Marietta Business Association

Friday, March 5, 2010
Marietta Business Association Lunch Meeting Review
By SixCities

I arrived shortly before noon and made my way into the MUST Ministries facility. I was immediately greeted with friendly, familiar faces. I checked in at the greeting table and went into the meeting hall. Lunch was ready to be served so I stood in the serving line and got my food while I networked. Lunch was catered by Capozzi's. I had salad with choice of house dressings, penne noodles in a red sauce and sausage balls served on the side with a slice of garlic bread. A variety of cookies were available for dessert. For drinks, they had a selection of bottled water and sodas, however I got the last bottled water and there was a line of people behind me. Once I got my food I then grabbed my seat for the meeting. The only down fall was that I finished my water and wanted another one, but only sodas were available. The lunch was hot and tasty. We all bowed our heads for the invocation and Dr. Sigurd Hoyer, President, took the podium to introduce the elected 2010 Board of Directors plus the newest board members; Treasurer, John Pacardi, and Bookkeeper, June Clark. He briefly reviewed the status of the association and emphasized that new changes were being made with more involvement in the school systems, police department and square merchants.  Sigurd continued to discuss changes that were going to be made within the association. He apologized for missing anything, then before introducing the guest speaker, asked if anyone was interested in joining the Rotary. He stated that he promised he would do this for the current Rotary President.

Sigurd next introduced the guest speaker, Jeromy Trask at 12:45pm. Jeromy is the Sr. Vice President and managing broker at Harry Norman, Realtors (Marietta Office– Whitlock Ave). He spoke about the current housing market and where it was going. At 1:02pm Sigurd was standing behind Jeromy and Jeromy asked if he needed to ‘hurry up’. The room chuckled, and Sigurd agreed. He continued to speak until 1:12pm. His speech was informative.  Sigurd then took the podium and introduced Noah Torch.

Noah Torch, Vice President, took the podium and began to go over the benefits of membership in an outlined power point presentation.  He asked what everyone could do to help the association. He went over volunteer opportunities such as joining a committee, bringing expertise to the association, sharing ideas, getting involved in the community and contribution to the newsletter, plus other ideas. Noah recognized Belinda Green with Akoma Events for her ‘behind the scenes’ involvement. He also recognized Lynda Hale as the Special Events chair for the association. Noah then stressed the need for connections with the City. He also made mention of a membership drive.  Noah went on to give recognition to SSMorgan Enterprises, Inc. for the web site administration and communication then mentioned the membership reception on March 29 from 8am-11am at the Marlow House. In conclusion he thanked the guest speaker and Capozzi’s for catering. The room applauded and Sigurd then took the podium.

Sigurd thanked Noah and then discussed his upcoming meeting with the City Manager, Bill Bruton and Mayor, Steve Tumlin. He then announced that the Chief of Police would be at the breakfast meeting. Sigurd then turned things over to Bonnie Hall who did a quick review of the books and discussed that June Clark would be the new association bookkeeper. Sigurd then turned things over to Susan Bryg, Secretary, who announced her involvement with the new members. After Susan finished, Patricia Justice spoke briefly about the corporate records and what she was doing to make sure the association was in compliance.

There was a little confusion with the door prize drawing process. An agreement was quickly reached and they were awarded to the various attendees. Sigurd thanked everyone for coming and the meeting was adjourned. I stayed around for additional networking. Over all the meeting was good.