Tuesday September 9, 7:30pm
Attendees: Christian Montes, Rameka Sahadeo, Joy Hope, Debbie Farrell, Adrienne Hixson, Ashton Duplechain, Lisa Klockenga; Staff: Erin Trampel, Jessie Davis, Bailee Young, Jeanine Asay; Members: None
Acting Proxy: N/A
Called to order at 7:32 PM
Committee Reports
Fundraising, Adrienne
No report submitted
Nothing to report.
Marketing, Jessie
Getting ready to kick concert promotion into high gear for October 11th! Please be on the lookout for posts to share to your profiles.
Nothing to add.
Membership, Nick - Proxy Debbie
Season Kickoff Cookout - Sep 21st 1-3pm Loose Park
RSVP emails have gone out; reminder will go out 9/14
Not attending meeting. Rameka will push the sign up link in the discord to help spread it.
Performance Opportunities, Debbie
Opting out of Mid MO Pride, Johnson County Pride, and Missouri State Fair; Reconsider next year?
Go Wild at Kansas City Zoo
Wed-Sun through 12/28; “Time Traveler” theme thru 10/31 followed by a winter theme
Dedicated musical dance show called “Time Flies” at 6:30, 7:15, 8:00, and 8:45 pm
The board agrees to reconsider the missed fall events for next year when the pep band has a new director. Debbie will look into the Go Wild at the Zoo for any of the ensembles. This will most likely be the last year the ‘Glow Wild’ event is happening, they are at the end of their contract. Debbie will also look into the Westport Christmas Market.
Merch, Erin
All items are ordered, manufactured and shipped for the season
Total spent: $1,127.04 including packaging. Leftover funds are being saved for possible tariffs, shipping materials, and re-orders in the second half of the season.
Along with new merch we also have logo and slogan stickers, soccer scarves (holding until christmas concert), and ‘clear our stash’ grab bags that were not purchased this season.
The committee decided to NOT get the stocking hats this season because we were worried about tariffs and that they might not show up in time.
Tshirt preorder starts on the 15th, Shirts are $25. Band members who want to pick up their shirts at rehearsal can use code MEMBERPICKUP for free shipping. All other shirts will be mailed to their purchasers. Free shipping is for MEMBERS ONLY.
There are email pushes planned for the tshirt preorder, information will be shared in the discord as well.
Grants, Bailee
ASK TO BOARD/STAFF - Complete Wishlist if not already done so.
Thank you: Erin, Lisa, Ashton, and Joy for already doing so!
ASK TO BOARD/STAFF - More support from board/staff exc
For those who do not know, I moved schools two weeks before the school year started so life has been a little crazy! Additionally, there has not been very much interest in the grant committee from membership.
Upcoming Dates:
September 29th - Report due to Missouri Arts Council
ASK TO BOARD/STAFF - Jessie/Ian/Whoever did our recent MAC application can you please get this completed. I did not do the most recent MAC if someone who did do that could complete the report that would be very helpful!
October 31st - KC Pioneers Grant Application Due
The grants committee needs more members to ensure that we meet deadlines, so please share with anyone who you think may be interested or able to help. Debbie would like to join the committee.
AD Search Committee, Jessie/Ian
Things are going well, and the band loves our two finalists. Please reach out to Jessie/Ian directly if you have any questions, or feedback can go to search@freedomband.com.
The committee wants to make sure feedback is received throughout the process, not just at the end so they have more time to evaluate. Any staff or board members who receive feedback should provide that directly to the committee NOT to the candidates. The committee will discuss how to remind members to provide feedback to ensure the right wording is used. The membership is not intended to vote on the final decision in order to avoid a popularity contest.
The search@freedomband.com email will be added to the bottom of the weekly rehearsal email so it is easier for members to find.
Programming style information was collected during the application process, and the committee feels their programming approach is very similar and consistent. They will consider how to share programming style information with the membership. The two have been working well together so far.
We need people to help set up chairs so the candidates are not doing so before rehearsal. Rameka suggests telling the candidates to only set up percussion so the members have to set up their own chairs. Ian would like to add setup help messaging to the member communications.
Artistic Committee, Jessie
We’re still working on collecting suggestions for the holiday concert. Member Debra Leiter has helped us make a survey to send out to our fans/followers as well, which will be sent in the coming weeks.
Nothing to add.
Reports
Secretary, Ashton
Nothing to report.
Nothing to add.
Assistant Artistic Director, Jessie
Looking forward to finishing Swing Band strong on Sept 21, and then rolling over into MMJO! Season is set, music is ordered.
The fall MAFB concert will be here before we know it, so we need to start working on production logistics.
Pride Bands Alliance has opened up registration for 2026 in Philadelphia: https://2026.pridebands.org/ May 21–25, 2026. Registration is also open for participating in the Tournament of Roses Parade: https://www.pridebands.org/events/special-events/2027-roseparade/
Nothing to add.
Production Coordinator, Bailee
Nothing to report. Introduced myself to JJ and Daniel. Will continue to connect with them regarding the concert band concert needs. Jessie and I will continue to talk as well regarding the first jazz band concert.
Nothing to add.
Board Chair, Christian
Mo business filing submitted on time.
Did not get a chance to get the money and budget requests. Please look for emails on them this week.
Nothing to add.
Vice Chair, Rameka
Please use the Season Timeline & Tracker so we do not miss anything due to loose ends.
I will take the lead in coordinating the fall concert logistics with Ian. I started adding milestones to the timeline so we can stay on task.
To help speed up program prep the ‘players list’ will be changed to a ‘members list’ and include all dues paying members even if they are not playing in a specific concert.
Truck pickup for concerts will be the Friday before the concert, as City Truck is not open on Saturday mornings anymore.
Treasurer, Lisa
Report available upon request.
Executive Director, Ian
OneCause is up and running. We can do some training on the back-end of it. The following are the links to relevant things:
Participation Agreements: https://onecau.se/_bk74b1
Fall Concert: https://onecau.se/_brv3h1
Winter Concert: https://onecau.se/_bv2m61
Spring Concert: https://onecau.se/_bv37a1
General Donations: https://onecau.se/_brxqs1
Finalizing from Flipcause still needs to be done. Should be fairly straight forward, just need to work through it.
One challenge with the new system - the CRM functionality isn't as robust as the Flipcause platform. We will capture anything that is done in the OneCause platform but we likely won't be able to use it as our central CRM. There are some other options out there. Some great but at a cost that we can't justify at this point. Looking at some other options that we can use.
Erin will send Ian new, more generic banner images since she didn’t realize they would be 90% covered by the name of the season. Erin will also update all links on the website tomorrow.
Ian will inform FlipCause of our intent to end our contract soon. They still owe us money from a July transfer, and anything that is in the account now. This will be sent via email and certified mail so we have a record of receipt.
A QR code to the participation agreement will be set up at rehearsals. Ian can also email anyone who’s email address that we have and track who hasn’t responded and remind them.
Librarian, Jeanine
Nothing to report.
Brand Manager, Erin
The website will be updated to advertise the tshirt preorder on Monday when it goes live, then the week before the concert will be changed to concert information.
Old Business
Marching Band Director
Search is ongoing but on pause. If anyone knows of someone who is interested in taking this position please let Jessie or Christian know. The color guard is still rehearsing on Thursdays this fall/winter to practice. A job description is available upon request.
Stand Carts
We have a line item for the stand carts in the budget. They need to be ordered, Lisa and Christian will order the stands with Bailee and Ian’s sign off.
New Business
Election Committee
Christian volunteers to manage the election committee. He is asking for board volunteers and will share information with the membership next week.
Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.
