January 31, 2009 Newsletter
Written and Edited by the Board of Directors
120th Afton Fair: July 8 - 12, 2009
by The Board of Directors
This is the first Newsletter of the Afton Driving Park and Agricultural Association, Inc. (Afton Driving Park). The Board of Directors of the Afton Driving Park operate the facilities located in Afton, New York. The main event at the Afton Driving Park is the Afton Fair, which takes place every July.
We welcome the input of the Stockholders and community and look forward to hearing your ideas
The purpose of this Newsletter is to keep the Stockholders of the Afton Driving Park and the surrounding community informed about upcoming events, maintenance plans at the driving park, as well as the status of current projects. We welcome the input of the Stockholders and the community and look forward to hearing your ideas.
We have many challenging years ahead of us. The troubles of the last three years have left us in a position that is poor to say the least. In 2006 we had the floods just a few weeks before the fair opened and in 2007 our newly contracted midway provider failed to provide the rides and concessions he agreed to. The 2008 fair was successful in that we had a wide variety of agricultural programs, grandstand entertainment, bands and displays. Unfortunately we did not bring in enough at the gate to cover our expenses.
One of the two original Harness Racing Judges Stands at the Afton Fair
Image by Anna RitcheyThe challenge of the 2009 fair will be to provide a similar variety of agricultural shows and entertainment as 2008 while reducing our spending.
In order to work towards the goal of providing great, affordable entertainment for the surrounding community at a price that we can afford we created an Entertainment Committee and a Marketing Committee at our first fiscal year 2009 meeting.
The Entertainment Committee will be connecting with entertainment groups that have contacted us through our website, as well as making direct contact to local groups to set up an affordable and exciting entertainment line up consisting of a wide variety of acts.
The Marketing Committee will be reviewing our past advertising and promotional efforts. The committee will be actively searching for free and inexpensive promotional opportunities, which includes this and future newsletters. It will also be developing a new advertising plan to more effectively use our limited advertising budget while promoting the Driving Park and the Afton Fair to a wider range of people through print, radio and internet advertising.
We encourage ideas and input from stockholders and the community. The Board of Directors of the Afton Driving Park are all volunteers and are always looking for community members to help with general grounds upkeep as well as assist with events during the fair.
Please contact us at 607-639-1525 to express your ideas and recommendations for the Driving Park and to volunteer to help.
by Melanie Mueller
We are actively seeking volunteers to act as chairpersons for one or more Floral Hall Departments for the 2009 fair.
Floral Hall consists of two divisions. The Open Division is for people age 21 and over and married people under the age of 21. The Youth Division is for single people under the age of 21. Departments within the Open Division that are in need of Chairpersons are: Creative Arts, Fine Arts, Photography, Antiques, Flowers and Culinary. In the Youth Division departments that are in need of chairpersons are: Flowers, Culinary, Creative Arts, Antiques, Photography and Creative Writing.
If you are interested in chairing one or more of these departments, please contact the Afton Fair Office at 607-639-1525.
Entertainment Committee
Rhonda Barriger, Regina Birdsall, Barb Niles and Peg Squire
Marketing Committee
Rhonda Barriger, Regina Birdsall, Peg Squire and Renee Webb
Grounds Maintenance
Sonny Barrett, Dennis Fletcher, Barb Niles, John Niles and Steve Willes
Newsletter Design and Production
Regina Birdsall
Harness Racing
Georgia Baker
Floral Hall Superintendent
Melanie Mueller
Office Hours:
Mon, Wed & Fri: 9:00am - noon
Phone/Fax: 607-639-1525
email
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© 2007 - 2009 Afton Driving Park and Agricultural Association Inc.,
Design by Regina Birdsall, Last Updated Saturday, 16-May-2009 05:10:05 CDT
