TONASKET – The Tonasket Visitor’s and Business Resource needs volunteers to help keep the center open and bring in volunteers.

During their meeting on Monday, Feb. 8, the TVBRC board discussed once again their need for volunteers.

“You must know the numbers are slow, it’s a really boring place to work and it’s really slow around here,” Sylvia Williams, center manager, said. “But, volunteers are crucial and if we could get them to bring friends, more people would come in. the sign is also crucial and that’s going to bring in more people. Also, when I’m outside is when I get the most visitor’s because they notice the center more.

The board also discussed different fundraising ideas. Vice President Connie Maden told the board about a Web site she’d found.

“The site allows you to put the link for Internet shopping at major retailers on your Web site and it doesn’t cost you anything,” Maden said.

She explained that the board members would encourage people to visit the TVBRC Web site and see what’s going on in the area and what’s new and while they’re there, they can click on a link that would take them to an online shopping mall full of different links to different retailers. The retailer Web sites would get a portion of the funds brought in by sales and the TVBRC would get a portion of the funds brought in by click-throughs. President Dave Kester opposed the idea, stating it discourages shopping local.

“I’m all into buying local, but if I can’t get it in town, I’ll go online,” Maden said.

Board member Jamie Hanson stated she thought the idea was a good one, especially to find things she can’t find within town, such as clothing, certain pet supplies and specialty items not found in town.

Kester suggested doing a different sort of auction than what’s been done in town. He said it is a slave-type auction where people would be bought to perform certain duties, such as cooking, cleaning, painting, car detailing, yard work, etc. He said people could volunteer to be sold and could also pay a small fee to put their friends on the list to be sold. If their friends didn’t want to be sold, they would have to pay a small fee to have their name removed from the list. Hanson said it wasn’t a good idea to allow people to put others on the list, since not everyone would want to participate.

Hanson then mentioned a fundraising idea she’d been part of before, in which people would volunteer to be put “in jail” and others would have to pay money to one can to let the person out or to another can to keep the person in. Maden also suggested a fundraiser where people would bid for the privilege to throw a pie in a volunteer’s face.

While the board discussed each of these fundraisers in length, they did not make any decisions on when or if they would follow through with any of them.

The board also discussed the center and the perimeters of the grant which allowed it to begin.

“At the last city council meeting, concern was expressed that we aren’t meeting the terms of the grant,” Maden said.

“We are operating exactly to the terms of the grant except not to the extreme Patrick Walter wanted us to go,” Kester said.

Williams said she has done everything for free that she could find to do for the business portion of the center, such as workshops and advertising. Hanson suggested utilizing the local radio stations to broadcast Public Service Announcements in order to give the center more publicity and perhaps bring more people into the center.

Finally, during the financial report, Kester said the center still owes $1,674.25 for the holiday lights but will give up on raising funds for them for the time being. Fund raising efforts will be picked up again later in the year or next year. He also said the board has raised the funds needed to have the sign made, but not enough to do anything electrical with it or anything else of the sort.

The next meeting will be on Monday, March 8 at 5 p.m. at the TVBRC.