##VIDEO ID:0HwoPv9h82M## e e e good afternoon everybody this is the February 6th 2025 meeting of the chadam finance committee I'm Andy young I'm Vice chair I'll be leading this meeting today pursuant to Governor Healey's March 29th 2023 signing of the acts of 2023 extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law general laws chapter 38 section 20 until March 31st 2025 this meeting of the chatam finance committee is being conducted conducted in person and via remote participation every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order a reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number one area code 508 945 4410 conference ID 734 905 24 pound sign or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda while this is a live broadcast and simal cast on chadam TV Xfinity channel 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide real-time access we will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly for scheduled and On Demand viewing if anyone is recording this meeting please notify the chair prison seeing none we'll get going Carrie you're up thank you Mr chair um so first we have oh I'm sorry yep I roll call I need to call roll for the meeting of the six Tommy Don no Barber Madison here John papardo Joan spra here Andy young is here Kristen Andress here Tracy Shields here Eric whle here and Stephen Daniel is absent all right thank you now Carrie sorry about that that's okay oh I don't know quite what this is now that's um so first going over um the FY 2026 budget for um the community center um and the center for active living um we have a budget for um FY 2026 in the amount of 3,135 237 for FY 2026 um that includes the center for active living Recreation and beaches Lighthouse Beach Human Services veteran services libraries public ceremonies other public events chatam band and railroad music Museum um but we'll be going over veteran services libraries public ceremonies and other public events in chadam band and railroad next week so just for this presentation we'll be going over Center for active living um which has a budget for FY 2024 in the amount of $654,900 Human Services with a budget of $328,500 recreation and beaches for FY 2026 is 1,249 159 and ligh house Beach for an operating budget of $ 66,67 there is a um FY 2026 Capital item for $50,000 for the community center um gymnasium wall padding and there are two Capital warrant articles that we'll be going over one is the child care voucher program that's an annual re Quest every year and we also have the establishment of a revolving fund um 53 e and a half for the riters Cove respit adult supportive Day program that I'll be going over as well and we have am Amy Howell and Leah lacrosse here to go over the budget before we take up with the other speakers I'll note that uh Finance Committee Member John papalardo joined us just as you started speaking so he's now present that's great thank you um sorry for the interruption please continue and if you would be kind enough to introduce yourself to the viewing audience certainly um good afternoon my name is Leah lacrosse I'm the department of the director of uh Department of Community Services this is Amy Howell she's the deputy director of community services in the recreation and beaches division and we'll be sharing our proposed budget with you so as you know Community Services encompasses Council on Aging or the center for active living Recreation beaches including Lighthouse Beach also human services so just to show you the big jump we took this year um we had total uh unduplicated participants was uh 1,400 plus which is 23 % of Chatham's year round population so um I think we're serving a good chunk of the population which we're thrilled about and the total number of active Outreach clients is 277 so those 1,400 plus uh participants signed in a total of 4,519 times as far as programs and services over the past year uh Total unduplicated Transportation participants is 115 providing 3,44 58 oneway rides and grocery deliveries and um that included roundtrip Trips Trips to The Orleans Day program as well and our transportation program keeps growing right now we're an average of 30 to 34 rides per day through um our services which is great so our um budget over overview for salaries um we did go up $157,000 uhar this year but that was due to the fact that the contractual wage and step increases in the addition of three new staff members for the adult supportive Day program um those three positions were funded this year through a grant um and that Grant is just is not an ongoing Grant it's a one-time so the town um will absorb the cost of those three employees and then that was what we're asking for the revolving fund for to be able to um use the funds that we take in for the day program to provide the programs the food and the services there for our expenses um we did go up $3,400 this year and that was due to an increase office supplies meetings due as travel and postage that reflects the um additional staff and it also for our health meals and motion program that we work in collaboration with the uh family food pantry for I think at this time last year we had 22 participants in that program uh this year we're up to 50 families in chattam and in each month we have to do um a mailing they a self address stamped envelope in which they return their grocery list for us so that was the additional um the additional funding requested for the postage Leah Leah there's a question up here sure thanks Mr chair Leah can you remind me what active Outreach clients are sure active Outreach clients are clients who seek out Services um it might be help with they may not be able to afford fuel for their house like fuel assistance um so we help them with applications for that we might it might be food insecurity it might be um helping families navigate through um you know looking for assisted living facilities or other resources so we have one Outreach coordinator and they see um any Outreach clients someone might be referred to us we get a lot of referrals um for people who say hey my neighbor is acting a little strange I'm worried about her could you please check nine times out of 10 they're already a client of ours and we'll do a phone call and go to the house make a house visit make sure there's food in the refrigerator and um that they're not in cognitive decline or anything like that thanks you're welcome Le for me I I have a question about whether or not you all are looking for any additional funding opportunities for the day program yes yes we'll always be looking for it um they in fact our next meeting the grantees are required to attend um a meeting each month Al together and our next meeting at the end of this month they're going to talk about future funding opportunities now is that that a state or federal that's state it is okay do you