September 11, 2016 Zimfest Association Board Meeting Synopsis
Members in Attendance: David Simon, Jacqueline Fallon, Alex Weeks, Rujeko Dumbutshena, Chris Halaska, Janis Weeks, Dana Moffett, Evelyn Mukwedeya
Members Absent: Daniel Lockley
Non-voting member in Attendance: Claire Jones
Review/Modify Agenda
No changes
Approval of Previous Minutes and Synopsis
Need to review minutes and synopsis to email out to the board.
Interview Evelyn
She likes the festival for many reasons, cultural, musical, friendships, she has come onto other boards at restructuring points to help them move forward. She accepts our invitation to join the board.
Claire
Rejoining the board wouldn’t become effective until after last paycheck – date TBD
Interview Tapiwa
Next month
Debrief on the 2016 Festival
A great festival, happy, well organized and run, great to have a lot of Zimbabweans and the Chinyakare family there, great vibe, great location, heard lots of positive comments, good feedback from survey, typical complaints about food and dorms, registration was remarkably smooth, bottleneck at the volunteer table, someone stepped up to be volunteer coordinator intern next time, Zimbabwean jam that Paul and Tendai did was a hit, festival highlights better this year, tried a different set up for concert sitters, kids running around during the concerts were not always careful, teacher workshop coordinator did a great job, she was enthused with the embracing of all the Zimbabweans, kind of owning the festival like it hasn’t happened before, we did have more attendees, it was a lot more work in the month before the festival than in the past years, and many more details and questions to answer (some could have found them on the website). With the higher number of participants comes more questions. Responding to the easier questions might be a volunteer task on it’s own for supporting participants. Energy was really good, good group of teachers and had fun playing together on the afternoon stage, and encouraged to see the number of Zimbabweans there and involved. Technology committee went dormant this year, maybe need a new chair, Nora volunteered for this coming year and knows databases, which was very helpful.
Is WOU Suitable As a Semipermanent Home?
Overall is a great place, we got the contract during the festival, city council wants to adopt us, city council donated money and they got others to donate money, Don B. at WOU is on our side for helping with fees and prices, WOU would like to have us back.
Begin Discussion on Focus for Our “Off” Year
Timeline to also be working toward 2018, review past retreat notes and move from there, make our own lists of priorities.
Thank you to Paul for being on the board. Maybe invite to next meeting for 10 min. to thank him.
Thoughts Around a Strategic Retreat
Strategic retreat is important early on, or smaller groups can meet in person and work on important areas of focus, review past retreat notes and move from there, make our own lists of priorities and things that are important to us and maybe some action items to help solve the problem, 5 or 10, prior to next meeting to circulate around, come to a consensus of top 5, can be productive if we all put the time in before the next meeting, send out automated reminders.
Next Meeting
October 9th
