Main Street group to attend summit

A group from Main Street Washington will attend a summit on revitalizing Iowa?s downtowns next week. The Iowa Downtown Summit is in Keokuk Aug. 21-22. Attendees will participate in and listen to workshops on social media marketing, state historic tax credits and other subjects.

Main Street Washington executive director Amy Vetter said Main Street communities are required to attend certain workshops, and this is one of them. The group of people from Washington who are going are lucky the summit is in southeast Iowa, because the summits are sometimes on the other side of the state. Vetter has previously attended summits in Davenport, Charles City and Ames.

Vetter will participate in one of the panels during the workshop. She will speak about creative fundraising ideas. She will focus on Main Street?s fundraising efforts to restore the exterior of State Theatre last year. Main Street raised money by holding fundraising events at the venue itself plus smaller events at what was then Club 207 which included local entertainment.  

?It?s all about putting ?fun? into fund-raising,? Vetter said. ?That?s one of my main points, which is that you?ve got to have fun. People who are giving money are having fun as well.?   

Vetter?s second point is to make the fundraiser creative. She said there may be all sorts of neat projects in town, but unless the locals can think of a creative way to fund it, it won?t happen.

In addition to being on a panel, Vetter and the rest of the group will learn all sorts of things from the other workshops over the two-day conference. She said the group will get a better idea of how to market Main Street programs through social networking sites. Other workshops will focus on how to make an abandoned building usable again. Still other workshops will be about how to promote retail businesses and draw people into town.

?A lot of times at these meetings, we cover trends,? she said. ?We find out what?s going well, what?s not going well. We want to find out how to increase traffic flow to our events.?

The five other people going with Vetter are Main Street Washington board member Don Kline, Mayor Sandra Johnson and city councilors Bob Shepherd, Merle Hagie and Fred Stark. Vetter said she?s happy that so many people are going because it will allow Washington to send a representative to workshops that are going on at the same time.

?Ever since I?ve been a part of Main Street, we?ve always had three to four people attend these events,? Vetter said. ?People here are very supportive.?