Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

[Music] Let's see. So, I will um call the meeting to order. This is uh a Zoom meeting of the Economic Development Commission meeting Wednesday, August 20th, 700 p.m. Um, and I'd like to take a roll call of everyone who's here and present. Okay.

So, do you want to just start Justin and we'll go around? I do know I see Carl Moisen is in the attendees. I can promote him up. Okay. And Justin Wood, I'm here. Nicole Eier here. John Mcabe here. [Music] Carl, you're muted. So if you just want to say here, that would be great. Here.

Okay. And we have another person. Uh just film. Oh, that's there's Carl. There he is. There you go. And hello Angela. Just announce yourself. Hi Angela. Echu. Okay. And uh we have another person Adri or Audrey Prey. So welcome. And of course I'm Laura Dio, the chairperson. And we also have our assistant town administrator, Will Blake from the town.

Okay. Terrific. So, um, what I we don't have anything that we're going to actually vote on tonight, which is good. But um what I did hope to discuss was uh continue the discussion that we had last month regarding our plan potential EDC fall business event. Talk about any initiatives and uh guest speakers you might want to promote and then Nicole Eier had also put forth a proposal that she would like to discuss. So, without further ado, um does anybody have um any anything that they would like to talk about for the planned fall business event? Just to recap from the last time we were discussing having something in the October, November time frame, possibly hosting the next event at the Grafton Public Library and catering food, sandwiches, cookies, water, beverages, and then, you know, putting together an agenda or and presentation potential presentation topics. So, I'd love to hear anybody's thoughts on that matter.

We do. We have Do we have a scheduled date, Laura?

No, that was what we were going to try and firm up. Obviously, we want it to be before, you know, probably the first in either late October, early November before we get into Thanksgiving, you know, the Thanksgiving rush and things like that. Um, I like the idea, you know, uh, a few people like the idea, Carl, the last time of having it at the Grafton Public Library rather than having to rent out a space, you know, at a higher a higher cost and then we could just, you know, cater things like sandwiches, you know, cookies, whatever, beverages.

I think that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And they have a great space. I've been, you know, I've been there for several other meetings like the the traffic thing at the commons and it worked out, it worked out really well. And also just as one person um I like the idea of using the library since it's you know my tax dollars contribute to it. It's a great place. Truly, you were gonna Yeah. Say something.

I I was just going to ask uh if we know when the selectman meetings are going to be in October, should we avoid those conflicts? Um, you give me one moment, I can pull that up and tell you what the tentative dates are.

Makes sense. My my only thought while William looks that up on the library is one of the past events I did. They of course had basically finger food finger foods set up as a buffet kind of style thing. And then they also had people pay for drinks. Basically pay get the what I did was you get tickets they could then exchange for drinks. of I forget if it was alcoholic or not, but my my thought is we probably want to plan to have somebody basically help set up for drinks or do we want to buy like sodas and waters and stuff and just let people grab them as they want? And that's the that's the only kind of out offhand thing I wanted kind of us to figure out if we're doing one in the library because either we need to get some sort of human vendor to help take care of accepting money in some way for people to buy drinks or we can offer non-alcoholic beverages probably pretty much by grab yourself. My my thought would be to just bypass alcohol alto together and just sodas and water and just call it a day.

Agreed. Yeah, I agree. Because if we were at something like the town tavern there Yeah. I mean, we're talking about a public place. We're talking about alcohol. We're talking about Yeah, exactly. I mean, those people Yeah. And I I don't think that they would come They're coming to the library and expecting walk and wine and read. Yeah, I think the one the one I was thinking about was a the PTA appearance night where they did offer drinks, but you had still had to pay for them. But that was I I don't think we need it. So that that was just my thinking out loud.

I think that's pretty I would assume that's unanimous, but I don't know. Any other thoughts, Laura? Do you have thoughts or I I mean I think we just keep it simple with you know beverages, some juice and water you know unless we were getting somebody there and going to try and ply them with liquor to invest which is not the intent. You know I you know I I think we're I think we're fine keeping it simple. You know, that's what I've seen at every one of the other two or three events that I've attended, you know, for the town meetings at the library.

Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense. Sean, I think I would ask the library first about their uh not a policy, but you know, if you do something that might, you know, spill onto the rug or you know what, something to that effect. Just ask them if they have custodians on staff. How do they handle cleanup after an event like that just in case someone does, you know, spill the soda or, you know, step on the potato chips and crush them into the rug?

