On Monday, March 30, Hillman, Natalie, and I went to the Brooklyn Park neighborhood to begin the Street Team’s process of speaking to neighbors and community members and passing out flyers. From this first say, we realized two things. The first is, if you go on a weekday in the middle of the day, no one will be home, and secondly, we need t-shirts to look more professional and a much larger street team if we want to actually be able to talk to and pass out flyers to the entire neighborhood. In order for this to be more successful, we need to get t-shirts as soon as possible. It does not look professional and no one really knows what to expect if they see three kids all dressed differently walking up to their door. I think that from now one, anyone on the street team should be wearing the t-shirt in order for people to be more receptive. Additionally, we need more flyers. I know flyers cost money to print, but if we either take money from the fund or if everyone goes to the library and spends about three dollars, at ten cents per page, that would be plenty of flyers to pass out to the whole neighborhood and a small expense individually. Next time we go, we also need to have our pamphlets and questionnaires ready to pass out. If we go on an evening night around 6 pm or on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon with all of the necessary materials, the Street Team can be a huge success. Today, we only actually got to talk to one man about the event, as most people were not home, but we did place flyers in many of the mailboxes surrounding the club, and also gave some to the owners to post around the club.

As far as food for the event, we also spoke to the owners while we were there for the Street Team. They would be willing to set up a buffet for us. The first price that she gave us on a per person basis was $22 per ticket. We told her that while we appreciate her helping us that was not a realistic price for many of the people that we would be inviting, college students in particular. After this, she told us she would be willing to bring it down to $15 per person. At this price, on the buffet she would include two appetizers, mozzarella sticks and chicken wings, salad, and then spaghetti, meatballs and bread for an entrée. She also said she would be willing to include ice tea on the buffet, but any sodas or alcohol would come from the cash bar. I think that $15 is a little more realistic, but still could pose difficulties as to whether or not people will actually be willing to spend that kind of money. I am not sure if anyone else is interested in this idea or not, but I think that it is a possibility that we could use some of our funds to pay Nina for part of the food costs in a effort to lower the ticket price.

This past weekend I went to the Arundel Burning book signing. It was kind of sad, because there were about five people there for it. It was an interesting trip though, as I got to meet the owners for the first time and some very interesting regulars. Paul and Anne, who go to the club every night of the week, told me that they were very close to Manny and Dino, the Club’s previous owners. They also told me that they stopped going for a while when the club was sold but recently started coming back when they realized how nice the new owners actually were. I also learned a lot from Paul about the history of the club, and I agree with Katie, he will be a wonderful candidate for the oral history. It was sad to learn from the couple that a lot of the people in the community who had been regulars of the club for years stopped coming for two reasons. One of the reasons is that the owners are not from the United States, which a lot of the older folks have a problem with, for whatever reason. Another reason is because a girl who used to work there was a horrible person. She stole almost 1,000 dollars and a Keno machine from the owners who gave her a free place to live and then when they caught her, she told community members and old regulars a lot of bad and untrue rumors about the couple.

This coming weekend, Hillman, Missy, Natalie, and I are going out on Saturday for the street team. We are basically going to be going door to door promoting the even on May 17^th as well as asking for pictures and memories that local community members have about the club in its better days. Hopefully we will be able to also meet people who are interested and knowledgeable for the oral histories. After we go door to door, I am planning on going to the club to hopefully meet more nice people like Paul and Anne who will also be willing to work with us for oral history interviews. Finally, since I am part of the event planning, I am going to meet with the owners to work out the food for the event. Hopefully they are willing to make some sort of deal that comes along with a ticket purchase, but this is obviously at their discretion. I plan on having the final details about food for the event on Tuesday in class.

Committee Ideas

History:

- Find/contact local members of the community

- Interview them- Talk to newer members of the community about what they think of the club/ what they know about it

- Interview older members of the community- Find out what they know about the club/ if they used to or still do frequent the club

- More in depth demographic analysis of Brooklyn

Event Planning:

- Secure a definite date for the event!

- Secure all sports figures for the event- since we will have a set date, this should not be a problem

- Secure all prizes for raffle and for silent auction- also since we now will have a date, this should not be a problem

- Discuss what kind of D.J./ live music will be at event

- Discuss decorations for event- should be sports themed since that is the theme of the club

- Plan on how we will share with those who attend the event the historical importance of the club and the need to preserve it (Slideshow playing throughout the event, etc.)