LBOT Annual Report NOVEMBER 21, 2024
LAUREL BOARD OF TRADE
ANNUAL REPORT
DELIVERED AT THE
ANNUAL GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
NOVEMBER 21, 2024
This year of 2024 has been a whirlwind of growth and change. Just about every aspect of the Laurel Board of Trade has/is changing from our office location to the programs we offer to how we promote LBOT. Here goes:
John Donohue has served as our Treasurer since 2019. He completely revised our accounting system and brought us into the 21st century. Thanks to his efforts at cutting costs, carefully monitoring our funds and applying for several grants we survived COVID intact. Now John has decided to step back and we have been extremely lucky to have one of our newer members, Shane O’Brien, step up and take over as Treasurer. Thank you, John, for your years of keeping us fiscally sound. We are in the best financial shape we have ever been in.
Planning for Main Street Festival is a gargantuan task every year and MSF 2024 was no exception. It gave us the opportunity to add some features and improve on others. One new feature was creating a Sponsorship Program. Since it would be a time-consuming process and we had no experience at it, we contracted with our member Tawana LaMar/ELL Events to help us. Since we were late in getting started, Tawana had only 2.5 months to pull it together. Thanks to her and strong support and cooperation from the Board, we were able to raise $38,000 is sponsorships and in-kind services that greatly enhanced the festval. Those involved in developing the program and carrying it forward are Carla Conway, Mike Mondy, Mike Abbott, Nadol Hishmeh and Marilyn Johnson.
In 2019 we contracted with a web company to build and maintain a professional, interactive website. For the first several years all was well. As LBOT has grown and expanded, we realized we needed to upgrade the website. It took forever to do that but it was finally launched in March of this year. We have not been happy with the results. So, after months of trying to work out the kinks, we began researching for a new web company. We have finally found one we are comfortable with and begun the process of building a new site. We will let you know when it’s ready to go live and would appreciate your feedback when it does. Thanks to Marilyn Johnson, Mike Mondy, John Donohue, Shane O’Brien and Jason Plotkin for their work on this huge project.
For the past couple of years our Facebook page has been the work of Reshma Bourne, our VP. We have ideas of what we want to do, but we are not experts and time constraints mean some things just can’t get done. To ease that burden on Reshma we will be doing 2 things. First, we are working with a social media expert to develop a strong roadmap of how to more effectively market and promote LBOT. Once that review and report are completed, we will be contracting with a Virtual Assistant who will take over the day-to-day operation of our social media as well as maintenance of our website. Again, a lot of research went into finding the perfect fit of a VA. Thanks go to Reshma Bourne most of all with able assistance from Carla Conway, Mike Mondy and Marilyn Johnson
One of our goals for the past 2 years has been to increase member participation in LBOT. Towards that end we have developed a Volunteer registration form on the website where you can provide your contact information and check off what committees or activities you are interested in. We’ve had several members do this but to be honest we need to develop a better way of communicating and utilizing them. Thanks go to Tawana LaMar for getting it started and to Marilyn Johnson for further development.
A successful program begun 2 years ago is the Annual Business Roundtable. We co-host this event with the City each January. The Roundtable is open to all businesses in the Laurel area and provides an opportunity for meet City officials, learn more about how the City operates and share concerns, issues and complements. The 2024 Roundtable was productive and planning is underway for the 2025 Roundtable which will be on January 28th.
We continue to publish a monthly e-newsletter and hold monthly Networking meetings…since COVID restrictions lifted those meetings now alternate between lunchtime Zoom sessions and evening In Person events. These meetings are open to all businesses in the Laurel area, not just LBOT members. The newsletter is just for members. Jody Broughton is the Hostess with the Mostess for our Network Committee and Marilyn Johnson writes the newsletter.
Our Around Town TV interview show continues with a new Host. Mike Mondy has taken over from Carla Conway for the show. We work with the City’s Communications Dept and TV station to produce the show which airs on Laurel TV and is shared on UTube and archived on our website. Each interviewee gets a copy for personal use.
