Warren Main Street Meetin
May 13th, 2011 6 PM
Warren Main Street Office, Second Avenue, Warren, PA
Meeting opened with a discussion of upcoming area events and our group establishing Event Coordinators to work with the Community Event Organizers and Warren Main Street businesses to plan and set goals that will help Businesses make the most of the events by capitalizing on the additional traffic in the area.
Upcoming Area Events Discussed Include:
Civil War
May 19, 20, & 21, 2011
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, May 19, 20, & 21, 2011 @ 8:00 PM & Sunday, May 22, 2011 @ 2:00 PM- Servants of the Wind and 150th Civil War Living History Event
Those in attendance discussed of how to connect with those attending each event. The group agreed that we would all put American Flags outside of our businesses to show that we are supportive of the event. We will ask for the parchment flyer/poster from the Library Theatre to hang in our windows. Each business would do other activities to connect with and support the event. Author’s Book Store is hosting Abraham Lincoln who will speak and sign his books.
Event Contact Person: Sue Spencer Struther’s Library Theater
Gus Macker
June 3rd - 6th
Gus Macker
June 3rd - 6th
Warren County has succeeded in it effort to bring Gus Macker 3 vs 3 basketball tournament to our area. Gus Macker is a nationally recognized 3 vs 3 tournament circuit that attracts thousands of players and spectators. If you are interested in offering a discount (such as specials, percentages off of sales, buy one get one free, etc.), please submit to Melissa Anderson no later than Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by email at manderson@wccbi.org or by calling 723-3050.
The group discussed of the opportunity to advertise special offers to participants of the tournament. The group expressed disappointment in WCCBI’s choice to have the tournament away from the downtown area. We would like to see the tournament held in downtown in the future.
GeoWoodstock IX July 2nd 2011
Those in attendance discussed ideas for connecting with GeoWoodstock participants and their families while they are in Warren.
The ideas discussed included:
~Creating a Warren GeoWoodstock Coin to sell and give away.
~Hiding Caches in the Main Street Area
~Advertise using our GPS Coordinates
~Meeting with PA Wilds as soon as possible to hear the information that she can provide.
~Putting signs and/or the GeoWoodstock logo in our store windows.
Coordinator for Main Street Businesses: Brad Watt
Planning Committee (So Far): Piper Lindell, Pricilla Breese
Rib Fest July 20- 23rd
Discuss plans for the vendors to serve lunches in the Main Street Area during RibFest to accommodate people working in downtown Warren who do not have time to drive to Betts Park over their lunch break.
Discuss plans for the vendors to serve lunches in the Main Street Area during RibFest to accommodate people working in downtown Warren who do not have time to drive to Betts Park over their lunch break.
This idea was discussed at the meeting with some in attendance stating that they believe that bringing pre-prepared to go lunches into the center of downtown on the week days of Rib Fest will harm the lunch business of the area restaurants and will not bring shoppers into to the downtown to support the area retail businesses, all of which seems to go against what Warren Main Street should be doing for the downtown businesses. Others were undecided.
Jen Rossey, Warren Main Street Manager expressed support for this event to be held in the street, stating that it will only disrupt business for the Main Street Restaurants for three days. The group discussed that they would like to have the entire event moved back to the Main Street area where it attracts entire and couples who will eat and drink at other area restaurants/bars as well as shop. It was stated that bringing in pre-prepared to go lunches would only benefit the Ribbers.
It was agreed that we would discuss further at our next meeting on Tuesday May 23rd at 6:30 PM at Allegheny Outfitters.
Boonies International Film Festival August 17-20, 2011
The organizers are looking for sponsor/advertisers and have stopped in to speak with area business owners. Julie Streich provided a handout with sponsorship/advertising levels and suggested checking out the website. It looks like an interesting event.
Community Promotions in the Works:
July 4th Weekend Block Party
The Brick House owner and manager spoke about their progress with the event that they have planned for July 2nd on Liberty Street. They are working to secure approval for the event from city council. They reported that many of the event details have already been discussed and are in place. We agreed that we look forward to hearing more about the Brick House 2nd of July block party.
