I need your input on a date for our bigger Gala / Fundraiser.
I took a look at the Winona Special Events Page, and October is looking VERY full. MMAM has a big fundraiser early that month, then there’s Sandbar Storytelling, then Sunny is getting married (congrats, Sunny!).
How do you all feel about Thursday, September 18th in the evening? Mark said that the History Center did a Thursday fundraiser earlier this year and it was well attended. I will be working on a plan for the Gala, but if you have ideas, please pop them in here! Also, if you are interested in helping, or taking the planning on, let me know!
That date works for me, although since it’s a work day it would be good to set the start time no earlier than 6:30 pm, for folks that get off work a little later.
Are you thinking Thursday would be better because it doesn’t compete with other events in town? Because otherwise, my instinct is that attendance would be better on a Friday or weekend evening.
I’m available September 18th. My only worry is how soon that is, basically 2 months. Not saying it isn’t possible, but it will be a lot to put together between now and then, dependent of course on what we actually do for the fundraiser.
From the calendar it seems that the last weekend of october or 1st weekend in november don’t have a lot going on. So except with the overlap with Sunny’s wedding (yay go sunny) seem possible
Cala - Good point on the later start time and, yes, I do think a Friday or Saturday would be more ideal.
Carl, I agree with you on that it isn’t much time to prepare and that we already have a lot on our plates. The other benefit of being later is that we might be further along with construction in the building for hardhat tours. I, personally, would appreciate more time to plan the Gala.
Dates to be mindful of:
10/11 is our Fix-It Clinic & the beginning of Sandbar Storytelling’s weekend. We could overlap with this date
Sunny is getting married on 10/18 and will be gone to the end of the month
I have a conflict on 10/20 - 10/25 (Vacation & Teen Night at the Y)
Possible dates in September - November (with conflicts removed from the Winona Community Calendar):
Thursday, 9/18
Saturday, 9/20
Friday 10/10 (Suzanne absent)
Saturday 10/11 (Fix-It Clinic)
Friday 10/17
Saturday 10/18 (Sunny absent, Suzanne not available in morning/early afternoon)
Friday 10/24 (Suzanne & Sunny absent)
Saturday 10/25 (Suzanne & Sunny absent)
Friday 10/31 (Sunny absent) - Could lean into the Halloween spirit?
I don’t think we should consider dates where the primary event planner can’t be there.
I thought early November could be a good time. What about 11/8 in the evening, so we aren’t competing with seasonal Saturday? I believe it ends at 4pm. My memory of last year is the there wasn’t as much live music to compete with in November … but I could be remembering that wrong.
Carl, Suzanne, and I had a meeting last night and we settled on these three dates (in order):
Saturday Nov 1 - Galaween (or Makerween)
Saturday Nov 8
Friday Oct 17
We’re going to aim for an offsite since we don’t know whether we’ll be OKed by the city to occupy the building at that time (and a tent outside would require us bring in bathrooms). During our Wednesday meeting we’ll form a “Gala Team” to start looking at venues and organize.