know whether it's a federal pass through you know I'm not sure I I actually suspect it is um but but there are plenty of um state agencies that that offer grants too um we're looking everywhere for grants for for a lot of programs right thank you you're welcome oh Barbara go ahead um Leah how many people do we have in that daycare program and how many do you think we'll have when this year I guess or next year when Orleans won't accept our people anymore and we have to take those so good question we um Orleans is not accepting anymore so the ones that they have are just ones that they have had um the amilies we we did get two families from Orleans U that that came in but going forward there Orleans in order to help us out um will not be taking any more chatam residents going forward so they're just keeping the ones they have right now and that um goes through a natural attrition process so right now we have five um and they vary you know on the attendance days some people attend both days and some attend one day but we have five total and the reason for that is is because we have um at this time have not hired a second staff person so our ratios will only allow us to have five maximum until that second per or third person is hired I should say thank you the Human Services budget overview um the actually the requests have gone down um 2% this Year and that is because um the recommendation went down due to there being no requests from the Family Pantry of Cape Cod Duffy Health Center and the independence house this year uh we're we're not sure why they didn't submit but they uh applications but they didn't this year and that also includes that number also includes a a $5,700 Grant match request from the cultural Council the new uh Child Care voucher amount that the Human Services committee is recommending is 175,000 this year and just to give you uh an idea the total households that received awards from the child care voucher last year was 55 households 37 of the 55 awards were for chattam households or 67% and the rest were Town employees so 18 Town employees of the total benefici Aries were 80 children using the voucher fund so we thought that was pretty good um and all funds were encumbered by ooc in October so there were some folks on the waiting list so they are hoping by making this recommendation that there won't be anybody on the waiting list Leah my rough math tells me that's almost $20,000 each for the beneficiaries Child Care is um quite expensive it's about um average of 1,800 to 2,000 a month thank you that just confirms what my daughter tells me off it's she's not lying I promise um see here so we have no Capital requests for um FY 2026 this year and a capital article is anticipated for funding the renovations to the seaf fell at 193 Stony Hill and with that I'm going to turn it over to Amy thank you all right good afternoon um so for recreation and beaches by the numbers um this past year we offered 42 different programs and events uh with 109 sessions uh between those 42 programs with with a little over 3,800 uh registrations for those programs and events uh our fitness room at the community center we currently have 680 active members um but for the last year we had uh over 7,700 access scans uh to use the fitness room so it is a well-used um facility at the community center um for reservations throughout Town facilities so this includes Parks beaches um um the community center is obviously the biggest uh so any programs you know baseball games meetings reservations that all go through us there was over 2400 that came through our system um this past year and for Beach sckers sold just at the gates um as you can see we had over 8,700 dailies 554 weeklys and 52 seasonal Beach tickers uh sold just at the gates anyone have any questions on any of that okay so our um budget this year um you can see we're going up about $62,000 uh to 1 Point uh or 1, 33,000 uh the majority of that in the salary wages is for contractual uh obligations and then increase to our seasonal staff a 3% increase to all of our seasonal staff which we average 40 to 65 uh a summer so that would create a substantial increase um for expenses uh we are going up 11,000 uh to 171,00 and that's just from two of our line items one would be our Porta on contract uh again due to inflationary and contractual costs and then our windmill line item and that is just for maintenance um of the windmill that continues to go up due to inflationary costs and we just want to make sure that we can maintain uh the windmill um so total 1.2 million uh for 6.48 increase any questions any um with regard to portable toilets M are we seeing a demand for installations elsewhere in town none that have come to us I mean we have a pretty robust Fleet of portons out there so um the only one we added was White Pond this past summer uh just to due to the the facility that was there was kind of closed so that's the only one that we've added um but they are at every Beach um you know in park that we don't have um permanent facilities at okay and the the contract is that leted out every year yes yep we we typically work with Barnsville County and they do a countywide bid we're actually in the process and they should be coming back within a week um so we work with them every year so uh we went up because it's just continued to to go up and up so we went up 15% this year in our our guesstimate thank you okay um so for Lighthouse Beach uh you're just going to see a small increase in our salary and wage line uh and again that is just uh for a 3% raise for our seasonal uh Workforce there uh for our beach Patrol our expenses we remain level funded uh so it's a little over 3% increase for Lighthouse uh Amy I do have a question about that um I'll Grant you maybe it's the time of year I was going by but it seemed to me every time I went by my boat there weren't a whole lot of people in the water yeah how much how much need do we still have in your opinion for the beach Patrol down there so biggest the reason you're not going to see a lot of people in the water is because the main job of the beach Patrol is to really educate the public about the dangers of Lighthouse Beach um you know obviously marine life but the biggest danger there is the the the currents um that come and go especially at title changes and so you know we really the as they're not you know typical lifeguards even though they do have their certification um their goal there is to educate the public that it's it's not a safe place place um typically especially at those at those um times in the day so you know when you obviously if you're familiar with Lighthouse Beach when you first walk down is typically where you're going to see anyone that swims we really try and get our beach Patrol out to the point at those title changes to bring anyone um in that may have you know wandered