LBOT participated in a number of community events from the Women’s History Month event to Juneteenth, Night Out Against Crime, Community and Culture Day and Pride Day. At each of these events LBOT had an information table displaying your business cards and brochures and gave referrals to your businesses. Thanks to Jim Cross, Marilyn Johnson and a rotating list of others who have helped staff the table at these events.
We hosted the first ever Member Family picnic and in spite of the damp weather, it was a success. The potluck contributions were delicious and John Donohue earned the status of Grill Master. Thanks to Marilyn Johnson and Anastasia Elliott for pulling it all together
We hosted another successful Trick or Treat On Main Street on October 24th. Estimates are that there were more kids and families than ever before and hundreds of pounds of candy were handed out that night. Thanks go to Jody Broughton, Nadol Hishmeh, Carla Conway, Jim Cross and Marilyn Johnson for making it happen and Marce Vermeesch and Leda Poduszka for pitching in on the night of.
The 2nd Annual Main Street Holiday Decorating Contest is underway. Having learned from last year's inaugural contest, this year will build on and improve from that experience. We look forward to seeing the creativity our Main Street Merchants have in store for us. Thanks to Carla Conway, Allie Ramsey and Jessica Sharp with some help from Marilyn Johnson for making it happen.
The LBOT Officers, Jim Cross, Chair, Marilyn Johnson, President, Reshma Bourne, Vice President and John Donohue/Shane O’Brien, Treasurer, continue to meet frequently with the Mayor’s office and Department Heads to maintain the close relationship we have developed. These meetings foster an information flow between the City and it’s departments and the business community to the benefit of both.
We have revised the planning process for Main Street Festival 2025 to spread the workload and to be more efficient. It’s named the Core MSF Planning Committee and its dedicated members are Jim Cross, Marilyn Johnson, John Donohue, Shane O’Brien, Carla Conway, Nadol Hishmeh, Maureen Rogers, LBOT Administrative Coordinator and Christine Cornwell, Emergency Manager for the City. Much progress has already been made for 2025 much earlier than in the past thanks to the new process.
We are also continuing the MSF Sponsorship Program for 2025. We have learned from our 2024 experience and have tweaked the program to be more Laurel-centric. Mike Abbott, Mike Mondy, Nadol Hishmeh, Carla Conway and Marilyn Johnson form this committee. Plans are underway to raise even more funds through sponsors this year.
The Executive Officers continue to meet on the last Tuesday of each month to discuss issues, make decisions, and bring up items for the full Board agenda. Marilyn Johnson coordinates the Agendas and Meeting Minutes.
The full Board of Directors continues to meet on the first Tuesday of each month to update committee information, discuss issues, make decisions and plan events. Marilyn Johnson coordinates the Agendas and the Meeting Minutes.
The regular monthly Board meetings focus on what happened the month before, what is happening now and what will be happening the following month. To be proactive and efficient, we have for the past 2 years held a Board Retreat in early February. The focus at the retreat is to make committee assignments, SWOT for the year and make long term plans with processes for implementing them. The Board met this past February to plan 2024 and will hold a retreat this coming February for 2025.
After a 2 year search, we will be moving our office to 13 C Street, Suite A. As your Board of Directors, we went back and forth about asking to renew the lease vs taking on the expense of moving to a new location. Because our new landlady has been so difficult to deal with we were leaning towards moving. One difficulty has been that all the utilities are in her name and over the 2 years she has owned the building BGE has turned off the electricity once, we have had no heat for lack of fuel oil twice and since late August, we have had no water and now again, no heat. Currently there is a turnoff notice from BGE. There’s a lot more to this saga of the landlady but the lack of water was the clincher in the decision to move.
Once we agreed that 13 C Street fit our needs and our budget, we made all the arrangements associated with a move. We planned out the new office, did some cosmetic work there, packed up the old office, hired movers, and more. Thanks to Jim Cross, John Donohue and Marilyn Johnson with help from Mike Abbott, Shane O’Brien and Carla Conway. Our move in date is Monday, November 25th.
So, as you can see, we do a lot, we did a lot and there’s more we want to do. But it’s the same people stepping up over and over to make it happen. That is not sustainable. It’s unfair to ask more of those who have volunteered so much time and energy. We need more involvement from you, the general membership. There are so many benefits, both personal and professional, that result from being an