Yeah. And I'm happy to reach out to the library and ask those questions. I do know Sorry, go ahead, Justin. I I do know p one of the past library directors that we had when they they did have that room only available certain days of the week and certain individual days of the month as well because they not only use it for some external things they use it for some internal to the library staff and they also don't necessarily want to have

the public come in at you know all times they want to make sure they can have those you know some staff on hand in case you know anything goes on goes wrong is if you can walk into the library, you can walk to anywhere in the library effectively. So that's kind of why they Yeah, good point. Good point. So what we can what we can do is uh William, do you have the dates pulled up for the select board? I do. The tentative dates at the moment are October 14th and October 28th and fall town meeting is Monday, October 20th. So okay, hold on. Let me just look at a calendar. So you said um

Laura the the third week in October for that third Wednesday would be October 15th.

Yeah. We have a holiday on Monday, October 13th, and then the select boards meeting October 14th. So October 15th seems doable if the library has that date open. And our next meeting for the EDC would be September 17th, the third Wednesday. So, we'd have one more meeting to be able to plan and confirm information.

Okay. Um, so what and what other Let's see, just in case. So, you said the 15 October 15th is open. How about the 20 October 22nd or the 29th? I don't know of any conflicts on those days. Okay. And the first week in November is November 5th. Yeah. And then this

November 5th just to call it out is an India holiday called Guru Nanak something I janti from my calendar. I don't know I don't know its importance. I don't know what it means. I have no idea how it's celebrated but that's what my calendar says. Okay, so we have daylight savings time that takes place on the Sunday before. I think it would probably be helpful if we could stay away from November. It's just such a busy time of year with the holidays and I think even that last week of October, it just really kicks off season of a lot of responsibilities for people through January.

Okay. So then we're looking at October 15th or October 22nd. What about um any other conflicts like if we were to do the 16th or the 23rd? I'm just trying to put some dates out there just in case the library doesn't have right the Wednesdays available. So we want to stay away from a Friday. Yes. So I would be thinking and I don't know what Tuesdays are like. Well, Tuesday the 14th and 28th as Will said is tenative select board dates but Tuesday the 21st is not as of right now.

Okay. So then we are looking at potentially and correct me if I'm wrong October 15th, 16th, 21st and 22nd. Right. Possibly the 23rd, which would be a Thursday. Okay. So, October 15, 16, um, 22, and 23.

Yep. October 21, 22, and 23. and not a blocker to me from the committee using the 23rd, but I do have a community preservation committee meeting on that day for myself, but I don't think that's I don't think that'll block us from holding an event on that day. Just wanted to call it out.

Okay. So, that's one, two, three, four, five. five potential dates and I would contact the library within the next day or so because we're essentially two months out but you can't you know and I think that's giving them enough time and also giving us enough time. Okay. So, um,

and I'll I'll add an opinion that kind of shadows Angela's about we should avoid the last week in October, but if all these five dates that we're talking about are are unavailable, I would be I would be okay with the October 29th. The additional thought there too is even though Grafton typically holds hosts Halloween on Halloween day, other towns may host it different days. Even though this year it's a weekend, a Friday night, so that's usually a the likelihood of it being a different day is probably lower, but okay,

other towns do sometimes host events on alternative days. Okay. So, I can I'll put down possibly October 29th, but I would think that we would do that as a last resort. That would be my preference. Okay. So, I will I will take the charge to call the folks at the library. Now, do they because the library is a town thing, do we have to pay them to use it for a town meeting? Is there a nominal fee or something? I think that's what you find out when you call them to set the date. Okay.

Yeah. Sure. Okay. Historically, they haven't charged town the town for using the space. Um, when we've done select board things there, I don't believe there's been a fee incurred.