out at those points right I remember that was the sensitive area in years past yeah that sounds like it still is y thank you others no doesn't look like it uh we have one Capital request um and it's for our gymnasium wall padding that's original to the gym so over 15 years uh it's for $50,000 and it's to replace the whole uh padding system that has just reached the end of its life um and uh you know there's Cuts they're falling off the wall and it's really Paramount to the safety of the to the patrons that use the gym so um we are looking to replace it I don't see anybody clamoring with questions all right that's it thank you okay other questions anybody online have questions I'm not seeing any hands raised all right good I guess we're boring Mr chair I think there not as many questions that was very well presented thank you a lot thank you very very much very clear thank you okay thank you right thank you thank you than you so um I'll just go over um I know that Leah went over the child care voucher program do you need any more information on that one that's a normal article that we typically have it's just okay um so the other article that we'll be presenting is um the establishment of a revolving fund a 53e and a half for the writers code rbit Adult Day program so um due to losing the funds for the grant so that we won't have in FY 2026 um will be basically asking for program fees to come from the participants and because the money has never been used to set our tax rate this is the time to be able to establish a revolving fund um so um the program fees and any donations will go into this fund and to use for expenses for the program such as you know like the food that Leah said or any additional expenses that they might need for crafts or whatever they're doing during the program um um and the the total expenditure for FY 2026 because we weren't really sure of how much expenses you have to set an expenditure limit so it's at $50,000 for FY 2026 Mr Cher please go ahead how do you know when you need this type of revolving fund uh how would these expenses be handled otherwise if we didn't have the revolving fund then we would have to increase the budget in the community services to reflect the money that we would need for the programs because otherwise the money would go into the general fund as revenue and then we'd have to increase the expenses on the other side so the revolving fund is there so you just take the money you put into the revolving fund and as you collect the money you expend through that fund so you consider that a better way of bookkeeping yes okay it is it's just like the revolving fund that we use for recreation and beaches there they have a revolving fund as well and the shellfish they have a revolving fund but because this money has never been set for the tax rate this is the time to actually establish the fund okay thank it's new money for the town you're welcome thank you Carrie you're welcome so sorry go ahead Car Tracy thank you Mr chair I was just going to ask if if that is the receptacle say we do get some generous donations is it that it would never be appropriate though to use that fund to pay for staff or additional staff so in order to you can pay for part-time staff from a revolving fund however if you pay for a full-time person person you also have to pay for their benefits as well through there so then you're increasing fees for a program to offset Carri an Associated question so am I concluding right that this $50,000 amount here is not currently incorporated into the budget no it's just a limit of expenditure so all revolving funds you have to set a limit for expenses for the year yeah right but we haven't we haven't taking this we haven't taken any money in yet nope all right great thank you other questions for carrying this doesn't look like it pretty straightforward okay thank you all right thank you next so um the next on the agenda is um the Chamber of Commerce Commerce budget for FY 2026 which is a level funded budget at $95,000 and um the executive director Angela bukar is here to go over her budget for the year good afternoon members of the finance committee we're uh happy to be here I'm actually here with Megan Penn our current uh president of of the Chamber of Commerce so she's here in uh just supportive of some questions that may come up around membership U Mr Daniels did ask yesterday afternoon to uh be able to present our schedule of of membership dues so we will and have that available and also the breakout of what our membership looks like just to if there are any questions around there um Megan's been championing a lot of those activities happening with reworking our packages so for the viewing audience I'm Angela bukar I'm the executive director of the chadam Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association accompanied with Megan Penn lion who is our current president we do have to we start uh with a a PSA that we recorded uh for membership drive we go on sound I think so hello well it wants to play it's weird all right well we'll just skip ahead oh there it goes hi my name is Megan Penn and I'm the current president of the chadam Chamber of Commerce in 2025 the chadam Chamber of Commerce mer mergence Association proudly celebrates 93 years of strengthening our community and fostering economic growth year round since 1932 we've been dedicated to supporting every segment of ch vibrant economy from retail shops restaurants and lodging to trades Professional Services and creative Industries we understand that a thriving chatam means opportunity for everyone every season membership in the chamber is more than a connection it's a commitment to our community success as a member you'll gain access to valuable resources like marketing opportunities professional development and advocacy on issues that matter to local businesses plus our networking events help you build relationships with fellow members across Industries because we're stronger when we work together the chamber also plays a vital role in promoting chatam as a destination for visitors while supporting the businesses and organizations that make our town a dynamic place to live work and play not just in the summer but all year long as we celebrate 93 years years of growth and collaboration we invite you to join us in shaping Chad's future whether you're a local entrepreneur trades person artist or service provider the chamber is here to help you succeed visit www. chatam info.com today to learn more about membership upcoming events and how we can support your business the chadam Chamber of Commerce 93 years of building a stronger yearr round economy together well done Megan that was actually uh in partnership with cap media out of uh dennisport so they were wonderful in in having us there and uh we were able to film right in studio so we had a we had a