Tourism Committee - Regular Meeting

I'm gonna open the meeting. I'm gonna call meeting to order. Welcome to

the middle of our

tourism, 04/15/2026. 6PM meeting of the Tourism Committee at 10 Nicholson Avenue in the small conference room. We are being recorded by MCAM for later broadcast on both Verizon and Comcast. So the meeting is now open. And now I have unanticipated and public comment. We have a public person here. We have a visitor, everybody. Yay.

Any comment? Yes. Alicia,

Ashley, and Lainani Glenn. Yeah. Tom moderator over there, Dave Kavanaugh. But and this your first name again was?

Dana.

Dana. Right. I should know that because I have a friend who lives on

the Cape

May named Dana Holberg. Mhmm. And she's visiting. Judy told her about us. So Oh, awesome. Anybody have anything under unanticipated? Nope. I did not put on the treasurer's report. Sorry about that.

That's okay.

We're a little tired. Did you wanna give us any numbers or anything?

I can. Sure. Public comment first, though. I got a couple emails

Okay. Go ahead.

That you guys unless you wanna put that in correspondence. You can do that in correspondence.

That's fine. Okay. Let's take it there. Mhmm.

Let's see. I'm gonna be making deposits tomorrow because it takes a while to get these together. Just to let you know, the deposit that'll be going tomorrow will be $4,610. The first one was 4,007 you can have this, $35, which means that all the deposits for Herringbone total $9,345. Yay.

The balance after we already paid for Russ Freight because we had ok'd that one and approved it at the last meeting so I could just turn it in. After that and after the deposits are made will be $85,715.52. But that's there will be minus for police, fire, busy flash shuttles, the Wampanoag singers and dancers supplies.

Which is question. So we got free grants for this, but they have not come yet. Correct?

Right. I haven't seen it rent yet.

When we do them, what we normally do is you have to open in a grand account, and then what we pay them from our account, and then it transfers it back in. So of that 85, we probably have almost 20,000 in expenses today.

Yeah. So We will be like I said, those are the things things that will be coming out. We will be getting the TRSC grant, the Wampanoag herring upon Wampanoag grant for 1,000 to help pay for the Wampanoag Singers and Dancers and local cultural council. Yep. And I will be making also a deposit from the pro night on April 4, which is $5.50.

And the Taunton River Watershed Alliance will be sending the check, so keep checking the mailbox. They'll sending

it Okay.

The check for that grant. And I'll be watching for that. So it sounds like Sounds like the

loss is a bunch of criminal.

The good news is we can go tremendously into the hole. So the VZ Flash is 7,300 and something. The cops are gonna be about 7,000. The Fire? Fire is 13 and change, 1,300 and change. The singers are 2,000. And the Although the

shuttles pay for 1,000 of that.

Yeah. The shuttles are I just looked at it today. It's it's $4.89 per shuttle per day. So $4.89 times four. So it's almost $2,000 a day. And they did go over a little, so let's call it $2,000 today. So $4,000 for the shuttle. So when you take all that off or not in the hole, but it's not like we made $20,000, which we didn't. We we were lucky enough to cover our expenses this year. I'm happy about that because it didn't happen because of the rain date last year. So we're good.

Yeah. We never expect this one to be a big moneymaker because of

It's not.

All the expenses with busy flash, especially 8,000 off the top.

Right.

Know? That's hard to recoup.

Just for the traffic service. Just for traffic. And then the details run us about 10 between both of them. And then the shuttles run us four to five. So I mean, there is just an expensive

This is more a community event that we're footing. Yeah.

And we do try to keep the vendor fees reasonable because, you know, that's kind of our mission statement. So we we don't wanna gouge the vendors for it. But the 9,345 we got from them, thank you very much, it will keep us out of the hole. Okay. Great. Is that all you got? That's what I got. Okay. Good. Did you get you got the check for the ghost tour? Is that been deposited?

No. It came today. Okay.

So that was already ready.

That was That's the $5.50 that's

going tomorrow. Yeah. So this 05:50. And we'll be getting another this weekend. We have another one running. So we'll be getting 500 for that one too.

Okay. That'll

be So we have the income a month or so.

Have the

income rolling, fortunately. Okay. Good. Anybody else have anything else under public comment for Aunty Sweeney? We just did the treasurer's report because I forgot to put it on the agenda.

I'm sorry. It's okay.

Good. Okay. So could we please get a motion to approve the 03/31/2026 meeting minutes? So moved. And I get a

second. Second.

Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Passes unanimously. Okay. Hearing run recap. Well, we just recapped the finances, so everybody knows that. We had, what was it, 5,400 and Something. Something people or

some attendees, which

was nice. It was back up there where our numbers like to be. We had how many vendors?

80? Yes.

I think 80.

Really? Yeah. Yeah. Between well, we had 21 in the food court and

Oh, wow.

Out there counting the environmental.

Yeah. We don't charge the nonprofits, all the environmental organizations that came, and and were very popular. The kids love their stuff. They I I know the the army corps of engineers were doing really cool. They could fish with magnets to get the fish out of the kiddie pool, and then they could identify what fish it was up against us. Oh, that was so fun. It was cute. Was it was a good good time for everybody. And seeing the kids hanging over there with their parents hanging onto them into the river trying to touch the fish was really, really great. It was good to see. And we did sell about a $160 of T shirts. Our That's right. Old design T shirts are almost gone. Oh, okay. Now we can order new ones.

