Growth 21 (GO21),

an intermodal project aimed at reviving and updating freight rail lines.  While the committee

approves of the idea in general, there is concern about how or if NYS should set up a fund to help

with the infrastructure upgrades needed to make this work.  In the past NYS has set up special funds

for projects which ultimately were raided to help balance the budget and therefore not used for the

purpose they were set up for.  The committee has concerns that the same thing will happen with this

project.  Rob is drafting some letters that the Cooperstown Chamber can use for this topic.

  1. Joint Legislative Survey
    1. The committee approved the survey developed by the Otsego County Chamber.  Marc to present

the survey to the Cooperstown Chamber board at the October 9th board meeting, for adoption.

  1. Celebrity softball game and raffle
    1. Perry Ferrara from the Wax Museum on Main Street, Cooperstown emailed the Cooperstown

Chamber a proposal about having a celebrity softball game and nation-wide raffle of Pete Rose’s

first and last hit baseballs.  The event date proposed is for September 2009.  Marc called and talked

to the Baseball Hall of Fame about this.  The Baseball Hall of Fame frowns upon the raffling or

auctioning off of any baseball artifact and would not be supportive of this event, not to mention the

controversy surrounding Pete Rose in general.

    1. Government Relation would support a celebrity softball game, but would not support the

nation-wide raffle of Pete Rose’s baseballs or tying his name to the event.

    1. Marc will call Mr. Ferrara to update him on the chamber’s position.
  1. Paid parking
    1. Marc to e-mail committee all chamber information regarding paid parking.

 

Next meeting date, time, and location: Tuesday November 4, 2008 at The Bank of Cooperstown

 

Minutes recorded by: Marc Kingsley