Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home Economic Development Group President Kevin Strong told SHEDG members that the organization’s Board of Directors will face difficult decisions as it faces challenges in the near future, while at the same taking advantage of different opportunities to address those challenges.
Among those opportunities is the partnership SHEDG and Linn County are developing on former Western States Land Reliance Trust property along the northern edge of Sweet Home. Oregon Jamboree Festival Director Erin Regrutto said that opportunity could be a game changer for Sweet Home.
Their comments came during SHEDG’s annual meeting Wednesday night, March 13. Their message was that members of the Sweet Home community have a choice while facing these challenges – blaming each other, or they can be optimistic and continue the momentum that has built up in the past few years.
Their reports set the stage for the election of two new board members and three incumbents to the board that night.
Joining the SHEDG Board of Directors are Joe Graybill and Mike Hall. Retaining their seats are JoAnn McQueary, Rachel Kittson-MaQatish and John Wittwer. McQueary’s term expires in 2014. The remaining terms expire in 2016.
They join six other board members, Strong, Carol Cromwell, Michelle Swett, Cindy Glick and Phyllis Osborn-Smith.
“I have supported SHEDG for many years as a member and believe I would have an informed voice and useful ideas,” Graybill said. “My intent is to try to provide some thoughtful consideration and objective point of view on the SHEDG board. I feel I can contribute to the goals and plans the board has, help identify new goals and will do the best I can to help accomplish them.”
Graybill is the city of Sweet Home Public Works staff engineer. He serves as chairman on the Sweet Home Active Revitalization Effort Planning Committee. He also participates in the Sweet Home Tree Commission and is a the Trustees chairman at his church.
Hall owns and operates The Point Restaurant. He has served on the City Council and is a director on the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. He also serves on the Sportsman’s Holiday Court Board. He has been involved in numerous charity and community projects.
“I believe economic development is essential to a prosperous community,” Hall said. “Based on that belief, I would like to help nurture the Sweet Home community to its fullest potential and contribute to its growth by serving on the Sweet Home Economic Development Board of Directors.”
Other candidates included City Councilor Scott McKee Jr., Trash to Treasure owner Nancy Patton and Safeway Manager Dean Nicholson.
Regrutto provided an overview of 2012 for the Oregon Jamboree, SHEDG’s three-day country music and camping festival held annually in early August. Proceeds from the Jamboree are used by SHEDG for its economic development programs and other local projects.
“For starters, last year was our 20th anniversary,” Regrutto said. “Our tag line was, ‘Twenty years of giving back.’”
Regrutto discussed the Jamboree’s financial challenges, which include financial losses over the past three years, but maintained that the festival continues to contribute substantially to Sweet Home’s economy in other ways than its bottom line.
She said she is often asked how the Jamboree has impacted the community. In 2012, she said, the community had some $130,000 in residual revenue from the Jamboree.
School District 55 received about $46,500 for use of school grounds and various fund-raising activities by students and school personnel, while $18,000 went to Sweet Home High School athletics; and local service and community organizations raised some $31,000. The city of Sweet Home received about $15,000 for security and facilities rentals, and Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District received $5,500 for providing medical services. The Sweet Home Community Foundation raised $7,000 linked to Jamboree activities, and local churches and organizations raised $6,5000 through camping and parking fees.
“The Community Foundation is one thing that has been very important to SHEDG since its inception,” Regrutto said. SHEDG wasn’t able to do much for the foundation in 2011, she said, so in 2012, the organization wanted to do more, even if it couldn’t write a check.
To that end, the Jamboree worked with Safeway to provide a $5,000 donation to the foundation. It also gave the foundation an opportunity to sell tickets to a meet and greet and private concert with Neal McCoy, raising $1,800. Working with the Spoleto’s Pizzeria and Wine Shop Community Act of Kindness program, the Jamboree and foundation have raised an additional $105, cash raised when customers order the Oregon Jamboree pizza. That cash is donated to the foundation.
The Jamboree directly provided $158,000 to the community in 2012, Regrutto said. SHEDG spent some $25,700 in downtown improvements, community events and mural refurbishment. The organization spent $132,500 in its economic development office.
Indirectly, the Jamboree sells out hotels and campgrounds, she said. Many local restaurants are extremely busy, and one grocery store reported to the Jamboree that it is busier during the festival than it is during Thanksgiving.
Only 8 percent of Jamboree ticket orders originate in Sweet Home, she said. The rest originate out of town, representing new money in Sweet Home.
Keeping the Jamboree profitable is one of the challenges Regrutto and Strong discussed.
