Chamber hears of shortfall, events

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

— Board members of Gentry’s chamber of commerce discussed a shortfall in finances and made plans for upcoming festivals and events at their Thursday meeting.

The chamber is about $3,000 short of matching money available last year, said the chamber’s executive director Bev Saunders. That shortage, she said, was due in large part to sagging ad sales in the chamber’s community directory.

“People are cutting back on ads and ad sizes due to the economy,” Saunders said.

The board discussed possibly cutting back on the number of copies ordered because of leftover directories from last year which have not yet been distributed.

Saunders said she still hoped to sell a few more ads and would look into possible savings if a few less copies were ordered this year. She was also seeking to get more businesses to join the chamber.

Plans are underway for the chamber’s April 23 Easter egg hunt and for the annual Freedom and Fall Festivals.

Four grand prize winners will take home bikes and trikes fromthe Gentry Chamber of Commerce annual Easter egg hunt. The event will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, April 23, in the Gentry City Park. More than 1,000 eggs will be hidden and more than 500 of those will be prize eggs, said Chamber of Commerce director Bev Saunders.

The bikes and trikes are being furnished by Arvest Bank, Community Physicians Group, Dr. Scott Stubbs of Gentry Family Dentistry and Linda and Rob Adler.

Also assisting with the event are the Gentry High School National Honor Society and the Gentry High School FCCLA.

The possibility of permitting the owners of the children’s inflatable rides and climbing wall to sell tickets and wristbands and pay the chamber a commission on sales rather than the chamber renting the equipment and handling the ticket sales was discussed. The new arrangement, according to Saunders, would remove the risk for the chamber if weather was rainy and would give the vendor an opportunity to make more if the weather was nice.

The vendor forms for the July 4 Freedom Festival will be available by the beginning of May, Saunders said.

News, Pages 2 on 04/06/2011