Grandma’s Noodles Member Appreciation

Member Appreciation dinner was prepared and served by the IABA Board of Directors.

All members and guests (42 attending) were treated to a fabulous meal.

  

Menu:

• Choice of Grandma’s Noodles Pasta - John Naccarato (Membership chairman)
  
• Choice of Sauces from Jimmy’s Jersey St Cafe - Jimmy Lambatos & Terry Cervi
  
• Fabulous Italian Salad from Janet Lombardi 
  
• Sausage and Peppers - from Gina Hallisey and Gary Molinaro
  
• Ciabatta Bread provided by Joannie Flynn through new member - Forno Veneto Bakery,  Giulio Crotone
• Cannolis - provided by Ann Bosso through Godfather Cannoli
  
• Wine - Bonacquisti 
  

  

  

President Janet Lombardi welcomed everyone and reported we currently have 65 members, and 23 of those are business members.  We have over 250 contacts we’d like to have as members, and a big shout out to John Naccarato who is our membership ambassador.

Thanks John for contacting prospective members and his endless energy in promoting IABA. Janet also thanked members for doing business with each other.  That’s what makes us special.  

  

Treasurer Ann Bosso reported we have $5,263 in the coffers.

VP and event planner Gina reported on the 2021 Calendar which can be found on our website denveriaba.org Our April 14th meeting will be held at Romanos Restaurant with a business agenda.

Our guest speaker and entertainment was provided by Opera Colorado  operacolorado.org Greg Carpenter, General & Artistic Director provided a very comprehensive look at Opera Colorado including history and future productions. We were then treated to a live performance of two opera singers and keyboard orchestra.  The acoustics proved to be fabulous in Grandma’s factory.  

Hope to see you next month at Romano’s.

IABA Member Meeting January 13, 2021

Via Zoom 

Members attending: Janet Lombardi, Gina Hallisey, Melissa (Huff) Bower, Ann Bosso-Johnson, John Naccarato, Joannie Flynn, Gary Molinaro, Tish Gance, Anne Cucchi

Meeting called to order at 6:05 p.m. by President Janet Lombardi

Announcement of New Board:

Janet Lombardi – President

Gina Hallisey – Vice President

Melissa (Huff) Bower – Secretary

Ann Bosso-Johnson – Treasurer

John Naccarato – Membership

Joannie Flynn – Member at Large

Gary Molinaro – Member at Large

Treasurer's report was reviewed with the members.

Calendar for 2021: Gina went through the calendar for 2021.

Feb. – Show and tell business and endorse members you have done business with.

Mar. – Hopefully have in-person meetings. Mar. 10 is the member appreciation dinner. The board will cook for the members.

Apr. – Looking for a member's restaurant. Biz Bites.

May – Lori's new office will host.

June – Sons of Italy

July – Balistreri

Aug. – Italian summer holiday and BBQ

Sept. – Pietra's. Biz Bites

Oct. – Italian Heritage Event

Nov. – Caruso Kitchens for annual holiday fundraising event

Dec. – Holiday party and Bravo awards

Janet has been reaching out to members that have Covid.

Tish offered to do a video for the website walking people through how to's.

Janet told the members that we are going to continue the Andiamo paper for another 6 months and see how it goes.

Janet and Gina are looking at other Italian clubs to join and maybe we'll get some interest in our club from there. We talked about trying to set up reciprocity to explore each other's clubs.

AT THE HOME OF HEIDI NAPLES

Members gathered in Heidi’s gracious, large and lovely patio on a warm late summer eve…wearing masks! Of course, socializing and sipping vino caused some masks to come off…but we were all very happy to actually see each other in the flesh after such a long absence.

Heidi’s Deli provided sack dinners…a bag with choice of sandwich, pickle, potato salad and brownie (TDF!!!!) plus chips. Very delicious and enjoyed by all. 

Janet conducted a casual meeting – letting members introduce themselves and relate how business was going. She reminded us that we can get some ad coverage in Andiamo, and two folks said they’d take space in the next issue. At $25, it’s a great bargain to get so much exposure in the Italian community. She thanked Simona Fava for the great design work on our new brochures which really look super! Gina gave us a run-down on upcoming meetings, still pretty much in flux. She announced the Singing Chef event to be held on Oct. 24 for Italian-American Month, an event that all Italian clubs in the area can attend. 

