To all board and officers:
I've been reading all the comments and suggestions on the fire hall situation
and have some comments to add.
As to Glenn's suggestion about a small theatre, Ursula and I looked into the
New Cumberland theatre last year when they showed some interest in our shows.
They didn't offer much , only a show here and there and to be honest, I do not
think the group who purchased the theatre ever have gotten it off the ground.
It didn't offer us much and not as much seating as we have now. I think that
would be the case with any other small town theatre if they even are any
remaining in our area.
As I said before, due to our membership mix as to location and more important
the location of our majority of present attendees, I believe the ideal location
, if we ever move would be no further north of York than Dover , Manchester,
Strinestown, etc and no further south than Red Lion. That way we would not be
seriously impacting or membership base or our attendance base with a move. It's
a fact Harrisburg folks don't like to go south of York and York people really
hate coming north to the Harrisburg area or even the West Shore.
Jean's suggestion of Marysville would kill all of our York attendees coming and
they are our majority who attend.
Someone suggested Franklintown and that's a possibility but again it is up the
road a piece from the York area and also, they have a lot going on there and
it's not easily accessed directly. Dover is a really good area for us and one
we might do well to look at.and several suggested that. Also , Joel Klinedinst,
who is a member, suggested Emigsville Fire Dept. He says they have a large and
spacious new hall with a great stage but doesn't know if our schedule would fit
into theirs , if the rent would fit our budget or if they would have a food
concession. He's offered to find out some of these questions and I offered to
go there with him to check things out if he finds it possible and if the Board
gives me permission to investigate. The location would be easily accessed and 3
or 4 miles north of York city limits would be excellent.
Also, Schools and Pentecostal Churches in the area could be a possibility but
Tim Michaels , who I work closely with, has investigated all of these type
venues because he's not thrilled with York Fairgrounds 2 stages for his shows.
Tim found that all he inquired about are not renting their facilities out
because they are afraid if they rent to someone like us or him, they will then
be forced to rent to an organization like Black Lives Matter if they rent to us
and would be sued if they did not. This is more and more getting to be a
problem for a lot of such places.
There was a suggestion that possibly we could tie in with other genres of music
and then get some grants but grants take a lot of prep work and we've already
considered that and nothing so far has ever evolved from that. Also, I feel if
we tied in with another group, we'd lose our identity and to me, that is very
important.
As to whether we could take our soundboards if we left, that is a good question
but as I recall we more or less told the firehall we were installing them as a
permanent addition to their hall in order to get permission to drill the holes
and install them.
Like Glenn said, we've been at Goodwill for a lot of years, actually longer
than I've been a member and it's worked well for us and we need to be very
sure if and when we make a move , a lot of thought and planning has gone into
it. However, like all good things , they usually come to an end and the changes
in direction at Goodwill and the new hierarchy there simply are not as easy to
deal with as the former ones. As to cooler heads availing there, the people Sue
spoke with were the Chief, Asst. Chief and Robb Green heads up the crew in the
Kitchen so not much higher folks there than that to speak with.
As to food not being a priority, I agree but it is nice to have drinks and
snacks , at a minimum , available at intermission. Also, to a lot of our
attendees , our shows are a "night out" and they enjoy coming early when the
kitchen opens , getting food and making a night of it and I think that
contributes to our crowd. It's also nice for the core of people who arrive very
early to set up the hall.
I'm not advocating we just jump ship and run ( or swim) but we don't want to
get thrown off the ship either so I think now is the time to look around and
see what other locations offer and seriously determine how far from Goodwill
north or south our attendees would follow. I believe the answer to the latter
is not much further south and no more than halfway up the line toward
Harrisburg. I do think that before we burn the bridge at Goodwill, we have
another, hopefully as good or better venue, picked out and an agreement in
place
If the Board approves looking around or wants to form a committee to look into
all this, I will volunteer to work on that committee or possibly chair
thatcommittee , if asked to do so.
I care a lot about our future and especially our concert series and would hate
to see us sit back, do nothing and be blindsided by the Fire Co. either pricing
us out of what we can afford or just telling us to move on. Their attitude
recently doesn't give me personally much comfort that we are on solid ground
there.
Just my thoughts and opinions.
Dick
