Michigan Roots Jamboree, a preview

This Jambo that you’re showing is a fake. The real Jambo looks like a giant, sickly yellow turd wearing a bandanna. This is an outrage.

I worked last year and had a great time. I’m sad I will be out of town this year and miss it, but I hope it’s a great success.

Have we learned nothing from the Love Parade in Germany? Do you have any idea how many young people we may lose on the tridge in the mad rush when Electric Stink begins jamming?

The real question is, why is the festival scared of the Ypsitucky Colonels this year?
It’s an outrage!

It seems like odd timing, but AnnArbor.com has a story today on the future of the Depot Town Association. It sounds as though they’ve bet everything on this weekend’s Jamboree.

What is next for the Ypsilanti’s Depot Town Association?

For several decades the group attracted visitors to Depot Town through a variety of measures and a long list of regular festivals, events and fundraisers. In 2011, the DTA is involved in two events – including this weekend’s Michigan Roots Jamboree – even as the nonprofit records monthly losses.

Its president, Gary McKeever, acknowledges the group is losing money, faces financial challenges and only has around $70,000 cash on hand. Financial statements show the group has been losing around $2,000 monthly since at least November.

In 2006, the DTA created a “subsidiary” in the Depot Town Community Development Corporation. McKeever said its executive director, Erik Dotzauer, is now only full-time “when we have something for him to do.”

Its membership, which used to number more than 200, is down to around a dozen, only four of whom appear to own businesses in Depot Town.

With the formation of a new Depot Town Merchant’s Association that includes the bulk of the Depot Town business community promoting the area, some former members and other community leaders have wondered what the future holds for the once-strong organization.

McKeever said the DTA will maintain its purpose of “bringing people to the area.” He also said to expect a “big change” intended to turn the organization around, but declined to elaborate.

“We’re in the process of making some changes, but I’m not willing to discuss it right now, not until we’ve completed it in a couple months,” he said. “It’s going to be bigger this time. We’re in the process of getting it going.”

The DTA is a non-profit formed in 1976. Its website states the organization comprises merchants, employees, friends of the community and property owners whose focus is “the vitality, enhancement and beautification of historic Depot Town.”

According to its website, McKeever is the DTA’s current president, Ruth Ann Jamnick is the treasurer, Sandee French is the secretary and Merrill Guerra is vice-president.

The group used to promote Depot Town through multiple channels. It launched the ElvisFest, created a Depot Town Historic Foundation to raise money and started a Depot Town Association Merchants Committee among numerous other efforts. McKeever said the organization also used to promote Depot Town via newspaper ads, billboards, radio, television and the Depot Town Rag.

But he said promoting the area with the merchants had become a losing proposition because business owners weren’t happy with how the promotions would work.

“Periodically, the merchants would say ‘We need to do something,’ and it would all come together,” he said. “Then they would get all hot and bothered and all of a sudden it’s like ‘I’m going back to my store’ and everything would die. The DTA always footed the bill, although (the merchants) did their share, we covered the loss.”

When asked about the membership dwindling by almost 200, McKeever replied that “people have gone off and done other things.”

“They didn’t want to go the direction the DTA is going and that’s fine,” McKeever said.

So what is the direction of the DTA? McKeever said the organization is involved in two promotional efforts this year. One is the “Pianos ‘Round Town.” Pianos are placed on the street around Ypsilanti’s downtown districts for several weeks and people can stop and play them throughout the day.

The other is the Michigan Roots Jamboree, a Riverside Park music festival happening August 5-6. The Jamboree was created and is managed by the CDC. According to what Dotzauer told AnnArbor.com in November, the event made several thousand dollars last year, though he expects it to have a breakout year by the time it’s done this weekend.
McKeever said the Jamboree and Dotzauer’s salary accounts for the bulk of the DTA and CDC’s expenditures. Financial reports show $3,333 for “director’s expenses.”

The group also reported $70,000 cash on hand. McKeever said that figure is down from previous years though he wouldn’t say how much money the DTA had in its prime. According to DTA financial reports, those numbers are down $18,000 since last November, though some expenditures can likely be attributed to Jamboree costs that will be recouped.

“We are spending more than we are bringing in,” McKeever said when asked about the organization continuously losing money.

“We’re putting a lot of our money into the Jamboree,” he later added. “Hopefully that will respond with some income. It’s a gamble like anything like that is a gamble, so you have to just wait and see.”

Tom Dodd is a former DTA president who has vocally questioned the DTA’s financial management and where its money is spent. Dodd, a lifetime member of the DTA, said he frequently asks the group’s officers where funds go, but has not received an answer.

“When you don’t show us we become very suspicious,” he said. “I have a whole lot of question marks floating over my head.”

The CDC was created in 2006 to help fundraise and capture grants for economic development. McKeever said the CDC hasn’t been as successful as the DTA originally hoped, which he attributed to the bad economy and opposition from City Council.
“We’ve been thwarted by those who don’t want us to do anything,” he said, specifically naming council members Brian Robb and Pete Murdock. Murdock and Robb declined to comment.

But he added the CDC and DTA leadership are “putting their heads together at this very minute” and will soon be doing more than Pianos Around Town and the Jamboree.

“No, we’re not doing anything exciting, but that’s not going to be true for very long,” McKeever said.

http://annarbor.com/news/ypsilantis-depot-town-association-faces-significant-challenges-as-it-considers-future-plans/?cmpid=NL_DH_topicbox_headline