We have the new two fifty Oliver ones, but we can order the, iron ones again. So we'll decide what we wanna do with the logo this time. Can Okay. You know, whatever. We'll figure out. Okay. So and as Glenn said, nobody died.

So we can it's a true success.

The police were very happy. They thought everything ran really smoothly. Perfect. We had one little incident with a woman who collapsed the first day, but it's because she was on crutches and had an injury, and that was nobody's fault. Mhmm. And it was taken care of with the emergency services right away. So yeah. They were there. Yeah. They were. That's good. We have them. Excellent. So anybody else have anything else on the recap for Herring Run Fund? So think about stuff if we wanna do it differently next year? Yes.

Madam chair of public comment?

Yes.

Glen Montepur from Mayflower Lodge right across the street, the Freemasons, liaison. Yes. A couple of things. She needs a traffic detail for the beginning and the end of the day.

Two. There's only

one of me.

One in the front to bring the cars in and one to park because people keep asking her questions, and she can't do both.

She gets pulled away all the

time. Yeah. So I think that would be better. It's already on my volunteer list.

So I'm always scared for the volunteers. It would cover two people. Yep.

Absolutely. We had enough we had out of maybe 40 comments who always loved us, one person couldn't find Breta Park. So there was only that one negative. So VC Flash could do better is all I got. We we advertised it in

the We advertised Breta To Park. I I know I know that that person. I saw that they wanted to park on the street, right, like, on Plymouth Street or Damascus Street or something and just walk to the festival, and that's absolutely that's the police and the DOT will not let us do that. So

Thank you. That's them and not us. So therefore Yeah. We have no control over that. Yeah. And one last thing for the Herring Run Festival t shirts. I did get one comment that instead of the giant fish on the person's chest, if we have a small logo

They like the old ones.

They like the old ones.

Okay. We can do that.

That's cool. Somebody tell me the new one with the big fish was really cool.

It's cheaper. Yeah. Just one color. I'm fine with that.

We, you know, we can do both. That's all

I got. Mixture. Next time I get a coupon. Okay. That it? Coupon. Okay. No cash.

So picky backing off what he said for the two details in the morning, I totally agree. I think that we could pull people from the afternoon and move them to the morning because I think

it was Everybody got especially

on the second day. Mhmm. Mhmm. The parking, I had one person insist that they used to be able to just drive in and park, and I was like, yeah. I I don't think that's been a thing. It hasn't since I've lived in town, but they told me last year that or in the years past, that's what they've always done. I'm like, I think you might be thinking of a different festival because it's not this.

No. The only time anybody was allowed to drive in and park was if they had a placard, and that was the first year and we decided that was sheer pandemonium and chaos and it didn't happen again.

And that was what? Like thirteen? Thirteen

years ago. Okay.

So, like, they were like, I don't understand why you won't let me pull in. I always pull in and I'm like, yeah.

Yeah. I don't think so. No.

Don't. No.

Then And it is accessible because they can park at any of the lots and get on the accessible shuttle and be dropped right at the door kind of, so to speak.

The shuttle drivers were great. When I was up at the COA Mhmm. Because I was, like, towards the end, so it wasn't as busy. But when families, like, had pulled in I don't know what the guy's name was who was driving, but he was awesome. He'd stop and wait if he saw people walking so that they were able to get on the shuttle and

they didn't

have to wait for

No. They're great.

To come back. They were just awesome.

I love those shuttle drivers. They're like family.

Yeah. They are. They are. They were awesome.

They're the same people

that that

helped us during the Christmas at the Oliver Estate.

Was doing from COA. I had a a vendor say that her daughter had parked at at COA, and they figured they'd walk. So they were walking along she and the shuttle bus stopped and said, are you heading to

the festival? Get on. Right. Yeah. They're great.

Yeah. It's only a mile and a half.

Yeah. Yeah. I saw people walking

too, but I they were just so awesome.

Maybe they were living on

Maybe they could totally could have been. And the only other thing I heard about parking was somebody made a comment, like, in years past, they've been able to park on the street, and I'm like, well, it's not us.

No. It's it's the police.

So we have nothing

to do

with that.

And DOT approved Yeah. Parking and traffic plan. We cannot vary from it. We have to get a permit from the state to do it.

They're welcome to speak to the police.

Yeah. Yes. And I when I was watching the front I think it was the first day. Maybe the second day. I think it was the first. No. It was the first day. I was surprised at even I guess when I went to the COA too, at the amount of people and it wasn't even that many, but it was for the volume of people that I spoke to pulling in that were like, what's going on? I didn't know anything was going on. I was like

You just drove by signs.

I've seen Very good. And I've seen the signs out leading up to it. Yep. But how many people were like, what's going on? Oh, is there something going on down there? I'm like, no. No. We just No. We just I I just thought that was interesting and I know that we advertised a lot.

Well, the marketing guy is an idiot, so I don't know what he did. I know.