Warren Main Street Promotional Ideas:
Warren Main Street Promotional Ideas:
OktoberfestDiscuss and Start to Plan and form a committee. Julia would like to head up this committee and will begin the project by meeting with WCCBI to see if they would like to work together on this event and bring their event held at the Holiday Inn into the Main Street Area. She will provide updates as they are available.
Side Walk Days in September
Julia would like to Re-Start and Re-Vitalize Side Walk Days in September this year.
Open Houses during slower times of the year
It was discussed at this time there is no need to do an open house event with so many promotional activities set for the community.
Work Updates:
Farmer's Market- Julie Streich & Chris Cheronis
Julie reported that the Warren Farmer’s Market Board of Directors is re-organizing. Julie and Chris will present a plan to move the Farmer’s Market onto Liberty Street when the New board is organized at their first meeting. Julie states that she has spoken with local officials who state that closing off Liberty Street on Summer Saturday mornings will not be a problem and is something that they can support. It is anticipated that the Farmer’s Market will open this summer in June rather than in July as it did last year the hours of 7 am til Noon are anticipated to remain the same. But no one knows for sure until the new board is organized and functioning.
Farmer's Market- Julie Streich & Chris Cheronis
Julie reported that the Warren Farmer’s Market Board of Directors is re-organizing. Julie and Chris will present a plan to move the Farmer’s Market onto Liberty Street when the New board is organized at their first meeting. Julie states that she has spoken with local officials who state that closing off Liberty Street on Summer Saturday mornings will not be a problem and is something that they can support. It is anticipated that the Farmer’s Market will open this summer in June rather than in July as it did last year the hours of 7 am til Noon are anticipated to remain the same. But no one knows for sure until the new board is organized and functioning.
Map of Main Street Area - Ines Nelson & Pam McGarry
Pam reported that she and Ines are working on two map/directories that will be legal size and could be printed at the Main Street Office. One for Shopping & Dining that would also include services that visitors would be looking for. Another map/directory would be put together Services such as legal, financial, counseling and repairs.
Services
Face Book to "connect" all of our businesses and announce events
Julia set up a new Main Street Face Book page. We discussed the upcoming Face Book workshop that WCCBI is offering at the Hampton Inn on June 7th from 9 AM to Noon. Free to Members and $15 for Non-Members.
Jeanne Berry from the Brick House spoke about their success in drawing 10,000 people to their Face Book Page over the last few weeks. She said that several staff members have administrative privileges to update the site and that they feel as though it is a good advertising tool to draw in their customers along with new customers.
Suggestions that Came from Board Officers Meeting with Main St. Manager and GRO-
Warren Executive Director:
Warren Executive Director:
1. Establish Block Captains to spread the word about upcoming promotions and activities to all of the businesses on their block.
a. This idea was discussed with input from the group, it was determined that email communication along with Face Book is an effective means of staying in contact with Main Street Business Owners. There still may be times when we go out to talk with business owners or distribute flyers for a special event, but in general keeping everyone up-to-date can be accomplished through email.
Open Positions on the Warren Main Street Board of Directors:1). Treasurer
Darren Lobdell Owner of the Brick House was nominated by Brad Watt,
with Julie Streich seconding the nomination.
with Julie Streich seconding the nomination.
2). Minimum of Two Board Member Openings available for a Main Street Business Owner who would like to step up to fill a vacant position.
~No new board members were established. We agreed that the board would work to recruit at least two new members to complete the board.
A closed board meeting was discussed to be held in the next week to discuss promotional events and the organization as a whole. The Board will evaluate the Warren Main Street Program (What progress has been made over the years and where do we want to go from here).
Items Not Discussed:
Board Officers Met on May 10th with Main Street Manager and Gro-Warren Executive Director
Schedule meeting with Bill Fontana, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Downtown on either Tuesday June 14 or Wednesday June 15.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Warren Main St. reorganizes
May 6, 2011
, The Times Observer
Business owners have formed a new Warren Main Street Board of Directors.
The board elected officers on April 29. President Julia Tarr of Phase Two said she joined since she is new to the community and sees many positive possibilities for downtown.