Strong noted that in 2008, the Jamboree had its second most profitable year, with $305,000 in net proceeds.
But In 2010, with mounting competition from the Willamette Country Music Festival in Brownsville, sales dropped by 10 percent, resulting in 1,400 fewer people on the event site, Regrutto said. It should have been a great year, she noted. The headliners were Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton.
That year, the festival spent less than $35,000 in marketing, she said. It had no TV marketing and little radio and print advertising. The website was out of date. The Jamboree had about 800 friends on Facebook at a time that 14,000 attended the event daily. Most of them are constantly using their phones.
Its radio marketing largely involved trading tickets to stations, she said. “It’s a great strategy if you can make it work.”
The lower attendance represented $250,000 for everyone involved, including the event, concessions, merchandise and beer garden sales.
Because of competition, the Jamboree was forced to restructure its marketing strategy, Regrutto said. The Jamboree rebuilt its website, changed how and where it advertises and took advantage of the social media. Today, it has more than 14,000 “likes” on Facebook, much closer to the number of people who attend the event.
In 2011, things were looking up for the Jamboree. Attendance was up by 15 percent, and the event had a retention rate of 85 percent, but the net loss for the 2011 event was about $23,000. Meanwhile, SHEDG continued to contribute to the community and economic development through its Community Development Director staff and various programs to help upgrade the downtown and stimulate the local economy.
SHEDG continued to support the same programs in 2012 when attendance was up by 6 percent and the Jamboree had a retention rate of 87 percent, but Regrutto said the festival was still not profitable, though she did not give figures.
That’s one of the challenges the board will face this year.
“We cannot indefinitely expend more than we’re earning,” Strong said, no matter how important the cause.
“(The majority of ticket buyers) do not care we’re a nonprofit,” Regrutto said, referring to the fact that Jamboree profits are used to help the Sweet Home community.
They’re simply looking at ticket prices of $85 at one festival compared to $135 for the Jamboree, she said, referring to the Brownsville event.
That means the Jamboree must market creatively, develop beneficial partnerships, provide quality for the price, provide consistently reliable and good customer service to customers and sponsors, Regrutto said. In marketing, the Jamboree has had success with Facebook and KUPL Radio in Portland. During the most recent CMA awards, during commercial breaks, the Jamboree held a trivia game that was promoted by KUPL. Jamboree fans could win prizes offered on the festival’s Facebook site during the commercial breaks.
“Nobody was watching the CMA Awards during those commercial breaks,” she said, half-jokingly, adding that the Jamboree announced Luke Bryan as a headliner for the 2013 event while Bryan was busy winning awards during the TV show.
The campaign was popular, she said. Each post drew more than 500 comments.
The Jamboree also works closely with Albany-based KRKT, most recently teaming up for the Mystery Concert to be held next week.
The annual Mystery Concert is not only a marketing tool but a revenue generator, Regrutto said. The third annual Oregon Jamboree Mystery Concert scheduled for 7 p.m. on March 20 at the LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University. The headliner is kept secret until the artist appears on stage. So far, the Mystery Concert has featured James Otto and Steve Holy.
With the event itself, the staff must make sure it has a quality lineup, Regrutto said. The competition does make producing the event more difficult, but it doesn’t make it impossible.
In 2007, there were no other multi-day camping and music festivals in Oregon or Washington, Strong said. Now there are three.
It just means the event must be creative, cut costs where it can and be “consistently awesome every time you come,” Regrutto said. The event needs to get the word out and strategically book artists based on their routing.
“We can’t give up,” Regrutto said. “We have to make sure we’re providing a great experience for every customer.”
And Sweet Home has opportunities and reason to be optimistic, she said. SHEDG is planning a new festival for 2014. Similar to Sasquatch, a large festival in Washington, it will feature music described as “indie” or “alternative,” or, as Strong termed it, “sonically eclectic.”
Regrutto said she is often asked what that means, and displayed a list of examples of artists who might perform. Among the long list were Muse, the Lumineers, Imagine Dragons, Mumford and Sons, Avett Brothers, Phillip Phillips, the Shins, My Morning Jacket, The Head and the Heart, Black Keys and Modest Mouse, which feature a wide range of sounds including R&B, rap and other influences.
There is a market for that type of music, Regrutto said.
When Sasquatch, with a capacity of approximately 23,000, went on sale for this year’s event, Strong said, it sold out in 90 minutes.
Beyond the second festival, SHEDG and Linn County are partnering to develop vacant industrial land, formerly owned by Knife River as Morse Bros. and later owned by Western States Land Reliance Trust along the north edge of Sweet Home. The development may include a park as well as permanent grounds for the Jamboree and other events.
