Alderson Main Street Monthly Meeting Minutes

Alderson Main Street Minutes July 20th 2023 Sheena Pendley Meeting Called to order - Don Sutherland Pledge of Allegiance Previous Minutes Were distributed via email - no comments Approved - Sophie, Snookie Treasurer’s Report Margaret is on vacation, will update next month Depot Visitor Numbers Don reported LOTS of visitors First Sat. July - 61, didn’t include bathroom visitors July 4th - 93 Sat. 1st Open Mic night 94 in attendance Booklet sales at the depot, merchandise sales were great. Old Business Bricktop concert - August 13th Scheduled and plans happening now. Don sorting canopy, etc and asked Terri if she would like to sell food. Confirmed with Susanna - per Doris. Susanna usually makes flyer - Sheena can post to facebook. Margaret will do a press release. Doris will look at church as a backup rain venue. Christmas Tea recipe book On hold - Doris Kasley, maybe will be ready to sell at Christmas tea event. Depot tile Don reported that depot tile is fixed. Needs more insulation, but is sufficient for the time being. Annual planning calendar. Don - no changes thus far. No new events. Information kiosks, River Plan. No change, we do need to remove 4th of July and put “Upcoming Events”. We need town to drill out lock for kiosk at Mini Park. Doris Kasley said - it looked nice and is noticeable driving by. We’ve added a town map into the first kiosk. Gallery move to Old Bank Building Will move in early September. Committee will discuss internal arrangement and design for track lighting and wall mounts. Don said they had a long talk with Bill about improvements that he will make to the building eventually. Window sills are rotting and need to be painted. One artist may rent upstairs office space. Bill will move stuff out of kitchen. Can still be used for AMS events. It is planned that they will have classes downstairs in the main gallery space. One room may be used mainly for workshops or rotate artists. Jo has put out a call for volunteers to help with cleaning, packing, and moving to the new space. They would like to be fully operational before the end of September, ready for the Fall Festival. Exterior Signage - Jo is going to make something similar to a banner that will go on the building. Sign bracket should move from Renaissance building to the Riverside building. Fall Festival planning meeting Don is speaking with Sonya about initial planning meeting, will be an evening through the week, TBD. Vendors on the bridge, activities around town. Fall Festival will be October 7th Maybe pet parade? Mary - Maybe lion in costume. Parade would go across the bridge. Maybe we could incorporate Girl Scouts or other groups of young people in possible history presentations of sorts, even in addition to the festival. We will do decorating of lamp posts again (competition), will keep theme of Fall/Harvest/Halloween and will need to last for 3 weeks. Don will provide instructions for the contest very soon. Music for festival: last year we had folks from open mic night. Anyone who has thoughts or ideas for Fall Festival, please reach out within the next 3 weeks! Discussion was brought up about the Shiloh church and its cemetery just out of town. It would be great to move forward with cleaning up and researching history about the people who are buried in the cemetery. Gazebo needs some work. AMS is responsible for materials, Don said there are people willing to do the work on it, or to help Don with it. Doris mentioned that our town economic comprehensive plan is due soon to plan ahead for the next 10 years. The committee meets the First Thurs of each month 3:30pm at town hall - Fawn Valentine is chair. Move to annual fund drive vs event by event sponsorship Fundraising could still happen for specific projects, but for general funding, instead of sponsorships for each festival, maybe something more streamlined. Maybe Friends of the Depot. Sheena has volunteered to develop a sponsorship program. Maybe an annual drive? How would we recognize sponsors, etc. Motion to approve a proposal for annual funding drive? Doris - would like to include - develop an annual fund drive that would not only target businesses, but also individuals. Doris Kasley motion to approve 2nd by Sophie Pace New Business: Rent office/file storage space in Gallery One of the offices upstairs at Riverside, Jo thinks could be used as an office (conference room). And for Alderson Main Street main headquarters. It would be $50/mo for AMS to use. Don has volunteered to pay for the fee to cover it. Moved - Doris Kasley Multiple 2nds - Sophie, Snookie, Sheena Next meeting: 17 Aug, Depot, 7:00 pm