What would you do with this..?

Subject: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 04:10 PM

My county is getting an exhibit next winter and we are going to do some countywide stuff (starting early in the spring) to rile up a little bit of enthusiasm.

The job I spoke for is gathering stories and such for local displays, and coordinating the pre-exhibit activities. I will gather a group in each town and plan to have monthly Weekends which will be hosted by towns in turn and open for the county (and advertised bigger to draw some outsiders)
I get to book music/demonstrators or whatever we want and I'm thrilled with the project at hand.

Now that I've got my plans schemed out, I'm curious as to what others would do with the same type of project in their various towns/counties.

What would you all want in your town?

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 04:53 PM

It depends on the topic... any hints as to what is involved? Pig farming? Old Masters paintings? Makes a difference.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 04:58 PM

My area will be standard local history stuff..strong focus on Missouri Fiddling, but no true Focus other than my strong desire to build the communities back into acting like they did within my memory.

We're a small county (under 9,000 total population) made of a bunch of very small towns.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:16 PM

Ahh...ok. Well, start..(if you haven't already) with some info on Lyman Enloe. *smile* (I saw him at Winfield, Kansas 35-40 years ago.)

I'll bet those who run the state & county fairs will have some interesting areas for you to explore.
My mother came from way down in the S.W. corner of Missouri...Neosho area.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:29 PM

Since you mentioned stories I was thinkin' about back when I was livin' in Wes Ginny they held an anual "Liars Competition"... I mean, that's a little different than a fiddler's contest but it does tend to bring out more of the local flavor of various communities as folks in small towens are real good at talkin' about one another and tend to get carried away with the imagination...

If this interests you you can Google up "Goldenseal" which is the state's officail/unofficial magazine of folk lore and music and stories... They publish the storoes that go on to win the state competitions... Maybe even Google up "Liars Contest" for grins...

Fiddlers, no offense, are a dime a dozen and it's hard to pick winners and, well, kinda borin' after the first 2 or 3 and I don't care if Charlie Daniels is one of them, thank you...

Can't lose with liars, tho, and every community has it's fair share and they are proud to strut their stuff...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:42 PM

Thanks, BillD..I'll look at him!

I've got idea lists running out my ears (good thing it's wintry weather so I can hide it with earmuffs!?) and I am absolutely certain people in each town will come up with hundreds of ideas too. I'm in a fortunate area for homemade music. Pockets of the county are running a couple generations behind mainstream and I've always thought that was a blessing. Now it means I'll have an easy time of pulling folks from the woodwork because they're not very well hidden.

The county is fortunate in having a freakishly good grantwriter/money-finder which means I get to do the fun stuff like let some of my stray ideas into the light of day.

What type of advertising would catch your eye and pull you to a teeny town you never heard of as a daytrip?

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:47 PM

Yup, Bobert. but they git elected anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:49 PM

...something that says "MUSIC-CRAFTS-FOOD" with images of all those.

Home-town cooking will draw folks if it's done right. Local restaurants featuring county recipes?

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:50 PM

Bobert,
I don't intend to do fiddler's contest (or any Contest/competition if I can avoid it) I like them, but you're right...they bore my outcroppings clean off sometimes.

With the fiddlers, I will want to glorify our local history with that (and hopefully do an archived copy of the old local recordings several folks are stashing under their beds while we can give names to the musicians)

The exhibit we're getting is JourneyStories (Smithsonian) and I intend to get as many folks as I can to tell every story they can think of about their lives/family/whatever..so I can archive that as well.
The recordings/video will then be available to the schools or whoever wants them (and may very well just end up being another collection gathering dust under a bed)

I'll look at 'goldenseal'..thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:56 PM

"Music, Crafts, Food"...exactly what I was leaning toward!

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 05:57 PM

Write up some good press releases and send them out to all of the media. It should generate enough interest for a few interviews on tv and in the newspapers. Also, if you are non-profit, include PSAs and be sure to include date, time, where, etc. You'd be amazed how many time people forget some pertinent thing like that.

You might even be able to get a following with one reporter travelling to each one and giving a "live" report to garner support for each one. Also, you could announce a "mystery guest" or have a scavenger hunt for one special item, i.e. a cd, Aunt Martha's apple pie, etc., at each one in order to get folks out there. OR, have a guessing game with some kind of prize.

Do you have a name and/or slogan for it, yet? Something catchy which folks will remember, such as "know your county culture fest" or some such.:-) Bumper stickers might be a good thing for that, too.

If you have people who can go to the schools and speak with the students about the history stuff, then hand out flyer/reminders about it, that would help draw in families.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:05 PM

Schools are on the list. We plan to do a little local history and get the kids ready to be involved..and also give them a musician/band while we're at it.

We're non-profit and have good access to big/city newspapers. I'll also be able to keep a running column/comment/call in the local papers. I was thinking it would be good to contact tv as a 'one tank trip' thing..except that task will fall to the other Organizer.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Bert
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:16 PM

Stores - where to buy unusual stuff
Industries - even small ones
Where to set stuff fixed
Bars
Restaurants
Burger joints diners etc.
Clubs and societies, not only music and crafts. There are people out there that do all kinds of things, walking, cycling, different kinds of dancing, juggling, fishing, hunting, camping, I dunno, anything!
Theaters
4 H
Skate boarding
Paint ball

Build a website and ask for ideas from within the county.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:22 PM

Thanks, Bert.
We will (or maybe Do, by now) have a website.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:27 PM

Missouri has a rich Civil War history - Quantrill, the Younger Bros, the James Bros.
Might be interesting to do a day of Good Guys/Bad Guys music and stories with the same characters appearing in both.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 06:36 PM

We had a big CivWar event last summer..so that info will be included in some of this. He managed to pull a weekend with 50,000 visitors (who came to a under-200 population town for the event)

I hadn't thought of doing a good/badguy thing..
I will put that on my list right now! Thanks.


We have some Ugly History in the county and I am so glad to have a chance to clarify some of the story by including the other side.

Subject: RE: BS: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 26 Jan 10 - 07:32 PM

What random, semi-formed ideas do you all store in your heads for a rainy day? Example: For a few years, I have thought it would be neat to have a Gingerbread Show.

A Gingerbread Show (in my mind) would be scale model gingerbread houses..but instead of houses, they'd be old buildings from my hometown main street.
Wouldn't that be a delicious smelling room to step into to see the show?!
The idea wasn't enough to merit the effort of doing it alone..but as part of the project, it will fit nicely.

Several years ago, my friend saw an ad for a thing called a Musical Petting Zoo. I thought it sounded like one of the dumbest things ever invented, but she wanted to take her kids (and we both kind of wanted to see what in the world it WAS)
It turned out to be an open-sided tent with tables and the tables had different instruments for folks to play with. Neat idea and the name wasn't even as dumb as I thought it seemed.

What kind of things like this have you done or hatched up?

Subject: RE: What would you do with this..?
From: Melissa
Date: 27 Jan 10 - 07:18 PM

..am I the only one here that stashes random, semi-formed ideas for slightly odd-seeming activities?