MLBT AUGUST 12, 2008

The following is a narrative edition of the last two meetings and the intermezzo. I have suspended minute keeping formality in exchange for expediency. At the end of this memo is a suggested agenda for Wednesday’s 8/13 meeting…believe everyone will be there.

A meeting of the Group was held on July 9, 2008, hosted by Susan Shute. All were in attendance. Mike Brown, CPA, a principal in Brown Financial Group, LLC (BFG) was introduced as a new member by Roy Innella. Mike’s accounting practice is located in Paoli and its target market is small to mid-size businesses. BFG has a specialization in the area of multi-state tax consulting.

Ken Dooley, President of Superior Publications, Inc, publisher of Chester County Life was featured as a guest speaker for this meeting. With over 30 years of experience in the publishing industry, and extremely active in the Chester County business networks, Ken gave a thorough presentation concerning his 4 year old magazine and insight on to how the Group could capitalize on this marketing and networking venue. There were no reservations expressed that the magazine is a high quality, well targeted product.

Chester County Life’s business plan stresses an emphasis on highlighting “people, businesses, organizations and institutions” in specific sections throughout the bi-monthly publication, and on a rotating basis for feature lead articles. Its circulation is 17,000, of which 16,000 is mailed to a controlled audience. The content is 70% editorial, 30% advertising, with the caveat that “editorial” includes articles on featured advertisers as part of the ad package. Most of the articles are in the 700-900 word length with complimenting photos. Ken described his ad base as very pro-active small business owners, the majority of whom were Main Line/Chester County based.

Led by Paul’s dialogue, it became obvious to the Group, that there was a possible new direction the Group could take if we were to be featured in an article in the magazine. Ken’s response was that would be “an excellent idea”.

Before adjournment, the Group discussed possible coordinated pro bono efforts (Ken mentioned the Hickman Group, as an example), the need to develop a mission statement (emphasis on professionalism, quality, Carol’s 80/20 formula reference), and, once again, what other disciplines needed to be added to round out the Group’s profile. There were also preliminary discussions concerning a possible website and a collective marketing piece, such as a bi-fold pamphlet.


What followed subsequent to this meeting was a flurry of emails amongst the Group sparked on by the enthusiasm generated from the meeting with Ken Dooley and what this opportunity presented as far as the Group’s growth and focus. Those emails resulted in a meeting hosted by Paul McCabe on July 21st.


That meeting seemed to signal that the Group was moving in a new direction from developing as an intra-referral network to marketing the Group to the public as a single entity of presumed leaders in our respective fields. The following ‘talking points’ came out of that meeting:

It was agreed that an article/advertising strategy with Chester County Life should be pursued, but the consensus was that it was premature to try and to “rush to print”, since we barely had our own act together yet. Using Paul’s paradigm of P-S-R, “problems, solutions, results”…we were a wee bit short on boosting of results as a Group. The thought was to point to an early 2009 article publication, possibly followed with a collective or individual ads in subsequent issues.

The Name…..seemed to be equal split on keeping or changing the name of the Group….everyone was asked to come up with possible alternatives by the next
meeting.


Mission Statement……same as the name…..once we can reach consensus on this and a name, Paul has offered to work up a promotional scheme incorporating logos, etc,

Incorporation…..Joe advised to provide individual liability protection for each member for the Group’s effort, it made sense to pursue incorporation as a LLC.
Costs for same estimated to be around $300, with Joe offering to donate legal
work. Although it was the consensus to pursue this, it would have to obviously wait until a name was agreed upon by the Group.

There was discussion about asking Ken Dooley to join the Group. Although considered a positive option, it was tabled as premature.

Building a track record….the Group seemed to feel that the most effective way to
Get to the “result” stage may be through a pro bono charitable association. To that end, everyone present agreed to look into specific avenues for this possible
effort, with the following assignments:

RON: PAOLI HOSPITAL
MIKE: ROTARY, PACPA
JOE: CHESTER COUNTY BAR
PAUL: MAINLINE CHAMBER
JOSH: FIRST TEE

CAROL: SUBURBAN/WAYNE TIMES
ROY: LIVING THROUGH CANCER

Preliminary reports were due back at next meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13th at 7:30 at Ron’s Paoli Travel Agency in Paoli.





Proposed Agenda:

Name of Group
Progress on Mission Statement
Prelim reports on pro bono possible projects
Establish timetable for Chester County Life or other marketing
Group Expansion


Feel free to expand on these comments or the proposed agenda.