Three candidates were nominated to fill a vacant seat on the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce board during their regular board meeting, Oct. 3. After discussing existing by-laws, which eliminated one candidate who was still on their one year off, the board voted to include Susan Littlefield, a sales representative with The Papers Inc., on the board.

Littlefield’s term on the board will conclude at the end of next year.

Chamber Executive Director Tammy Cotton updated the board on the Indiana Main Street program, noting she and town manager Henry DeJulia had begun sending out six-question surveys to downtown businesses in order to gauge the level of interest for the program. The downtown area is the only area eligible for the state program, which is aimed at revitalizing downtown areas.

Cotton stressed the chamber was not providing preferential treatment to the downtown area over the village, stating the state decides who qualifies for the program. Cotton added, “If we would find a program that the village would qualify for, we would look into that, too.”

Treasurer Allison Robie went over the performance history of the Legacy Fund, noting the fund values had decreased and scholarships had been distributed without putting additional funds in. After examining, the table and graphs, Matt Schwartz voiced that the numbers presented did not match what he had. Schwartz then motioned for the topic to be tabled until next month so he could bring in his numbers.

While on the topic of the Legacy Fund, several board members expressed interest in returning to the practice of putting 10 percent of profits earned from fundraisers back into the Legacy Fund; the previous practice had been put on hold during the recession.

The topic was tabled until November.

The chamber will be having several events in the near future and Cotton stated those events still need volunteers. The first will be the Syracuse Fall Harvest Festival, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 13, which will be followed by the Fall Carnival, Oct. 20, Holiday Magic, Nov. 17, and Winter Carnival, Jan. 26. The chamber’s annual dinner banquet, Jan. 29, was also discussed with Sylvia Gargett stating they have already received three bids for the catering.

In other chamber news:

• Chamber intern Emily Harden will be staying on for another trimester.
• Board members approved Village Key. The board also hopes to use the program as a means to personally connect with chamber members and get their input on what they would like to see from the chamber.
• Rental rates for individuals to hold meetings in the chamber office were decided as well. Chamber members will be charged $10 per hours while non-chamber members will pay $25 per hour. At this time, the chamber office will not be available for rental during the weekend, except for at the discretion of Cotton.
• Networking luncheons will be resuming shortly with chamber Vice President Richard Owens slated to give a pre-planning seminar sometime in November.
• The chamber finance committee, consisting of Owens, Schwartz and Tom Tuttle, will begin meeting to prepare the chamber’s budget for the next year.
• Omega Computer Solutions was approved as a chamber member by the board. Cotton also noted Interra Credit Union had also joined, she just did not have their paperwork yet; the board will then vote to approve Interra during their November meeting.

Next meeting is scheduled for noon Nov. 7 at the chamber’s office.