Okay. Well, as Carl said, it's best to best to ask to ascertain. Um, then I guess the other thing is um what type of topics and presentation do we want to put together, you know, to give this some structure. One thing that we've discussed in the past, um, the event that we had in January, the first one we did in January of 2024, which was very well attended, um, was, you know, basically people meeting and greeting and mingling, which I think is great and I would expect people to do that as well. Um, same thing to a lesser extent to what we had at reunion tap and table where we only had about 20 25 people but again there was a lot of mingling but we didn't do any presentations or topics. I think the intent here is just to put some more structure and more of a framework around things so that we can I'd like to give them some handouts to take with them and also you know possibly a little survey that they could do to say what we could do for them, what they'd like what they'd like to see, get their suggestions, etc. That makes total sense. Yeah,

Sean, at the reunion gathering, it was I won't say mostly, but had quite a few persons that had recently started their business, I think, or if they started the business, they obviously know how they got going, but POS to offer them information on how they can grow their business via in in town or you know outside of that. So anything that we could bring to you know anything on that idea we could bring to them might help.

Yeah. I think one of the the a lot of the feedback that we got from that meeting just in anecdotal data and informal discussion was that a lot of people would like to know well who's in town that I can do business with? Are there um are there opportunities for me to partner with my business? Like we had people who had pets sitting business and dog walking. Actually, I think the the pet sitter and dog trainer was getting a lot of business because people have pets. But, you know, are there natural opportunities for X type of business to partner with Y type of business, you know, and highlight what they're what they're doing? Um, I did want to bring up the possibility and we're putting together that template so that we can actually host, you know, do do profiles of some of the of these businesses that we have in town on our website and ask people to put, you know, if they would like to participate in that because it would be open to, you know, any of the graph in businesses. So that's another opportunity, you know, I mean I I think for our charge is to let existing businesses know, hey, we're here to help you and promote you in whatever, you know, small way we can, etc. Um, at the same time, I think we want to see who we want to uh invite as potential businesses that might want to come into Grafton. That's another charge there. So, does anybody have any ideas about that?

Um, that might be hard to pin down because that's kind of a a shot in the dark on like how do we know if they're they wanting to come into business and to graft it unless they've told us that would be kind of hard to do. Okay. I think we start with the list that was from the previous event and then, you know, we might be able to try to figure out, you know, maybe new businesses, but I don't know. I that's kind of a that's that's a maybe kind of a shot in the dark, I think.

Okay, that's we don't want, you know, I mean, I think the thing is we we're going to have an event that's probably what 2 and a half to three hours long. So, we don't want to over stuff the agenda. We want enough to have to give a presentation, have some structure, but let people, you know, talk and maybe have a Q&A period, you know, where we ask people, hey, do you have any questions for us? What can we tell you? We'd like to also solicit your feedback and then give people plenty of time to mingle. I think that works. Okay.

Yeah. I I have two kind of thoughts. I don't know if this event would would be suitable for them off hand, but if anyone knows of a like a small business that is even outside of grafting that might be considering expanding, it may not hurt to reach out to some of those owners and say, you know, the EDC host this event. if you are interested in in coming and talking with us in Grafton, you know, doesn't mean that they'll necessarily open a business in Grafton, but could be useful. The other kind of related thought is I know there are some people that have either recently left being a business owner in Grafton or by either closing their shop and doing their business somewhere else or selling their business that have happened in Grafton in the last few years. I don't know if it makes sense to also reach out to some of those people and see you know what were the challenges of having a business in Grafton that made you want to move and how could we possibly help you either come back or future businesses you know those kind of conversations is something that comes to mind.

Yeah. So we do have the list that we can and then the next thing is we have that list of what 300 and something businesses William that we sent out the email invitations to. So I would imagine we would do that again. I would hope so. Yeah. Well, yeah. Um, so most of the attendees came to the event because they heard on the day of the event through all things Grafton of the gathering,

but we did not have people in the group confirm that they were attending because they had received email notice or they had received a a flyer in person or if they had received one in the mail. So, it definitely seems like for this event we would it would behoove us to participate and do some outreach to all things Grafton to advertise the event. But what we also got for feedback was what these businesses are seeking is help marketing Yes,

themselves. And that's I mean I felt like we got good feedback at that event to say you've we need assistance to update this EDC website. They would love to see, you know, no particular preference, no special privilege, but being able to see businesses in graft and listed and then categorized. So, you know, something as simple as like clothing, auto repair, lawn care services. They're looking for very their their requests were very basic. It didn't seem to me like a hard lift, but it just seemed very basic. They want new people who are coming into town to have easy access to a one-stop area on a website that you could go to and say, "Any of these services that I'm looking for in Grafton, then here's where I can go to fi to find out about it."