Door prizes were awarded – the winners were Gary Molinaro, Alf Gizzo, Fausto Cucchi, and Janet Lombardi.  Dana Francescatti won best mask award…hers decorated with fluttering butterflies!

All in all, a fun evening, made special after such a long time without gathering in person.

What you Missed  - June 10, 2020 - member meeting via zoom

Meeting called to order at 6:10pm by President Janet Lombardi, followed by some short board reports. Janet reports that we’ve not had many expenses, and a few people have re-signed up for membership. Ann Bosso-Johnson was delayed, but Gina said that we have $5845 in the Treasury. 

Gina talked about coming member meetings: In July we’ll have another Zoom meeting, perhaps adding Biz Bites to this session. Feragusto is cancelled for this year. Jeffco wants to limit gatherings to 50 with social distancing, so perhaps we can meet in Aug. Sept. and Oct. are still open and undecided. She announced that we decided to postpone the December party til January…and in Dec. we will organize some kind of charity event. 

We did member introductions, most talking about how they are handling the current situation and how it’s affecting business. Dana Francescatti remarked that everyone is reinventing – which we all agreed.

Janet introduced our speaker, Alfred Gizzo of Arrivo Digital Marketing. He gave a presentation on Google My Business and how we can utilize this forum. To grow business, it’s important to have review since 60 – 72% of people looking for a business are reading these. He urged us …. DON’T ignore it! It’s more important than your Facebook Page. Google maps and Google posts are added. Call him to get information on promoting your business. Post every week…what’s new with your business. People can find all pertinent information without going to a website. You can message from your mobile phone, can book from the site. Contact Alf at :  alf@arrivodigitalmarketing.com

Meeting adjourned at 7:25pm

IABA BOARD MEETING MARCH 2, 2020
VIA PHONE CONFERENCE

MEMBERS PRESENT: JANET LOMABARDI, GINA HALISSEY; TERRI CERVI, JOY LAWRANCE, ANN BOSSO-JOHNSON, JOHN NACCARATO, SIMONA FAVA

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 6:05PM BY JANET LOMBARDI

MINUTES APPROVED AS CORRECTED

TREASURER’S REPORT: ANN   $4069, sent out a balance this morning, but will have final numbers for Feb. meeting later. Members: 22 Business; 47 Regular members. Still a few overdue members. 

MEMBERSHIP
Terri: Discussion about auto-renewal. Ann: if someone says they don’t want auto-renew, the site will not do it. Terri: every auto-pay sends a warning about when it’s due. This may add to some confusion about when dues are to be paid. Janet will call Wild Apricot to clear this up.

OLD BUSINESS
Gina: Talked to Silvia, our March speaker, today, she will do a 20min. presentation then Q&A. Does not think it’s necessary to have audio/visual equipment…Gina will print out info from her. Catering from Pie Society -cost should be about $11 -12/per person. Ann has paid for the venue. Talked about room set-up. We need to be able to talk to other members.    

Ferragosto: Assumption Church is happy to provide a space for the event. (August meeting) Gina will explore idea for food and entertainment. This is an event in Italy where they take off the month, have beach BBQs, it started as a feast for the Assumption of Mary. John: this is a good event, having it at Assumption is good. Gina: Ties in with our goal of having things out in the community. I’ve done some research on the event. We’ll probably make a donation to the church. 

I’ve not talked to Mrs Condi’s yet. For OCT – For Italian Heritage month in Oct I'm working on putting together an event at Balistreri Vineyards with the singing Celebrity Chef Andy LoRusso to benefit Caruso Family Charities.  It's planned for Thurs, Oct 15 which is the day after our regularly scheduled monthly Oct meeting so I wondered if IABA would consider inviting members to attend the Caruso event to support that in lieu of the monthly meeting or if they don't want to go to the Caruso event they could donate and maybe we could do one IABA donation at the event?  The ticket cost for the Caruso event will probably be $85 and a table will be $1000.  This would be a good event to support for a "philanthropic community" cause by purchasing individual tickets or maybe buying an IABA table to have a presence.  

