Community Club receives recap from Torchlight committee
The Montgomery Area Community Club held its monthly meeting on Saturday morning, January 12, 2013, in the former Mobilize Montgomery office.
At the meeting, the MACC board heard from Torchlight Parade and Fireworks organizers Jake Keohen Jr. Anita Rynda, Maureen Franek, Tony Jelinek, Jean Franke and Ken Pavek. Keohen recapped the committees list of expenses from the event, which included parade buttons $356, pyrotechnics $4,500, advertising, $475, and misc. $587.
He noted the advertising portion of the budget came in higher than normal due to larger color newspaper ads. He said the committee wanted to recognize the sponsors more than what had been done in the past.
He also noted that the miscellaneous portion of the budget included gifts for the event’s button designer and for the two youth grand marshals. He told the group that all of the planning and execution of the event’s plans went well, due to the 10 committee members who all contributed. He applauded the work they did that lead to one of the most successful holiday parades in southern Minnesota.
Carol Kiekow made one request that next year there are more open areas for kids to assemble and collect candy. “I would like to see more areas open for kids and less cars parked on the parade route,” she said.
Keohen noted that was one thing the group failed to do was block off the Center Stage Dance parking lot from vehicles who parked there this year to watch the fireworks show. He said the vehicles pushed spectators too close to the display.
While the event was wildly popular with the addition of the button designer and the two young grand marshals, Keohen added the group plans to continue to accept ideas to keep the event fresh.
“Moving forward, the committee would like to do something new and exciting every year. We don’t know what, but something to keep it exciting,” he said. “We had a lot of good ideas come from a lot of different people.”
He also noted that the event wouldn’t have been possible without the funding and donations from area businesses.
MACC member Marc Peterson complimented Keohen and the committee and said the event was so successful, not just as a MACC event but, because of the committee’s ownership of it. He encouraged communication to carry over to Kolacky Days.
Other business
In other business, Mick McGuire, a board member for Mobilize Montgomery, reported that the MM board is still in the process of dissolving the 501c3 status. He noted that Marek Law Office is handling the details, and said the board is looking at assigning monetary values to the property in the Mobilize Montgomery office.
“We are hoping to have it finalized soon,” McGuire said. “It has gone quite well. We have some mystery accounts because MM was a fiscal agent, and we are determining what to do with those accounts.”
The board also approved the gambling account as presented by Maureen Franek who reported another excellent month in pulltab receipts. The board approved the ending balance of $27,167 as of December, 2012.
Franek also stressed that MACC needs to donate some of this money and that members should think about where they want to donate it during the year.
The board also approved MACC’s general fund balance of $13,509, as of December 2012.
