Early Birds: Dick Anderson, Todd Anderson, and Mark Arnold (all with A’s) were the first to arrive this AM. We ended with 27 members whether online or in person.
Guests: John Quincy of Solomon Strategies Group was online.
Honorary Members: Karen Holtmeier, Ron Britz, Mark Simon, Dick Lindskoog, and Martin Peyer were in person or online.
Past President Chuck Shreffler brought the meeting to order with a ring of the bell and a moment of silence
Announcements
- Jerry Olson was the winner of “Win will we meet in person” contest. He had guessed July 15. BTW, thanks to Jerry for being the ZOOM host for our meetings online. And to Kelsey Knight for coordinating having ZOOM online at the Edina Country Club.
- President Jim Erickson’s straw poll for President was being circulated again today.
- Club VP- We are in need of a VP that will also serve as president next year from January thru June of 2021. Please contact Jim Erickson if interested.
- We have craft talk openings available August 19 and in October. Please contact Craig Blixrud to get on the calendar.
Business Updates
None today
Business Exchange
Doing business with each other is a hallmark of this club. Sharing today were Jim Christianson, Dick Anderson, Jerry Olson, Kristen Baas, Bob Alexander, Paul Ralles, and Matt Crane
Mini Craft Talks
Mark Arnold announced that Continental Diamond has been named Minnesota’s Jeweler of the year.
Neil Roers gave us a PPP program update. They are still issuing new PPP loans and the timeframe to expend the money has been extended. With the extensions in place, Midwest One is not working the forgiveness aspect very hard at this time. Neil also talked about a new program, Main Street Lending, where banks issue the loan and the FED requires the bank to hold only 10% of the loan amount and the FED will hold the rest.
Paul Ralles talked about the liquor business which has boomed during the Pandemic. Their busiest month ever was in May 2020. They are averaging around 300-550 Customers a day in the store with reduced hours. The property that Knollwood liquors leases has been sold to Bremer Bank and Paul expects that they will close the doors for good about 2 years from now.
Bill McReavy Jr. gave us an update on the funeral business. Deaths are up year over year and revenue is down a bit. They are doing funerals and memorial services both online and in person with social distancing and crowd size management.
Karen Holtmeier gave us and update on how her Optifast sales are going and a lesson she learned on getting her bike in and out of her car.
Mark Simon gave us an update on Lake Street from his and his neighboring business owners perspective. Mark sold his vacant lot on Chicago and Lake on March 13 and no longer owned any property in the area. There is only one business within a block open and that is a daycare. There is also a Dentists office being rebuilt. The rest of the area is still in a state of flux as to whether to rebuild or not.
Matt Crane passed on a warning about an email scam where a business is asked to change its bank routing info on their accounts payable by another business and that email was fraudulent. One business paid out $140K before the fraud was discovered.
Randy Korn bordered up his Nicollet Ave building for a couple weeks, did not have any riot damage, and has been busy all spring remodeling homes.
Please register to Jim Erickson with comments or suggestions for future meetings at jim@solomonssg.com or 612-325-3009.
Looking ahead
July 22- Five Star Painting @ECC and Virtual
July 29- St. Paul Saints @ CHS Field
August 5 – New American Funding @ ECC and Virtual