As usual, the popular Taste of Beaumont/BWNA Elections General Meeting will be held this year on the second Monday evening of April, beginning at 6:30pm. But some changes are in store. Based on input from last year’s event, the BWNA Board has voted to move the event to a roomier venue and implement some logistical improvements:
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For the past several years, Bethany Lutheran Church’s Fellowship Hall has been the venue for Taste of Beaumont. But as turnout and the size of the Beaumont Middle School band have increased, the room has become woefully inadequate to accommodate the crowd, musicians, and vendors comfortably. Thus, it was decided to shift back to an earlier Taste of Beaumont venue——the Beaumont Middle School cafeteria. Although nowhere as “homey” as Fellowship Hall, the cafeteria has ample space for the Beaumont Jazz Ambassadors to perform, for attendees to line up for cuisine samples, and for each person to have a chair at a table.
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Along with the overcrowding has come a shortage of food. In an effort to remedy the problem, participating restaurants and cafes have been asked to increase the portions they donate, and BWNA has allotted funding to purchase additional food to supplement the cuisine samples.
The purpose of Taste of Beaumont is two-fold: to bring neighborhood residents and local businesses together in a spring celebration and to motivate neighbors to fill vacant Board positions (of which there are currently four). However, last year a good portion of the crowd had already left the premises prior to the elections being held, and none of the vacant positions were filled. A big part of the problem was that the band had been scheduled to play at the beginning of the evening, with the result that many people only stayed long enough to eat and listen to the music. It was also very difficult for people to converse while eating with the band playing simultaneously. The remedy——a change in the order of activities.
This year the band will play a couple of pieces at the very beginning of the event——from 6:35pm–6:45pm. Band members will then enjoy a leisurely meal and not return to complete their set until after elections have been held. This will provide time for people to eat their meal, converse in relative quiet, and hopefully remain for elections. Following the band’s set the remainder of the general meeting will ensue, including a neighborhood crime report and updates on community issues and events.
The food and refreshments are free of charge, and a raffle will be held at the end of the meeting for prizes donated by merchants. Mark your calendars now.