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I overheard a couple in front of our building saying Geeee, the trains
are closed, not here any more. I pointed to the door which they had
not seen.<br>
<br>
Larry<br>
<br>
Alameda County Central Railroad Society wrote:
<blockquote cite="midmailman.1024.1531276297.13049.accrs@mail.accrs.org"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Message From: Becky and John Kolberg <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:bjkolberg@aol.com">bjkolberg@aol.com</a>
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<br>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Well, the
2018 Alameda County Fair is in the can. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">A review of
the statistics for donations reveals this year’s
performance was second only to that of the year 2000, both in dollars
and
dollars per visitor. I’ll give a
quantitative report at the next business meeting. Since the 2000
record, donations began a long
period of decline that only began to improve in dollars four years ago
and in
$/visitor two years ago. This year’s $/visitor
was nineteen percent better than last year—a very significant
improvement. Such a change begs the question—Why? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">At the
welcome desk I have heard speculation regarding this phenomenon
of donation improvement, so I will add my opinions here. This year the
donations collected in the box
at the back door were almost a quarter of all donations. In contrast,
the amount collected there in
past years, when it was counted separately, was less than ten percent.
That in its self would account for about half
of the donation improvement. I believe
there are two reasons for that increase: 1. the scavenger hunt, and 2.
the big sign there drawing attention to the
donation box. In addition to the above,
I believe the strong national economy has added discretionary spending
money to
the visitors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Visitor
attendance, on the other hand, was lack luster. In the last ten years,
it was the second
lowest at 47,031. It was only 144 more
than last year. Our busiest day this
year had 3,970 visitors. A few years
ago, that many visitors in a single day was not unusual. I believe the
record was 6,258 set in
2015. I called the Fair office today to
get their attendance number. Their preliminary
number is 426,000+. That puts our
attendance at 11.0% of the Fair attendance—not a significant
improvement. I noticed that our percentage dropped two percentage
points coincident with the placement of retail booths around our front
door in
2016. The opinion of the Fair personnel
a couple years ago that the booths would improve our visibility has
proved
false.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">John Kolberg</div>
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