great time doing that a couple weeks ago so the B budget appropriation is uh the request uh level funded uh in in 2026 and this actually supports our visitor Center so we have our Basset house which is located at the end of Meeting House Road or formally 137 the captain Basset house and then we have our seasonal Mayo house or the the small visitor Booth which sits uh right at the in in town proper and uh we service that visitors Booth throughout the whole season seven days a week and we have um Staffing that it also uh takes place there we also do have a h couple of of outside contractors that work with us to help support initiatives like the yearound economy that we just covered in in the video but also and help to support with web development uh social media presence and um any sort of boosting or advertising that we would need to bring uh for for folks to come to our events offseason um we we know that there are internationally we are we're very uh well covered in in advertising certainly in season but this is really to help develop and bolster that offseason and that year round economy so we're working closely with that and um our seeing Trends good Trends we just actually got an annual report from our our web folks uh to show that we are doing great things in in an optimization way being able to really be found from a keyword standpoint as people are searching not only for our local events but um an introduction of what we also did with launching a new website in July was to add an artificial intelligent chat bot which is actually chat gbt if you're familiar with any sort of artificial intelligence it is a conversational chatbot which has given us over 1,000 conversations of which we can see how people are engaging not only with the website but actually how they're searching and questions about how to find local businesses um it actually is using and is being used as a lead source as well for uh residents that are looking either for a plumber or for someone to help with their home services so it's doing multiple things uh we do have a report I I have the top 10 and I believe it's in the packet the top 10 conversations that that chat poot is engaged in but it's really you know it's that next step it's that 247 employee that's able to really service folks and be able to to help people navigate and not have to go clicking through the website you can quickly just ask a question and the um chatty we call it chatty the chat bot will engage with you and uh give you answers that you need it can even build itineraries so if you're in town and and want to find out what's open or what's not open or if you want to come and and just visit it can build an itinerary it can guide you to beaches what's kid-friendly um where what restaurants are open where you you may want to spend your time should you want to come and visit so it's something that we're using as a data source but it's also giving an increased amount of information as we start to see Trends not only in barnable County but throughout the state as well and we are the first chamber to engage at this level with an art icial intelligent chatbot it's not your standard hi we want to sell you something it really is a a helper on site so we're super proud of that it's been six seven months that we've had it launched and um we're really not only proud about the new site that we've launched but the way that uh people are easily able to find information it was well overdue the site was pretty old so um with that town Grant request of uh fiscal 2020 six is level funded as it has been for the past couple of years as you may remember I um started this position a little over a year ago and it took a good 12 months to analyze and be able to really look through how how the chamber was being executed and also you know where can we start to cut expenses where can we start to grow our lines where can we increase our membership opportunities uh so it's it's been a year of of learning and experiencing uh how to change and and really make this a thriving and and you know healthy business locally but um we are asking again for the 95,000 75,000 will carry and take care of the oper I have one full-time operations staff member Denita Scribner who's here in the audience today and then I have um visitor service Representatives that not only staff the captain Basset house but also are in Booth downtown and Dan MC is here he's he's one of our our leads and also serves as a scribe for our chamber meetings as well so well versed uh Denita has been with the the business for over 17 years so a lot of institutional knowledge there and Dan I can't remember how long you've been there but too too long so they're both they're both institutions and have been a Guiding Light and a guiding source to helping me understand where we were where we're going and then how to forge forward Mr chair yes uh uh the information booth do you is that in the new Eldridge parking lot or do you still have the old one so it's it's still the old uh small booth that sits right at the top of town hall parking lot that was formerly on the Mayo property which is now the conservation so it was actually part of that estate and then they moved the booth across the street so you don't have an information booth at the at the restroom area at the that is not manned okay it's just a visitor center there it's a Transportation Center okay and then it's um chadam valet that works out of there so madin who has his valet service and then it's just a currently it's a Transportation Center uh with I thought originally it was going to be a visitor center not sure but that is a great idea okay thank you yes any other questions and I I I am prepared with financials to go through please barara um hik you Mr chair do you have any way to measure the um amount of traffic that we get like the number of day visitors that you get in the town so great question I do have statistics of which are provided in the ebook as well I have stated Massachusetts I also have the Cape Cod commission reports and then uh the Chamber of Commerce the Regional Chamber and all of those links inside of the ebook you can look at the different statistics about it's really based on tax information number of Travelers the Regional Chamber of Commerce actually has a the name of the the software just jumped out of my head but basically they can track the number of people that are coming over the bridge and it's through credit card spend and it's through um sell service so if you are in some sort of Wi-Fi service or you're on Cape they have the ability it's called um shoot I wish I had the name of anyway they they have invested in that software so they have really clear data on how many people are actually crossing the bridge where they're spending their money where they're staying and and as they come to town so it can be researched through