Thursday, July 10, 2003

Haverford Township Day

We had our monthly meeting last night. For the most part the core parts of this process are set in place. We know we are going to have a parade, a flea market, a craft fair, children’s rides and entertainment. The thing that changes each year is how to keep the event interesting. What new things can we do without getting overly ambitious. A subset of all this is how best to let people know about the event so that we can maximize participation while keeping all our various constituencies (public, merchants, political leaders, neighbors, etc.) as happy as possible. You can’t do an event this big with inconveniencing someone so the issue becomes how can we minimize the bad and maximize the good.

In a future post I will try to discuss why I think it should be done at all.

Last night we spent a great deal of time on the idea of having a talent contest whose emphasis would be on teenagers. The concept is to capitalize on the popularity of American Idol. I like the idea but I am concern with 1) how much work would be involved in setting up eliminations and 2) is the term “Idol” a trademark that we would be infringing on. The originator of the idea wants to use “Idol” because of name recognition and perhaps we would slip under the radar screen of those who monitor this kind of thing. I and another member suggested that we get a written guide to what resources are needed to make this work and then proceed. It may indeed be a case of going forward and if someone objects say sorry and drop the name.

A sub-debate is whether it should be Delco Idol (for Delaware County), or Havertown Idol. There are arguments for both.

It is amazing how many small things come up. That is the advantage of a group, while things can get off track and the group can meander, you are constantly getting different perspectives which help ensure things aren’t being missed.

No comments: