Calling All Rodders: July 2010

THIS AN OPEN LETTER TO THE LOCAL CAR ENTHUSITS ABOUT THE RUMORS SURROUNDING THE BUGGIN STATE STREET EVENT!
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Annette:

Thank you for reaching out and calling me for “our side” of the Buggin State event. While some may disagree, we did try to secure sponsorships and have continually tried to assess ways to hold the event at a breakeven point. I can assure you that our organization does not make money at any event we organize, however we do have a policy that states that we need to at a minimum have our costs covered prior to scheduling an event.

I have attached a letter that was sent to the Erie Times News editor and subsequently printed. This gives some of the basic information regarding our decision making process and the need for us to juggle the needs of all of our members (members are the property owners and businesses between Holland and Sassafras Streets and from 14th Street to the Bay). I hope this will be the beginning of an open dialog between those car enthusiasts and our organization.
Please feel free to post this as well as any portion of our phone conversation. If you or any of your “followers” are interested in further dialog, please feel free to have them call or e-mail me with questions. If would like me to write a specific piece or do something almost like a written interview where I answer some of your questions for you to post, please give me a call.
Thank you for the opportunity to straighten out some of the rumors that are buzzing around the car community.

Brenda A. Sandberg, CEO
Erie Downtown Partnership
515 State Street
Erie PA 16501
(814) 455-3743

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FACTS ABOUT THE BUGGIN STATE STREET RUMORS!

Dear Cruisers and Car Enthusiasts,

Lately it seems at every event we attend someone comes up to me and wants to know, “ what is up with the Buggin State Street Event? “ Countless rumors have been flying around about the future of these events. And the interest to keep this event going is strong. Because of this I decided to go the source and try to get answers.

This letter is to you the cruisers and supporters of the Calling All Rodders website, it is only intended to be an informational letter for you. NOT the opinion or decisions of Annette Diemer, or Calling All Rodders. We only wanted to get some of the facts out to you and open a line of communication between you and the Buggin State Street organizers.

This week, I spoke to Brenda Sandberg, CEO of the Erie Downtown Partnership. For those of you who do not know, The Erie Downtown Partnership is an organization that is made up of property owners and business owners from Holland Street to Sassafras Street and 14th Street to the Bay in the downtown area.
At this point, I have added the letter sent to the Erie Times News by Brenda explaining their policies, earlier in the year, for you to read…

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During the summer, the Erie Downtown Partnership organizes many weekly downtown events including Block Parties, Bike Nights and the Classic Car Buggin’ State. This is the Partnership’s most public face.

We are always evaluating what services we provide and how effectively they are provided. As a membership based organization, we must first look to see if we are satisfying the needs of our members. The latest event evaluation really led the Board of Directors to reflect not on the implementation of the event, but the reason behind having them. We asked ourselves “How do these events benefit our membership”? The answer is complicated, for some members the event brings an influx of people and spending to their door and for others it neither helps nor does it hurt them. Finally, for some members, the event is seen as a detriment because the streets are closed and their customers or clients cannot easily access the products and services they offer. Those members often argue “would you want to locate your business on a street that closes 10+ times a year”?

We determined that these events are vital to bring people who may not otherwise come downtown to showcase our area as being clean, safe and fun. Secondly, we realized that it was important to bring them to the downtown on a night in which it was not typically busy. This second goal is much more difficult to accomplish. In creating our 2010 calendar we made every effort to schedule around events being held at Jerry Uht Park, the Warner Theater, the Erie Playhouse, Gannon University, and Gallery Night just to name a few. Add to that the thought that most people will go out for the evening on a Friday or Saturday and the dates become more limited.
It is wonderful that downtown has so much to offer! This is exactly the activity the Erie Downtown Partnership is trying to reinforce on a daily basis. However, in an attempt to balance the goals of an event and the needs of all of our members, the Summer of 2010 event season will have a few changes. We have made a slight reduction in the number of events we will be holding and we have moved our Bike Nights to Thursday nights.

We are looking forward to a busy summer season which begins with a Bike Night on Thursday May 20th. Thursday night is the night to come downtown with events each and every Thursday from June 17th to September 9th . We hope you stop in for a visit, maybe you will find a store or restaurant that will become your new favorite!

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Some points of this letter addressed by Brenda were :

1. The reduction in Buggin State Street Events.

Answer : Due to cost and no sponsorship. Also, the problem of trying to work around other scheduled events in the downtown area. Such as events held at the Jerry Uht Park, Warner Theater, Erie, Playhouse and Gannon University.