Nov. – we don’t do a meeting usually, it’s a board retreat.  Dec. – holiday party – has looked into some sites – a site on So. Broadway may want to trade some space, but this is all still in the works. We’re not going to get a weekend date in Dec. The Grid is a possibility – they have tables…it’s different. If you want something like last year, we need to move fast. We need to decide what our budget is for this party. Even if we go back to Sons of Italy, it will be $800.  The Grid has a nice set-up. Gina will send a link to this place for us to evaluate.

REVIEW: Feb meeting: - They tried to give a long presentation into a 45 min. program. They want to join the club. 

(Brief interruption – Zoom cut off. Meeting resumed, Terri Cervi took minutes from this point)

Debrief of February meeting - a little disappointing in their presentation and delivery however, lessons learned to help them and the Board with expectations in the future.

Gina and Janet donated $$ to Mt. Carmel that will appear in account as "Sponsorship of Meeting".

It will be an agenda item at each board meeting to debrief the good bad and ugly of each previous member meeting.  

Marketing in Andiamo - discussion about 1/4 page ad for $100 per for $600 annually.  We could "sell" to members to re-coop cost or use totally for IABA listing of upcoming events.  Ads could be sold to members as little as $20 or share with club.  Janet will get more information.  It is noted that the publication is not digital - therefore a disadvantage in selling talking points.

More discussion to pay Simona for web services.  We have budgeted $$ for 2020 for marketing services and fees.  So far Simona has volunteered her time.  It is noted that it is in the bylaws, that this is a paid position.  The amount will be at the discretion of the board. Further discussion will take place on the amount.

Notes from members:

Caruso Family Charity Gala - May 2

Columbus Parade and Events from Rich Sabell

Janet has purchased a microphone for more mobility in meetings.  Janet will submit receipt to Ann for reimbursement.

Motion - moved and seconded to subscribe to ZOOM meetings for 1 year.

The meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m. 

 

After networking and renewing friendships, we enjoyed a great dinner buffet provided by Lechuga’s – spaghetti, meatballs and sausage, sausage cannoli, salad – and wonderful pizzelles for dessert.

President Janet Lombardi opened the meeting thanking Lechuga’s and Father Hugh of Mt Carmel for allowing us to meet here. And since the church usually charges for the hall, she and Gina will be making donations to the church and encouraged anyone to do the same.

Since we have a guest speaker, we dispensed with member introductions. Janet introduced the board. We have $3855 in the bank –21 business members and 47 individual members. Gina Hallisey (VP) talked about upcoming meetings and sponsorship opportunities…those would help offset the cost of meetings and give members a chance to spotlight their businesses. Sponsorships would also be available for events (Italian Festival, Automezzi, Christmas party). Contact Gina for any information!

Janet and Simona have worked hard on the website – so be sure to check for updates, minutes, calendar and more.

We are moving forward with taking out regular ads in Andiamo and suggested that members might share the cost by having their business listed in it.   People seemed to like this idea. She also mentioned that we could get decals printed…if anyone was really interested. She said that someone has organized a “new” club with the initials IABC….and has reached out to our members. Please know that we are in good shape, and if you hear from that group it is NOT our IABA,

Gina first thanked Silvia Comuzzi-Sexton for graciously delaying her talk until next month so that our speakers tonight, traveling in the country and here only for a short time, could talk about their company. She then introduced our speakers – Allesandro Bovino and Justin Salvadore who have a company called Bella Italia that assists in genealogical research in Italy. They did a slide show presentation and talked about the history of keeping records in Italy and how challenging it is to find accurate information using birth, marriage and death records that are found in city halls and churches.  But they have many contacts and are enthusiastic and willing to help anyone find their ancestors. They also do special trips to discover your roots in Italy and offered the possibility of obtaining an Italian passport for dual citizenship.

IABA BOARD MEETING

JAN 5, 2020 AT THE HOME OF JANET LOMBARDI

IN ATTENDANCE: JANET LOMBARDI, ANN BOSS0-JOHNSON, SIMONA FAVE, GARY MOLINARO, JOHN NACCRATO, TERRY CERVI, JOY LAWRANCE

Meeting called to order at 2:25pm by Janet. 

