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Highlights of Post Winterfest Meeting 2007
Lou’s Comments: Winterfest was a huge success despite revenue being down 15%-20%. Most of that due to not only the fact of having to close three nights but also the economy Lou got to talk to a lot of people (exit poll) as he manned the parking lot. Everyone said it was an excellent show, wonderful for kids and everyone seemed to have a great time. Everyone from the museum did a great job and we all agree we need to advertise more. Some TV channels gave us great coverage. This is our jumping off point for 2008 while recapping 2007 The way the bus dropped off passengers was a huge improvement as they were dropped off at the walkway. There were a couple nights we were tight on parking when there was no bus There were no derailments this year The meeting was then open for all to make comments and
ideas: Carolyn Levesque mentioned that some groups were upset when asked to park at the Cinemas to take the shuttle. Carol Z. said she would make sure that is told to them when they book. George Morris overheard some people complain that they had to wait a long time for the trolley ride. We need a better staging area. Discussion was had as to whether to charge extra for Car 4 or
to maybe charge for additional rides on that car. Maybe use an extra ticket or an extra dollar
for a second ride (money to be put toward maintenance of the car) or maybe
increase the price of Wintefest admission.
It was decided to advertise more and try to increase rider ship. Ken Holloway has volunteered to take charge
of an advertising plan and budget for 2008.
He will work with Carol Z. Marie
Lettelier and George Contrada will also help out. Ken stated that we tend to ignore our
neighbors to the North, concentrating our efforts on the Larry Lunden mentioned that maybe people were getting the wrong info when they were sent out of the giftshop. Everyone MUST get to the end of the line for Car 4. It was decided we need a “starter’ and a better staging area, maybe by the little ticket booth as not to interfere with operations of the other trolleys. Brian O’Leary said that he ran Car 1850 opposite Car 4 and that seemed to keep customers happy and shortened their wait for an “open” car. George Contrada said that should be the last choice for cars to be used during Winterfest. Everyone agrees that we need a “WOW” factor to increase admission. Lou stated that our finances don’t allow us to advertise as much as we would like. Marie Lettelier said we “dropped” the ball by not having the advertising booklet this year. Lou explained that we need more people to help out and we need volunteers to take over some of these projects. Marie will contact some companies to ask for donations, either to sponsor events or to be contacted later this year for an ad in the Winterfest booklet. George Contrada said we need to add something more to the booklet other than just ads. Carol Z said that our webmaster had volunteered to help out any way he could; he was going to insert info pages, little tidbits of trivia...different things to make the booklet something people wanted to keep. It was said that people walked from the front door to the door of the VC and were handing the booklets back. Lou said we should also put a membership application, volunteer opportunity sign up sheet and a guest operator info sheet inside. Ken said another big problem was the parking lot; we need to get some gravel and do something about the path from the VC and the area where the cars load and unload passengers. People don’t like to deal with the mud. Chris Chestnut said we need to build the volunteer base. We should also investigate buying or renting commercial lightening displays. Lou said he had some info on that (which he could not find at the time) but they run about $1500. We need to add things to the front yard to draw attention to passer bys and maybe a small committee should be put together now to plan for next Winterfest. Marie and others mentioned that we need to add things down the line for not only Winterfest, but also for Pumpkin Patch…simple shadow cutouts made of wood and painted black would at least add interest. Marie also said that she met with a woman from radio station 92.5 and unless we pay for advertising, there was little the woman could do to help us. She did say that the radio station goes to different openings and events and maybe we could give them free admission passes, that way they will be announcing us as they give out the passes…one form of advertising that cost us nothing. She will be working with Carol on this idea. Galen stated we need more people to step up and lead and we also need a board that is more active. Chris Chestnut said he would like to have an “open house of the shop” for all volunteers and members and he would like to have it the same day as the Annual meeting. Everyone thought it was a good idea. Lou said that one of the best ways we have to promote the museum is by our operators talking to the customers, which they have been doing. He also said that in the summer of 2000 we couldn’t get 25 people in this organization together, now we are all actually working together. We need to get outside people involved more, some groups like the unions that have to do so many hours of community service a year. We need to have someone to go out and talk to these people. Larry agreed with Galen that we need more leaders. He has people who want to volunteer but he has no one to send them to. He knows that he can send people for the shop to Chris or Galen but what is the status to operations, track, grounds and the inside of the building. Ken and Sheila both said operations should be sent to them. Lou said the organizational chart is almost done and then you will know exactly who to send them to. Borrup Road being down for 3 weeks is an example of a problem, reports were written but when the work is not done, we need to know who to call to say just that….the problem has not been fixed. Marie advised everyone that this year is the 100th birthday of the dining car and would like to use that in advertising. Lou said we have a lot of those around here. Lou asked for volunteers to head up all the events for 2008. (list is attached) He asked Carol to put that list on the website (members section) and also to post it in the member’s room so people who want to volunteer will know who to go to. Some discussion was had about the new sign for in front of the museum and whether it should be moved or not. Lou made another list of things that should be done for Winterfest throughout the year (also attached) so we don’t leave everything till the last minute. The meeting broke up at about 12:10 with different groups discussing the Amherst Train show and some operators had to leave the meeting at 11:30 for their own meeting.
Carol Zenczak |
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2008 Event Chairpersons
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Amherst Train Show |
2008 George Contrada 2009 Chris Chestnut |
Volunteer Dinner |
Lou Grimaldi |
Easter Egg Grab Bag |
Carol Zenczak |
Annual Meeting |
Lou Grimaldi |
Shop Open House |
Chris Chestnut |
Railfan Weekend (June) |
Xian Clere |
Free Museum Day |
Carol Zenczak |
Day of Caring (Sept) |
Larry Lunden |
Railfan Weekend (Sept) |
Tim Lesniak |
Booth @ Big E |
Lou Grimaldi |
Pow Wow |
Lou Grimaldi |
Rails to the Darkside |
2008 Chris Chestnut 2009 Galen Semprebon |
Night of the Haunted |
John Airel |
Pumpkin Patch |
Carol Zenczak |
Winterfest |
Carol Zenczak |
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