Tuesday August 4, 2020, 7:00pm
Attendees: Erin Trampel, Alex Welch, Austin Rexroad, Christian Montes, Emily Kuennen, Grace Diebolt, Nathan Brown, Rameka Sahadeo; Staff: Ian Bradt, Jeanine Asay, Kelly Pangburn, Lee Hartman;
Acting Proxy: asdf
Called to order at 7:00 pm.
Reports
Artistic Director, Lee
Receiving $4535 from Missouri Arts Council - we need to spend this as soon as possible to ensure we get it. Need to sign form (in the mail?) What can we use it on immediately to draw it down?
Working with current funders about what they need from us in this upcoming season.
Researching new funding places like EmCity (formerly VIdeo Mania)
Season plans
Fall: Fall Favorites
Have members nominate their favorite pieces from the past seasons. Compile a video with the member introducing the piece. Aim for 70 minutes. Virtually rehearse 3-4 new flex pieces and include in the video. (Use LGBAC method - Steve Lewis has shared documentation on how to do this). We will need a techy person to act as captain. Solicit donations and shares.
Thinking Randall Standridge, Julie Giroux, Derek Jenkins (flex Kolo), and Kevin Day.
Holiday: Holidays at Home
Chamber groups performing carol arrangement interspersed with MAFB past performances.
Additional cost of streaming rights (but coverable by not being in a venue)
Reminder about All-Band meeting on Thursday. Need to address issue of dues. Etc. I’ll explain what we are doing for the first half of the season. Recommend doing a bylaws, LGBA, Gay Games, and Gay anthems updates.
Composers of Sleigh Ride project have been informed of our plans. If they complete the piece we still pay them just delayed performance for a year.
Call for Proposals update.
We need to spend the MAC money as soon as possible to ensure we receive the full amount. It cannot be spent on capital purchases. We can purchase music with it.
EmCity is willing to donate to us, however they are an adult store. Our membership is adult only (18+), and they would only be listed in the donors without a detailed explanation. The board agrees that we are willing to accept a donation from the company.
The board agrees that the virtual performance is a good idea, however there is concern that we will need rights to stream the music legally. Publishers have amped up their teams to help get rights out faster for these situations. Possibility to have local drag queens introduce the songs in the video. The plan is to do a full concert ‘premier’ and release individual songs afterwards. Christian can help with video and audio editing, and Erin can help with motion graphics.
The target dates will be the same as the concert dates (Oct 25 & Dec 12). The Dec 12th concert could kick off the 12 days of Christmas fundraiser.
Action Item: Ian will confirm with the Gem that we will not need our Fall and Winter dates.
Board Chair, Christian
Thank you to Alex and Kelly for being our delegates for LGBA a couple weeks ago!
Congrats to Jessie for being confirmed to the LGBA Board!
Congrats to Matthew for his time on the LGBA Board!
Contracts for our directors to be done and signed by the end of this month. I just have to run them by Ian to make sure they’re good to go and I’ll send them to the Board for approval. Please be on the lookout on your emall, I would like to have 100% board approval and not have to chase down people individually.
Christian will be unreachable from Aug 23 - 29, contact Austin if you have any issues during that time.
Vice Chair, Austin
MAFB doggo play date was fun! Until PJ started being a jerk. Sorry folks! Thanks Lee for throwing that together! Would like to have something like that more often, provided COVID allows it. I think it will get different groups of our members together and foster stronger cohesion, especially during times like this. We can include prospective members, too! Would love to hear ideas and thoughts from others!
I just want to give a huge thanks to every single one of you. Everyone has gone above and beyond during these unprecedented times and because of you, we are able to lead this organization collectively and efficiently.
No additions
Treasurer, Nathan
Financial documentation available upon request.
No additions.
Secretary, Erin
Minutes submitted on 7/31.
Minutes approved as submitted.
Business Operations, Ian
Met on 7/29/2020 with representatives from Flipcause. The company reached out to us inquiring about whether their services would be beneficial for our organization. They work almost solely with small non-profits. While billed largely as “fundraising,” it is really more of a software platform. Their services could be useful for us and I will provide a more in-depth overview in New Business.
More discussion in new business.
Mighty Mo, Joe
It’s exciting to see Jessie’s plans for Mighty Mo in the July minutes, with upcoming concert themes, “Jazz Goes Pop,” and “Kansas City Here I Come.” Good job, Jessie, I’m really glad to see advanced artistic planning with Mighty Mo.
KC Fringe refund should be forthcoming soon. The organizers communicated that the groups that did not choose to participate in the virtual Fringe event will be refunded their entry fee. They do their festival accounting reconciliation and disbursements in August.
