by Jessica H » Wed Jun 22, 2016 2:14 pm
Jeff, as a group, Louisville Originals completely agrees with you that a city with so many great restaurants should have a more robust program like this. We are an organization completely run by volunteer members, so the strength of our group lies in the hands of its members to participate in events, and to serve on the Board. I am the current President of the Louisville Originals Board.
We have been plagued by a couple of gaps in our Board positions, and it has caused some stagnation within the group. But we have been actively working to correct these problems over the past few months, and have some great plans for the near future in order to make our group more robust once again! We also lost members as restaurants have closed, and we are going to start an active membership drive soon in the hopes to get some new restaurants involved. We have also recently teamed up with APRON, in an effort to help restaurant industry workers in need of financial aid.
The membership requirements are actually very simple (and listed on our website), and we can easily prove to restaurants how beneficial the program is to them. However, sometimes restaurants don't want to take the time to meet with us to learn the benefits. I recommend telling managers at your favorite locals that they should become a member. In comparison to other cities with similar programs, such as Nashville, St. Louis, Cincinatti, Birmingham, and others, despite our recent issues, LO still has a much higher success and customer response rate.
Also, to answer Robin's comments, Andrew from Baxter Station had not been involved with LO for several years before his restaurant closed. We have had several Presidents since him, and had great success with the program since he stopped participating. He was not the driving force behind the program, and we are aware of when and what caused the actual issues that Jeff commented on. We are actively seeking to correct them.