2022 Annual Meeting
Mid America Freedom Band
Annual Meeting Minutes
Thursday February 10, 2022, 8:00pm
Called to order at 8:00 pm.
Welcome - Christian Montes
Elections - Alex Welch
Presentation of Candidates
Give a Chance for each of the candidates on the slate to introduce themselves/say something.
Give out the instructions for voting while meeting continues.
Candidates includes: J.J. Pearse, Steven Irving, and Christian Montes.
Voting officially goes live at 8:30pm, via survey link (to dues paying members). It is a slate vote, meaning you vote yes or no everyone versus individuals. Voting is open until next Thursday.
Financial Report - Nathan Brown
Financial information redacted.
Major purchases have gone towards our concert venue at the Gem Theater, insurance, office/rehearsal space, website hosting, flipcause services, and music purchases towards our 3 ensembles
2021 donation letters sent via email on 1/30. Please review and let us know if there are any discrepancies, and we will get those fixed. Please keep in mind, these letters reflect donations made directly thru FC or entered manually into FC. Donations made thru Facebook are handled by Network for Good, who send out tax letter/confirmation emails at the time of the donation.
Flipcause allows the donator to also cover the processing fees. We’ve been exceedingly lucky in the number of people who have chosen to do that, saving us almost $1000 in processing fees since we’ve started using the platform about 1.5yrs ago.
Rameka will go into more detail on the timpani campaign, but we did raise over $6,000. Thank you to everyone who donated towards that campaign and also in general donations throughout the year.
Handful of corporate matches to donations, thank you to those
If you donate and your company matches, please give Nathan a heads up, so he is aware of a pending donation.
Next Season Mighty Mo - Jessie Riggins
We have an upcoming concert March 22nd. Details will be coming. In the fall we will be back, if you are interested in joining, please reach out to Jessie. We will also host another open play night if you are a non-traditional jazz instrument and want to jam!
Next Season Concert Band - Lee Hartman
I am really looking forward to our chamber concert. It feels different, but we are doing well. The spring concert is going to be fun; music is in the drive.
We will be marching in the Brookside St. Patrick’s Day Parade, March 12th and AIDS Walk KC, April 30th.
Next year is our 20th season! And Lee’s 10th as artistic direction. Next season will be an anniversary blowout. Julia Perry is the first black composer to write for band. We will be submitting to play at MMEA.
If there is a piece that you would like to do next season, please let Lee know.
Future of the Board - Christian Montes
We are growing and learning to adapt as we grow. I am looking to start new committees such as Diversity & Inclusion, and a position for outreach to present our organization to the community. If you are interested in either of those positions, please reach out to Christian.
This goes to all members- please feel free to come to our meetings. We value your thoughts and opinions, and we want to hear your voices.
We are working with American Jazz Museum/GEM Theater. They have accepted our proposal, and now we are working out terms and details. Send all good vibes.
We met with the Church last week. They are raising our rent and want to take us up to $12/sq ft. (market value). We are hopefully things work out with the Gem. Now we pay $1,200/year, but the increase would take us to $1,500/year.
Pride Bands Update - Jessie Riggins
Upcoming Pride Band Alliance conference is the Memorial Weekend in Chicago. It is a great experience to network, play and learn. There are options to play in a marching, jazz, and/or concert band.
If you are interested in participating to be on a committee with the Pride Bands Alliance, please contact Jessie.
Marketing Committee - Grace Diebolt
Join Grace on the marketing committee! If you are interested, please reach out to info@freedomband.com
Membership Committee - Alex Welch
Thank you to everyone that has joined the membership committee. The biggest undertaking was establishing the ambassador program. We have several volunteers that are acting ambassadors that are liaisons to help anyone that has questions about MAFB.
There are a few other upcoming projects. Membership Committee meets (virtually) the first Monday of the Month, if interested in joining reach out to Alex.
Fundraising Committee - Rameka Jennings
Thank you to everyone for their support of the timpani campaign. I'm so happy with the results!
At the time of organizing, our goal was to raise $5,000 in funds. Almost immediately after we announced the campaign at our Fall concert, we upped our goal to $6,500. I'm pleased to report that we ended up exceeding that goal and raising a total of $7,358.
If you donated at a certain level, you received incentive/gifts. Operational expenses were kept at $862.96 to fulfill and ship all the packages, which is equal to 11% of the profit.
Looking to the future....
As you know 2020-2021 was hard on everyone. I was able to organize successful virtual bingo and Jeopardy events. Unfortunately, with zoom/virtual fatigue and not being at a point for us to do live events fundraising events have been a little lack luster. Working in the events industry, I have seen first-hand that we are bouncing back and able to safely hold live event. We must be cognizant of masking, space for social distancing, vaccine status, etc. When you put so many parameters around an event, it's hard to use it to your advantage to raise funds.
I'm going to start assembling a committee for a revamp of bad drag night (hopefully this fall). Please contact me if you are interested in participating.
Additionally, I'll be working on a corporate sponsorship package so we can start soliciting corporate sponsors for our upcoming live event, as well as general sponsors.
Q&A - Christian Montes
Anyone that has pictures, videos, general archives, please share at info@freedomband.com. We want to start collecting assets for our anniversary next season.
Q: What is the cost difference between the two venues?
A: it’s hard to say right now, but we are looking at $14k yearly; but the big considerations are the cost savings on transportation (moving equipment) loading in and out, storage fees.
Meeting adjourn 8:57pm.