Minutes from Dec. meeting were approved as submitted.

Gina suggested that Janet serve as president…all approved.  Vice Pres: Gina was nominated, all approve. Joy nominated as secretary, all approve, Treasurer, Ann Bosso-Johnson…all approve. Membership…Janet suggested Terry – and discussion followed about the duties and challenges of the position. She agreed to take the position, all approved. Two members-at-large – Gary Molinaro and John Naccarato. 

Discussion of website – which has some challenges. Since we want to pay Simona for her services, it’s helpful to know how much time she spends on it. In the past, $150/month was suggested. We’ll go thru the 2020 budget and make a decision at that point.

Janet would like everyone’s photo and short bio for the website.

Treasurer’s Report – Ann Bosso-Johnson:  Ann passed out P&L, budget, State Farm proposal, membership list. Various budget items were discussed. Members who have paid for dinners and do not show up will not be reimbursed. Those who are ill will get credit for the next meeting. Monthly meeting costs will vary depending on the venue and the menus. Board agreed to up member meeting charge to $15.  Membership number is now at 61. There are four past due members. 

Christmas Party report: Gina: Sons of Italy cannot book for early Dec. in 2020 weekends. Discussion of weekend vs. week-night – mid week may be hard for some, but pricewise is better.

Awards – Were very successful, especially the Bravo Award, opening the nominations to other clubs. This should help to get other members attending the event. 

New Business:

Future board meetings:  first Monday of the month is what has been done in the past. Perhaps some can be done on Zoom/by phone, esp. if there’s not too much on the agenda. Gina suggest we meet in person, quarterly. With a phone option, people can attend either way. Time suggested - 6pm. We agreed to meet in person the first Monday of each quarter. Janet will work on getting Zoom set up for us.

Member Meetings:  We looked at the 2019 schedule and possibilities for 2020.  Gina: has talked to members of other clubs and there is interest in doing more jointly. Venues are a challenge – since so many places charge to meet. Janet related that the club used to have a sponsor for a meeting and that person would be able to promote their business. Gina will scout venues and would like to have places set up for the year. A goal is to focus on Business, Cultural and Community each quarter. There was discussion about various programs that may appeal to our members. Round tables could be helpful to members. Biz Bites should stay, and door prizes are good. Gina will send out an email to ask members if they have a place for meetings that we can check out. 

Marketing:  What can we do to help this club grow?  Maybe decals (some smaller than what was provided to us last year); Advertising – we did an ad in Andiamo. The editor will publish the Awards (and photos) we gave out in Dec. Gina will ask about more frequent ads in the publication. Discussed ways to track any people that come to us through that.

Suggestion – new members should have a folder with club information. Maybe some coupons from members. Gina will also find prices on small pins – which people seem to like.

Procedures: Janet went over a list that she has put together – things that need doing through the year and steps to take for meetings, events etc. but do not need to be included in Bylaws. These should help any board members going forward. These are easily changeable or added to/subtracted from.

Future of IABA: Ann B-J – stay business focused, think about an August Italian festival:  Ferragosto; Simona: More business, grown our membership. Work on breaking even financially. Gary: concentrate on quality of membership – people you can do business with, work on a good synergy of good business members; John: We’re all coming to the same conclusion – we’re all Italian, love Italian culture – want to work together; Terry – this board seems so functional, we have great ideas, we can go forward; Gina- we need to grow, we don’t want to compete with the other clubs, sees IABA being a bit more professional, having all our businesses getting to know each other. She wants to add the fun factor! 

In general – we need to do business with each other and give testimonials. During the 30-sec. intros members should talk about what’s new/special in their business. We’re here to build amongst each other. We need to base our success on the quality of members and their levels of participation.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30pm.

Our Christmas party was a success!

IABA BOARD MEETING MINUTES

DEC. 2, 2019 VIA PHONE CONFERENCE

IN ATTENDANCE ANDREW MURANO, ANNE CUCCHI, JANET LOMBARDI, ANN BOSSO-JOHNSON, SIMONA FAVA

Andrew called the meeting to order at 5:04. 

