December 13, 2015 ZA Board Meeting Minutes

December 13, 2015 Zimfest Association Board Meeting Synopsis

Members in Attendance: David Simon, Alex Weeks, Tsitsi Hantuba, Jacqueline Fallon, Dana Moffett, Janis Weeks, Chris Halaska, Rujeko Dumbutshena, Daniel Lockley, Paul Mataruse
Members Absent: None
Non-voting member in Attendance: Claire Jones

Approval of November 8 Minutes/Synopsis

Approval

Review/Modify Agenda

Added membership Queen

Financial Report (Tsitsi)

We will have a profit of $1200 at the end of the year. $750 was reissued that came in as a matching donation from one of the board member’s companies from last year. Only about 6 recent membership payments have come in from the membership letter that went out on the 8th.

WOU Bill Question – Double Rooms (Claire)

We were billed for more nights at WOU than what we had registered through us. There were additional occupants in rooms than what had registered and nights added than what we had record of. An idea is to write to those people and inform them of the situation and ask them to reconcile their payment with us for those rooms. There are 10-15 people who we will contact. WOU needs to send each person to registration to register before they check a key out to them. We want to get money from people for rooms and keys not paid for or returned. Will we need to have a policy in the future for this issue?

Annual Review of Zimfest Association Policies (Claire)

She is proposing that all policies get posted. Suggested change to alcohol and drug policy. A few other up dates were made to this policy. A wording change for Zimbabwean meal policy to state those who are accepted to teach 2 workshops will have meals and housing provided. Number of students per workshop, 5 or more students, the teacher gets paid the full price. We decided around 6 years ago to have the minimum for mbira be 2 and marimba be 3. Some Zimbabweans feel penalized, not being paid enough when teaching a larger class, like with 15 or more people. #7 under workshop cancellation policy is incorrect and can be deleted. The board will set a cap each year for travel reimbursement (posted on the website). The amount will not be posted. Find current bylaws from last year to update the website. Approved policies to be also added to the website.

Zimfest 2016 Organizing Committee Update (Claire)

An organizing committee is not formed yet. The big positions have not been filled. Workshop scheduling, performer concert scheduler, and Zimbabwean guest coordinator. Festival guide layout is a graphics person this year.

Membership Queen (Claire)

MyLinda is unable to take this on for the year. She asked John Hatten, he accepted to do this. A board member can be a liaison for communicating with John. We should have a written job description of this position. Daniel will be the board contact.

Fundraising Committee Report (Rujeko)

We would like to use Cafepress to create a calendar, greeting cards, mugs. We need to gather images and decide on what image to use on the mugs. It makes it simpler to sell merchandise and earn a small profit from the items. Thinking about choosing a month, April and Independence Day, schedule a performance and give artists a few fundraising ideas for them to choose from. By choosing a month then if a group isn’t available on the Independence Day weekend they have other weekends to choose from. Groups could team up with a local restaurant, chef, have an auction, or online auction through ebay, 1 million pennies, these are ideas to present to the groups for them to choose which fundraiser they would like to choose. Scott McClure is the contact for Monmouth City council. Come of with a name to use for the campaign that we use year after year. Let’s proceed with these ideas. Collect images of past posters for the calendar. Any clever ideas of a name for the month of April campaign.

Strategic Gathering Discussion (David)

We will schedule Feb. 20 & 21st for our discussion weekend.

Zimfest Marimba Purchase Decision and Next Steps (Claire)

Margie and Claire will come up with a message and see what they get in the way of donations. Let’s start collecting marimbas.

Chase to Credit Union Transition (Chris)

There are lower fees with the new credit union. There might be some issues depending on where we are holding a festival, but over all it looks like it would be a benefit us to change banking locations. They will need the minutes to reflect who needs access to the account. Chris Halaska, Janis Weeks, Claire Jones and David Simon will need access to the account.

Request to Have Shorter Turn-around on Posting Synopses (David)

The goal will be to approve the minutes for a given meeting at the following meeting and then have the minutes posted within a week after the meeting, so no later than 5 weeks after the meeting of the minutes.

Request to Have Zimfest in Langley and Other Locations in 2017 (Claire/Dana)

Next time

Appreciations for Tsitsi (All)

David – she made many improvements to the system. Thank you for the sense you made out of all the chaos. Thanks for your great accounting abilities. Thanks for helping us understand the finances. Tsitsi is willing to help Janis as she takes over the process.

Next Meeting

January 10th, 6-8 PST