Commercial Club Holds Annual Meeting
Stanley Commercial Club held their annual meeting on Friday, Jan. 31 at The Leader Bar & Grill, starting with a social hour and dinner.
During the business meeting, the group reviewed the most recent project of Santa Days with more than 100 pictures taken at Prairie Ford that day and a free movie offered at Regis Theatre.
The Commercial Club sponsors many projects throughout the year including the rummage sales, grapes and grains, Crazy Day, July 4 events and Small Business Saturday.
In new business, they passed around the event sign-up sheets for the 2025 events. They encouraged members to sign up for any event they were interested in helping with, noting that more volunteers are always welcome and needed. That is especially true when it comes to the July 4 activities. They have decided not to sponsor the band for the 4th of July this year, but welcome any group that might want to take this on this year. As for the car show, they are considering making this more of a show and shine event and not require preregistration. They would like to continue to hold it in Flickertail Village as it is a great location and also brings visitors to the village each year.
The membership committee will continue to look to add new members. The retail committee is looking at sponsoring monthly events and will continue to work with businesses for new ideas for those events. The beautification and decorating committee received a $10,000 grant from the Mountrail County Job Development Authority. They plan to order some new benches and if they receive council approval add hanging baskets for flowers during the summer.
The club has rented a new storage unit at the former Ace Hardware building on Main Street and will be ordering shelving for the unit as well as purchasing new totes to store the things used for decorating and more.
There have been glitches with the Commercial Club’s Facebook account including a lack of access that they are working to straighten out. They are also looking to create a committee to determine how they want to utilize advertising in the future, including not only social media but other avenues. They will look for input from businesses as they want to make sure they are included in decisions.
The club will also be working on a membership drive, promoting being part of the organization to new and existing businesses in the community. They will talk to them in person and share the goals to be more active in the community.
Becky Goettle, Jessica Barbot and Traci Hysjulien were elected to the board at the end of the meeting with three board positions open.