August 14, 2016 Zimfest Association Board Meeting Minutes — Village Meeting at Zimfest, Columbia Room, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Oregon
Board Members In Attendance: Chris Halaska, Jacqueline Fallon, Paul Mataruse, Alex Weeks, David Simon, Janis Weeks, Dana Moffett, Daniel Lockley
Members Absent: Rujeko Dumbutshena
Non-voting member in Attendance: Claire Jones
Welcome and Board Member Intro
We are looking for board members and fresh energy in order to continue and sustain this organization.
Recognition of Organizers
Thanking Claire, and recognizing other organizing committee members.
- Registration Desk: Alex Weeks, Jake Roberts
- Concerts: Michael Beardsworth, Jesse Larson
- Teachers: Nora Holmquist
- Guest Coordinator: Marilyn Mohr
- Volunteers: Carla Stark
- Tech Support: Larry Israel, John Hatton
- Festival Guide/Graphic Designer: Rachel Edson, Janis Weeks
- Festival Guide/Editor: Betty Weiss, Jan and Helen Six
- Instrument Coordinators & Wranglers: Paul Hayes, Peter Hayes, and Craig LaFollette
- Registration: Marina Ormes
- Proofreading/Late night party: Petra Siemion
- Stage Manager: Chris Halaska
- T-Shirts: Simme Bobrosky
Claire presents The Roberts/Weeks Family – Print from Rujeko
Treasurer’s Report (Janis Weeks)
Changed our banking to a local credit union from a corporate bank. Sustained a loss in 2014, in 2015 had a net profit of $1000. In 2016 this is a ~37% increase in participants from last year (372 at closing of online registration). Community asked to participate in donation employee matching, memberships, grants.
Monmouth City Council, helped solicit a few other local donations, individual donations,
Membership Report (John Hatten)
2 lifetime family memberships, 10 Individual lifetime members – $500, December 1st of this year is the start for the coming year. 18 regular, 10 couples, 4 teacher members, encourage to keep membership up even though there is no Zimfest, we will still be hard at work, John will send out a membership reminder on November 31st
What’s New?
What does the board do? – Strategic retreats – lots of thinking, discussions around challenges that we are facing, pulling in old timers, new people
Zimfest 2018 and Decision to Take a Year Off
It really took a lot of thinking and discussing, 2 years for planning the next festival, where are we in terms of membership, finances, volunteers, where do we want to be
Community Input and Feedback
Most important things to keep us around for the next 20 years and beyond:
Guy Tauscher – hears from new people – this is amazing and they say why aren’t there more people here.
Larry Israel – sustainable festival – get new festival organizers, keep attracting the youth, from a youth voice – unstable with moving around, different times of the year, if not certain about certain things then it is hard to have consistency, could lead to other problems.
Michael Beardsworth – new people come but don’t keep coming.
Mary Ellen Garrett – category of investment for bands – if each band put in an amount of money – 100 band – $100, more bands should be doing benefits, a way for them to have a supporting role – (similar idea to Fundraising campaign).
Angela Marie – invite people at the evening concerts to come to the meeting or talk to any of us, invite people to raise hands at the concerts so others can see how many people are volunteering, bands do outreach in the school or community to volunteer to teach a group of people to get them interested in marimbas, other common interests, send out a monthly newsletter (she volunteers to help).
Sheree Seretse says a group applied but didn’t get to perform – Jake and Claire did not see it in applications, dates conflict with the start of school for some of the youth, have a set of marimbas available just for jamming at anytime, Day stage – some performances do not have many audience members so if we had 2 stages there would be less people watching.
John Hatten – 2 points of view yes it’s good to hold Zimfest in one location but it is also good to have it in different locations. We need to use our different viewpoints to work together to help support the festival, we need to all be open to ideas.
Alex Weeks – we have had some disagreements but have constructively dealt with them. Mentorship for working on the festival – could help it be less intimidating and putting 2 heads together is better than one, every other year a home place and then different location in opposite years
Other Community Members – create an online community for people to help find groups or musicians to find when they travel or move – Dandemutande but young people use other avenues for social media. Social media to help keep people connected. Create another day stage or during dinner for more performance opportunities, some groups may not have come because they didn’t get the opportunity to play. This year everyone that did apply to perform got to perform. Teacher-track like in Bellingham, a youth festival, have something during a time when school bands can come to perform, It sounds like we need a marketing, grant writing person, stick with one set weekend for the festival which means we do have to plan further ahead, most important thing is to grow the community with the teacher talent that we have, find a way to reach more people, dates are put in place by our locations, can we handle more people, we might not have the staffing for responding to emails and others
Lynn Wyckoff – young kids – face painting, storytelling tent, non workshop ideas for participation, how do you get to meet other people, college students looking for marimba groups when they have moved away. Marimba bands around an area go perform at local colleges and schools to show the community what it’s like
Kurai Mubaiwa – jumping castle, young people being mentored by board members and other volunteers
Boulder – What will you bring? Challenge each person to figure out what part to play in Zimfest, ideas
Certificate of Appreciation for Zimbabwean Teachers and Performers
Passed out at meeting
Zimbabwean Guest Panel
Tapiwa Kapurura likes sharing culture and not just music
Lucky Moyo – encouraging Zimbabweans to volunteer, board, moving instruments, reminder of other things happening like Nhemamusasa North, etc. even though Zimfest might not be happening, music can help change a nation, there is impact in music, force of nature
Julia Chigamba – it’s the stories that bring us together, not just the music, ask a Zimbabwean to tell their story, how they grew up, suggestion to exhibit the Zimbabweans’ other talents, such as Kurai’s visual art, poetry & writing
