Tuesday March 1, 2022, 7:00pm

Attendees: Christian Montes, Grace Diebolt, Erin Trampel, Alex Welch, J.J. Pearse, Nathan Brown, Rameka Jennings, Rose Rodriguez, Steven Irving; Staff: Lee Hartman, Jessie Riggins, Ian Bradt, Jeanine Asay;

Called to order at 7:08 pm. 

Reports

Secretary, Rameka

Minutes approved as submitted. 

Artistic Director, Lee

Very pleased with the first ever chamber concert.  Huge thanks to Debra, Ian, and Jessie for making things run so smoothly.  Kudos to all the readers and musicians.  Excited for the next cycle to start on Thursday. Should have the soloist and poet locked down for Randall Standridge’s Stonewall 1969 in the coming days.  ArtsKC project grant submitted to be used for commissioning fees.

Thank you to everyone who helped with and performed at the concert. 

Assistant Artistic Director, Jessie

We’re on the books for March 22 for our first gig! Thanks to Ian for helping navigate the contract and set us up in Flipcause for ticketing, and to Erin for making some sweet artwork! I will be working this week on marketing the concert. 

There is another upcoming event for June that is not finalized yet. Looking for help with front of house for the 22nd, Erin, Steven and Christian may be able to help. 

Board Chair, Christian 

The annual meeting went great! Thank you to everyone! Also, let's welcome our new members of the board: J.J. and Steven!

I’ve also wanted to remind you all to start looking into your budget requests. Those requests will be due April 15th so we can discuss them at the May budget meeting.

No additions

Treasurer, Nathan
Balance as of 3/01/2022: $35,742.30
Statement of Activity

We are waiting for a payment from the John Sims Endowment Fund. Erin and Austin need to be taken off of the bank account. 

Business Operations, Ian

Might Mo tickets are set up, they are on a different link than the Concert Band’s tickets. When buying tickets in FlipCause, there is a limit of 30 tickets per transaction so that is (probably) not the actual number of tickets left for the concert.

Still talking to the Gem Theater about storing the band’s equipment. We have a new point of contact at WWI for events. 

Kelly, Social Director

Not attending Meeting. Working on Fiddler group tickets. We have 8 members registered for the upcoming Pride Bands conference.

Jeanine, Librarian

Nothing to report. 

Webmaster, Erin

Minutes added to the website.

Do we want to take down the timpany campaign hero image?

Also, welcome new board members! I need a headshot for the website. (https://freedomband.com/staff) Also if anyone else wants to update their photo, now is the time. (trampele@gmail.com) 

New hero info coming soon from Lee. Erin will add the upcoming Jazz performance to the website. 

Committee Reports 

Fundraising, Rameka

No report submitted. 

Marketing, Grace

2 New committee Members, meeting next week. 🎉 Lee is meeting with a contact with Classical KC soon and will talk to their Marketing person. 

Membership, Alex

Welcome to your first Board meeting J.J. and Steven! I’m excited to see what ideas and projects you bring to us. 

Membership committee meeting will be Monday, March 7 at 7:30 PM. If you would like to attend, let me know so I can include you on the meeting invite. We currently have our meetings virtually. 

Thank you to all election committee members for their work. 

New Business

Election of Officers

Offices are held for one year: Secretary, Treasurer, Vice Chair, and Chair. 

Nathan nominates Rameka for Secretary. Rose Seconds. Rameka declines.

Erin nominates Nathan for Treasurer. Grace Seconds. Nathan accepts nomination.

Erin nominates Alex for Vice Chair. Rose seconds. Alex accepts nomination.

Rose nominates Christian for Chair. Alex seconds. Christian accepts nomination. 

Alex nominates Steven as Secretary. Steven accepts nomination.

Alex moves to accept Secretary nomination by acclamation. Rose seconds. Motion passes. 

Alex moves to accept Treasurer nomination by acclamation. Grace seconds. Motion passes. 

Erin moves to accept Vice Chair nomination by acclamation. Grace seconds. Motion passes. 

Alex moves to accept Chair nomination by acclamation. Grace seconds. Motion passes. 

Congratulations to our new board officers. Erin will update the website tonight. 

Meetings

Grace suggests proceeding with a hybrid or fully remote option. Alex seconds request for remote meetings to allow more attendee flexibility. Consensus is for Virtual meetings. 7:30 may be a better start time for board members. Without the church as our home, we will no longer have a designated meeting location. Team-building events are suggested by Jeanine, possibly quarterly. (Escape rooms, games, meals, drinks, ax throwing, pickleball, ect.) Can be either working in-person meetings or purely social. Rose is willing to research team-building social gatherings. 

Meeting information will be posted before the meeting in the members forum by the Secretary. 

FInal decision: Virtual Meetings, 7:30 pm, on the first Tuesday of the month when permitting. 

Quarterly in-person events with board and staff. First event will need to be about the board handbook. 

Parade

Rehearsals next week, wear green.  There is a go fund me for the corned beef for the event. Bleachers are reserved, open to all. Lee will not be attending. Food is pot-luck, main dishes are provided. BYOB and BYOC (bring your own chairs). 

Covid Requirements

Many groups are relaxing their mask requirements. Many Pride bands are requiring booster shots now. Bayer has an unknown “infection” rate after which they are dropping mask requirements for staff. In KC, the Symphony is set with masks ‘strongly recommended.’ All other local arts organizations are still requiring masks. The state of Missouri is going to announce that the ‘pandemic is over’ soon. Jackson County is considered high risk by the CDC. Lee recommends following Jackson County’s CDC risk levels, which would currently mean keeping masks. 

Research shows that those who are against masks won’t come even if mask requirements are lowered. We have had very few kickbacks from those who don’t want to show vaccination cards (3 total). 

Lee recommends polling membership about booster status. He does not want to set a close date for booster requirements. Grace suggests allowing those with boosters to not wear masks. 

The conference has not announced any booster requirements as of the day of this meeting. 

Attendee tickets already have covid requirements on the ticket notifications. 

Email messaging will need to be updated when the city guidelines are updated. 

The board agrees to continue with our current guidelines, with research into requiring boosters for performers. Lee will send out an informal poll in the next email to membership regarding booster status.

Concert attendee requirements tabled until Season 20. 

Meeting adjourned at 8:06 pm.