Updated on Saturday, July 26, 2008

• Dear Team,

  Team,

  Thanks again to you who have made the time to come to the planning meetings. Here is what we discussed last time plus some new stuff:

  1) Cheryl Thornton had mentioned to me that The Ark likes to have a donation jar when possible. We touched on this discussion last year related to a different organization, and I had said that I didn't want our guests to feel like they were being asked for money at every table they visited at our festival. However, I also want to be able to invite a varied group of organizations to our festival and offer interesting activities and information, so we discussed this again last meeting. We agreed that as long as the organization is not doing active solicitation, it would be ok to have a donation jar at their table. We didn't discuss it per se, but perhaps we would limit this concession to non-profit organizations only.

  2) COSTCO will set up a Hospitality Room in the east classroom of the Fellowship Hall. It will serve the volunteers for the festival, both from our congregation and from the individuals, groups, and organizations donating their time to this event. This does not include the performers since we are already providing them a hotdog/drink coupon. Shawn Ruff will be bringing out four party trays of deli sandwiches, a couple of cases of their water, and some sweets (cookies, party cakes, etc.).

  3) We decided that the proceeds from the Raffle and Silent Auction would go to local social ministries. I would like to propose that The Ark be included as one of the recipients of this donation. Please check out their website ( www.animalrefugekingdom.org ) and let me know what you think. Here is some feedback from Steve Sorenson:

  We have no additional insurance to cover us away from The Ark. However we will only be bringing animals that have worked with special needs children. It is hard for me to commit to what we need at this time as far as table an electric. If the weather is going to be no hotter than low 80's we may bring more animals and be able to stay longer. If it is warmer than that we will only bring a few and would not be able to stay longer than a couple of hours. Alpacas get heat stress somewhat easy since they are high altitude animals. Hopefully it will be great weather and we could stay a little longer. At this time we are not planning on setting up a pen, just leading the animals around. But that could change again depending on the weather. As far as funds for us to come, I don't do it for money but that is why we are struggling to keep The Ark open. We rely solely on private donations and with feed bills doubling because of energy cost's it is really hard. Maybe your church could help a little. But mainly we will be there for the people, not to receive money. Looking forward to our visit and please call anytime if you have any questions. God Bless Steve

  4) And since LuAnn Thackara has given the church a signifcant discount on the machine quilting of Millie Guthrie's quilt that is being raffled, I would like to suggest our providing a table for her at no cost. Your thoughts?

  5) Kathy Painter again requested that we limit kitchen access to the volunteers working that activity. She reported that having the condiments table separate from the service counter worked well.

  6) I had made some handouts last year to give our guests directions on where each activity was located and placed them at the ticket counter, but they did not appear to get used. Someone at the last meeting suggested having someone circulate through the guests and hand these out. Our daugher, Britta, said that she would take on that assignment and also said that she would try to get an approximate headcount. I still have not come up with a good idea on how to do the attendance estimate, and I am usually asked that question by several participating organizations, mainly for determining the number of handouts to bring.

  7) I have coordinated a guest appearance by Miss Stockyards Rodeo, Lynzie Albright. She will be available for photos and autographs.

  8) Last year I got a count of all the tables and chairs to make certain we identified what was need for each activity. Please be sure to coordinate your use of any of these through me. Bob Wickline is again allowing us to borrow his three banquet tables (and his generator for the inflatable playground). If anyone else has banquet tables we can use, please let me know.

  9) Here is what we have so far (let me know if I have omitted anyone or any activity):

  Thanks,

  Tommy