In Attendance

Don Piper, Bill Gray, Sasha Kamper, Kevin Moser, Josh Nelson

Items Discussed

• National Night Out recap
• Booverdale
• Union Park’s Contractors Fair

Recap

National Night Out (recap)

We had a very successful NNO this year. The weather was perfect. We were under budget this year but decided we should not request less for next year.

During this meeting we discussed what we can do better.

Comments:

The one clown we had that creates animal ballons was swamped. Next year we will plan on having more than one clown available so lines are not so long at this station. One option is to reach out to Shriners.

 Suggestion for a face painting station (which we have had in the past) would be good to include.

Yard signs such as what is used throughout Beaverdale for Farmer’s Market and Bluegrass Festival would be a great advertising addition beyond the flyers we distribute to Beaverdale businesses. Post card sized handouts would also be a great option to advertise NNO at other events such as Farmer’s Market. Bluegrass Festival did this it was very successful.

The 41^st intersection construction is expected to be an impact to the event next year. We have reached out the city of DSM to see if they have additional info on the impact.

For the businesses and city offices that show up for the event it would be helpful to provide detailed instructions on the best way to get to their assigned locations.

It was also suggested that we directly reach out to local dignitaries (Des Moines Mayor, Polk County Supervisor, …) so they are well aware of the time of our NNO event. Also, make sure we have one or two volunteers assigned as an ambassador for these dignitaries. 

Booverdale

Public Affairs has agreed to shadow the Beaverdale Booverdale event (previous event link https://www.beaverdale.org/calendar/events/event-113/). We will decide after participating if Public Affairs wants to just take over this event (we probably will).

Currently Edward Fishman, Therese Herold and Josh Nelson are handling the event. The event is October 24 from 4-6 PM. The local businesses handle a fair amount of the work for this event. We should just need a few volunteers.

A business invite will be emailed the last week of September.

Union Park’s Contractor’s Fair

Jack Daugherty (Co-Chair Union Park Neighborhood Association) reached out to BNA to see if we could provide information from the Contractor’s Fair we did in 2023. Don Piper sent all the documentation we had. Union Park is looking at doing a Contractor’s Fair in the spring of 2025. This is in connection with Invest DSM expanding to Union Park, North of Grand and Woodland Heights in 2025.

BNA Public Affairs has offered to partner with Union Park for this event. We will request a meeting with Union Park Neighborhood Association to discuss further yet this year. Our suggestion is to have the event in March. We’ll suggest UPNA also have a meeting with the folks at Invest DSM well before moving forward with plans. Don Piper will reach out again to Jack Daugherty to get a meeting planned. Bill Gray, Josh Nelson and Don Piper offered to attend that meeting.

 The September Public Affairs meeting will be on the 18^th from 5:30-6:30 PM. Restaurant still TBD.