Election of Jopling, Manning fills out Chamber Board

Sandy Jopling and Bonnie Manning were elected to the Devine Chamber of Commerce Board during a meeting held last Thursday, February 4.
Manning was elected to the Treasurer position vacated by Denise Unger, while Jopling will serve as a Member-at-Large. They join President Marcus Buckner, Vice President Margaret Greehey, Secretary Shirl Grego, and Members-at-Large Cindy Morales and Sandy Herrera.
Prior to the elections, Unger provided Chamber financials current to December 31, 2020, which included $8,507.04 in deposits and $9,259.18 in charges.
The charges included annual payments to State Farm and the U.S. Post Office for insurance and a post office box, respectively, as well as a $1,874.92 payment to Summit Landscape for painting and re-planting the concrete planters that line the edge of the library and community center parking lot. That cost was partially offset by a $1,500 donation from Medina Electric.
Unger also provided a financial breakdown of the 2019 Fall Festival, which saw a profit of $2,403.77 off of $30,538.84 in income and $28,135.07 in expenses.
Income came from booth rentals, donations from the City of Devine and Medina Electric, sponsorships, credit card transactions, and cash deposits including a percentage of money made by the carnival.
“And then I found the cash deposits for t-shirts,” Unger said. “And I know some other deposits and things came in, but like we were saying last time [at the January meeting], the shortcoming of the bank statement is the deposit slips, you don’t see everything that’s on them.
“So we’ll try to do a better job of writing our receipts this year for the deposits, so we know exactly what, when, and where.”
Manning relayed a message from Pat Bourcier of Crux Technologies, who initially designed the Chamber’s current website for $100.00 at the request of former President Phillip Fitch.
“Mr. Bourcier said he communicated with Marcus Buckner early in his presidency to give him the login information and make updates as needed, offered to help in any way at no cost if the website needed to be updated or rebuilt in the future,” Manning said. “Mr. Bourcier said he was very surprised to read in the Devine News that Marcus intended to redo a whole new website, because he had not been contacted to update the website or give a bid to do the website.
“Mr. Bourcier wants to let the Chamber Board know that going forward, he is happy to offer his website programming services continually, and in the future would likely offer a zero-dollar bid to redo our website if it is needed to help the Chamber, possibly in exchange for a membership.”
Greehey reminded those present that a subcommittee consisting of herself, Morales, Chris Henderson, and Uhday Bhagat was reviewing the Chamber’s bylaws.
“So we’re going to hopefully have most of it done maybe by next month’s meeting if anyone is interested, anybody has any input,” Greehey said. “We are open, we’re here, the more the merrier. If you want to join you’re more than welcome, just let us know.”
By Marly Davis
Staff Writer