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Initial contact with Spencer was made through Nathan
Krämer and Bob Krogh on
January 10. (Bob and Spencer's wife have conman relatives.) Spencer
had offered to come to Blair to speak with the BHPA, community leaders, and interested
members of the public about Blair History and Historic Preservation.
Nathan requested of the President that the BHPA accept this offer.
It was hoped that the program would generate more interest in and enthusiasm
for the general history of Blair, help develop broad based awareness and
support for the BHPA, and stimulate citizens into action in a
productive direction.
Publicity
News releases: Ann George wrote the news release and made arrangement with
the Blair Enterprise to have the news release published. A 6" column article
appeared in the Tuesday, February 4th edition of the Pilot-Tribune, page
5A-- People section.
Emails: Preliminary emails were sent to the core membership as soon as the date
was finalized. On February 5th, an email that included information from
the news release was sent all email addresses on our "Mailing
List," plus to the addresses of civic leaders.
Printing: 150 postcards were printed (4 per 8 1/2 by 11-inch card stock
paper), 60 posters were printed, $16.60 paid to Pounds Printing (donated by Nathan
Krämer). Nathan did the design and layout for the printing with the assistance
of Ann George.
Posters: Posters were hung up by Tom Kranda around town -- mostly in the downtown
area.
Postcards: 122 postcards were sent out. Postage was donated by
Marcelyn Lund and Nathan
Krämer. Marclyn labeled, stamped and sent cards on Feb. 2 (10 days before
the event).
After the event, Ann George notified the newspaper about the success of
the event and offered digital photographs taken by NK for the newspaper's
use. A photo and cut line was published in the Tuesday, February 18,
newspaper.
Venue
After the January meeting, Dawn Nielsen had originally reserved the library meeting room for a program
and meeting. Nathan changed the time to 7:00 and confirmed the details.
(The library staff happened to also be planning a Valentine's Day Storytime in the
library. Because the BHPA had already reserved the room, they scheduled
their program for the City Chambers. Later, Mayor Jim Realph suggested that the
City Chambers were larger and the program might be moved. NK made the decision
to stay in the library because publicity was already out. There were
42 chairs and two 8' banquet tables in the room. The room was set up
by Ed Jipp and Tom Kranda. The room was placed back into order by the
members of the Alliance.
Refreshments
Ann George, Dawn Nielsen, and
Ed Jipp had volunteered to bring cookies (several other members also brought
cookies to the event as well.) There was a slight mix-up in the arrangements
for the coffee things, but we managed to have coffee and cups anyway. After the
program, people were invited to have refreshments as they socialized.
Information and Handouts
A table was set up in the back of the room near the door. It held
walking tour brochures, website address cards, membership sign-up forms
and a display board of pictures of nominated properties for the Registry
program. There were a number of people who indicated an interest in
becoming a member by completing a membership form.
Notes of the Program
About fifty-five people were in attendance for the "standing room only" event.
Spencer gave an overview of the history of Blair and Washington County.
He stated that he was encouraged by the formation and size of our group.
He felt Blair does have historic interest and would like to see a museum
for people coming through to learn about the area. Other suggestions
included signifying historic districts. He didn't know if Blair would qualify for the
Lied Main Street program. He said there should be a place to house archives and
historic collections and that if people know it is going to a safe place they
would be
willing to give their documents etc.
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