Yeah, that makes sense. And that's something that we that we have to do that's on an ongoing on an ongoing basis. So, for example, with our group, and maybe William can help us with this, who do we go to? I know this has been like an outstanding question, but who do we go to to update information for our EDC web page? That'd be me. Okay.

Yep. So, I think as long as we're providing you, William, if you have any written guidance that you could give us about how it would be agreeable to submit content to you so that we could get it uploaded to the web page, that would be great. So, if we got up there, you know, here's our events that we've conducted in 2025. provide some information, basic information on those events and then if we could start working with you how you would prefer to receive content identifying like you know just simply would a word document in alphabetical order by subject matter for example like auto sales with something as simple as that by subject matter and then listing businesses in Grafton on there and then putting a a link on that page where people could submit if they don't see their business name, they could fill out a very simple form and submit their their information. So each business has an opportunity to submit the same basic information. name of the business, the owner or owner's address, phone number, and no more than two sentences of a description of what their business is about.

I thought there was something similar to that, maybe not as detailed. Um, but I thought there was like a you could click on the alphabet or click on type of business at one point. Maybe it's got revamped.

Uh so that does still exist. That's the business directory on the website. Um and it is actually broken down by category. Um if I can share my screen quickly. Yes. So over here on the EDC page under the directory tab, we do have a form to fill out for businesses to submit information. You can view the entire business directory or by category. Okay. So, is there a way that or link it to our to our web page to the EDC web page on the town? This lives on the EDC web page.

Oh, okay. Yep. I think I think what might be a good thing to do since this is already set up is if we could do an email blast out to those 300 business participants that we sent the invitation to because some of these people may be new businesses that haven't filled out the form yet and so maybe it's not a complete list and we could just get it updated. Sure. I think that updating it is probably the biggest part of the task right now. Um, when businesses close, they don't typically let us know. So, there's probably some outofdate information on there. Yeah.

Yeah. And Angela, one point I do recall, I mean, I know myself, Sean, a few other people um on the committee here did go, you know, and make in-person make phone calls and also in-person

Yes. visits to some of the businesses and people were saying, "Yeah, yeah, we'll come." But yeah, to your point, you know, putting it on our web page, putting it on all things Grafton, um, I think will be immensely helpful. people seem to, you know, gravitate towards what's on what's online even more than the in-person visits because I didn't see one business that I visited and or or called show up at the reunion tap and table. Of course,

the weather was against us that night. There was flooding. I know you couldn't get there because you were stuck on the the mass pike. I think timing overall was tough. We thought it might be tough. So, yeah, just busy busy time of year for people in general. So, hopefully with the next one, we'll get some more people. Yeah. You know, and they have well, they have ample parking at the library, too, in and around. So, that helps, you know, everybody knows where that is. Mhm.

So, okay. Yeah. So, if we can, we've got that list. It's there. I guess we'll look at some new businesses. I mean, I know something like Stephanie's closed. That's the only one that I can think of offhand. I that's closed. Yeah. I was also thinking of the Crossroads Nutrition that sold their business a few times and there still there's still a juice bar there. So still the businesses owned but the and there's been some others but I I'm trying losing my mind on which ones those were right now but

yeah. Okay. So, um, any other thoughts on this before we, um, I think it's just the time of the event. Do we want to do it the same? Like, are we looking for like a five like a 5:30 to 7:30 bracket? I I don't think we should go three hours, but I think two is long enough. I think that makes a lot of sense. Agree. So whether or not we want to do 5:30 to 7:30 or 6 to 8, uh, I I recommend 5:30 to 7:30.

Okay. Yep, that's fine.

Okay. I did look on the the libraries website and there's nothing reserved on any of the dates that we listed earlier. So there's nothing reserved in the evening on those dates.

Okay. So then if there's nothing reserved on those dates, what do we think? What's our do we have a a stack ranking in order of preference for the 15th, 16th, 21, 22, or 23? I would prefer the um the Wednesday I think like the Wednesday the um the 15th. Okay. So 10:15. So number two might be 10:22. Yes. Yeah.

Okay. All right. So, I will contact them um right away. And do we have an EDC uh template? Can I get like the um town of Grafton logo to put together like a PowerPoint presentation? Yep. Template. Yep. I can do that.

Okay. Okay. So, do you want to do that or do you want to just send me the logo and I can, you know, or do we have a town of Grafton template already set up for the town like letterhead? No, not letterhead, but a a PowerPoint presentation template. We do not. So, I can send you the seal and anything else that you may like or I can take a stab at making one for you. Okay? Whichever you prefer. Okay?

