Rector, Arkansas

The Main Street Arkansas Quarterly Training workshop was held in Hardy  July 29th & 30th, hosting about 50 representatives from 21 communities from around the state, either as Arkansas Downtown Network members, or as full fledged Main Street Arkansas recipients.  Representing Rector's ADN Board were Nancy Kemp, Betty Benson, and Cyndi Corkran.

Leon Steele from Main Street Louisiana provided day one of the training, giving a power point presentation of his state's initiative to offer their Cultrual Heritage Tourism features all in the month of November, under the program entitled "Main to Main".  By coordinating events all around the state which are involved with the Main Street endeavors, tourists may take advantage of those events by traveling to the different communities, all within a given timeframe.  Steele said that this has been a huge success and that the state has realized a big return on its investments to help the communities with their renovation and economic development projects.

Day two of the workshop was the Executive Director Roundtable which was an open forum for the Main Street Directors to disseminate information to the communities, and likewise, for each community to report on their activities, hopes, concerns, and projected goals.  It was a wonderful learning experience, and Rector is very fortunate to belong to Main Street Arkansas as an Arkansas Downtown Network community.