By Cathy Rogers
Feeling the financial squeeze, this year’s Linden Town Week found both sponsors and patrons tightened their belts.
Interim Management Committee (IMC) Chairman Orin Gordon, reporting on the annual activities which coincided with the Town’s 39th Anniversary in April, said 2009 was an extremely challenging year because of the global crisis hitting everyone. However, the Linden Town Council worked with available resources to ensure activities were run off in a satisfactorily and timely fashion.
According to Gordon, there was less emphasis this year on making a profit than there was on ensuring that the activities were executed without putting a financial burden on the Council. The Council’s Town Week Committee said it did its best so that expenses were contained to ensure that expenditure did not exceed revenue, although costs went up this year a few events needed rescuing.
This year’s profit has so far been recorded at $299,975, although some bills for expenditure are still coming in. A total of $2,651,000 was raised from vending, sponsorship and fees, while $2,351,025 was expended to run off and support activities. A sum of $485,000 is yet to be paid to the Council by Banks DIH Ltd, the Ministry of Local Government and a few small businesses and stall holders.
The food and drink stalls netted $459,500. Income from stalls selling clothing was $926,500. With fees being down and sponsorship much lower than the previous year, the overall income was lower than 2008.
This year the list of events soared to 40 because more Lindeners were involved in promoting events. This was the intent of Town Week, that participation and promotion must be as wide as possible across the Community.
Pepperpot
Among the activities featured during the 2009 Town Week were the “Miss Big, Bold and Beautiful contest,” the “Miss Linden Town Week Pageant,” the “Hawaiian style dance,” sports and educational activities such as spelling bees and debates, among others. According to Gordon the Pepperpot contest was almost derailed due to lack of sponsorship, forcing the Planning Committee to intervene with the prizes. “Linden has Talent” was also similarly affected but the show was brought off with little rewards. Once more the Planning Committee was forced to intervene and ensure that this event was realised. Organisers of the major events complained of lack of sponsorship and the fact that they were forced to spend much out of their pockets. Lack of support from schools for the “Drama Rama” led to the organiser declaring that he would have dropped the activity. If this had happened it would have been a travesty and the loss of a platform to display the art form for students.
Promoters also complained of financial stress and greater out-of-pocket spending. Many were prone to promote events based on a large sponsorship model. This allowed for a greater deal of money available at the end for profit share. “The stress associated with Town Week was quite evident in 2009. Many businesses in Linden did not give help and are probably fatigued because of the ever-present begging bowl being placed at their doors,” Gordon said, adding, “The larger corporate businesses are therefore overburdened to assist and so with expanded events list, the situation becomes critical. What happens here is that the sponsorship pie per event from the sponsor gets smaller.”
He also noted that government departments and ministries were very tight fisted as the global financial crunch was felt.
Gordon pointed out that the beverage companies performed superbly and should have been a bit more liberal with sponsorship. Another phenomenon noted was the tendency of the big companies to pour large sums into the mega events which attract international artistes, although those did not reflect bigger gains by virtue of sales of their respective products.
All of the promoters experienced business anxieties during Town Week 2009, Gordon felt. He however hastened to say that it was a good lesson learnt because it meant that promoters must now be more resourceful in order to bring off their events and take a larger part of the ancillary earnings from their events, such as the bar and advertisement for businesses. In this vein, Lindener Reginald Sancho was commended for his generosity, producing meals for the Senior Citizens luncheon and still giving donations to individual sponsors.
High praise
Meanwhile, the Guyana Police Force’s E & F Divisions at Linden came in for high praise from the Planning Committee, which said that the security forces did a very good job of maintaining the peace. “The stability seen in the community is a good reason for persons noting Linden as a place for fun-filled entertainment,” Gordon said. He singled out Assistant Commissioner Nolan Hendricks, Superintendent Norman Timmerman and Inspectors Stephen Telford and Osmon Ward for commendation.
The Diaspora also made a significant impact on the success of the Town Week. Dr. Ivy Bakker-Mitchell in particular was cited for sharing her expertise and skills in education management with the Region 10 Education Department. “This level of unselfishness is most commendable and Dr. Ivy Mitchell has been doing this for four years now, at the Town Week events. It is one of the activities that speak to development of the masses,” Gordon said.
Dr. Bakker-Mitchell is a member of the Linden Fund USA (LFU), which organized and executed a number of activities including the distributions of snacks to several nursery schools and to children enrolled in the Adopt-A-Child programme executed by the Linden Care Foundation, a treat for senior citizens, a spelling bee competition, the Hawaiian Style dance and the teachers and administrators workshop. The events saw close collaboration with their sister organization Linden Fund Guyana operating in Linden.
The LFU, which in the past organised a charter, did not do so in 2009. However, persons travelled on their own, many of them having purchased tickets since last year when the prices were very low.
It was estimated that over 200 overseas-based Lindeners returned for the Town Week 2009. It was considered a large number given that many persons would have been adversely affected by financial crisis in the US. “This is a statement of diehards’ commitment to one’s roots and heritage. It has been known but now it has been shown,” according to Gordon.
Additionally, businesses reported being generally contented with the level of financial support demonstrated by members of the Diaspora. And Gordon urged that the Linden community recognise and support the yearly pilgrimage. He said that equally, their kinfolk must be aware of their roles and their impacts on development of the Linden community.
Meanwhile, Gordon noted that planning must start early to avoid any hiccups there may be along the way. He said that the Diaspora continues to play a meaningful role and every attempt must be made to accommodate and provide a beautiful vacation haven for them.
Since 2004, Linden Town Day/Week activities have been coordinated by the Mayor and Town Council. In 2006, they were run off under a public/private partnership with Kashif and Shanghai/LFU and Hits and Jam promotions. An attempt was made in 2007 to continue the partnership but the fees structure led to a dispute and the management reverted to the Council, which then worked with the Region 10 Youth Parliament to bring off the event.
In 2006, the LFU made a gallant effort to organise charters and this meant that activities had to be included to ensure that the visiting members of the Linden Diaspora had enough entertainment. The days were then expanded from three to ten with many more events added.