And if you want to put like the seal together with just and then just use the background colors for the town, which is, you know, green, we all know that. And then what I can do um over the next couple of weeks is fill it in with just say you know agenda and then we can send it around to all of us to for suggested topics or presentation points. It does not have to be fancy. again,

you know, we would put something on there like here is who who the who is the EDC, who we are, what we do, etc. Yeah, Sean,

I don't want to make more work for William. However, um something they do have a screen. I don't know how they project onto it, but if you had something for the idea, we'll call it like a highlight film of pictures of developments in Grafton, be it in process or recently finished or potential sites, that type of thing, and just have like like a infomercial just kind of rolling on that screen as a means of, you know, I don't know, just showing people stuff around, giving people tour of town and and to something like as I said like a like a highlight film that they can it might it might be a way to like start conversation or just you know fill in the fill in the dead spots. We also have some pictures that we can crib from uh what John Allen did a couple of years ago when we had the the business lunchon over at Tufts that said Grafton is open for business. And I have stats on the town itself. You know, here's the population. Here's the here's how many businesses. And we can just we can put that in there as well. But yeah, there's some pictures that we can crib to put into into the presentation because I agree, one picture is worth a thousand words. And if we can if we had a little highlight film, that would be great.

Yeah, I think we want to check out John's um I think previous work. I think uh I think he's got a couple good things there and maybe we dust it off and update it and I think that would be uh ideal. Yeah. Um, I don't know where you could if you have that stuff on file somewhere or or what, but you could take a poke around, I guess. Yeah, I'm sure we do. I don't know where it is off the top of my head, but I'm sure I can find it.

Yeah, I have I have um some of this. I have the actual thing reped. You know what John, we can we can update it. For example, John put together. It's a nice slick um thing here. two-sided graft and economic development commission. He had New England's future headquarters for biio manufacturing. Now, we don't have to say that, you know, as on the the highlight reel, but you know, and he had some nice pictures with the town seal. There's the town, you know, there's the map shows where Grafton is. Um, but, you know, he had some things that we can crib and use. Okay. So for instance, he's got get to know Grafton, you know, commuter rail station, freight rail access, 6 million people within 50 mile radius, four airports within 50 miles, surrounded by over 100 colleges and universities, 52% of the population or higher which have gone up since 2022. some of our taxes, medium income per household, and I have some of those stats on the work that I did on another committee back in 2022 that we can update. And um we have here then he put down grow your business in Grafton. The town is actively seeking life sciences, biio manufacturing and tech companies. we could expand, you know, we could expand that. We don't want to uh do that. And he talked about offering the town offered several

incentives, the tiffs to help folks ex beyond, you know, succeed and real estate tax abate abatements, etc. and he said, "Please call Grafton's town planner, Chris McGoldri, or economic development specialist, etc." So, we can update all of those things. And of course, what we would do in this presentation is give them our names and what we're doing and of course, William and Evan, etc. So, that would be that would be very helpful. But he printed this out. It's on nice stock. So, um, anyway, we can, we've got two months to put this together. And so, if William, you if you put the template together first, send it over to me, and then I'll start to populate it with some of the things that we've discussed, and then we can send it around to all of the members, you know, for suggestions. And we should be able to edit this, come up with a final draft, you know, say by hopefully the first week in October.

I think that makes a lot of sense. H It makes lot lot of sense. Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah. And that way we'll that way we'll have it and we can have these things handed out. Now, I don't know. what kind of a budget John had to get these to get this printed up. And I don't know, I mean, I know that Evan has said we don't have and I wish Craig were here because um we would have a we're not a line item in the budget right now. War, what I'm what I'm thinking is this is if you can come up with an updated version, uh, get it to me and then, uh, tell me how many you need, I'll make sure I take care of it from the from my side.

Okay, great. You know, cuz that that's a nice addition to a handout, to, you know, a presentation. It looks professional. It looks, you know, like, yeah, Grafton is open for business. you know, the time for business is now, etc. I mean, we love our small businesses, but it would be nice to attract big business, too. Yeah. Sean, so on on the idea of the the flyer type of thing, I I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but I wouldn't go to the extent of printing a whole a whole lot because you said

Yeah. Given the the number of flyers we printed, the number of people that actually got them in hand and then attended the event, I don't I don't want to say it was a waste of money, but it's I you know, again, I'm just trying to think frugally, so to speak. Yeah. No, something that we're going to hand come up with maybe a hundred of them, maybe.

