The President of the Hanover Ag Society says it's been a pretty good year. Curtis Dawyidiuk made the comment following the annual meeting Tuesday night. He says their Heartland Rodeo and Hanover Ag Fair events went very well. Dawyidiuk notes the June Classic Demolition Derby had to be postponed because of rain and that had a big impact on attendance and revenue. He says that's one of the reasons they ended up with a $25,000 deficit for the year. Dawyidiuk says the board has agreed to look at a few things to keep the books in the black in the future.

"We are looking at strategic sponsor partnerships as well as looking at our gate revenue structures. We want to keep our events affordable, we want to keep them family friendly but, at the same time, we have to do that value/cost balance."

Dawyidiuk says the Ag Society also wants to rent out the fairgrounds in Grunthal for various events as another way to raise money. He adds they are now going to raise money to purchase equipment such as a skid steer to accommodate this plan. He notes they are currently using equipment that is borrowed from directors or sponsors and says that's not fair if the equipment is going to be more heavily used.

Meanwhile, Dawyidiuk says a small investment earlier this year has had a big impact on their events.

"We did very focused customer service training going into the fair, focusing on customer experience and our people being aware of how they personally react to a situation will directly affect a guest's experience at our event. The dividends on that small investment were just huge. Any feedback we got from our events this year was just how well run they were and how happy and courteous everybody was."