Tuesday, December 30, 2008

New Year, New Resolutions

Hi everyone. ReStore Marietta has been outwardly quiet this past few weeks, but we continue to work hard behind the scenes. Our new year begins in January and we have some new board members as well. (see below).

Our promotions committee has been working to set the date for this year's Catfish Derby Days as well as working on another community event idea dealing with art and antiques. We are excited and will share more soon!

Our executive committee continues to meet with MAMA, Friends of Front Street and Harmar Merchants to talk about pooling resources. We hope that by spring we should have a plan to do so.

We've had several new members join the organization and look forward to working with each of them this year. We hope you'll consider joining us as well!

Our board will meet mid-January to do planning for the year. We'll be updating our strategic plan and outlining some specific actions to take with the CDBG funds the city has generously provided us. And, we continue to make movement in the direction of Main Street affiliation.

Keep posted, we'll be updating this a little more frequently this year. Happy New Year!


ReStore Board:

Jennifer Offenberger, President
Tony Baldwin, Vice President
Karen Briley, Secretary
Mike Iaderosa, Treasurer

Members: Charlotte Keim, Hilles Hughes, Andy Thompson, Chuck Swaney, Keith Malone. Charmel Wesel is recording secretary.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Annual Meeting

Hi everyone! Tomorrow is ReStore Marietta's Annual Meeting.

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008
7:30 - 8:30 a.m.
Lafayette Hotel

Please attend and learn what we've accomplished this year...and get a preview of next year! We've got some exciting news and it's time for you to have input. Anyone is welcome and can vote if they bring their membership dues. We have three openings on the board with four candidates running, or you can write in a vote if you wish. We'll also be voting on amending our bylaws in two areas. The first is to amend them so that our fiscal year will frun from January 1 to December 30 to coincide with governmental funding. The second is to amend the term of office to the same fiscal year calendar - Jan 1 - Dec. 31.

As a reminder, dues are as follows, made payable to ReStore Marietta:

Business, Professional, Commercial Property Owner: $100
Associate member (same as above outside of designated program area) $100
Individual (not representing a business, profession or commercial property) $50
Sponsor Member: $500

See you at the ReStore Annual Meeting!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

ReStore Gaining Momentum

Well, I am embarrassed to say our organization hasn't been good at updating our own blog! We hope that you still check in on us now and then as we do plan to get better at this.

We have accomplished so much this year, it's hard to say where to start. One of our largest successes was our first annual Catfish Derby Days held in August at Muskingum Park! Our decorated catfish were displayed downtown for several weeks prior to our weekend event and created quite a bit of discussion! We couldn't have asked for better weather during our event which brought hundreds of people to the park for food, music and fun. Our catfish auction was a big hit and many spectators followed the bobber drop down the Muskingum to the Railroad Bridge. We are pleased to say our event generated about $8,000! This money will be reinvested back into our community.

Our second event, Moonlight & Chocolate, is scheduled for October 17 from 6 - 9 p.m. Only 200 tickets are available for this unique event, and the chance to win a strand of chocolate pearls valued at about $600! Tickets are available at area merchants and the Convention & Visitor's Bureau!

We continue to work a parallel path as a board, looking at the possibility of becoming a Main Street organization, while coordinating with local organizations and supporting other community efforts along the way. Our board developed the content for a significant portion of the application to Main Street and has worked with the Planning & Zoning committee on council to solicit city support.

ReStore Marietta hosted an event in July for Greater Ohio who has partnered with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and the Governor’s advisory staff as well as Ohio Department of Development. The initiative includes meeting with various Ohio communities, business leaders and organizations to form meaningful state policy recommendations which will help Ohio’s communities to develop.

We completed our strategic plan with short and long-term goals and have been actively working to achieve those. One of our goals was to apply for the CDBG funds to assist us in building a strong financial base and enable us to gain additional funds from grants and other sources. We are pleased to hear we will be receiving $20,000. This will go a long way in helping us establish ourselves in a more formal and meaningful way.

Additionally, we have been meeting with other local organizations and begun discussions on pooling resources and working together for the betterment of our community. We hope to have more about this soon!

Our annual meeting is scheduled for October 29 at 7:30 a.m. at the Lafayette Hotel. We invite anyone to attend and hear about our year and receive a preview for 2009!!

Keep in touch, and join us sometime!