Yeah. We're not talking We're not talking, you know, a cast of thousands. But on the other hand, This is hopefully going to be the first of several events that we're going to do. So, it's nice to have them on hand for other things. Like if we're, you know, National Night Out or other things. Uh Laura, along those lines, I would make the recommendation that any flyer we don't put people's names on, just the office to contact. Uh, one of the issues we ran into finding what we had upstairs was they had Chris McGold's name on them and John's, neither of whom are with the town anymore. Exactly. So, not being negative, but

No, no, no. That's that's a very practical matter. It's not negative. We You want it to be up to date so we can just give the number for the, you know, future proof them. Yeah. The town administrator's office. One other thought, William, is it might be This is a you can tell us if this makes sense is saying EDC coordinator at this number an extension where the town creates an extension on the phone listing that basically automatically forwards to whoever you decide. So for example, if it's you, it would be automatically forwarded to the say TA to the CA's office or that kind of thing. And

I would just put extension 1200 which is the TA's office. Um because then we can direct them to wherever they need to be. Okay, that that's fine. I was I was more thinking trying to think future proof, but I might be just going to too complicated. Yeah. Well, no, at this point I think it's because we don't have John who had his own office and you don't want the calls going all over, you know, like to Fiona or, you know, Amy or the wrong place. So yeah, I mean just say the town administrator's office because they have general mailboxes and

somebody can can route it, but it looks like we have uh we've got a good framework to start with. Just um just a question has when I'm on the website for the economic development commission, there is a link that comes up to an annual breakfast that began back in 2014. For anyone that's been on on this committee for several years, are you aware of there being any anything more recently in the past several years for an annual breakfast? No, no,

no, no. I had called I had called that flyer out as needing to be removed, but I guess it didn't get removed to be expuned like removed. It's just it's not happening. It's just Yeah, I mean that would that would have to come from the town administrator, I guess, because we don't have none of us on this committee have those privileges. I mean, I think John Allen did, but he was he was a part-time paid consultant. So, so William, is that something we come to you about, like freshening up the the web page?

Yep. So, I made a note to remove that link tomorrow when I'm in the office. Um, but when it comes to changing the pages, I have full access to the website so I can put things up, take things down, whatever needs to be done uh done, just let me know and it'll happen.

Love it. Do you mind bringing up, William, just while we're here, just so we can see because I I might be getting a different version when I'm looking it up, but could you just show us quickly the the web page when you're pulling it up for the e just so we can like is there an information about our last meeting that we had our um our last event? So there like the event at reunion,

right? So this helps to be able to see. So if we're all looking at this, this is when I'm as we're live and I'm googling and looking as well. Yes. Like our reunion event, is there any any link on there about that? There is not at the moment. Okay. So, if we did like a brief write up and got that to you, the the flyer that that you um worked on and created, we could um put the flyer there along with the some feedback from that event. And then for our new event, for our next event, do the same thing. Put the flyer up.

Yep. Yep. So, the EDC page is designed to look like them. it it's sort of designed to look like its own website. So, anything we put up will populate right here, similar to the main homepage of the town website. Okay. So, when you click on events and spotlights, are you seeing anything fresh and current? No, there's nothing on the page at the moment. Okay, that's that I'm see I'm seeing the same thing as well. And I'm sorry, where where is the directory that you found earlier? Where do I link to that? uh right up here at the top directory.

And so is that connected to the EDC or is that just in general for Grafton? No, that is that link exists solely on the EDC page. So from the main EDC landing page. Yeah. When you get there, it will replace the five tabs across the top. Yep. The directory will take you right there. So possibly a simple change William is renaming directory to business directory because I I know I've looked at the EDC page many times and when I saw directory my first instinct was it's a directory of all the Grafton website page departments and pages. Okay,

I don't know if every anyone else agrees with that. I do too. I think that's what I was getting hung up on. So it was helpful to hear Nicole. It's helpful to see this but I agree. I think if it's a business directory, I think for myself as well that when you're clicking around on these tabs, it's, you know, you're thinking it might be a directory for the town offices. So, we should just say business directory of Grafton businesses or Grafton business directory. Yeah, that's a simple that's a simple fix, but it's an important, right? It's an important one. Yep.

