President Sherri Mewha convened the meeting at 8:30am. Fifteen members and three guests were present.

OLD BUSINESS

-REPORTS- Minutes and Treasury reports are now available online on the DDA website. Paper copies can be made available upon request.

“Northville, We’re Open” and “First Fridays” FEEDBACK- The “Open” campaign has been received very favorably. Consensus of the members indicated increased foot traffic and sales. Thursday has been more successful to date than Sunday. “Fridays” have just begun. The first one in April was slow, but the May First Friday went well for some businesses. It was agreed that time and additional advertising are needed before judging outcomes.

FLOWER DAYS- Janet Bloom reported: Food vendors have been arranged and will provide hotdogs, smoothies and kettle corn. Poster sales are good and should benefit Northville. The committee is still seeking the marquis signs for the four corners of town-they are in storage somewhere. The event is more or less set and is expected to go well.

SIDEWALK SALE- Mark Trudeau reported: The event will be Friday and Saturday. Mark suggested raising the charge for vendors from 25.00 to 100.00 or 200.00 to discourage “garage sale” goods and to bring in juried works.

The sale weekend (the first weekend in August) is also a “First Friday”. Sherri Mewha and Beverly Landeen will pursue that aspect of the weekend in regard to advertising.

Discussion outcomes were that vendors should have a juried process to avoid cheap goods and keep the focus on the merchants and their sales.

-A printed application for vendors will be ready in about two weeks

-The board will approve the planning that Chris Van Dam and Mark Trudeau create in regard to the application and jury process

-It was agreed that Fridays should be reserved for “merchant only” sales

-Vendors need to be laid out carefully and the total number limited

-NCBA members do NOT have to pay to use the space in front of their store during the event. Merchants who are NOT members will be billed 50.00 to use their front space. They will be encouraged to apply the 50.00 to their NCBA membership

-A final suggestion was to avoid having the Harley Davidson riders set up their bikes in town due to the excessive noise on the street which is disruptive to sales

COUPON BOOK- Sherri M. explained the premise of the coupon book- to offer coupons for our various businesses in a simple booklet format that can be provided to each merchant to give out to clients. The books will be free to members.

-David Coles suggested giving the booklets out beyond our merchants to other towns. It was also suggested that the booklets be offered to the local PTA or to the high school.

-Coupons will be good through June 2006. Members are requested to get their coupon layout to Kim Behmer ASAP – they are due May 13th.

“WHERE’S WOOLIAM?”- a drawing was held at the meeting to pick the businesses that would host Wooliam over the next several weeks. Those chosen (by our guests, Kevin Smith and Dennis Ray from Datanational) are:

-Holland and Associates

-American Spoon

-Northville Candle

-Leader Homes

-Dr. William Demray

-Marquis Theatre

WEB PRESENTATION- At 9:05am, Mr. K. Smith and Mr. D. Ray from Datanational gave a very informative web presentation on “Having and Marketing Your Web Presence”. It included information on: the consumer marketplace; static vs. interactive sites; benefits of the web; components of a site, and access.

Following the presentation, a discussion ensued on who is doing what with websites in Northville, and the presenters graciously answered questions.

FINAL BUSINESS- it was the group consensus that the majority of stores will be closed on Memorial Day, as the public comes into town only for the parade, and leave immediately. Several members have tried being open in the past and had no sales.

The next meeting will be June 14th at 6:00pm in the Senior Center.

Submitted by Karen Rae Mehaffey, Secretary.