Last Saturday was a whirlwind of overlapping countywide events – mostly fundraisers.
And while I spent most of my day shuttling back and forth to try and capture each and everything, some events were missed.
Now, I know that it was exhausting because I was the only one really on tap to cover happenings, but, I also ran into other folks experiencing the same issue.
It’s hard to be everywhere for everything – and that’s only with the events I know about!
In the wake of so many things happening at once, I also think that some fundraisers might suffer because supporters are struggling to decide which event or cause to support.
Either that or supporters spread their dollars out too thin while trying to help everyone out by sharing the wealth.
Maybe that makes me one of those “glass half empty” kind of folks, but I think its worth at least considering spacing out fundraising events a bit in the future.
But, that means it all goes back to communication between organizations and coordinating a myriad of schedules.
Plus, there are annual events that have no consistent date other than the Saturday after the first day of spring.
We’ve got annual events like Camofest, 4th of July’s Sparks in the Park, Bay City Lions Club Rice Festival, the Day of the Dead Festival, and Matagorda County Fair & Rodeo – all of those dates change in the calendar year, but we all know about what time they’re held.
Anything else that falls in between those landmark happenings is probably sharing space with
other events.
However, as I mentioned last week, we can’t cover everythingwithout proper notification and enough time planning – there are only three of us after all!
But, the one thing that never fails to rile me up during a full slate week or weekend is hearing from other folks how they didn’t know other events were happening.
I hear this comment frequently even in meetings where one organization puts on something and has dreadfully low attendance.
I’d been asked by officials – elected and non – how do we increase community participation?
Said officials use newspaper advertising, social media and try to promote themselves outside of their office every chance they get, but are becoming disheartened.
Even being in this business for 15-plus years, I don’t have a magic answer for them and gently remind them that we’re facing similar struggles.
We can’t cover everything everywhere or all at once due to a lack of advertising or communication – that’s the basic truth of things.
However, when we do know, we’re trying to share the information we’re given and provide coverage as best we can.
But, when someone tells me that they don’t know the latest news about something or regurgitate some rumor they heard on a gossip forum I just want to kick them in the shins!
You might wonder why I have such a strong reaction, well, 95% of the time when I mention that we already wrote about said topic they automatically reply that they don’t read the newspaper.
And that’s followed up by excuses for not picking it up at a convenience store or not understanding how subscriptions work.
Newsflash – we’ve also been digital since practically day one!
It’s a struggle to reach people who prefer to stay concerned in their immediate lives rather than actively communicating in the larger public sphere – until it directly affects them, and I’ve got no answer on how to fix that.
All I know is that no matter how discouraging it is, I’ve still got a job to do and there are no plans on stopping yet!