You gotta give him the boot. The advertising was all over the place. Yeah. Even Even we state. We advertised with the county.

We advertised on his Facebook. I mean I don't I don't know that there's a way to get around. I mean, there's not like a Millpark Millpark. Right. Facebook. There's not like a Millpark newsletter, right, or bulletin board. Like, I don't know. People go down there.

We have it on the

and it was up there and they

just Yeah.

Were It was on MCAM.

There was a

sign in MCAM's window.

I mean, I've seen it everywhere, but, like, I was just like, how many people were shocked? Then I had this poor couple that they pulled into the COA and I was trying to tell them where to go. And they're like, we aren't here for anything. We have we have to meet up here later this week. And we were trying to plan out our route. And I was like, they picked the wrong date. Oh, no. It was like, it's so bad. It was just surprising. And, again, it was probably only, like, eight to 10 people. But I yeah. I was like, the fifteen that I fifteen or twenty I talked to about parking that was like, Oh, is there something going on?

No. Your fifteen and my fifteen and it's coming It was just it

was a surprise. And I know that's nothing we can do.

It's the nature Yeah. Municipal government. No matter how much you say it, how much you put it out there, how many public meetings you have about it, there's always somebody who says, I had no idea.

I mean, it happens at all times at school, so I get it.

Yeah. Was even No. Anything.

I was even at a slip in meeting announcing it.

Yes. Yeah. I know. I know where else we could do. We did TV, radio, papers, Facebook, county websites, state websites, local websites on all the towns around here. I don't know how much more we can

door to door.

Direct mailers. Massive billboards. Didn't we do a mailing with the G and E? Gas Yeah. One one year.

Oh, in the bills?

People say,

oh, something's They let us put an incident.

Oh, that's cool.

I I was a commissioner, and I had asked.

And we did.

And we did. Again, you get your bill. You you

throw that one out. I I understand. I just was like I it was surprising. It was also surprising the amount of people that would pull up, see all this stuff, and be like, is there something going on? Yes.

Not what's going on.

Is there something?

Nope. Nope.

Just stay out

here. Yeah. Burning.

Oh, in this lovely vestibule pun. Was like, not fashion statement. And I'm like, you know, I wanna get the most sarcastic answer ever, but so that's that's my input, but Okay. It's not

really much important. Was just a people

were observation.

COA. Right? There were no issues at the COA?

No. Everybody Nobody No. One person drove over not on the grass. Like, it it looks like it's been drove over a lot where you, like, pull the the little side parking lot, like, this main parking lot and people it looks like they pull over there to take a left out all the time. It did not look like fresh.

That it

was us.

Yeah. It did not look fresh.

I think they were concerned about the perimeter because there are some swampy sinkholes

there. No nobody nobody argued about parking. Nobody tried to to go around it. Everybody was nice. Oh god. I moved my chair up, so I stopped everybody except the very first car. So my husband and my son were on the shuttle going back and they're laughing and I get a text, you just let that car break the rule. I said, what car? I didn't even see it. They went be I moved the chair. They went behind me and drove through the the underpass. Was like, well, no one was around this high. Yeah. But nobody gave me a hard time. Everybody stopped when I stood up.

I think the four shuttles were enough Oh, yeah. Could look after it. Nobody really had to wait long.

I remember longer lines. Right. And we had a great

Yeah. Well, that wasn't bad. You know, the fifth shuttle was only eight people, and we're still paying the same amount of money for it. I thought it was kind of when we were trying to trim the budget, I thought it was something we could get rid of, and it seemed to work fine.

And I didn't hear anyone complain about the length of time for the shuttle wader. And it's not far. So Right. Even if it's going surplus yeah.

It's not like it's gonna Yeah.

Take a long time. Mhmm.

I I agree. So I I thought it was very Good. Very easy.

Yay. Good. Vendors are happy. Right? Yeah. Okay. They

didn't have too many people whining at me, so that's good.

The food vendors were okay? Was only four hours?

Mostly? One whined about it, but then the first day. And then the second day, he came back over and apologized for being such a jerk the day before. So Okay. He said, just had so much going on. There was a funeral. We were supposed to do stuff, and the door was locked, and we couldn't get in, and people were calling me. And

okay. I said, okay. So overall, a success, I think. Right? Mhmm. Yes. Awesome.

Okay. If we say no, we gotta do it again.

Yeah. We're doing it again next year with bigger with improvements. Okay. So coming up, we have a little bit of downtime.

Not much, but we do have some downtime.

It's good. I tried not to do more than one major thing a month. I really did. It's just they kept coming and coming and coming. So but now we get a little downtime. For the month of May, May 2, we are only assisting the veterans department in their National Guard Army Band concert and the Hang a Militia, which is on the front hall lawn. They're gonna take care of the chairs, tables, all that stuff. They just need us to help them serve pizza. They're ordering pizzas. It's free for anyone. Pizzas and drinks just to give it to the people and and little two fifty flags to hand those out. That's all they need us for. It's only a four hour event. In and out, if you can come for an hour, if you can come for whatever you can come. What are the hours on the thing?

Ten to two.

When are they handing I can't make it. I have an appointment that day, but when are they handing out the pizza and stuff? Like, bless you.

