MHCB Board of Directors Meeting (Virtual online meeting)

February 8, 2020

Submitted by Nicole Martino

                                                           

  1. Call to Order @ 10:12am                                                                       
    1. Attendance
      1. Board Members: Roger Oram, Jessica Mess, Cristina Baker, Barb Lichtenstein, Amber Kantor, Tim Hanna, Brian Smith, Risa Wolff, Nicole Martino
      2. Music Directors: Mike Lucas
  • Other: Bruce Thron-Weber
  1. Absent: Rick Mongrain, Kim Horn
  1. Approval of Agenda
    1. Cristina Baker moved to approve the agenda for 2/8/20. Second, Approved unanimously.
  2. Approval of Minutes • 1/9/19            
    1. Roger Oram moves to approve Minutes from 1/9/19. Second, Approved unanimously.
  3. Reports
    1. Mike Lucas:
      1. Music budget: $600; Mike would like to order a 1 or 2 new pieces. Would like to borrow and use other area band libraries rather than buy. Band is getting better and could use some new music that’s more challenging. Questions: is $600 still reasonable in the budget. Cristina suggested Mike request pieces he wants, let the board know what they are and cost.
      2. Santa Fe: ACB festival of community bands (just concert band, not jazz) in Santa Fe in Late April Early May 2021 (Thursday-Saturday). Ideally perform on Friday.
        1. Need 90% buy-in from band. It involves a lot of logistics, transportation, food, accomodation. Should be up to the individual. Could we use a sponsorship approach to help with funding?
        2. Mike needs to submit bios, pictures and clips of 3 recent pieces to show what the band can do by Aug 1.
        3. Cristina questions funding as a possibility to increase participation. This is a discussion for later. Jess suggests to poll the band. Amber to help look at details.
  • Piano: Mike says we can get a keyboard for less than $300 that’s portable and plugs to an amp with a stand. Amber offered to list the piano to sell. No pedals work. The power button may not work either. Cristina to give Amber info on piano to figure out how much to sell for.
  1. Concerts:
    1. 2020: should we add an extra concert? Fall or Summer? Also expand Combo band? RRCC remodel completion unknown.
    2. 2021: Are we playing at RRCC in 2021? Mike to get back to us on that.
  2. Will need a new band director to take Rick’s place. Mike has one in mind and would like to introduce him in the next couple weeks.
  3. April concert set for the 16th. The June concert in the park will have a movie theme.             We’d like to get a dance floor for the Jazz band (see below for more details).        
  • Considering stage manager- maybe a volunteer or one on scholarship
  1. Operations Manager–Bruce Thron-Weber:
    1. Bruce shared an Excel sheet with the 2020/2021 budget.
    2. Harvest festival gave us $100 less. Hoping to raise more business support so that was doubled. Hoping for the same for individual contributions. The individual contributions do include free will donations (avg $200/concert) from concerts. Also includes some monies left over from member dues if they over pay a bit or leave the band early in the season. Cristina clarified this is just an overall budget. Jessica has it more detailed in the financials. Budget is a roadmap of where we think we want to go. Brian wanted to know more details about the $2700 of individual contributions.
  • Income: grant support; apply for and receive at least 2. Amber suggested reaching out to members about their employers to possibly sponsor member/band. Could be a great way to make some money. Tim suggested using fundraising on Facebook. Nicole suggested looking at “calls for proposals” for smaller local business grants. There is a website for that https://crcamerica.org/resources/colorado-grants-guide/.
  1. Can we become a “reduced-dues-paying-band” vs a “no dues band”
  2. Email band about various opportunities to raise funds
  3. 2020 adjusted budget: video services may be more expensive(?) as Adrian has found other employment.
  • Roger: $700/year is closer to what insurance costs really are
  • Amber: May need an increased budget for performance/rehearsal space if we have concert in the park and rent a dance floor. Cristina asked for the cost of the dance floor so we can add to the budget. Amber found estimates between $350-800. Increase that budget item to $500-550.
  1. Equipment budget: Cristina recommended increasing budget to $500 for equipment especially for a new piano.
  2. Music storage budget: why so expensive? Is this reasonable any longer? Maybe look at going digital. Brian suggested asking scholarship members to scan in music and go digital. Amber suggested asking members scan one song a week to digital file.
  3. Cristina: need to balance the fundraising budget with the added expense we have budgeted for.
    1. Motion to approve budget as amended. Jessica moved to approve and Amber seconds. Unanimously approved.
  • Motion to approve 2021 budget to match 2020 budget. Amber moves to approve. Second. Unanimously approved.
  • SCFD report: How much do we still need to add about our connections with RRCC since we haven’t done much with them lately?
    1. Need to make some minor editing. Put the document on Google Drive to allow board members to add to it and edit. DEADLINE FOR EDITS 2/22
  1. President–Cristina Baker:
    1. Updates on Amazon Smile, King Soopers and Brewery fundraising and Program advertising:
      1. Cristina will let us know when Amazon is live and working.
        1. Bruce to email her band DBA
      2. Cristina to follow up on contacting Brewery owner and get a date
        1. Silent auction
        2. Amber suggested a raffle and will look into this
      3. Cristina to reach out to previous Program advertisers about renewing their ad for next concert.
      4. King Soopers fundraiser needs to have $25 earned minimum before they pay out.
      5. Would like fundraising issues finalized by March
    2. Vice President–Roger Oram:
      1. Nothing to report
    3. Secretary – Nicole Martino:
      1. Nothing to report
    4. Treasurer–Jessica Mess:
      1. Nothing to report
    5. Discussion Items
      1. Bruce needs assistance:
        1. Need help with managing and storage of banners and donation boxes.
        2. Finding performance venues
  • Posting concert publicity websites
  1. Posting onto our website
  1. Scholarship Updates
    1. Table scholarship for Amber until we find out about Bari-sax
    2. Brian hasn’t received any scholarship updates
  2. For the good of the cause
    1. Nothing to report
  3. Adjournment 1:01pm
    1. Next meeting March 5, 2020