Zimfest Association Meeting Minutes—Synopsis
November 10, 2013
Members present: Jacqueline Fallon, Tsitsi Hantuba, Jennifer Kyker, Paul Mataruse, Amy Robinson, David Simon, Alex Weeks
Non-voting member present: Claire Jones
Discussion:
1) Approval of October 13 meeting minutes—No changes or corrections; minutes approved. Board members will review and approve last month’s minutes and the synopsis from 2 months ago at the beginning of each meeting.
2) Membership feedback from blog/email—BOD—Not too much feedback was received. Paul stated that there would likely be more dialogue as the festival approached.
3) Membership drive and fundraising planning—Claire—We plan to link the donations drive to membership renewal. This will be sent to ZA members and others with the request to reach out to non-members who have been touched by this music. Claire is also looking to submit a grant to the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation under their Vibrant Communities Arts and Cultures category. It is due Jan. 15. Action item: David and Tsitsi to work on the 2013 budget info.
4) Discussion of potential BOD members—We are encouraged to nominate or talk to others who might be able to participate on the board.
5) Interview with Jacqueline Fallon—BOD—She is interested in joining the board as an opportunity to further develop ideas that arose out of her experiences organizing Zimfest 2012. The board discussed Jacqueline’s interest and qualifications and decided to invite her to join the board. David will orient her to the board at a separate time, and she will join us for the next meeting on December 8.
6) ZMF charitable contributions—David reviewed the balances in the Zimfest Festival and Association Accounts. It was proposed that we keep enough funds to cover the Coordinator pay. Also, we want to maintain adequate resources to cover festival expenses. Claire is still negotiating the deposit to UPS for ZF 2014. After a long discussion, it was agreed that we will put a letter out to the community asking for requests for charitable contributions. Jennifer agreed to draft the letter and send it to the board. We can affort to spend $1,000 this year and will reassess our resources annually to see whether perhaps we can afford more donations in the future.
7) Certificates of appreciation—Claire—She sent us an email with links to examples. Paul volunteered to print them in advance of the festival for teachers who come from abroad.
8) Volunteer Coordination—Lisa Mckerlick joined the call for this discussion. Seven people were truly interested. They reside in a variety of states. Specific interests included working on a newsletter, editing, assisting Zimbabwean visitors and some tech help. Claire is recruiting for members of the organizing committee, so David will send Claire’s email address to Lisa. Lisa asks that the board continually put out the word that she is looking for more volunteers.
9) Zimfest 2014 planning update—Claire—She has been reaching out to experienced people in Seattle to help with the planning committee. It was instead decided that May 1 would be a better date to open registration. Alex said it might even be possible to open housing registration a little earlier than workshop registration. David suggested that we come up with repeatable dates in terms of the number of weeks prior to each festival, and that we do a brief update on the progress of these processes at each meeting. The theme will be “Forward with the past/tradition.” This is something Ambuya Beauler Dyoko used to say, and we want to honor and remember her. Cosmas and Lucky gave the Shona and Ndebele translations: “Pamberi neChinyakare—Pambili nga Masiko.” UPS negotiations are continuing. Discussion of pricing will follow.
10) Volunteer liason from the board—David asked if anyone would like to interface with Lisa.
11) Tech team meeting—Be sure to read the summary that was sent to the board. These efforts are aimed at maintaining sustainability. Highlights include: posting minutes of any significant meeting on the blog; Gretel will update email lists; Larry submits posts to the blog. Registration systems are being researched.
12) Items for next meeting—Would we consider performers who are not teachers? Paul; Sheasby as BOD advisor? David; Changing official Zimfest addresses—Claire.
Next meeting: Sunday, December 8, 6-8 pm PST