I think they'll probably bring the pizzas over, like, just after eleven.

Do you want me to post for kids? I don't know if we'll get any, but I can post it.

I don't know whether we're gonna need it. I mean, they have only the thing is they only have two people in the veteran's office. So if and there's three or four of us, I think that five, six people can handle just here's a pizza. Here's a pizza. Here's a pizza. I think.

We just

I think so.

Yeah. Sure. Catch.

Sure. Sure.

And You can catch it.

Yeah. Absolutely. They may

come from Central Cafe, which is great because they're gonna be ready with 200 pizzas.

It's awfully nice.

And then if we find that's going really fast and we wanna buy more, he said he's right down the road. Just call him, and he'll learn more over. So So what is the event? It is the National Guard Army National Guard Band is gonna be doing a big patriotic two fifty concert, and the Hang On militia is gonna be here doing what do they call it?

Reenactments.

The reenactments. And they are

I remember

demos and all those.

They're drills. They'll be in there, you know, full kit. Yeah.

Yeah. Gotcha. Yep. Yep. And it's being partially paid for by Cultural Council Grant and the Pierce Trustees. Nice. Yeah. So

I've already changed the banner on Discover Middleborough to have that event Alright. Since ours has

But that's that's just to show up and help and leave. It's nothing we don't have to do prep. We don't have to do cleanup.

We don't

have to haul.

Anything else. No. No.

I'll be advertising.

We'll advertise it for them. But yeah. No. That's that'll an easy one. That'll be an easy one. Which brings me to

Nice one.

So the May, as we all know, was Memorial Day, and they have a giant have you been over to the annex? Anyone who's been to the annex building knows there's a giant military memorabilia collection all over that building. Yeah. Spread out. And, again, working with the veterans, and I've talked to them, and they have people that can come and sit there, but some they like to come and volunteer.

I thought maybe we could put it in the Oliver State Memorial Day weekend and just hold it through June, and then they can go and have it open and people to see it if they this the estate will be doing something then if we're up for that. The only thing we would have to do is coordinate getting the stuff over there and then just displaying it. It's all labeled. It's all like, the uniforms are on mannequins. The stuff is in I don't know whether we bring the glass cases or not.

I say those are huge display cases.

I know. We'll have to we'd have to go through the stuff and see what's easy. Some of it's all with, like, plaque things and metals and stuff that are behind glass, that kind of thing.

Uniforms on Uniforms

are easy

to move. Some books are easy to move. We have one glass case there that we can clean out and put stuff in if we wanted. So I don't know. We measure their cases and stuff. Thought it would be nice to have something going on at the house and collaborating with them so that they would have people there.

Are you gonna extend that through July 4 weekend? Or

We could. We could. Because right now, we don't have anything planned for July 4 weekend. I did put in for a grant the Veterans Memorial Trust Committee. I can't remember the the full name, but they're putting in for a grant for us to do a reenactment and a celebration of revolutionary soldiers from Middleborough and buried in Middleborough in coordination with the Spreads of the Middleborough Cemeteries at the Oliver sometime over the summer. So, I mean, if it would coordinate with that, we could do that. Again, friends in the middle of our cemeteries are coming in with their exhibits, the reenactors would come in with theirs.

To the Oliver's Day? Yeah. So that means it might be too crowded to have the memorial stuff Yeah.

The veterans still. Yeah. Probably. Probably. Just I was just thinking if we put it in memorial and then we have them there every weekend to have the house open and people see it, it's a light lift for us relatively, and no food making or none of that stuff. No dishes. No dishes.

I'm busy for the next three months. So

So what I'm saying is there's not a lot of effort.

And who's gonna be there? Ashley.

No. Ashley will not. Will not be there.

He'll be trying to figure out how to get everything done that we can

has his group of veteran volunteers Yeah. You know, that would love to come in and sit, and it's it's a great social thing for them too. And and they probably know the history better than we do anyway and all that stuff. So, I mean, you know, I'll I'll get with him and coordinate more of it. We can talk about it after the band concert and see if we still wanna move forward with it. But I just wanted to bring up.

I would say see what they want you to actually move

Yeah.

Right. And what it involves because if it's giant cases

Well, they said take what you want.

Yeah. They said we can take

what we focus

on the little stuff.

If you have a minute and you go into the annex, go up to the 3rd Floor. There's, like, a conference room there, and you can first of all, poke your head in the veteran's office. You can see all the mannequins and all the displays.

Where's the annex?

The the bank building on

the corner. 10 Center Street.

20

Center. 20 Grand. Pay

your taxes.

1010 Nickerson. 20.

It's the corner Of Center And Main

Street. Okay.

The bank building

where they same are. Building that MQ's in.

Do you know where they are? No. Right on the corner. No. It's the corner building. At the front corners with the lights.

I I

see. I

probably do.

You probably do recognize it. But if you did see you know, poke your head in the veterans, it's on the 3rd Floor, and you can see all the stuff. And then there's a conference room right next to it, and there's all the cases with all the stuff all around.

Is it

where we go to get sworn in? Yes. Yes. Oh, okay.

Yes. Yes. And the 3rd Floor Room is where our mailbox is.

Oh, yes.

