NOACC Officers’ Meeting – May 23, 2008

Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, Lakewood, Ohio

Attendees: Kathy Berkshire, Chairperson; Angie Pohlman, Vice Chairperson (joined the meeting by phone at the New Business portion of the agenda); Pat Krizansky, Secretary; Vicky Hawke, Executive Director

Absent: Dayle Noll, Treasurer

The meeting began at 8:20 a.m.

Old Business:

Two for One Letter/NOACC Marketing Guide

Vicky Hawke reported that this mailing has gone out, but she has not yet received acknowledgement or any comments from any of the chambers.

April Semi-Annual Meeting

Vicky Hawke said the meeting held at Medina Weymouth Club went well. She reported that the video is on the web, but she is not sending notification out until the speaker approves it.

Certified Agent Program to Chambers

Vicky Hawke reported that this program is awaiting the approval of Scott Misischia at Anthem. Then, Vicky will contact the webmaster so he can create an online sign-up form. Information will be sent to chambers before it is sent out to agents to allow the chambers to submit agent nominations.

Chamber Meeting with Anthem

Vicky Hawke reported there was a meeting with the southeastern Cleveland area chambers on May 22, 2008 to discuss Anthem’s exclusivity requirement. Scott Misischia met with the Aurora, Hudson, Kent, Medina and Twinsburg chamber executives, and reaffirmed the value of the Anthem discount is significant enough to require exclusivity. Some of these chambers also have issues with the NOACC Membership Agreement, their main concern was that they do not want to promote other NOACC Benefits or to be forced to promote NOACC to get the Anthem benefit. Scott told the chambers that Anthem would create literature that would allow for the chambers to imprint or sticker their name onto the form, or electronic forms would allow the chamber to add their logo, etc. in addition to the NOACC and Anthem logos on the forms.

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NOACC Officers’ Meeting – May 23, 2008

Some of the chambers inquired about the creation of their own Anthem program. Scott Misischia said that if it were possible, they would have to start at the lowest discount of 1% (NOACC’s discount is 4%). The chambers did not give an immediate answer, and

Vicky will contact Anthem to discuss the possibility of meeting with these chambers again or possibly conducting regional forums to address the issues they have with the NOACC Membership Agreement.

Anthem is looking to NOACC to make another effort to help these chambers comply with the agreement, i.e., a link from their website to the Anthem page on the NOACC website, as opposed to promoting the other benefits, etc . Adjustments could be made to the agreement that would explain this better.

Chambers Not Promoting Anthem

Anthem will be sending letters to groups that belong to NOACC chambers that are no longer promoting Anthem to their members, with a copy to the broker, indicating that in order to continue to receive the Anthem discount, the group has a 30-day window to join another chamber that offers and promotes the Anthem benefit.

Vicky Hawke also gave Anthem the names of approximately 400 groups that have not renewed their memberships in NOACC chambers. Anthem is contacting the brokers to advise immediate chamber membership renewal or the discount will be removed.

New Business:

Anthem Marketing Allowances for Chambers

The new contract between Anthem and NOACC has not been finalized, but it will increase the marketing allowance to NOACC. It has been suggested that some of the additional funds could go to the chambers to be used for marketing. Vicky Hawke estimates it could be as much as $30,000. Vicky suggested the chambers could be “paid/reimbursed” for their marketing efforts such as putting the Anthem link on the chamber’s website, sending an e-mail blast, etc. Kathy Berkshire indicated the chambers could receive $50 for each step taken. It was suggested that the NOACC executive committee come up with some more concrete ideas.

NOACC Benefit Selection Form

Vicky Hawke created this form to help the chambers select the benefits that they will promote per the Membership Agreement. It also explains that the chamber can link to the page on the NOACC website for the benefit(s) they are promoting only, that they can promote the value of the NOACC membership without having to promote any of the

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NOACC Officers’ Meeting – May 23, 2008

other NOACC benefits, that they can “attend” the meetings by watching the video on the website. Vicky asked the executive committee to look at this form and the letter that will be sent with it to be sure the content would help explain and not cause additional misunderstanding about the agreement. Some suggestions were made, but more discussion is needed.

NOACC Chamber Website Page

A new NOACC chamber website page with links to all the NOACC Benefits was created that allows the chambers to just add a link on their websites--they don’t actually have to add the page to their website. The page will be hosted on the NOACC website—and will always be updated with current benefits, contact info etc. The page is also available as a Word document that the chambers can modify and eliminate the benefits that they don’t promote and then they could post the page on their own websites. All the Vendor logos and links are active on both forms. Using this form will give a uniform look to the information about the NOACC Benefits. Chambers will be notified that they can choose to link their websites to the NOACC benefits page if they promote all NOACC benefits, or just to those pages for the benefits the chamber has elected to promote.

June Membership Meeting – Membership Drives

The next NOACC membership meeting is June 27. The Chamber Exchange topic is membership drives. Angie Pohlman and the membership chair for the Heights-Hillcrest Regional Chamber will lead the discussion.

October Semi-Annual Meeting

An award will be given to a “Business Star” nominee from each chamber at the October NOACC meeting. Wayne Lawrence, CEO of the Beachwood Chamber, wants to get

involved in the arrangements for this meeting. Vicky will ask him to look into possible locations, such as Kalahari Resort, Northfield Park, the Rock Hall, the Terrace Club at Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena.

Other Upcoming Meetings

COSE approached NOACC about meeting with their representatives to discuss alliances. Kathy Berkshire and Vicky Hawke will meet with them on June 16.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 a.m.