Planning

The past two days have been spent enjoying conference rooms A & B in the Varied Industries Building. While the scenery could be improved, as could the comfort of the chairs, the reason for being there was a good one. The Fair Board, CEO and staff from the administration offices and maintenance were there to discuss programming ideas for 2013 and future Fairs plus planning for capital improvements.

For both, we were divided into random groups of seven (each including two Fair Board members). For the programming task we were to come up with ideas for areas such as competitive events, ag. education, special events, marketing, the Foundation and concessions. All ideas were valid as it was a chance to throw out ideas and see what might stick. Some things that came up were new food competitions for concessionaires to create a "wow" item each year, what we might try and bring to Kid Zone, expanding ag education into horticulture, adding in more free demonstrations, new entertainment venues, youth contests, garage band contests.....lots and lots of ideas. From there each group narrowed their list to a top five which we compiled with the others. Now there is a "new" list of considerations to look into as possiblities for next year's Fair and those in the future.

With the capitals, we'd already done legwork on this starting in 2010 by coming up with a wish list that was compiled by all the departments. We've tackled some of those already with elevators in the Cultural Center, rewiring in the Sheep Barn and paving the lot west of the 4H Building to name a few. We went through the list again to divide them out into short term (complete by next year's Fair), intermediate (2-4 years) and long term (5+ years). It’s interesting to see how opinions vary across departments. Maintenance looks at deterioration and hours needed to maintain a facility, interim events looks at rental potential and competitive events considers how many head of livestock can be housed and contest scheduling. Generation of income, visitor safety, Fair-goer experience and historical value are all part of the evaluation process.  Many questions are raised with no definitive answers. When finished, the Board has a list of recommendations to utilize as they allocate funds for capital projects needed in both the short and long term. Unfortunately the Fair hasn't won a $200 million lottery jackpot as that would make these hard decisions on where limited funds would go very easy - we'd just do it all!

It’s planning sessions like these that underline the importance of developing an endowment fund. No matter how much we might ignore it, the future does become the present and, if there is no long term preparation, our goals are not accomplished. The mission of the Blue Ribbon Foundation is to renovate and restore the Iowa State Fairgrounds. We’ve accomplished a lot but know there is much left to be done. This will take careful planning and a long term vision to make sure that the work continues and the improvements are maintained.  With your assistance, and maybe some planning of your own, we can work together to steward the renovation of the Iowa State Fairgrounds, preserving a wonderful summer tradition for generations to come.