I'm just afraid to walk in there. I always feel like I'm not supposed to be there. It's a public building.

There's It's a public a bathroom there too.

Oh. Yeah. I go I I drive from home just to use their batteries.

Are you being married? I don't think so.

But it

I haven't been known to detour in there.

Okay. So I'll I'll investigate Sorry. I will investigate what, where, how, and have more information for you.

And I think if we go into the Ellefa House and keep moving the mannequins on the people,

that would be awesome.

You know what? We could really, really clean up on ghost tours if we have all that in there because it gives off all that energy. Oh, yeah. They eat into it. No. They do. So which I was thinking of scheduling because, again, light lift, but it keeps the money coming in because our we are going to be taking over all the operational costs of the the building. Two goes towards a month. I think we can handle that. Absolutely. And it's it's keeps the revenue flowing.

But we only need two need two of us a night? Yeah. So that's only four of us.

Or technically only one. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, one to open and close.

Four of us. Yeah. Or whoever. And and I know Scott and and Alicia love to do that. Yeah. So

Alicia. Yeah.

Okay. So that's the other thing I was thinking, because I'm just going over the summer. I mean, I had had visions of grandeur and farmers markets that we we

That you were.

And movie nights in the garden, and I had all these things. But seeing as we got delayed so long taking it over and all these things, I was thinking I looked did some research and hit similar historical houses are doing the tees for $35 a person with a door, and that's the low end. So if we did one tee a month over the summer, it's not a big heavy food lift. If I mean, we did it. You know? And Scott said he would help too. K. And we could make clear a thousand dollars on each one. So, again, that keeps the paying the bills. Keeps the lights on.

I hate to keep bringing up the money, but if we take it over, we have to pay the bills. So we have to have revenue generating things. And especially for the things that we have that are open to the public for free, we have to make up for them. So I was thinking just that for the whole summer. That's three t's and get that exhibit in there where they sit with it. Mhmm.

I have to help her for the next three months. Don't I we're we're this whole site is helping her for

the next three months. Once we sign the papers Could I move the house? Once we sign the papers Kidding. Then we can talk about plans and things we wanna do with the house, like get clean out that carriage house, get the floor in with the Eagle Scout project. Yeah. And I am writing a grant to get the front re landscaped. That won't come through till the summer, though. So we can talk about that. We won't have to do it. I'm writing the grant. We pay someone to do it. So yes. Yeah. No no logging, no digging, none of that stuff. Sure.

Now I'm trying to make it easy, and that's all I have for summer programming. I think once we get that if we've also, I know that Scott and Ashley are talking about working towards getting that kitchen much more functional Yes. With upgraded appliances and everything that we need there, we can probably do in the fall, like, a farm to table tavern night or something, a harvest. I knew tavern night. More people than I can mention

say, are you gonna do another one of those? I know people who want to go and they want they couldn't get tickets sold so fast.

Not until we get kitchen.

And I I said we're

We just can't do it.

Getting our feet on

the floor. It killed us. And we had 12 kids helping us from the culinary school, and we still almost died.

If our high numbers of views for the Herring Festival were 16,000, the Tavern Night was 56,000.

I know.

Yeah. So it's a big

It's and it's sold out in eight hours, and we had a waiting list of 45 people. I mean

And that's just one person. But we have to make more it than one.

We have to make it easier on ourselves, else we will burn out.

Mhmm.

We will be

Ashley. No. No.

She's I know. Stop calling me. He's working on it. He's Yeah. A wonderful asset, the owner of Nelly Rose, please. A dishwasher. Has joined us, and he's putting out the fillers there to get us the appliances that we need in order to do those kinds of things.

So A freezer that's more than six inches across. However, Minnie is not really safe.

I just want to

join in.

Yeah. A freezer door is a real stove? Yes. Yeah. Exactly. So

Is the kitchen

Which will not change anything in the house. So it's just a and it's a fixture that it goes in. It's temporary, but it will make it infinitely easier for us.

Like, in a real catering kitchen as opposed to a Yes.

Skin Is vacation permitted for such a thing?

Yes. Yes.

Really? It's In what way?

Our a one. What we had to do is to get the sinks and the fire smoke alarms and and all that stuff. And the plumbing All that's been done. All that plumbing has been done.

And it's been inspected.

Excuse me. And the is it a suit is the sewer? Or it's

When they put the septic in, they did the grease traps, and they did an oversized septic so that we could handle whatever we wanted to do.

Excellent.

Nobody's living in the house. So if you have a food event three times a year, it's not gonna overtax the septic system that's already for more than six bedrooms. So And that's

what I want on record. Yes. Perfect. Look at that. We're ready to go.

When we put it in, and that was donated, by the way, by a contractor in town, 10 ago, twelve years ago, we planned ahead and overbuilt it.

Nice.

And when we put the sink in, we had all the correct plumbing put in and the grease traps and everything. So yes. Alright. So that's all I got. Easy peasy next three or four months. Famous last words. Right? Coming into concert season. I know. I'll keep everybody updated. Okay? And I'll keep you updated on ghost tour dates and all that stuff. Okay? That's all I got. Anybody else have anything else before we move on to the nuts and bolts of billings and purchases and reimbursements and refunds and invoices?

