There has been speculation that the Morgan Hill Chamber of
Commerce is hiding something by not sharing its costs and net
income from the 2005 Taste of Morgan Hill.
There has been speculation that the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce is hiding something by not sharing its costs and net income from the 2005 Taste of Morgan Hill.
In truth, The Chamber has nothing to hide but, in not releasing this information, genuinely believed it was for their internal uses, only.
However, because of the circumstances over the past week, with members of the board and City officials being approached regarding the Chamber and its practices, the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce presents the following information regarding the 2005 Taste of Morgan Hill:
Never in its history has such significant changes been made. They included the commitment to use only Morgan Hill area restaurants and caterers, whether Chamber members or not, as food providers.
A “True Taste of Morgan Hill” was the intent of this decision. From the overall comments that were received, this was, indeed, the correct decision to make and it was successful.
Ways of improving on what was accomplished in ’05 began with a wrap up meeting following this year’s Taste of Morgan Hill and meetings are being planned to begin, soon, in preparation for the 2006 Taste of Morgan Hill.
Another big change was the downsizing in the number of commercial and arts and crafts participants in 2005, in order to open up the curbside areas for the inclusion of Downtown businesses to actively be a part of the ’05 Taste of Morgan Hill.
Chamber staff personally invited and encouraged downtown businesses to set up shop on the sidewalk in front of their business.
And many took advantage of this opportunity, which, once again, gave this year’s attendees a true Taste of Morgan Hill.
This, too, was successful, and we believe, it will be even more successful, in 2006.
The Taste of Morgan Hill is the major fundraiser for the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce.
It is also one of the more prominent events, as well, in the economic development element of the Chamber’s Program of Work, which is a partnership between the City of Morgan Hill, private sector, and Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce.
Over the years, this event has consistently brought an estimated 40 to 50,000 people, over the event’s two days, from our region.
Many are “old timers,” having attended for years, and many attend for the first time, having seen the promotional advertising that is developed for this event.
This year, with the inclusion of local restaurants and caterers, especially, new film footage was shot for future television ads, which will highlight this significant change.
Bringing people, lots of people, to our Downtown and introducing or reminding them about the dining and shopping opportunities in Morgan Hill is, and has been, an important element of the Taste of Morgan Hill.
It brings revenue to businesses and the City the two days of the event, and it brings customers from the relationships that were created during the two days back in the future.
The 2005 Taste of Morgan Hill grossed $225,425.16. This comes from the sponsorships, booth rentals, the Kids’ Zone, Wine and Beer Garden, souvenirs, ice, the Friday Night Dance, food sales, advertising reimbursement from the Economic Development Partnership Marketing Budget, the Custom and Classic Car Show, and the Quilt Show.
Total expenses, including over $8,600 for Public Works and Police services, which the Chamber paid, and over $1,000 for sidewalk cleaning after the event, another first, to our understanding, were $162,823.26.
Thus, the 2005 net was $62,601.90. In comparison, the 2004 Taste of Morgan Hill gross income was $184,446, the expenses were $100,348, with a net of $84,098. Reason for the difference?
Beer and wine sales were down. There were fewer commercial and arts and crafts booths, because we did not place them on the curbsides of Monterey Road, as was done in the past.
Coupled with not enough foot traffic in the newly utilized Community Center area where food booths were located and entertainment was provided, again, for the first time. And unexpected higher expenses in tent rentals.
What is truly the bottom line? The 2005 Taste of Morgan Hill was a huge success in fulfilling The Chamber’s commitment to make very significant changes in its makeup, with the inclusion of local restaurants and caterers and the proactive inclusion of Downtown businesses. It was a success because of what we learned from this year of “firsts,” especially about the inclusion of the Community Center area for food booths and entertainment.
And it was success because of what we learned about the costs vs. the revenue, with this year’s “firsts,” which will result in the opportunity to go back to the drawing board to fine tune what was done in ’05 in preparation for a very special Centennial Taste of Morgan Hill September 23 and 24, 2006.
Editor’s note: An article in the Saturday, Dec. 17 edition of the Morgan Hill Times detailed the Chamber’s expenses for the Taste of Morgan Hill. An increase of approximately $50,000 in revenue and expenses were due to how the Chamber managed food sales. This year, the Chamber sold tickets for food and reported the sales as revenue, food vendors were then paid 80 percent of the collected food revenue, which was reported as an expense. In the end, the difference between net revenue this year and last year was approximately 6 percent according to Times calculations.
Dan Ehler is the Executive Director of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce.