zip code um but the Cap Cod Commission is also prior to or just when covid came uh they started a uh data cape coda.org and the Cape Cod Commission has also uh formulated data around what what that looks like as well so I'm guessing you guys probably do keep track of that data we do and with my colleagues across the cape there are 15 uh towns that each have their local Chambers we meet B monthly and uh this those are statistics that we talk about and we meet quarterly with the Regional Chamber um to go over some of what that looks like as well so do you have any idea of like how many people we had in June July and August of this past year we could go in and and I didn't have that prepared and but we can if you'd like I'm happy to go into the website and we can take a look and if you want to see I just have one question sorry um there was a slide that has attendance for Visitor Center is that what you're looking for so I think she's looking for cumulative visitors I can't tell you how many people have stopped into our visitor centers we have all of that data but I don't have the cumulative data of how many people actually came to chadam parked their vehicle spent the day or spent you know time here with their families that would be a a higher level data point that we could research I just only have what is representative to what our staff was able to collect if that helps at all but other goad well thank you this is what we've been asking for for a number of years now a complete budget breakdown for us to look at and uh I appreciate it thank you thank you other questions okay I have a few um one of the line items is called Economic Development that's $20,000 and I wish you would characterize for us what that is sure so back to the web development back to the um opportunity to grow our social presence and also our uh print media supplement which we present and do for the town of chadam which is our guidebook and now we're transitioning it to actually being chadam 2025 handbook um so part of that and then additionally is any sort of spend advertising that would help to promote our annual events our Signature Events that we do in partnership with the the cape C or the the chat Merchants Association so it really is a a a small stien that helps to facilitate some of what we need to do to grow the development of not only the events locally but also help to bolster membership as well okay along those lines I did have a question one of your slide deck says um in 2024 accomplishments all reach and membership growth membership in 2024 was 34 versus 2023 of 11 that's net new so those are net new net new members so we tripled our numbers net I see what what is the actual membership number we're uh at 355 so you've gained this year you gained 34 net new correct all right now I now I understand because it seemed like an awfully small number yes we would probably not be uh relevant should that be all of these folks working visitor centers with only you know a small representation of of the business um and and I will say I mean we we know that periodically uh the police department tries to estimate the number of people in town during the summer um and although it's informal uh and tough to check I mean we've heard as high as 10,000 daily visitors um certainly at some point this past summer I would have believed that um it seemed like pretty much everywhere in town was packed uh does that comport in any way with the kind of data that you have or so I'm actually just bringing up the Mass Department of Revenue to see what we have from for numbers here there's chadam okay so it just goes over estimate excise tax penalties rentals Department of Revenue Recreation miscellaneous non- reoccurring it does not give us a total of uh visitors but there may be an opportunity here to go into the commission data dashboard Town profiles hopefully it's been updated uh year round population estimate is and this is just 2023 data of the 6643 and uh diplomas median house it does not give me travel information but that is something I'd love to follow up with if I can get that cleared data for the town of chadam from the Cape Cod Regional Chamber based on the software that they have I I would be just as interested but I'm going to bet it is I'm a betting that it probably tripled so we could see as high as maybe 15 or or 18,000 people coming to town oh I I have almost no doubt about that yeah um I mean it used to be that we had to estimate our seasonal population for seasonal liquor licenses and usually the select board chose a number in the order of 30 to 32,000 uh which I'd say is probably about right um you know an awful of them being seasonal um they're going to show up in the best months of the year probably not here today it's a bit quiet I think that you know it there's a number of people have expressed to me um and I'm sure others have in town that you know at one point uh do we need to stop beating the drum for additional visitors um I mean certainly uh it made a difference to have the community service officers on Main Street to at least try to restore some Partners um but nevertheless the amount of vehicle traffic the amount of foot traffic at at times seemed pretty excessive uh we had some people that have decided that you know chadam is the place to come and party sometimes out of control um you know and and I guess the the real reference that people are making is J is there what's the quality of life in chadam year round for our year round residents um you know because we have so many visitors who come particularly in the High season do you have any you want to respond to that or so that's part of what we were challenged and Champion to do is to really help bolster that year round economy um we don't need to advertise in the summer if if anything we're probably a little bit more cognizant of and and myself driving down Main Street as well uh to even service and and go to see the staff I I can't even find a parking spot so there's some sensitivity you know certainly as as we look at that uh but we really uh Shireen uh Davis said the other you know what are we doing to really help support the yearr round economy because it is and I believe there's an optic out there that people think that the chamber is downtown Centric when we're really trying to work with our nonprofits we're trying to work with the Conservation Commission walking trails our friends with the Garden Club and and really start to bolster and anchor some of the other villages in town west north and south it's important that we are looking at opportun ities and certainly businesses that have come in and want to stay open year round just like Cape Cod works you know uh Fred and Lindsay they are struggling to to keep that alive and and it's it's tough because in the summer they've got all the members that they need to come and work out at the