I do just wanna say at Tavernight, a lot of the older women were saying if we were gonna do the tees. I know. They're very

they're think very

one a month over the summer is manageable. Especially, you know, if if Scott's got the restaurant, you got the kids, if everybody just makes one thing, Anne and I can put it together and serve it. We did it.

Yeah. It was not that heavy

of it. No. We did it for more than go to the teas. We did it for over thirty people, and the teas are, like, 16 to 20. So yeah. Yeah.

Are the teas only 16 to 20?

People, because we had them in the sides. Yeah. I mean, you could, but it kinda takes away from four tables of four or five tables of four is normally what we do.

Because Tavern Night was bigger.

Yes. Much bigger, bigger.

So just

I wouldn't wanna do a tea for 65 people.

I'm not putting anything else on our plate. I'm just putting this out there in the space

Mhmm.

To think about. So Dunbar Tea Room and Sandwich, it's a tea room, it's a restaurant. Okay? But they have special events and they started doing them now monthly and it was like after after they close, it's very expensive. I feel like I've paid like 45 or $50 Yeah. A person. You share a tea tower. Yes. Mhmm. And you And your one pot of tea is included and they had character theme one. So somebody dressed up. I'm not volunteering you. Oh, I wish you would anyways. Fine. I would do it. I mean

It was

Judy Wilson? We went to the Nutcracker tea. Then the menu was themed around it. And it was not these high end menus. It was the the scones and the cream, like, what a flavored one.

Would be.

Yeah. And then, like, the little tower with the regular tea sandwiches and a couple of pastries.

Wars kind

That's it.

I know.

And it I mean, they, like, sold out instantly. And I know it's a it's a tea room. You know But there was nothing else. Character The character walked around.

Right. That's not

That's kinda cool.

That's That is kinda cool.

In Wonderland is what comes to

do it.

I mean, so we went to the Nutcracker one and they had a girl that was a ballerina come around. And then we went to the Beauty and the Beast one and the girl dressed as Belle came around and then they got like one of the cheap photo backdrops from Amazon. Mhmm. And you at the end of the event, could go take pictures with

That's cool. And it And they

would charge him $45.

45 or $50, not including gratuity, and they sold up.

Oh, I know. They do. Yeah. They do. Mean, it's it's personal. It's you it's not just going into a restaurant downtown. No. It's the the house itself is incredible to be in.

So it looks like I was like, this is insane how much money the and I know it's a restaurant, but how much money they're making. And they didn't even bring it out to order. They had it when you the oh, yep. You're here. This is your table. It was already sitting out on the table. Oh. That was another button. Butt. Yeah. I know. I agree. I agree. And I was like We

might do something a little more personalized. Yes. Think But we could and I like the theme.

Yeah. I love the theme.

I love I have a ton of costumes. Sign me up for anything. I'm just saying. I have a bell costume.

So Probably.

But so just to put it out there. I mean, even if it was like a fall thing, if you were getting ready for Peter Pan. Whatever. If you needed something to fill in a month to to cover costs Yeah. I think We

can swing Julie from the tree on Peter Pan.

You know what she'd say to you.

Don't say it out loud. I won't

say it

out loud.

They do some themes. We'll theme them. That'll be great.

Love it.

Alice in Wonderland. That's what I thought

would be great. And the the kids, they did charge a little bit less. Yeah. You know, but they still they still were charging enough and they weren't getting in anything extra. So

Right. Well, let's think. I was thinking one June, one July, one August. I like it. And if we can bring in enough money between that and the two ghost tours, our expenses are paid for the month. Right. And then the fall, we'll do what we do. We probably do a reenactment sometime around the fall and a tavern night, and then we go take some time off right before we run into Christmas. Thank you.

In June, July, August, like, I'm probably not available to actually be there Mhmm. But I can make something and get Yeah. It to Yeah. Because that's Right. I'm around during the week with Jason.

Yeah.

I it's just these weekends are gonna be rough. Well,

you know, that's the other thing. When they did the We can tag team. When the ladies did the tees before, they said Thursday's sold out faster than Saturdays.

I mean

I was thinking a weekend either on for a Saturday or a Sunday, but I don't know. But, I mean, like, Anne and I handled over 30 for serving it. Yeah. You got a couple people there to serve, you're fine. Mhmm. It's it's the just preparing it and bringing it and putting we have all those tier things. Yep. We have all the the the teapots, the dishes, the have it all. Yeah. So

Just I I just was I was just surprised at how many they they sold and and they just kept doing seatings and seatings and I know that's not what we would do, but it was it was a quick in and out.

When we did it way back, which was before when the ladies did it, we did two seatings. One, 01:00, and 04:00. Mhmm.

How long were your seatings?

They didn't kick you out, but I think we were out within under an hour and a half. And that was us sitting and chatting. Chatting.

Right.

Mhmm. Because I'm like, we're sitting here if

I spent all this money. Four hour one

and four gives you time to Mhmm. To get clean. To clean up, set up again.

Yeah. Right. I mean, you gotta figure they probably have a dishwasher. Trying. Yeah. I know that. I'm not I saw it. I saw it. It. Saw saw saw buckets. Yeah. Oh, the whole bedrock and mice. Yeah.