So maybe at our next event we could um also look at maybe just taking some photos. So we could add that. I have photos from the reunion event. Okay. That I could add. And I also, Nicole, I have those photos from our that business lunchon,

photos of you with Senator Moore and other people who were there at the time. We can upload those. Yeah, people like people like pictures and you know it's um we're well overdue to update and refresh the EDC website. So, looks like we're doing things. Okay. So, if we're coming up on 7 minutes to 8, so I'd like to um go to if if no one has anything else that they'd like to say at this point. Uh I'd like to move to agenda item number three, which is any initiatives and guest speakers that they might want to promote. And this would be, you know, probably you're talking for the November, December or January time frame. Um,

so not at not at the event, Laura. You're not saying like a speaker at the October event, but at a at a one of our future meetings. Yes. Yes.

Okay. So, I had uh this this lady Christina Escobar, who's the director of the Small Business Association and Lending at the Worcester Business Development Corp. Um she sent me uh emailed me some of their brochures on various lending programs, financing, you know, what they're what they're doing. So, um, she was, if we were interested, uh, Christina and the WBDC would be available to host a 504 loan presentation. Uh, you know, and the Small Business Development Corporation is a great free, you know, resource. So, we could have them speak. I know Craig and, um, Carl had some ideas as well for people who might want to come and speak. So

yeah, um I know that we have a resident in Tom by the name of uh Brian Bouvier. Brian owns uh Bouvier Pharmacy in Marro, but he's also on the EDC in Maro and he's been on that uh particular committee for a number of years. Uh he would like to come in and just kind of share some of the best practices etc etc from uh the Marbor EDC. And I think if anybody would uh anybody knows about the town of Ma City of Marro, it's uh it's on fire and it's very healthy and very uh uh well well funded through its tax dollars and etc. So um Brian could come in and share some uh some examples or some ideas that might work for us. So

Okay. So, do you want to do you want to reach out to him and I'll call him and ask him and uh you know, he probably want to go for maybe uh December or January. Okay. So, I will leave that up. We'll leave that up to you and we can um you can report back on that at the next the next meeting. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Terrific. Um, anybody else have anything that they'd like to add? Uh, just one quick suggestion if I may. Sure.

So, at a recent meeting of the Mass Municipal Association, they had the um Mass Executive Office of Economic Development come in and talk about what they've been doing. They're launching a new tool called the business front door, which is supposed to be resources about how to open a business, how to move your business, coming to Massachusetts, all that good stuff. Um, they gave a pretty good 30, 40 minute talk on it. So, I don't know if they would come out and do that for EDC at potentially the fall event or a spring event. Um, but I think that that might be a great resource to put in front of the grafting business owners. Okay. Who do you have the contact information or would you contact them?

I'd be happy to reach out. We could get them at the event in October. That would be like a major league home run. I will see what I can do. If that works for the rest of the committee, I'll reach out tomorrow. Yeah, thank you. I think it's I think it's great. I mean, look, the object here is to let people know not only that we are here, but to show them that we can be a resource. And again that we're active, you know. Mhm. And you know, actions for, you know, action breeds more action. William, I love it. Good job, bud.

Yeah, that would be that would be terrific. Thank you so much, William. Um, okay. So, anything else on this before we move to the next item? Going once, going twice. Okay. So, um Nicole, you're up. This is um Nicole would like to discuss a proposal on creating uh Grafton Chamber of Commerce. Uh Commerce, not Congress, sorry.

That's okay. Yeah. And I don't think this would be like in lie of the EDC. I just think that it would be um you know an incredible thing to create for our community because I know everyone is um so supportive of local businesses and things like that. So forming um a Grafton Chamber of Commerce basically um you file for a nonprofit status 501c6 which is different than the charitable status.