gym but now you know certainly as as it gets quiet things you know they slow down so part of what we have and and what we're looking at is is really doing member networking opportunities with breakfast connects and and also working with with the kcod tech Council doing digital literacy programs and helping businesses that may not have the foot traffic in the in the in the off season and really it's just January February March because April starts to kick off with school vacation people starting to come back so our season is nine months um it does seem very Consolidated in those 13 weeks when we start from Memorial day until Labor Day that's really the high concentration and that's when a lot of our second homeowners come to spend time at their residen is here so it is it is the cyclical nature uh having grown up here and and been here for many many generations and you know Megan's family's had a business on Main Street for 100 years and and it's you know fourth generation familyowned so we've all seen some of these changes uh we know what it looks like but we're as a community trying to work together to make sure that families want to come here and that people want to come and and uh live here and and and enjoy all year round versus just those those weeks I remember growing up as a child you know we would be excited when the summer kids came to play and we'd have fun but you know it just we we couldn't wait for them to to return home and the traffic it's it I we experience it in every town but more certainly as we look at that really attractive downtown area that's where people are generally drawn to granted Jo did you have something yes I do um our business our small businesses most of them are what make chadam wonderful for all of us not just the visitors and I can't imagine any one of them not wanting Less business and I can't imagine uh us as a town wanting to determine how much business they need in order to survive they need all the business they can get and the fact of having too many people in chatam I think that will always be a difficult ult uh to to do anything about but it's wonderful when we have all the events that the chamber sets up and it's wonderful in the Christmas holidays when it can be cold and rainy and Gloom glum and we have the the different events that come with the the SE the stroll weekend and and first night of course so I don't know how you're can to have a vibrant livable town and say that we've can can we decide to have not so many people come here well and and you know Bruno Mars has been here Alton John's been here we filmed television shows here and movies I I think we're very well known we get enough rest in the winter time believe me we we get enough we all hibernate and and for even just you know working and and at Megan's uh manager here at in uh the puran clothing downtown after working day in and day out and you know certainly hanger be and and as as your business is you know it's booming people also want to have work life balance and take a little vacation too so I think we have to recognize that the folks that are running their businesses and are functioning um throughout that High season to support the folks that come that they also uh take a break but we also um are in a situation where we don't have a strong Workforce you know we have seasonal workers or we have situations where people can't afford to live here and then be able to work as as well so there are bigger constraints uh that we're working with and and partnering with some of our our you know colleagues and and businesses and doing things with mass hire and doing job fairs to help support the businesses so that they can have uh viable Workforce we had a breakfast networking yesterday with Atlantic payroll they're also a CPA Steve Allard and they were talking yesterday morning about just being able to find Qualified people to come and support them to even just do their payroll services so this is a bigger conversation that we're all having but um you know the visitors come they Infuse the money and and it's important but we we are looking at and facing even more difficult conversations specifically for those small and mediumsized businesses well I'm just a user of the services and it might be a good idea if there're any of the the businesses small businesses them themselves want to speak to that issue thank you you you should ask Joanne I had just had my hand up um as as a small business owner in town to be perfectly honest I wouldn't mind a little less demand at the door in the summer months we it it generates real frustration amongst people that would like to patronize the business which doesn't make me happy as the business owner however I certainly am not on the side of trying to discourage anyone from coming to chadam but I just wanted to share in my experience as a business owner and as a chamber member which I would not vote on a chamber issue but um as a as a member I have noticed a greater emphasis put on the yearround business uh support and and encouragement and less less in advertising to come in in July and August I think that that's a misconception that that that's all the chamber does is try and B bring people in the summer I think that there's a lot of support that is given to making it a yearr round effort and um and as somebody who can also attest to the difficulty with the workforce I think the greater yearr round viability the businesses have the easier it is going to be for us to draw from a pool of Labor that will live here year round because they'll be able to afford to pay bills year round thank you thank you Mr chair I had a couple of questions um one uh is related to your expenditures uh the expenses and um there's the uh 30,700 member benefits and services can you give some examples of what the expenses are um related to that other than I'm sure there's staff time and production of the booklet but um are there other things that are I don't know what would be the other expenses under that so the the breakdown of that is is really um built into that's that's the rollup or the the top level Ledger of which that is but it's uh around Outreach um advertising advertising member services and hosting some of the networking events annual events um uh Denita what else has under member services she's my operations manager so I have to I have to lean on her sometimes actually I think yeah you would have to take the microphone please I need um it's also um involves the website development with the um the chatbot being implemented you know so we pay for uh social media and you know it all rolls out as a benefit to our members um for the different functions that are included to help them with uh their businesses if that helps I don't have the figures in front of me otherwise I could speak more intelligently okay I was I'm sorry I just wanted to see some more