Minutes (November) approved as written.

Gina – update on Christmas party. Venue is done, caterer is ready, need count by Friday. Andrew can pick up light bars. For the band, (there are 18) we can order pizzas and such. Paul Bonaquisti is donating a case of red and is bringing other wine at $9/bottle. What we drink we’ll pay for and can take the rest back. We’ll get beer also. We won’t mess with drink tickets…folks will probably not drink that much. Andrew suggested a couple different kinds of beer. Gina needs to finish up the awards. She asks that the board members show up at 4. Janet has sent out one more e-blast – and we’re now at 40 registered. Janet asked us to reach out to at least 5 people. 

Discussion on awards and categories – which names should go where. Andrew suggests that each board member email him to vote on the awards.

Janet  -discussion on voting for board members update. Currently there are 10 nominees. The incoming slate can take the 7 people picked and select which office each will assume.  We should perhaps clarify the bylaws to make sure the method is clear going forward.

Marketing: - Janet likes the idea of a packet going out to members. Decals are nice. We can do a survey on some marketing thoughts and approach the membership to see what they would like to incorporate. We should gear this to getting new members, keeping members, and building your business. Gina suggests we write a plan – which may require a committee!

We all “sang” happy birthday to Andrew!

Andrew adjourned the meeting at 6:15 pm.

BOARD PLANNING MEETING NOV. 2, 2019

HELD AT THE OFFICE OF ANDREW MURANO

IN ATTENDANCE: ANDREW MURANO, ANN BOSSO-JOHNSON, SIMONA FAVA, JOY LAWRANCE, JANET LOMBARDI, GINA HALLISEY

Meeting called to order at 2:59pm.

Andrew welcomed us, and presented the agenda, hoping we can move quickly.

Andrew explained BOX…similar to DropBox. An easy way to share documents. 

Ann BJ went through the treasurer’s reports including P&L and the membership roster. She reported that we have (usually) about 24 members at a meeting, and typically the cost is slightly more since she adds tips. She went over budget items for 2020. She also talked about renewing our trademarks. She moved that we update and pay for renewing, seconded by Janet, all in favor. She then recommended that we get an updated Quickbooks account online – this would cost $42/month for the first year, then $70/month after. She moved that we use this plan for the first year, second by Janet, all approve.

Gina presented the Christmas Party proposal. (date Dec. 11) She went over the venue (Sons of Italy building) – the sponsors she’s gotten so far, menu, band and awards. Suggestion for awards – Italian of the Year might be for someone not in IABA. The goal is to bring other clubs to the event. Janet talked about the value of this event, making it special – so even though the cost is more, this is probably good for the club. The suggested ticket price would be $40 per person. This would include food, wine and entertainment. Janet talked about what awards have been in the past, adding something from the outside, while keeping IABA Member of the year and Business of the year. Other Italian clubs will be invited. Janet moved that we accept the proposal as presented based on 75 people at $40 per person, Andrew seconded, motion passed. 

Gina and Janet will get together and decide on Award categories and criteria and get back to the board.

By Laws:  Article II, Section 2.1 – the address should be P.O. box 151165, Lakewood, CO 80215.

Article III Section 3.1 – no change.

Section 3.2 – annual meeting – change to second Wednesday in January.

Section 3.3 – Monthly meeting needs to be second Wednesday of the month.

Section 3.10—Written ballots –add electronic ballot. 

Janet moved that we accept the changes/additions mentioned above; Andrew seconded. All approved.                   

Janet gave a report on monthly meetings….3 things to be done. She would like to focus on venues, and have someone else finding a speaker and work on networking. We need to have an agenda for each meeting/time line to follow. We need to stay on task. Bottom line is that there needs to be more people working on the meetings. We agree that Biz Bites are important, and we should have a business speaker. 

Discussed the decals that Joe Aiello had printed…they were put out at the Oct. meeting, and people took them.  There is some dispute about how much to pay for them…we actually did not approve this in advance. Janet will research how much he said they would be. Gina will contact the printer to discuss the invoice.

Andrew announced that because of a baby coming in January, he feels he must step down as president at the end of this year. 

Meeting adjourned at 5:20.