Tour of Homes Review

Jennifer Attride, Tour of Homes Coordinator Extraordinaire, went through a re-cap, dividing the review into what worked and what didn't work, or needs improving. Considering the Tour took place 3 days after the worst ice storm in Raleigh's history, and most of the neighborhood did not have power until about 15 hours before the tour began, we had an outstanding turnout, great participation, and overall a really successful tour.

What Worked:

Ad Sales: This was a huge boon to the Tour this year, generating both
awareness and revenue. The advertisers were all extremely happy with
the layout and and portrayal of theirs businesses in our Homes brochure,
and most were happy to display one of our posters as well. This was
less true with the franchise businesses, who have rules regarding what
they can post. Also, most franchises plan their advertising on a
monthly, or sometimes quarterly basis. Something to keep in mind for
next year. Special thanks to Jill Averitt for walking the streets while
8.5 months pregnant to visit the businesses to sell the ads, and for her
outstanding layouts as well.

Luminaries: It was pretty much unanimous that the luminaries were
tremendously successful, and provided a lot of "bang for the buck". The
cost was fairly minimal - approximately $275 for 3,000 luminaries. They
generated many positive comments, and prompted lots of questions as to
why we were putting them out too - a bit sad considering the efforts to
get the word out about the tour - but the luminaries are definitely a
"keeper" for next year. They were truly beautiful lining the
neighborhood streets and Glenwood Avenue. The assembly of the
luminaries went extremly well too. The distribution, lighting, and
removal ... well, see "What Didn't Work" for comments.
Posters and Flyers: The posters were well received by the businesses in
the area, and the advertisers were very happy with their mentions on the
posters and the flyers. Most every business that we requested to
display a poster, and that could, did.

Participation: We really had wonderful participation by the entire
neighborhood for this year's tour. We had wonderful houses on the tour,
and having different houses from years past really made a difference.
We heard several comments about both the need for (prior to the tour)
and appreciation of (post-tour) having new and different houses on the
tour this year. This is something we really need to focus on for next
year, ensuring we have different houses lined up for the tour. We also
had great participation (although not enough people) to help pull things
together and pull off the tour - assembling the luminaries, putting them
out and getting them lit, generating ad sales, helping at the church the
day of the tour, and many other details all had to come together to make
the tour a success, and thanks go to everyone who helped with all of
those big and small tasks.

Post-Tour Party: The party at the Ernst's was a rousing good time, and
a great way to cap "Tour Day". Everyone had a great time, enjoyed
getting to know their neighbors better, and really starting off the
holiday season in a festive way. Thank you to Chris and Winifred for so
graciously opening their home, and to the Filmore Valley Boys for
providing the great music! The consensus was we need to make the
Post-Tour Party a tradition. (Don't worry, Chris and Winifred - we
won't make you have it every year!)

Prize for the Best House: The prize itself was really great, thanks to
donations by neighborhood businesses. It also generated some friendly
competition between the tour homes, and it seemed tour-goers enjoyed
voting for their favorite house.

Sketches of the Tour Homes for the Brochure: These were simply
wonderful, and a great addition to the brochure. Tour home owners will
receive the orignal sketches too. A huge "Thank You" to John Reese for
his generosity in producing these wonderful sketches.
Tour Times: 1:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. seemed to work well this year, as
well has limiting the tour to one day on Saturday.

What Didn't Work (or needs attention):

Luminaries - or specifically, the distribution, lighting, and removal of
the luminaries. Putting out and lighting 3,000 luminaries is truly
back-breaking work, more so when there are only a handful of people
doing it. We need greater participation on the part of neighbors to do
this next year. In fact, one idea is that we will have a committee to
assemble the luminaries, but neighbors will be responsible for picking
up enough to display in front of their house, lighting them, and then
removing them.

While participation really was great this year, and better than in past
years, the majority of the work is still falling on too few shoulders.
To address this issue, Jennifer suggested forming 3 committees - and
forming them early in the year - as follows:

House Committee - these people will be in charge of lining up the
houses and gaining commitment from the home owners, coordinating
house sitters, gathing house history, etc.

Luminaries Committee - responsible for the assembly of the
luminaries, notifying neighbors when they are ready, distributing
them as necessary, coordinating lighting, and coordinating removal of
the luminaries.

Marketing and Advertising- responsible for ad sales, poster and
flyer production and distribution, providing information to the News
and Observer and any other media outlets about the tour, etc.
We need to have a sign for the church for the Tour Starting point.
We would like to drape a sign across Glenwood Avenue for a week prior to
the tour.

We should look into getting information about the tour posted on City
Search or some other website

More Houses - Different Houses - More Houses - Different Houses - More
Houses - Different Houses - More Houses - Different Houses - More Houses

All in all - and despite Mother Nature's nasty surprise - this year's tour was the best ever. The Tour of Historic Homes is a "diamond in the rough"
- a tremendous opportunity to show off our wonderful downtown neighborhood, generate interest and awareness for who and where we are, and make money! We need to work on continuing to improve this tremendously promising event.

Following the Tour Review, we moved on to planning for the year. Chris broke down the planning needs into five major categories or groups:

Communications: Newsletter, Website Enhancements, Printing Logistics, Quarterly Flyers

Social: Speakers, Glenwood/Brooklyn Nights at Glenwood South, Block Party

Improvements: Glenwood median, Neighborhood Sign, Playground Equipment

All / Unassigned: Mission / Vision for the Neighborhood Association, Logo, Landlord letter, Historic Tax Credits, Community Watch, Neighborhood List Serve (e-mail), Committee Recruitment

HGBNA Roles: Social, Educational, Historical, Environmental, Charitable

We had discussion that touch - sometimes briefly, sometime in depth - on each of these items. The one major accomplishment though was producing a calendar for the year, as follows:

March 5th: Wine & Cheese Party / Meeting
April 19th: Block Party
April/May: Voting Member Recruitment/Renewal
June 22nd: Fundraiser
June: Designate Tour Committee Leads
August: Beer & Pizza Party / Meeting
September 3rd: Open House
October 1st: HGBNA Council and Committee elections
October 26th: Fall Fling
December 6th: Tour of Historic Homes

Finally, we established the following upcoming priorities:

Produce a Calendar of Events and newsletter for distribution throughout
the neighborhood by March. Christina Sanchez is leading this effort.
Develop a Mission and Vision Statement to drive our goals and plans.
Chris Ernst is leading this effort, with a decision to be made
finalizing the Mission and Vision Statements at the February meeting on
February 5th.

Map out Planning Meetings vs. Social Meetings. This was begun, see above.

Spring Block Party planning to be done at the February 5th meeting

We hope you will join us at the February meeting!