“That could potentially be a game-changer in Sweet Home,” Regrutto said.
Strong reviewed the progress SHEDG has made in its other mission: revitalizing Sweet Home’s economy.
He noted that in 2008, the year the Jamboree was highly profitable, two consultants, from the Cascades West Council of Governments and the Oregon Downtown Association, were highly critical of Sweet Home when community organizations applied for an assistance grant to upgrade the downtown.
The consultants said that “Sweet Home has a long history of failure to change,” Strong recalled. They added that Sweet Home tended to focus on the negative rather than positive and spent time placing blame instead of moving on. The community took little action to implement ideas. They said Sweet Home didn’t have much revenue to back into the community, and with a somewhat rundown business district and empty storefronts, it wasn’t a place people go as a destination.
Strong said their report “sounded like a coach chewing out his team in the locker room during halftime.”
Sweet Home didn’t get the grant, Strong, said, but the community reacted.
Local residents, stirred to action, created the Sweet Home Active Revitalization Effort – several committees that operate with the financial support of SHEDG. SHARE still exists currently and is still going strong, thanks in part to the efforts of Brian Hoffman, hired in 2010 to lead the effort, he said.
“We hired an economic development director, and we got a good one,” Strong said. Hoffman announced his resignation on March 6 to take a position with Waste Connections in Springfield. He departs on March 21.
“I can’t say all the things Brian has been involved in and all the things he has accomplished,” Strong said. “We owe it to him to continue that,” Strong said. “We owe it to ourselves too.”
Hoffman, who did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, submitted a report for the annual membership meeting detailing involvement with numerous businesses, to keep them in Sweet Home, expand them or otherwise assist in economic growth in Sweet Home. He partnered with numerous building owners to revitalize 20 commercial buildings and improve the image of the commercial district. Property and business owners have invested $115,000 over the past three years. Hoffman also has worked with numerous tourism organizations on several efforts, such as the Sweet Home Visitor Guide.
Though SHEDG and the community are losing a good leader, Hoffman is staying in the community, Strong said. He told how, when Rotary Club members cleaned their food booth on March 12 in preparation for the upcoming summer events, Hoffman was among them, covered in grease.
Sometimes people retire or take a new job, and they “check out,” Strong said. Hoffman remains.
Strong and Regrutto explained the challenges Sweet Home faces in returning the Jamboree, which Strong called SHEDG’s “economic engine,” to profitability and continuing what Hoffman has accomplished.
Marketing, talent and advertising was 43 percent of the Jamboree’s budget in 2008. In 2012, it was 58 percent of the budget.
The solution is simple to someone like Strong, the business manager for School District 55: Reduce that spending to 2008 levels, and everything would be solved.
But external factors make it difficult, he said. One is country music talent prices. Based on information from Celebrity Talent International, Brian Paisley costs $750,000 to $1 million for a single appearance. Booking Paisley requires a financial outlay that would cover appearances by Billy Ocean, Rick Springfield, Survivor, Jessica Simpson, Kool and the Gang, Paula Abdul, M.C. Hammer, Foreigner, Eddie Money, the Village People, and Donny and Marie – and former President Bill Clinton as emcee. He said he was basing those calculations on information published on the Celebrity Talent International website, which lists many performers’ appearance rates.
“You would still have money left over,” Strong said, based on the CTI figures. But, he added, the event needs the high-tier artists to compete.
In response to the difficulties, members of the community could focus on the negative and place blame, Strong said. Two consultants said Sweet Home has a history of it.
Or Sweet Home can seek out additional opportunities to create significant long-term economic benefit, Strong said. “They’re right in front of us really.”
The obvious ones are the new festival and the partnership with Linn County, and it has many other possibilities, such as a “music park,” something similar to The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Florida, which hosts multiple events – small and large, Strong said. Sweet Home today is in a better position than it was when the Jamboree was founded in 1992, with a large committed volunteer base and a professional event staff.
“We can leverage what we have into something good for Sweet Home,” Strong said, referring to the proposed new festival. “There’s a risk. There’s a chance it may not work, especially in the first year.”
That happened to the Jamboree too, he said. It wasn’t regularly profitable until 2003.
“As a board we do have difficult decisions before us,” Strong said. But he noted that the community has “great opportunities ahead” to make Sweet Home a destination, especially with other projects from other organizations, such as the city or the U.S. Forest Service.
“My hope is we just continue the momentum together and see good things happen,” Strong said. “I’m optimistic they will. We’re all here because we love Sweet Home.”