Minutes: May 2014 meeting

[Christel Manning]

The Economic Development group met on Monday, May 12, 2014, from 6 – 7 pm at 333 Front Street. Present: Christel Manning, Deiniz Costa, Lee Cruz, Carlos Galo, David Hunter.

Items discussed:

Soup Night: The last weekend of the month is Memorial Day, so many people may be away. Therefore Soup night will be on Sunday, June 1. Christel & Stewart will host at their home on Front Street.

Debriefing Riverfest 2014. It was awesome!!!! The weather was perfect, and we almost doubled attendance again. The cops estimated 700+ people, and QRWA counted 110 people went out in canoes. The food was great, the bands were fabulous, the beer tasting was a hit, as were the children’s activities and the magician. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen!

Ideas for making it even better next year:

1. The boat ramp needs to be cleaned of loose gravel before the event (somebody slipped and fell).
2. QRWA was short staffed, so they felt a bit overwhelmed by the crowds, plus they were unable to spare a man to let us know about the boat ramp. We need to have regular check-ins with them, say every 30 minutes from beginning to end of event. The city also has a canoeing program with trained staff, we can try to get some of them to help out at our event.
3. The beer being offered for tasting was not available for sale. Kevin Anastasio claimed the distributors would not provide it. Next year we will ask the breweries to provide it directly.
4. Start process early to get city to pay for porta-potty. Carlos had called them, but they didn’t respond until too late, so Kevin ended up paying for the cop.
5. Get CJ to connect his sound system to that of the band when he does his magic show during the music breaks. That way everyone can hear him, not just the kids. Also, encourage him to bring stuff the kids can touch.
6. Add a couple more children’s activities. The kids tables (Sheila’s crafts project and Clymenza’s face painting) were mobbed, as were the canoes.
7. Some Mary Wade Home residents felt there was no place for them to sit, even though we had a designated, shaded area for them. We should publicize existence of shade tent for elderly visitors; also ask MWH to provide extra chairs.
8. Kevin complained that our attendance estimate (500-1000) was higher than the actual estimate, which he claimed was around 400, and therefor he had food left over. Given the police estimate, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. And if there was food left, it wasn’t very much (Stu related the cook commenting on his food purchase, saying “these are the last two hot dogs”).  It’s unclear how to deal with this, since we don’t want to run out of food. If Kevin participates again next year, he will likely rely on this year’s turnout, which would probably be ok.
9. There was some discussion of encouraging more diversity in our audience. We would like to see more people from Fair Haven attend, and we will continue to reach out to local leaders to help make that happen. That said, we also need to appreciate Riverfest’s success in drawing people from outside the neighborhood. CSNA does several events, and some of these like the Easter Egg Hunt or the Fall Festival draw predominantly people from the neighborhood. Our events have different purposes, and part of Riverfest’s design (with craft beer tasting, hip bands, etc.) is to give our neighborhood a more positive image to the outside, and encourage people who would not normally visit here to come to Fair Haven. 
10. Buy a clicker counter to get more accurate head count.
11. Ask Donna (who live next door to Christel on Front Street) to get involved in Riverfest planning. She and her husband Rob are fabulous at organizing large parties, and would surely have useful input.
12. Invite a few more water related or environmental groups to set up tables.