details because then the second line does say public relations Communications print media and Staffing is 75,7 40 so so we we do have that led I mean if we we could bring in a ledger that is is is that long uh through our QuickBooks Online uh but really specifically the grant that we're asking for for level funding is just around Staffing and that small Economic Development so I'd have to go to the board to to release those documents okay thank you um the other question is kind of a followup to Tracy's uh comments about local businesses I was wondering if you've seen any um well let me just uh preface by saying I think um you know we have a lot of wonderful businesses downtown but um not necessarily thing businesses that local folks um average local folks might go and purchase and make use of so I'm wondering whether um either what the effort of the chamber is in um supporting or whether you've seen other businesses that might be enticed to come to town that would actually provide services that us average folks um partake of outside of the Mayflower in Ben Franklin and the I like the Ben Frankl and I love Ocean State Job Lot too I mean they're a Rhode Island company but you know you can get everything from A to Z there right uh so certainly we're looking at that and we're looking at uh bringing in more diversity we would love to have more uh different types of uh flavor so to speak with uh bringing in Brazilian businesses Haitian businesses and other businesses that make up the color and fiber of of who we are there's over 15 different languages currently being spoken at the monoy school system and I think it needs to be representative in our business Community as well so I do agree with you t-shirt shops and and you know the things that there are some Staples like puran that's been there 100 years and has has has been a wonderful institution but there it would be nice to have another General Store we have the small Village Market but we don't even have our own local grocery store here so you know when you have to go to harwitch to to get to a major grocery store so some of those types of businesses also bringing in technology it would be great to bring in a little bit more Tech or higher education things that are going to be certainly as we evolve um and as the space continues but it's also an attraction point to bring residents to come and live here and want to experience the life um with bringing in more businesses of of that mind thanks this okay um I have a couple of additional questions I think that um one of the issues that we struggle with every year is that right now for instance we're providing 40% of the chambers annual funding that even exceeds the amount of membership dues you know does that seem like an appropriate balance so we are doing uh our sign on the on the building actually says town of chadam visitors service center and the Staffing is really what is incorporating and and we're doing the the service of being the First Responders uh in lack of other terms for folks who are looking for information if that didn't exist and if the information centers didn't exist it would likely be uh a town position or uh you know something that would be a travel uh or Bureau of Tourism similar to what Province Town has so it would have to be an introduction of bringing in that department so we are doing that service um of the 75,000 to staff year round and also in our uh visitor Service Center downtown for the seven days a week at 7.5 hours a day and it does my question also dovetails into the question of when we when we membership du is last increased great question so in 2023 is when the Merchants Association and the chadam Chamber of Commerce actually merge uh the association sits uh with the chamber but what we did is that we folded in the membership with the current chatam chamber membership and the due structure has not increased but Megan is here to talk about what some of our strategies are going forward as we're doing an analysis of what other towns are doing by packaging and pulling things together so it's not always a hey can you sponsor this hey can you do these types of things so we are looking at evolving not necessarily with complete increase in due but dues but also uh opportunities for sponsorships year round because we asked them for advertising in the handbook we asked them to help support our events that we we do as well so there's an analysis that we're going through but it is we're currently four months into our fiscal year our year is actually SE uh October 1st through September 30th so we would have to not only make the packages but we'd always also have to have them voted on at our annual meeting which will happen at the end of our fiscal year so this change is on the horizon it's one of our top priorities to be able to not only sustain and and Thrive but it's an opportunity for us to really understand you know how much is chatam bars contributing in kind sponsorships full Pages banners I mean you could go down the list of all of the Partnerships that we have with some of our members but we want to really encapsulate it and make it a a suite of packages that members can choose to do should they want to participate at any level with the events that we do year round and then also be able to sponsor networking events um we're doing historic chatam this year the month of June so there's those types of things that we really want to present at the beginning of the annual year when membership dues are renewing so that businesses have that opportunity to participate at at any level Megan did you want to speak to that hi everyone thank you for having me um so it's really exciting I think for us as far as membership dues go instead of looking shortterm at just raising dues in order to um start to kind of absorb some of these costs and cover them on our own um to look at it as a bigger picture um a lot of neighboring towns are doing what Angela had mentioned as far as this package structure goes and it's been going really well for them that change started in the early 2010 error and has really started picking off um after covid um so we feel like this is a great opportunity instead of just making a short-term change that would help us for the next two to three years to make a bigger change um that can have longevity of the chamber and really kind of support our members is is the notion to attempt to raise enough money to cover the budget the notion is to raise more money than we currently have well fair enough that's another way to put it right okay um I mean there are competing ideas of what we should do with the $95,000 amongst others should we actually be using it to defay the cost of a shuttle bus downtown all right to run between the major parking areas and to serve the visitors that are here right particularly during the high season um you know is that a