President Deborah Reynolds called the meeting to order at 8:10 A.M. on Thursday, January 10, 2002. The meeting was held in Room A of the Springfield Township Senior Center and attended by eighteen members of the Association.

Treasurer’s Report — Bob Will reported the following information: Balance as of last General Meeting: $2,631.23 Income: $628.76 Expenses: $1,172.29 Current balance: $2,087.70.

Membership renewal notices went out last week.

Scott Fowler of Affordable Wireless and Denise Cagle of Sunrise Assisted Living are both going to "jail" on Thursday, January 17 to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Melanie McNulty made a motion to donate the same amount of money to Scott and Denise as was donated to Don Huff last year for M.D.. Gene Burton seconded the motion. Motion passed by a vote of members.

Communications Report — Chip Berquist gave the Business Association’s web site address so members can check on updates and other information at anytime. The web site is: www.springfieldtwpba.org/

Programs Report - Deborah Reynolds reported that Denise Cagle will head the Programs Committee. Sunrise Assisted Living will host the next General Meeting and Denise asked that other businesses volunteer their space to host a meeting in the future. Deborah said the STBA is planning to hold three luncheon meetings, three breakfast meetings, a picnic and a holiday social during 2002.

Strategic Plan — President Reynolds called on Springfield Township Development Services Director, Deanna Kuennen, to report on the proposed strategic plan for the STBA. Past President, Joe Gorman and Trustee, Bess Sprockett developed a draft for a strategic plan then met with Deanna to go over their ideas. Deanna asked if anyone in the group has an interest in taking a leadership role in developing part of the plan to give her a call. Developing this strategic plan is of much interest to other business associations, and Deanna has been asked to forward the plan to these associations when complete.

Deborah Reynolds suggested the strategic plan draft be sent to members on the STBA list serve so they may respond to it with questions or suggestions. She also noted that members should not push reply when using the list serve. Rather, type in the specific e-mail addresses of the people you want to reach. There has been some confusion with this.

Township Update — Township Administrator, Mike Hinnenkamp, gave an overview of issues for 2002 that are of interest to businesses. The Board of Trustees is considering adopting local zoning. Currently, 25% is zoned by Springfield Township and 75% is zoned by Hamilton County. There is not much land in the Township for development, so zoning will focus on redevelopment. The Trustees are also looking to adopt a property maintenance code.

Tax abatement program: Currently available for industrial development and is administered by Hamilton County. Under consideration is a commercial redevelopment abatement. This would be available to businesses that improve the façade of their building. It would be also be administered by Hamilton County.

Home Improvement Program (HIP) — A soon to be available program to home owners in the Township. The county would deduct 3% of the interest rate a home owner receives from a participating bank for home improvements up to $50,000 over 5 years.

Dialogue continues with the landlord of Brentwood Plaza. They are still seeking a major anchor store tenant.

Leslie Ivy asked about a new housing development going in on Adams Road. Mr. Hinnenkamp reported that JPC is the developer and Fischer is building the homes in the $100,000 to $150,000 price range. The development is called Adams Creek.

Land Use/Zoning Report — Bob Trenkamp deferred to Mike Hinnenkamp to report anything new on the Winton Road corridor. Mike said the Township is planning to hire a consultant to develop a streetscape plan for the corridor. This would be in conjunction with planned road improvements by Hamilton County.

Guest Speaker - President Reynolds introduced Peggy Cravens, regional sales and marketing director for Sunrise Assisted Living in southwest Ohio, as the morning’s guest speaker. Ms. Cravens gave an interesting talk about how sales effectiveness has played a key role in making Sunrise the premiere assisted living corporation in the country. Sunrise has been in existence for twenty years and currently has almost 200 facilities throughout the U.S. Ms. Cravens summed up her presentation by saying their sales staff is successful because it follows the three C’s: candor, compassion and competence.

Member Spotlight — Deborah Reynolds plans to spotlight a different member of the association at each meeting and give them the opportunity to talk about their services. The Will Agency was the first spotlight for 2002. Gene Burton gave a quick review of the type of insurance the company has to offer. The Will Agency has been in existence since 1931 and is located at 1172 W. Galbraith Road.

Announcements — Denise Cagle of Sunrise Assisted Living reported that The Finneytown location will celebrate its two year anniversary with an open house from 7:00 until 9:00 P.M. on Thursday, January 24.

Deborah asked that anyone with a change of address, telephone number, e-mail address, etc., give that information to Maggie Wesley so she may update the records.

Please check out the newsletter for upcoming meetings and other important information.

Next General Meeting — To be held on Thursday, March, 14 at Sunrise Assisted Living. It is not certain at this time if it will be a breakfast or lunch meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Melanie McNulty, Recording Secretary