December 14, 2014 ZA Board Meeting Minutes

December 14, 2014 Zimfest Association Board Meeting Synopsis

Members in attendance: Jacqueline Fallon, Tsitsi Hantuba, Dana Moffett, Amy Robinson, Jennifer Kyker, David Simon, Alex Weeks, Paul Mataruse
Absent: none
Non-voting member in attendance: Claire Jones

IT Organization

Jake Roberts has joined the team, so there is a strong group now hard at work. Teacher and workshop applications should be ready by January. Alex feels that Event Brite may be a good platform for concert tickets but may not be optimal for multiple workshops or housing. He created a test event and could not identify a mechanism to block multiple simultaneous enrollments. Alex plans to continue the old system for teacher applications. Paul has been in communication with the manager and feels we can likely overcome these issues.

Action item–Alex and Paul will continue to research this with a phone conference to the Event Brite manager.

2015 Conference Planning

Claire summarized the progress made to date in an email that was sent to board members earlier today. Still pending—availability of large auditorium; cost estimate to be available in Jan. Housing rates are available to start budgeting. Organizing committee is in formation—still a few positions available. The target date for opening teacher applications is Jan. 15 if possible.

Letter to the Community

David drafted a letter announcing the second year of our Annual Campaign and Membership Drive. After discussion and a little editing, we approved this to be sent out to the ZA mailing list. Alex will update the email list prior to sending out the letter. David will ask Larry to post the letter to the blog.

Potential New Board Members

We need to find a potential treasurer who could overlap Tsitsi before she rotates off the board next year. We prefer someone with accounting skill and who finds it interesting to consider what the numbers actually mean. Overall, it is not very time consuming, but there has tended to be more work needed in July to keep track of registrations as they come in. There may be some tech. solutions to make this easier. Tsitsi will be working with the tech team on this issue.

We brainstormed some people in the community we might approach as a possible treasurer. We would love to have additional Zimbabweans participate on the board, as well. Paul looked up the regulations and found that nonprofit board members should be US citizens or permanent residents in order for the organization to be eligible for certain grants. We will continue to reach out to potential candidates.

Conversion of Festival Coordinator Position

Converting the coordinator to an independent contractor would save a lot of time in terms of filing of taxes. Next step—Tsitsi will call Paychecks to research how to convert the position from employee to independent contractor. The change is justified because she works independent of direct supervision of the board and seeks employment elsewhere. Paul will submit Form SS-8 to the IRS. These steps represent due diligence on the part of the board to comply with federal law.

Brief Discussion of Meeting Time

We need to keep it the same for now. It might be worth having this discussion again when new board members reconvene after the next Zimfest.

Thanks everyone for your hard work in 2014 and happy holidays!

Next meeting—January 11, 2015, 6-8 pm, PST