Dear MBA members,
2020 has certainly been a challenging and difficult year for our community, the country, and the world. We wanted to reach out to our members and give an update on the work of the MBA board over the past months, what’re we’re looking to do as we move into 2021, and also present our proposed slate of 2021 officers.
2020 Hindsight
With the lockdown beginning in March, our board meetings moved virtually. The MBA board continued to meet on a monthly basis to discuss issues impacting the Boulevard and to see where MBA assistance could be impactful in our community. This included making donations to the Springfield Black Lives Matter organization, the Boys & Girls Club, Compass for Kids, and the Capital City Takeout Challenge. Our donations focused on providing resources to students and also to help incentivize the patronage of locally-owned businesses. At the beginning of the pandemic, the MBA board focused on sharing information as widely as possible on resources available to small businesses and residents to help offset the economic challenges posed by the Phase 2 lockdown.
We also had to make some hard, but necessary, decisions to cancel our Spring cleanup as well as our Bites on the Boulevard series. Bites has become the Association’s premier event each year so that was an especially difficult decision to make. Out of concern for the health and safety of our attendees, members, and food truck vendors, we felt the ever-changing rate of local infection at the time warranted an abundance of caution, even for an outdoor event. We are hopeful, however, to have some version of Bites back in 2021! More information will be coming on Bites in a few months.
Moving into 2021
Based on the recommendation of our Nominating Committee Chair, David Farrell, our proposed 2021 slate of officers is the same as 2020, with two exceptions. We are actively working with several South MacArthur businesses to secure a representative a new representative to our Board. We will also be replacing Caleb Leach of Hy-Vee with the new Hy-Vee Store Manager, Chris Gregg. We want to thank Caleb for his service on our board and wish him well in his new position at Springfield Plastics!
Our proposed 2021 slate is below.
If you are a 2020 paid member, please email info@ShopOnMacArthur.com with “yea” or “nay” in lieu of an in-person vote by 5pm on Friday December 11, 2020.
- President: Katie Davison
- Vice President: Michael Higgins
- Secretary: Jess Weitzel
- Treasurer: Justin Creasey
- At-large: Loretta Durbin, Julie Dirksen, Denise Perry, Chris Hanken, Doug Dougherty, Chris Gregg, South MacArthur Business Rep