2. The Cost of sponsorship for the Buggin State Street Events and the response for sponsors.
Many local businesses were approached for sponsorship along with local car dealerships, there was not enough response to fund the event. The changing of the event night also hindered the sponsorship as they did not want to sponsor it on any night but Friday.
Answer: This event needs to have a sponsorship of $3000.00 to go on. A sponsor will be added to all advertising material for the event.

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Here is a break down of the estimated cost of the event:
Estimated Event Expenses
These costs are per event held not cumulative
Buggin’ State:
Advertising -
Television $350.00
Radio $350.00
Print $275.00
Children’s Activities $600.00
Porta Potty $375.00
Permit Fees (inc Officers) $925.00
Misc (trash bags, water, etc) $ 75.00
TOTAL $2,950.00
In the past, this has covered our external costs of the event. We never expect nor ask for us to recoup our time or clean-up resources that the Erie Downtown Partnership incurs with organization and implementation of this or any other event.
Please feel free to share this information with any potential sponsors. Let’s hope 2011 is better than 2010!

Brenda A. Sandberg, CEO

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One solution that was requested by the cruisers, was to charge each car a minimal fee for entrance.
Answer: The Problem with this is there is no one point of access for the event and would be impossible to get to every participant in the show.

3.Why they want to move the event from Friday night (a rumor that has been flying around).

Answer: The purpose of these downtown events is to bring business to the area that would not normally be there. The partnership owners feel that the Friday night is normally busy so they would like this event held on another less busy night to draw in business for their slower nights. As this is the purpose of the Downtown Partnership, to help draw business to the downtown area.

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From Annette @ Calling All Rodders Response:

In response to this, I can say that the cruisers in the area have expressed to me this, “By moving it to a week night you will lose a lot of the out of down guests that come to the city JUST for the Buggin State Street Event. Many families tell me that they plan their vacations and family reunions or get togethers around this event because it is on a weekend. We get people coming to see our cars or show off theirs from as far away as Ohio, New York Pittsburgh, Sharon, or West Virginia. Even many of our local cruisers come in from more than 30 miles away they do not want to try and drive back on a weeknight and have to go to work the next morning. This is big event for many people who have moved out of the area and love coming BACK to Erie to reminisce about the days of Buggin State Street. Talk to anyone from the area and they have a story about Buggin State Street in their younger days! This is a great event that brings tourist into the area sometimes for the entire weekend as well as bringing business to the downtown area.”

If you have anything you would like us to pass on to Brenda Sandberg, CEO of The Erie Downtown Partnership Organization. You can send me an email at annette@callingallrodders.com and we will forward them on to Brenda or you may contact her directly at:

Brenda Sandberg, CEO
Erie Downtown Partnership
515 State Street
Erie, PA 16501
814-455-3743

In Conclusion, again this letter to you the cruisers and supporters of the Calling All Rodders website, is only intended to be an information letter for you not the opinion or decisions of Annette Diemer, or Calling All Rodders. We only wanted to get some of the facts out to you and open a line of communication between you and the Buggin State Street organizers. Maybe together we can get this event to continue.
I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion with this event.
Sincerely ,

Annette Diemer, CEO
Calling All Rodders
www.callingallrodders.com
annette@callingallrodders.com

Calling All Rodders,

We have just returned from the 11th Annual Syracuse Nationals held in Syracuse NY. This is the largest car happening on the Right Coast. Street Rods, Customs, Classics, Antiques & Trucks thru 1980. It is a three day event held at the Empire Expo Center on the New York State Fairgrounds. Produced by the RightCoast Association, Cool Cars and Hot Happenings.

Next year it will be held July 15-16-17 2011, same place make plans to get there you won't be disappointed.

The cars are beautiful and the custom work is amazing. the Rat Rods building was my favorite part of the show it is amazing to see the creativity of the custom builders!

They held a charity auction, the money was raise from the sale of pin stripped panels done by some of the most talented pin strippers in the country.

Vendors, galore! Tech seminars, Cars, Cars, and more cars! Over 7000 cars attended Everything from Muscle Cars, Street Rods, Hot Rods, Lead Sleds, Famous Custom Builders, Airbrushing and Pin stripping, Customs Paint all around.

They had shuttles for the women, to the local shopping malls, and Women's World on the grounds. Plenty of good food and Music, Bands, Burnouts and Fireworks. Three fun filled days of things to do and see!

We had so much fun that we are planning to go again next year...you should too, if you are interested in cars at all don't miss it!