Development Committee Meeting Notes

Maryland Agricultural Center Extension Conference Room

May 8, 2013, 11:00 am

It was decided to hold this meeting even though Josh Pons and Randy Brinton were not able to attend. Richard Watson, Barbara Glass, Mary McGuire, Gene Swackhamer, Kelly Dudeck and Bronwyn Mitchell were present.

Development Committee meeting notes of 2-19-13 and 3-11-13 were previously distributed to committee members. Gene announced that Randy Brinton will be joining the Committee.

Gene stated that although the Board Meeting was just the week before, this may be the only opportunity to review the spring letter appeal, the Bidding for Good Internet auction and Charter Membership solicitation before the auction begins on June 3. He suggested that we begin with an auction update.

BiddingForGood Auction. A preview of items that will be listed with Bidding For Good are now being shown on the marylandagricultrue.org website. As new items come in they will be added. Kelly and Bronwyn said MARC is now at 90-94 items and it should be possible to reach 150 or so. In the categories of interest we are weak in the golf area. Richard will check with Piney Branch Golf Club for a donation and Gene will check with Hayfields Golf Club. The overall variety and quality of offerings looks pretty good.

There was discussion about the need to extensively promote this auction and begin assembling emails from the circle of friends and business contacts of board members. An inexpensive flyer for retail store and community bulletin boards might also be helpful. Kelly said that the Board members are very slow to respond with additional names and addresses for the base contact list and may also be lax in promoting the auction to email contacts. It was suggested that a simple single page advisory on “how to bid” that each board member could email to all their contacts might help the board members overcome inertia.

There was discussion of including a Finch John Deere donated gator in the auction, but some thought that it might be a better item for a Family Farm Day raffle at $100.00 per chance.

Spring Letter Appeal. The results to date are dismal. Of nearly 1300 letters mailed only 9 responses have been received for a total donation of $750.00, not yet enough to cover the postage, stationery and envelopes. On the other hand, a one-time mailing without a second, third or fourth letter generally only produces a 1-2 percent response rate. One percent would be 13 responses, 2 percent 26, and so forth. It takes a very committed membership to get a letter response rate above 5 percent. Of the 9 current donors, four are first-time donors.

Charter Membership. Gene redistributed the March 11 handout on phasing out the Charter Membership at year-end and asked the committee to assist in making calls on prospects. He said that the goal of 5 new members by year-end doesn’t seem like much, but he said it represents $50,000 and he would be very pleased if we could get that number. Since not everyone was familiar with the procedures, he listed them as (1) a pledge period of up to 5 years is available, (2) Cumulative giving to date can be used as a credit toward the $10,000 goad as an incentive to give more, (3) charter members receive the same benefits as a $10,000 donor.

High priority prospects for charter membership and contact assignments:

  • Bob and Anne Kinsley, York builder of Ag Center, owns Baltimore County Horse farm, current donor—Gene Swackhamer
  • Wegman’s Family Foundation, Rita Gibney Hunt Valley General Manager—in-kind donations to date—Kelly Dudeck and Gene Swackhamer
  • Jay and Toni Griswold, Current donor at sustaining Member level—Richard Watson and Kelly Dudeck
  • Richardson Farms, Les Richardson both cash and in-kind donor—Kelly Dudeck and Gene Swackhamer
  • Anthony Marchione, will reach $5,000 level in 2014, Kevin Atticks
  • Bob and Linda Frazee (Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit is now a charter member) Bob and Linda are current donors—Gene Swackhamer and Kelly Dudeck
  • James and Gail Riepe, Current donors at Sustaining Member $5,000 level,--Julia Jitkoff and Kelly Dudeck
  • Graul’s Hereford, Tom (one of three brothers and three stores) is an in-kind donor of product. His former wife was into horses, but tom says he is not!—Julia Jitkoff and Kelly Dudeck
  • Krause Reality, current donors and sponsors, Ron and Heidi—Julia Jitkoff and Rob Deford
  • The Mill, Henry Holloway, current donor and in-kind product donor—Dan Colhoun and Gene Swackhamer
  • Jack Dillon, current donor, original Board Member, Dan Colhoun and Dick Price

House Parties. Two house parties (a group of neighbors and friends with possible interest in MARC and its mission) are scheduled for this year. One will be in the Trenton area hosting by Richard Watson and Dan Colhoun and the other will be Long Green Valley hosted by Josh Pons, Rob Deford and Les Richardson. The goal of these small group receptions is to gain additional donors and better informed friends.

Sponsorships, Giving Opportunities, Giving Categories, Donor Perks. A subgroup of the committee, Kelly Dudeck, Mary McGuire and Barbara Glass, have been meeting since March 11 to assemble a working document and promotional literature regarding these topics. A sponsorship package is being assembled.

Future Meetings. The next meeting of the Development Committee will be onJune 28 at 3:30 pm at the Ag Center.