Tuesday, March 5th, 2024, 7:30pm
Mid America Freedom Band
Board Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, March 5th, 7:30pm
Virtual
Attendees: JJ Pearse, Christian Montes, Joy Hope, Shelly Alexander, Joy Hope, Debbie Farrell, Nick McWilliams, Lisa Klockenga; Staff: Lee Hartman, Jessie Davis, Erin Trampel, Jeanine Asay; Members: Nathan Brown
Acting Proxy: Debbie for Steven, JJ for Rameka
Called to order at 7:30 pm.
Committee Reports
Fundraising, Rameka
Fundraising opportunity with Up/Down - Coins for a Cause. I’ve been in contact with their manager and they are happy to have MAFB as their Coins for a Cause recipient. They host these events on Wednesdays from 3pm-10pm where 100% of token sales go to the nonprofit.
Can we please determine our preferred Wednesday evening in June? I will confirm with Up/Down and work on the details. (I would recommend avoiding June 19th because it’s Juneteenth.)
Also, I think there is a great opportunity to bring our pep band to perform, since they have great outdoor space. It’s just a thought for extra exposure, no pressure.
Otherwise, we had our 2nd Fundraising Committee meeting last night. We are still actively working on suggested updates for our donor program. As well, we are going to put out feelers for a Spin Pizza “dine for dollars” that we would like to consider leveraging as combined fundraiser/membership social. It would be fun to use that opportunity to get us all together to socialize outside of the basement.
Nothing to add.
Marketing, Joy
Joy is working on our social media presence, and has an upcoming ad with Classical KC (?) that will be submitted tomorrow.
Membership, VACANT
Nick, would you be willing to take this on? (Question from Lee)
Nick accepts the nomination and will work with Rose on the transition.
Business cards w/ general MAFB information - This is done by multiple other local performing groups.
Performance Opportunities, Steven
Not attending meeting.
Election, Christian
Going to do one more shout out in our forum for member input and then I will get a doodle set up for a meeting later this month.
Nothing to add.
Reports
Secretary, Steven
Not attending meeting.
Artistic Director, Lee
Going to combat rehearsal/piece fatigue next season with a chamber concert late February/mid March. Hopefully this will get rid of the spinning wheels feeling. Basically the level of musicianship is higher than anticipated and the pieces I thought would prove difficult have been handled with little problem. So it’s a good problem to have. @Erin - Let’s not worry about adding that into the art like how were not adding the Zoo II performance.
MAC On-Year submitted 40K ask. NTDF panel attended I think that was a 30K ask - standard questions were asked (what other granting support do you have, how do you market, etc.). Still trying to figure out the NEA grant. Not sure how it all works. So many hoops. Should know about MO Humanities (15K) and NTDF this month hopefully, but not surprised if pushed back in April. Applied for Charlotte Street Foundation Cultural Producer Grant (5-10K) for MMJO. Grantstation already finding opportunities I didn’t know about so that’s cool and will be applying for those opportunities.
Currently have 5 joins for the consortium which is okay at this time. I just did a big push to CBDNA Southwest so hopefully more will join. I also emailed recent directors who have programmed works by Jenn, Anthony, and Olivia. After we announce the season when the artwork is done we’ll start pushing this more and do welcome posts when folks join. UMKC joined so that’s huge. Individuals can also join.
Housekeeping items
Need to add new board members to the board@freedomband.com email and remove former members Has been updated.
Move trampele@gmail.com to staff@freedomband.com Has been updated.
Put Steven’s picture on the website under staff as color guard instructor? Can do, will check with Stephen.
How’s the calendar coming? Ready to post in the forum? In progress, should be completed soon.
All new board members should have MAFB emails, let Christian know if you haven’t received it.
Assistant Artistic Director, Jessie
Beatlesmania is coming up next month! Decorating/snacks/misc. front of house stuff for Lavender Flamingo: I’d like to be able to pass this off to a dedicated point person who can feel empowered to make decisions and recruit volunteers.
The board will poll the membership to see if anyone is interested in heading the volunteers for the event.
Board Chair, J.J.
Board Retreat — Morning / Afternoon of Saturday, June 22nd
Nothing to add.
Vice Chair, Christian
I would like to add more visibility to our committees and have them have their own webpage. My plan is to give them a little paragraph on what they do and are responsible for and then a link to join. Erin, is that something we could do? Should we have it linked in the staff page?
Yes, we can do that.
Treasurer, Lisa
Report available upon request.
Executive Director, Ian
Not attending meeting.
Librarian, Jeanine
Nothing to report.
Webmaster, Erin
The new board members are on the website! Please take a minute to double check your pronouns and let me know if they need to be updated.
Does JJ have an official MAFB email? He’s the only executive without one listed on our website.
JJ’s official email is jj.pearse@freedomband.com. Any board members who want to have a personal email address can let Christian know and have one created.
Old Business
No old business.
New Business
Welcome Event
Date is being selected so we can reserve the park.
New blank Cards needed
Current size only fits photo envelopes, we would like to be able to use standard letter envelopes.
The cost will vary based on quantity (the more ordered = less cost per letter/envelope)
Omaha Association of Concert Bands Conference
Sending Lee and Jessie to Omaha for ACB conference.
Registration $45 each
Hotel $275 for 2 nights, shared
Total: $370-ish
Rameka recommends allocating $500 to include the cost of gas and food.
Nick motions to allocate $500 to the ACB conference to Jessie and Lee. Joy seconds. Motion passes.
Need Flipcause & Quickbooks logins created for Lisa
Bank account switcheroo’s
All officers (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer) need to be signers on the bank accounts, with old signers being removed as needed. Ian may need to be as well. Current and new signers will need to be at the bank to sign paperwork. Lee recommends trying to do it the day of the Brookside parade.
Annual Budget
Will we continue to do this in May every year? If so, budget items are due in April, with the budget being discussed at the May board meeting.
It has to be done by June 30 (fiscal year end).
The budget is approved by the board, no membership vote is needed.
Lee recommends using larger categories and being less nittie-grittie now that the organization has grown.
Lisa recommends pushing it out by one month to give everyone time to gather their thoughts.
Mighty Mo concert
Do we need to dictate tasks? The website is up to date, social media push needs to be done. We have a half-season postcard that will be sent out soon.
Rameka would like to assign a ‘project manager’ to track the spreadsheet and its tasks. Rameka elects Christian. Christian accepts.
Meeting adjourned at 8:24 pm.