NATCHEZ — Every county supervisor in all 82 Mississippi counties received a postcard from Natchez this week.

When the supervisors picked up the card, on one side it had a message that Natchez’s tricentennial celebration will be in 2016, and that the Adams County Board of Supervisors would be honored to host the annual Mississippi Association of Supervisors conference in Natchez that year.

Adams County Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said those postcards were just the first step in the county’s attempt to woo the MAS to the area for 2016, and that when the five-member board of supervisors attends the MAS conference in Biloxi next week, they’ll be pushing hard for Adams County.

Grennell said the inspiration to bring the 800- to 900-person conference to Natchez came to him at the MAS conference last year, and from the convention floor gave a speech asking the attendees to select Natchez for the next conference. Adams County had not previously been nominated for a conference location, but when votes were counted it came in second place.

“I got up and gave an off-the-cuff speech about what they can expect in Natchez, the aesthetics, the history and the activities we can have here,” Grennell said. “I had supervisors telling me, ‘I hadn’t planned to vote for you, but you sold me on Natchez.’”

Grennell said the supervisors have gotten many local companies to donate items to help market the area, and the Natchez Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s sales staff will be making a presentation to sell Natchez to the convention.

Supervisor Calvin Butler said the five Adams County supervisors would be wearing T-shirts with the recently adopted Adams County flag printed on them, and board members would network as much as possible to keep Adams County on the minds of the convention-goers.

“I am going to market Natchez as much as possible,” Butler said. “Being in radio, that is what I do, marketing.”

And Butler said he’s already been making some cold calls on behalf of Adams County.

“I have been talking to some supervisors I know in Claiborne and Jefferson counties, calling those guys and telling them what we are trying to do,” he said. “The key thing is to get the votes.”

Supervisor Angela Hutchins said the many years that she worked for Adams County as inventory clerk would serve the effort well.

“Through all of the years I worked for the county, I got to know a lot of supervisors, pretty much all of them,” she said.

And Hutchins said her recent experience with recruiting the Delta Leadership Institute conference to Natchez gives her hope for the supervisors’ effort.

“When the Delta Leadership Institute was here, they enjoyed Natchez so much, some of them have already been back vacationing here,” she said.