We really need the commercial one, though, because we can't wait an hour and a half for it to No. Right.

And be ready for it. So

But the summer, you had mentioned we can put it on racks outside and hose them off

to take them out of to yeah.

To take them

out of there.

Yep. Yeah. So that's that gives you a little bit more space to work at least.

Right. Yeah.

So you need a dishwasher. Alicia. Excuse

me. Why Alicia?

She's not

getting My hands?

The easiest one.

Without them.

I know. We could not really.

They were doing the tasks. They were busing. They were waiting. They were everything was phenomenal. They were

They had a great time, which is good because some of them are graduating, but some of them I'll be able to pull back in for next year, which is good. So Yeah.

Well, I imagine it was very good experience for them too because that made

it was a catering event.

Right. Exactly.

Okay. So I'll And all the people investigate the Veterans Memorial. I'll look into sched scheduling the ghost tours and the teas. So that's it. That's all we got till September.

That's all. Sorry. That was flag things you just mentioned?

But they're they're not heavy lift things. They're really not No. They're not the Heming Heming They're not Crantoberfest. They're not the Christmas of the estate. They're not.

Which is already lit up and ready to go.

It is. But you know what I'm gonna get? We have all the projectors. I'm gonna get the software for the holograms, and I'm I'm just I'm gonna experiment before we get there so that I can see what the best backdrop is to put the holograms, Christmas the holograms on. And I've already picked out the trees where we can hang them in between.

When we do the themed, we can test it that way.

Yeah. Can test them out then.

Yeah. We could do Christmas in July tea.

We could? Yeah. We have the Christmas.

There we go.

Yeah. Christmas in July. I like Alice in Wonderland. I wanna be the rabbit.

Be the mad hatter.

Yeah. There you go. That's him. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Great. Good. That's it. Summer programming. Okay. Billing, purchases, reimbursements, and refunds, and you must have bills. I'll get some. I know the COA is gonna send it to me. The police will send it. It's easy flash will send it, and the fire will send it. And so The only one coming yet.

The only

one I've gotten is me for the trash bags.

Okay. $12.99 for trash bags. Could I please get a motion to pay this to reimburse this? So moved. And a second? Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Today is '15, tax day.

Yep. Yeah. I did not get any other ones in yet.

Okay. That's all we got. Expect the $20,000, and the other one's coming next

next meeting.

They're they're okay. Okay. So reimbursements, that's it. Refunds and invoices, that's it. We don't have any correspondence. Anne, you said you had some Yeah.

A couple emails that came in. People spoke to me personally too, but we got a couple really nice emails. Mass Archaeological sent me one, you know, to see their attached flyer for their upcoming event, but they also said thank you again for having MAS as part of the annual Harry Run Festival. Cheers. And then one of our other vendors who I don't have her I didn't ask her for permission to read her email, so I won't say where it's from.

But she said, just a quick note to thank you for this past weekend. What a great event. I'm sure you were happy it's behind you, but I did want to let you know for us it was a great success. Thank you for all your work and to all the volunteers who made it so much easier for us. Great job. Please keep us in mind for any other events you might be planning, etcetera.

And she signed it. I

thought that

was very nice of

you. Mhmm. And, Glenn, you said we've been getting 40

We've been getting a a lot of

Positive.

A lot of positive. Yeah.

I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what to do about parking. I mean, we try to get it out there.

It's not us.

No. It's not what tells we can do. There really isn't.

Okay. Good.

Short of

higher risk. I So mean

that's the Right. Correspondence. Okay. Our next meeting will be the third of Wednesday in May. This is the twentieth. I

have

to see. Well, it is the twentieth. That's when it will be. The friends in the Middleborough Cemeteries wanna come because they wanna do some stuff with us, but they can't make Wednesdays. I may have to I don't know. I'll have to see what I can do about that.

What can we do today say?

He says he's off Mondays and Tuesdays.

We wanna just see if it can all do Tuesday instead?

Tuesday, the nineteenth. Do you have amazing time?

I have amazing rehearsal, which

And Mondays in this building are not speakers.

I can't make either. Yeah. It's a rehearsal.

I mean, unless we met, we could meet somewhere else.

I I I don't mind Tuesday.

Okay. One Tuesday, the nineteenth. Alright. Let's keep it the twentieth, and I will see if he can make it the nineteenth because I don't wanna change it if that happens to be a date he can't make it. If it needs to change, I will email everybody.

So it's Wednesday unless it gets changed.

Yes. It's Wednesday, May 20, 06:00 here, and I will have Glenn will reach out to see who's gonna volunteer for the band concert when. I will look into the the memorial, and I'll start moving on the tea programming and the send me your ideas. Send me your ideas of themes. I like I mean, we came up with a ton of them already.

Just go through your closet. I will.

Yeah. Just look in your closet and see what costumes you have.

I have an ice princess costume. I

have Disney princess.

Yeah. I have a bell costume.

Have Like, are we bell going into kids too much then?

Oh. If

we do them in the very like, beginning, end of spring or whatever, could have, like, a spring fling.