There isn’t much business activity right now for Mighty Mo due to the pandemic. If there are any upcoming business needs, please let me know.
Nothing to add.
Kelly, Social Director
I don’t have much to report on at this time. In recent months I have been unable to commit the time and attention needed to properly support my role and adapt to the quickly evolving needs of the organization. Since we are at the time of year when we typically kick off a new season of rehearsals I would also like to kick off the season with a more active role as I have previously been accustomed to. I am open to any and all suggestions for how to engage members interpersonally and socially as we continue to tread forward with social distancing, and other restrictions and/or voluntary measures, as well as best practices the organization temporarily, or indefinitely, adopts.
I was one of our band representatives at the recent LGBA 2020 Delegates meeting that was to have taken place at the annual conference in Portland, Oregon, but was modified to be a video conference meeting online. The meeting was efficient with scheduled presentations and was executed with very minimal technical difficulties. Overall, the meeting lacked the level of engagement of an in-person gathering, however they did an excellent job of meeting the immediate needs of the greater organization by disseminating important information, electing/re-electing leadership, etc. as typical for an annual meeting. The delegates approved the bid by Lakeside Pride Ensembles (Chicago) to host the 2022 conference, which will coincide with LGBA’s 40th Anniversary. The conference will take place over Memorial Day weekend, and include three performance options: symphonic band, jazz band, and parade. There was some pushback from other delegates regarding the tabling of an agenda item--the renaming of LGBA--but they were assured that the process is still moving forward and that the committee would be presenting their top two choices after they had made legal claim to those names. Now that the 2020 conference is officially over, members may now register for the 2021 LGBA conference in Houston scheduled for July 22-25.
The LGBA has found an arranger who is willing to help arrange ‘big gay anthams’ for small marching band performances. They have a publisher in line under a “Pride” label. They hope to release 10 per year.
Jeanine, Librarian
Nothing to report.
Most music this year will be purchased digitally.
Webmaster, Erin
No updates made.
I will update the events on the website once we have finalized the information and have a press release. We can add a “join us now” popup during live streams.
Committee Reports
Fundraising, Rameka
Thank you for everyone’s help & participation with virtual Jeopardy. We raised $710!
Working on concepts for Sept. fundraiser
Considering a tournament style event for September. Wheel of fortune possibly. We have enough prizes for right now but we can always use more if anyone knows of someone who would be willing to donate.
Marketing, Grace
No report submitted.
We are close to posting weekly. We could do membership spotlights, partnering with the membership committee. Do we want to consider a mailing/emailing list? What/who would we want to target? Mailing is slower now than it was pre-crisis. Do any of the local arts organizations or publishers let organizations pay to send out emails through them? LGBT Chamber of Commerce might be a good organization to contact about this. Ian will check with Josh for his insight on this. Chrisitan will contact the LGBT chamber of commerce.
Remember to review MAFB on google to help keep our search engine position.
Membership, Alex
No report submitted.
LGBA was as much fun as it could be considering the circumstances. What we are doing as an organization is in line with the LGBA recommendations. The virtual rehearsals will help the membership fill the hole of missing the group and rehearsals. We may have some new faces at the meeting later this week.
“If you wanna be our lover, you gotta be in this band”
Old Business
No old business.
New Business
Flipcause
We have used other platforms in the past that did not work out well for us.
Flipcause works largely with small nonprofits.
It helps to centralize various fundraising tools and information.
Helps maintain an up to date contact and donor list (can be imported from our current lists)
Can consolidate all transaction processors (paypal, square, eventbrite) with a guaranteed rate of 1.5% or lower. They have a mobile payment option similar to Square.
Volunteer management.
Allows virtual/social media fundraising campaigns by members
We can try Flipcause for free for 60 days. The board and staff will send Ian their questions and concerns so Ian can ask his Flipcause contact about them.
The prices are based on org revenue. Based on our budget from last year it would be $1200 a year, or $100/mo. Payable on an annual basis, but with the option to cancel and refund at any time.
Dues
Are we going to require dues this year?
Some of our members are in a tight spot right now, should we make dues payment optional? Some LBGA groups are making it optional, some are maintaining their dues, some are lowering their dues. Our bylaws allow for flexibility. Ian advises against removing it entirely to avoid issues with defining membership. We could make sure that scholarships and sponsors are well known and encourage in-kind and volunteer payment. Ian will let the members know about our continued operating costs in the Thursday meeting. We also allow monthly payments.
“If you are able to pay your dues, please continue to do so. If you cannot reach out to Ian Brandt or Alex Welch and we will do our best to find a solution that works for your needs.”
Executive Session started at 8:46 pm.
Executive session ended at 8:48 pm.
Meeting adjourned at 8:49 pm.
