Home tour makes changes, more expected

To preserve more funds for area charities, the board of directors for the 20th annual SML Charity Home Tour is doing everything it can to reduce expenses, said Kathy Lietz, the tour's publicity co-chairman.

"We've been almost like mercenaries in trying to cut our costs this year," she said.

A major change has been fewer mailings to announce the Oct. 1-2 event. Lietz said they're depending more on e-mails and the tour's website to drive tour traffic.

They've also cut paper costs by discontinuing the use of paper tickets for the Sept. 10 gala, said Lietz.

"We're just taking names and making a roster," she said. "It's a little more labor intensive for the volunteers, but it will save us a couple hundred bucks."

Every dollar counts; proceeds raised from the tour, which benefit eight regional charities, have been down in recent years. Rain and low lake levels have been linked to a decline in tour attendance starting in 2006.

Another problem has been sponsorships, said Lietz. Some of the tour's major sponsors have had to back out or decrease the size of donations because of the slow economy, she said. Sponsorships make up the bulk of the charity donations.

An ad hoc committee organized recently to address issues related to the tour's declining attendance and sponsorships. Bill Telford, former tour board chairman, is heading the committee.

"We're looking at everything," he said. "It's a total re-evaluation of where we are today."

Every facet of the tour will be discussed, from the number of houses and charities to the price of tickets and the length of the tour, said Telford.

"In order to do that, we're interviewing members of the community to get their thoughts," he said.

Those interviews will begin in force after the committee meets on Sept. 3. Telford said he's talked with some people already and most of the feedback has been positive.

"The few that I've talked to so far, the business people, said it's a tremendous asset to the community from a tourism standpoint, from a business standpoint," said Telford.

"There have been a few that have said ... maybe its run its course, maybe 20 years is the life cycle for something like this," said Telford.

In addition to interviews, committee members will analyze tour data, statistics and processes.

Telford said he's hoping the committee will have recommendations to present to the tour's board of directors by the end of October. The board can take or leave any or all of the recommendations.

Telford, who selected the eight other people who are serving on the ad hoc committee, said he worked hard to organize a group of people who could leave their emotions and opinions at the door.

"The major requirement in my way of thinking was finding people who could be objective, who could make decisions based on facts," said Telford. Of the nine members, only three -- Telford, Tom Mignogna and home tour founder Jeanne Wagoner -- previously worked on the home tour.

Two major topics the committee will discuss are how to recruit volunteers to work the tour and people to serve on the board of directors. Telford said in addition to the 1,000-plus who volunteer on tour dates, 30 to 40 people work all year to prepare for the event.

"We've got a lot of people that have worked very hard for a number of years and they need to take a break," he said. "One of the major challenges as I see it at this point is finding people to fill those spots."

Community support, both directly working on the tour and attending it, are key to the tour's continuation, said Telford.

"If the decision is made to pursue and continue the home tour, I think that will probably be one of the recommendations: that we add something new to it," said Telford. "Whether we want to admit it or not, we all get stale after a while.

"I'm not placing any blame on anybody," he continued. "That's just human nature; after doing something for so long, you tend to do the same thing over and over."

Telford said the tour could benefit from new people with new ideas. In order to continue supporting area charities, a revitalization is needed, he said.

"I think it's a healthy thing that we're doing," said Telford. "Every major program should step back periodically and have an unbiased review of how they do it."