I don't think they all have to be themed. I think if you market that one. But the Beauty and the Beast one,

it was

me and my brother.

Okay. So it's not just kids.

And the Nutcracker one, it was my daughter, but she's 17. Honey. Yeah. And my mother and I. So and there was a lot of people that were not children.

So give me all your ideas. I'll put them together, and then I'll send them out to everybody and have everybody vote on three of them, and we'll theme three of them over the summer. That sound?

Nothing says you can't do the next three the next year. Yeah.

Yeah. And then I can theme the menu if you want Yeah. From there.

That would be great.

Even if it's just descriptions, it could be the same food but different descriptions.

Yeah. You're gonna be at the May 2 for

the veterans? I will not.

You're gonna be at the May 2 for the veterans?

I I'll be there for you guys. Yeah.

Pam? Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

So part of the reason why I wanted

to come is because I would like to start doing some volunteering.

Yay. Yay.

Sign her up.

Okay. Don't let her leave without giving us a phone number. Okay. Right. Did you want my phone number, my email, both? Yes. Both. You can

give it he keeps the records

of everybody.

And we won't do it on camera.

No. Yeah.

We'll not. Yeah. Just give give

it to him.

It's right or

on the

uniform. Did you want now we have a a second tier membership, which is called auxiliary members, and it's you volunteer as much as you want. You don't have to be in our meetings because you don't have to vote. But what it does is it gives you the rights to, like, be in one of our booths, take take our money, open a building because you're a member of tourism. Did you wanna do that as an auxiliary member?

Yep. I do. Okay. Good.

Alright. So should we do that?

Yeah. All in favor.

I I I Okay.

It came under unanticipated. I didn't know she was gonna be here.

Okay. Yeah. Exactly.

Alright. I will be sending out a letter to all of you guys. It will remember. So when you give me your him your contact information, you'll get it, and then you'll get the opportunities when we're doing stuff and sign up when you want. Great. You know? Very good. Yep. Are you familiar with the Oliver State? We do a lot of stuff there. Yeah.

Yeah. I've been there a few times.

That was what got me

interested at first was the Judy was telling me about the tavern nights. Yeah. And I said, oh, I want tickets. She said,

nope. No. No. No. No. No. Yeah. I think two people two. Yeah. People had to cancel. Mhmm. And so we we pulled two from the list. Mhmm. But that's still left 43 people. We could have done two

nights row. Three was probably 86. Yeah.

Yeah. Because it's usually

Couple of person signs up in those Valley couples.

Yeah. I mean, and we pushed the capacity at 50.

Yeah. We

were we could not fit. Yes. We pushed the capacity. I mean, it wasn't too bad. We used all the rooms. So people got there was room for everybody to sit. We sat that many people. But yeah. Yeah.

We But we used every room.

Inside, you couldn't push this fast anymore than that. You really couldn't.

We couldn't fit any more dishes either.

No. We're gonna change

the I know that. I'm just saying.

That's what we ran off against, Dana. That that kitchen, I mean, it's great. It's got a nice space, but none of the appliances that you need to to put to put out these kinds of meals.

Mhmm.

It was just it was not so we were vacating.

They were washing the dishes and throwing them in bins and boxes and everything for us to take them home and wash them in the dishwasher. Oh

my gosh.

Yep. I know. Yeah. We we can't do that really? 20 pounds of silverware. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I weighed it. It was crazy. So but that's the first thing we're looking at, the dishwasher and then the refrigerator Mhmm. Freezer. Because we have a side by side. You can't even get the big plates in there.

The side by sides are useless. So is the kitchen in the old Oliver house kitchen?

Yeah. Well, no. Sort of. It's on the l on the back, which was was not a part of the original house. That was put on in 1830. It was an outer building that they attached to the house and made it into the kitchen. So it was not the original kitchen. Okay. But it was the one that had been used since 1830. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. And it's got not a bad space. It's kind of a weird configuration, but if we use that other room too, it'll be helpful.

Yeah. That'll be helpful. Just who motions

in second for Dana?

Anne and I

don't know.

And Alisha. Alisha. Yeah. One and Alisha. Yeah. We just sort of all jumped.

Yes. Alright. So as of now, the meeting will be May 20. If it changes, I will email everybody. Okay. That's all we got. Anybody have anything else?

Christie was asking what we're doing with the command hooks in the Olive House. It's not historically accurate.

I think we want It's

not historically accurate. She wants to know if those are gonna be there.

When she can reach them, they'll come down.

Glenn, be nice, please.

You can't do that.

These are the ones we used for Christmas. Right? Yeah. The banners? Yes. Yeah. That I had

to put up?

Yes. Because you're tall. You know? And he put them up on top of ladders. Yep. Chairs. Does she know how to take them off without peeling anything out?

Necessary to take them down?

We had left them up because we thought we might be using them again. Yes.

We didn't know what

was coming. The messenger. No. It's a

good sign.

This is why. Right now,

I would like did use them for the shirts on.

But right now, would like to leave them in there because if we get the military exhibits in there, we might be hanging Oh, good cough. Yeah. On them. So let's leave them in for now. Okay. Till we know. They're not permanent. Alright. Yep. It does because, Dee, I know you watched this because you told me. They're not permanent.