Yeah. Um so membership dues and like sponsorship revenue are not taxable income to the chamber. Um the businesses can deduct the dues um for a business expense. And um I think you know the fact that like we could take those dues and spons sponsorship revenue and reinvest them locally locally would be amazing. Um, so like funds could be used for workshops or training. Um, just business support in general. Um, I wrote down a couple notes as we were talking earlier like social media training or marketing, advertising training, like bringing someone in, you know, in hosting a class for business owners would be amazing to do and we could use those funds so it wouldn't, you know, take away from other revenue that the the town is bringing in. Um, let's see. Other like outreach campaigns. So, I know we've talked about we do like the holiday stroll like shopping local. We could do something, you know, expanded on that or like a restaurant week um and give people the opportunity to um, you know, sponsor stuff, gift cards, things like that. Um, we'd also be able to, um, be eligible to apply for statewide programs, um, to give grants and things like that back to our businesses so that they could expand or open a new business, etc. Um, there's also things like I read something about uh, corporate um, partnerships. National Grid um, has like a chamber grant program and they give a lot of money away to um, different chambers in the state. Um, and then I think just overall just like being able to, you know, collect those dues and sp sponsorship revenue and then

reinvest in our local community would be really amazing. Okay. How would uh I guess from a practical standpoint, how does one go about forming a chamber of commerce? And who would you have to contact, you know, at the I mean, obviously somebody like Evan, you know, who's the town

and I don't even I don't know if people, you know, that's something like the town would have to vote on. I have no idea all of that kind of stuff. I just think it's worth there's so many benefits to the town. Like I just got a email from Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce. They're giving away $15,000 um grants. And instead of having our Grafton businesses fight over that within other, you know, local town businesses, like being able to do that ourselves, I think would be an amazing opportunity. And it's not like we wouldn't be a part of the Blackstone Chamber, we'd just also have our own. So, I think just us like thinking about all of those benefits and and potentially considering, you know, proposing this to the municipal government, I guess, would be like the first steps and then from there we'd figure out how to actually like do it.

Okay. I I love the idea. Um, but maybe we do it, and this is just a suggestion, a subgroup within the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce. That might be a better way to go about it because they've already got the infrastructure, etc., etc. And then if we can propose the the powers that be at the you know Blackstone Valley chamber to say that hey we we think we want a you know a a subset of this you know just for Grafton would that be something you would entertain or etc. So you I think you're right. I think we need to kind of focus on the town versus the large overall uh you know scope of the BB you know Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce. it it seems to be a little bit more uh broad, but I think maybe we do it as a subset or as a subgroup of the uh Blackstone Valley Chamber.

Yeah. I mean, if we could do something like that, it would be a good way to at least get started for sure. Yeah. Yeah. That would be great. So, I know that we're paying our dues uh as an institution um just now. Um, I can call J uh I think um Miss Heert um Jenny Heert about the uh she's this she's the executive director over there and we can I can talk to her a little bit about it and get you know kind of feel her out for what she thinks on that. Sounds good.

Okay, great. So, do you want So, Carl and Nicole, can you both coordinate on that and then we can put that as uh an agenda item for the next meeting so we keep it we keep it going? Sure. Sure.

Okay. Terrific. Anybody have anything else that they'd like to add on this item? Okay. So then the uh if we move on to the next item, it's any other EDC business if necessary. Um which I'm happy to entertain. We've covered a lot of ground here tonight, but all I want to know is Justin, how do you get those uh the graphics behind your uh um scenario with the fireworks? It was pretty cool.

It's a feature of the current Mac OS version. Got it. Got it. Um I move to a journ. How's that? You got something, Justin? There's other things. I can't remember what this hand signals are, but there's more than just this. But anyway, I'll second the motion to adjurnn. Okay. So, all adjourned. All in favor? I I I Okay, terrific. William, thank you so much for all your efforts. Of course. Happy to help. Have a good night. William has been a great a great help.

Yep. I agree. you know uh because there was a void there was a void left when John departed and there was no communication or collaboration nobody told us anything and hey we didn't even know what you know I had to ask you remember going back two years ago Carl when you were the chairperson I said I had to say to John could what is your role on here and he said well I'm a pay well no because it wasn't it wasn't clear to me or to anybody you. So, no, I agree.

So, this is this is good and I you know, great job tonight everybody. We got I think we got a lot accomplished and we will have the next meeting on the 17th I believe September 17th. Correct. Um and just so everybody knows the our guest uh in the meeting today was from the community advocate. Oh, okay. Terrific. Um, Angela, if you can get the uh meeting notes. Yes, that would be terrific. And so I'll start writing some other stuff up and William, I'll reach out to you as well. Yep. I will be tomorrow or Friday probably. Okay. Terrific. Have a good night everyone.