better use of the funds I I don't know I just once they get on the bus and get dropped off mhm where are they going to go for information yeah yes so I think it's it's we have to look at it holistically and we have to look at it that there I think is an answer um but should a shuttle bus be picking up people at the you know Community Center and then they are shuttled into town but they they're going to want information when they get there unless there's some sort of offsite information center or you know the use of of of walking into either the annex here or to town hall to get information or or the chamber is able to raise enough money to pay for it itself potentially potentially yes right but that's that's that's something I think we need to look at in a in a in a plan of being able to staff and have that type of information center whereas a year into this position it's it's a student body right that quickly it would you know we had to rebuild the infrastructure first before we can start to and the members need a return on their investment as well when they're paying these dues what are they getting in return just to jack up pricing they it was you know why why has it gone up 150 what more am I getting it's at Old what's in it for me so we are very aware and we would love to be self funded and we're working towards that it just takes a little bit of time to reorganize it and we have you know two boards that were're are are working very closely together now they're in executive session to look at what our bylaws look like we're looking at how to uh rebuild our our committees so we have four committees beautification events marketing and membership and each of those pillars have a very strong chair people that are running those those different you know committees so we are from an infrastructure stand Point aware of some of this it just takes time to to Really build as Megan said a foundation that is longterm not just a reactive raise dues because because you know and and we want to make sure that there's a return thank you do finance committee members have any other questions comments points no okay all right thank you thank you and I did uh in this here this is the breakdown of the membership dues which is also available on our website so if you just go in to join today and then I did want to show you the breakdown so 178 of our members is uh in the specialty retail 125 in restaurant space 75 in family Civic organizations 67 in sports and recreation 43 in arts and culture 41 in home and garden lodging travel personal uh Services care and then advertising and media so that's the pie chart of how it all breaks out and what the actual uh holistic view of of membership looks like and then on the right hand side you can see the graph as the increase of the the new members that uh were brought on we are currently uh we were pacing at five per month I have challenged the membership committee to bring on 60 new members this year uh which will double our numbers from last year and we are working actively towards that we are seeing also businesses from other towns joining the chamber um so harit Bruce and and multiple businesses so P deanon for instance who was based out of hyas starts a a business in chadam they have multiple locations they then are eligible to join as well so we are seeing that businesses in other towns are looking for marketing opportunities but also customers and clients in in the town of chadam as well so it we're regionalizing um lack of better better way but uh Harwich Orleans chadam Brewster and East Tam are really working very closely together to collaborate and and share resources so that is another opportunity as we look forward to really be seen as the lower Cape region and start to do things together uh collaboratively and even hosting events car is this information in our budget book um no I think Angela just provided this today okay I'm just curious right is that something that it might be in the packet yes it's what Mr Daniels had requested yesterday afternoon yes so this is something that was added this morning and and sent over but it's in the packet that I gave to you okay all right great thank you just one Jo in just one more comment our small business is the economic backbone of this country and we have to remember also that this is a Coastal Community we live here because of the water surrounds us so we're fascinating to people in the summertime how to convert that over to wintertime uh I don't know it's a question Beyond me but it is what it is as far as when the people want to come to chadam it's when the sun is out and they can go to the beaches and enjoy all the great restaurants it's not when it's raining and cold and nobody's in the water we invite them to the orfium we do Eco tourism we can cross country ski if we get enough snow yeah so I think that if we start to look at that and the museums and some of the folks that I'm working with the historic group are are really trying to bolster that with even Tuesday talks at the Atwood house the Conservation Commission is doing webinars um Marone is bringing in new art exhibits we are talking about stem programs so it's it's that downtime when I think people can really do a reset and be able to not only improve their infrastructure in their own businesses as a small business but you know the ability to really go out and and and explore and do things a little differently social media takes off during this period of time to attract people um and even uh hanger B was just covered in in the news so it's really cool to to have different media Outlets that are are covering the town in a year round capacity and not just in in um you know that the high season when we know everybody's here okay good presentation thank you thank you um is there anybody on line who has any questions nobody not seeing any raised hands okay right good thank you so much thank you Carrie back to you that's it for today we don't have anything else on the agenda um unless you guys want to talk about um scheduling a report to the select board that's the next right item and I mean I'll I'll just take the opportunity to emphasize once again that we need to make sure that our individual comments get to Steven soon because this calendar I think is that it goes to the select board on what the 18th yes that's correct which is not far away anything else itself what's that I said which is in and of itself shocking that's shocking okay all right then I'll entertain a motion to adjourn Tommy Don he's not here Rob Madison yes I'll make that motion good thank you now second it oh that's wonderful all right good we're on a roll John papalardo yes oh great thank you John Joan spra yes all right myself Tracy Shields yep Eric Whitley yes and Steven Daniel we know is not with us all right thanks very much look and I vote Yes oh yeah all right h e