[OMS_MANAGERS] How are Oregon Main Streets handling Halloween and annual meetings?

Wed Sep 15 15:53:07 PDT 2021

Such great advice today! Hope everyone checks out Lise’s link to Albany Alley – super cool! Love the “art dumpsters” 😊

From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> On Behalf Of Lise Grato
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 3:40 PM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] How are Oregon Main Streets handling Halloween and annual meetings?

Halloween - We haven’t made a decision yet about 2021 Downtown Trick or Treat in Albany. It’s traditionally held the Saturday morning before Halloween (or on Halloween if it’s a Saturday). The majority of Downtown businesses participate and hand out candy on the sidewalk outside their stores. We have always discouraged inviting the kids into businesses as it is normally too tight and hard to manage kids and regular customers in the same space. It’s pretty much a “mall crawl” situation. A few years ago, we changed our crowded costume contest to a FB vote adding photo booths. That worked out well for us last year. We offered photos most of the week after school and later one evening to accommodate working parents. That spread out folks timewise and easily made it COVID-friendly. We had NO activities on the traditional Saturday.

Annual Meeting  - We don’t have an annual meeting. For the past few years, we have combined our quarterly Building & Business Owner Mixer with a local Excellence in Downtown Albany awards ceremony. This is usually held a few weeks before OMS and our local winners go to OMS to see if they won (yes, we keep it a surprise and get them to drive to the awards before they know!!) This year we are looking at an outdoor event at Albany Alley<http://www.albanydowntown.com/albanyalley>, our new seasonal, weekend dining space. We hope the weather holds.

Thank you,

Lise Grato
Executive Director
Albany Downtown Association
126 SW Ferry Street
Albany, OR 97321

Email: director at albanydowntown.com<mailto:director at albanydowntown.com>
Phone: (541) 928-2469
Cell: (541) 905-2908

From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov>> On Behalf Of Condon Chamber of Commerce
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 11:52 AM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] How are Oregon Main Streets handling Halloween and annual meetings?

Hi!!!!

We coordinate our Trick or Treat Main Street event with our school and their Class Parties.
We reached out to our local businesses, and they too favored doing the event during regular business hours.

Our event will be held on Thursday October 28th 3-5:30 pm. All participating businesses will have a representative outside their businesses to hand out treats.

K'Lynn Lane
Condon Chamber of Commerce, Executive Director
Proudly Serving Gilliam, Sherman & Wheeler Counties
[Condon Chamber of Commerce]
541-384-7777
311 S. Main Street
Condon, OR 97823
https://www.condonchamber.org/
________________________________
From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov>> on behalf of W Darin Rutledge, Executive Director <darin at downtownklamathfalls.org<mailto:darin at downtownklamathfalls.org>>
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 11:49 AM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] How are Oregon Main Streets handling Halloween and annual meetings?

Our “Scarecrow Row” always happens the last Saturday in October (except last year, which was Halloween proper). There are a ton of Halloween events all over town, so we like to do it ahead of the holiday – plus, having it on a Saturday in conjunction with Farmer’s Market makes it easy for downtown businesses to prepare and plan.

As for the Annual Meeting, ours is usually in February, but we opted for a virtually-presented annual meeting this year. Our Chamber just canceled their 100th anniversary gala event scheduled for 9/25 – they are planning to move it to the January timeframe, as are a couple of other local indoor events.

Good luck!
D

From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov>> on behalf of Director LGMSD <director at lagrandemainstreet.org<mailto:director at lagrandemainstreet.org>>
Reply-To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>>
Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 11:17 AM
To: OMS List <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>>
Subject: [OMS_MANAGERS] How are Oregon Main Streets handling Halloween and annual meetings?

Hello everyone,

In today's Board meeting, we discussed a couple of upcoming events, and were wondering how other Oregon Main Streets are handling them.

The first is Halloween; we're confident in doing our usual trick-or-treat event, as it's completely outdoors. But Halloween is on a Sunday this year, when almost all of our Downtown Businesses are closed. So, in your communities, are you having your event on Halloween itself? On Saturday, when offices are still closed? Or on Friday, when all Downtown businesses would be open?

The second is our annual meeting. We usually conduct this as a banquet, contracting with a local restaurant or caterer and having a dinner followed by a dessert auction fundraiser. Our COVID numbers are not great, so there is some trepidation among the board with having the event as we normally do. What are you all looking at in terms of an annual meeting?

Thanks,

Taylor Scroggins, Executive Director
La Grande Main Street Downtown
102 Depot St
Office 541-963-1223
Cell 541-975-4591
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