"I feel there is a strong need for the long, established businesses and the new entrepreneurs to come together to promote and help grow the downtown area," Tarr said. "I'm excited to work with this organization because I believe in its vision."
According to Tarr, she looks forward to bringing a positive energy to Warren Main Street. With cooperation, she said she believes the group's goals can easily be achieved.
Board Vice President Brad Watt of Watt Office Supply said he will work to bring more traffic downtown. As a business owner, he said he wanted to be a part of the group.
"We want to have a few more events to bring people downtown," Watt said. "We think Ribfest is a great event."
To replicate Ribfest's success, Watt said he would like to see something year-round for people to look forward to. This will involve more events, he said, such as the Christmas Walk.
Tarr said she would like to see more storefronts developed. In addition, she said she wants to see more businesses developed downtown to include specialty boutiques.
"We need to embrace the art industry we have here," Tarr said. "There's a lot of great local talent."
Forming a board with fellow business owners makes sense, Tarr said, since the planning and promoting of events directly impacts their businesses. She said she will work with local businesses to come up with new ideas.
With actual business owners as members, Watt said the board will have more at stake. He said he believes there will be a greater focus on marketing and planning events than in years past.
Topics discussed at the first meeting of the new board were events coming to the City of Warren and Warren County, of which business owners need to be aware, in order to take advantage of the tourists coming into the area for the events.
They include the May 19 - 22 150th Civil War Living History event.
On July 2, 6000 people from all over the world will be in Warren County for GeoWoodstock IX at the Warren County Fairgrounds.
In other matters business owners brought up the topic of the tables and chairs that are being purchased by the Streetscape Project, the necessity of having a map of the downtown area, and working with the Farmer's Market to promote business downtown on Saturday. The Board brainstormed about many other ideas for promoting shopping in downtown Warren.
The next meeting of the Board will take place on May 13 at 6 p.m. in the Main Street office.
Organizations having local events are encouraged to let the Main Street office (814) 723-1360 know of date and time so business owners can enhance the event with special activities in their businesses.
The board elected officers on April 29. President Julia Tarr of Phase Two said she joined since she is new to the community and sees many positive possibilities for downtown.
"I feel there is a strong need for the long, established businesses and the new entrepreneurs to come together to promote and help grow the downtown area," Tarr said. "I'm excited to work with this organization because I believe in its vision."
According to Tarr, she looks forward to bringing a positive energy to Warren Main Street. With cooperation, she said she believes the group's goals can easily be achieved.
Board Vice President Brad Watt of Watt Office Supply said he will work to bring more traffic downtown. As a business owner, he said he wanted to be a part of the group.
"We want to have a few more events to bring people downtown," Watt said. "We think Ribfest is a great event."
To replicate Ribfest's success, Watt said he would like to see something year-round for people to look forward to. This will involve more events, he said, such as the Christmas Walk.
Tarr said she would like to see more storefronts developed. In addition, she said she wants to see more businesses developed downtown to include specialty boutiques.
"We need to embrace the art industry we have here," Tarr said. "There's a lot of great local talent."
Forming a board with fellow business owners makes sense, Tarr said, since the planning and promoting of events directly impacts their businesses. She said she will work with local businesses to come up with new ideas.
With actual business owners as members, Watt said the board will have more at stake. He said he believes there will be a greater focus on marketing and planning events than in years past.
Topics discussed at the first meeting of the new board were events coming to the City of Warren and Warren County, of which business owners need to be aware, in order to take advantage of the tourists coming into the area for the events.
They include the May 19 - 22 150th Civil War Living History event.
On July 2, 6000 people from all over the world will be in Warren County for GeoWoodstock IX at the Warren County Fairgrounds.
In other matters business owners brought up the topic of the tables and chairs that are being purchased by the Streetscape Project, the necessity of having a map of the downtown area, and working with the Farmer's Market to promote business downtown on Saturday. The Board brainstormed about many other ideas for promoting shopping in downtown Warren.
The next meeting of the Board will take place on May 13 at 6 p.m. in the Main Street office.
Organizations having local events are encouraged to let the Main Street office (814) 723-1360 know of date and time so business owners can enhance the event with special activities in their businesses.
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