May 13, 2018 Zimfest Association Board Meeting Synopsis
Members in Attendance: Jacqueline Fallon, Chris Halaska, Daniel Lockley, Evelyn Mukwedeya, David Simon, Mandy Walker-LaFollette, Alex Weeks, Janis Weeks
Members Absent:
Non-voting member in attendance: Claire Jones
Review/Modify Agenda (All)
Done
Update on Tech Initiative (Alex)
Registration launched on May 3rd, close to being on schedule. There was a huge influx on pre-registrations. For the most part things are working fine. Some of the issues we have had to reach out to RegFox and uncovered some unknown bugs as well as some known bugs to them. They are working through them. Internet Explorer and Firefox have had more issues. We are one of the bigger clients and have more unusual needs. Some instructions are to clear your cache and possibly use Chrome. 1 out of every 30 has run into a problem. Not too many different needs from other years, just different bugs with RegFox. Mandy has received quite a bit of good feedback on our new registration software.
Organizing Committee Update (Claire/Mandy)
- Registration opened May 3; 192 registrants as of Sat evening.
- Several school groups coming; many Fri and Sat marimba workshops full, light enrollment for Sunday
- Some RegFox bugginess; Mandy is working with people encountering problems
- Contracts: Cognitoforms set up for teachers and performers contracts, teachers’ letters went out in mid-April, performers this week.
- Performers and concerts status: one band still pending, may publish this week!
- Program features
- Lucky community outreach proposal – Lucky says let’s include Tsungai! Gretel Baumgartner is local coordinator.
- Cultural appropriation panel: Rujeko has accepted as moderator; Moyo Mutamba, Lucky Moyo, Sheree Seretse, Jocelyn as panelists
- Zimbabwean nyunga nyunga Jam for Sunday at noon. Ted W. will be guest curator.
- Highlights performance scheduled for 4:30-5 on Sunday
- WOU matters: rooms not yet confirmed, Claire to make site visit early June
- Volunteers status update: slow trickle of Volunteer signups
- Urgent need for (second) Marimba wrangler!!!
- Non-OC Tasks (Claire) – Rachel working on posters and volunteer pins; tee shirt orderer researching companies; Betty collecting articles for Festival Guide
Update on Zimfest 2019 Venue Selection (Claire)
- Fort Worden a possibility if concerts take place at County Fairgrounds nearby. BUT, no new estimate or date, 2019 would be very difficult to pull off
- Evergreen waiting to hear from us, but 2020 is better than 2019
- WOU probably okay for same 2nd weekend of August
- OC volunteers situation is poor once again
- Claire’s idea for a smaller event during off-years: Zimfest Marimba Camp
Review WOU Contract (Claire)
WOU just sent us the contract with the same information from 2016. Claire isn’t too concerned. Last time they didn’t ask for a deposit, so we will just wait. Claire will do a site visit because some of the rooms are not confirmed yet as well as other little details.
Review Updated Zimfest Association Budget (Chris)
No updated summary of the budget yet. Busy working out some registration details, memberships and donations. Donations with membership are all lumped together. Will work on the details in the next few weeks. There has been a flurry of memberships but not much in donations. There is not an easy way to get the donation information, they all come in in different ways. It is a lot of manual work.
Registration
$39,000 has been brought in from registration, close to half of what we expect to bring in. The first day was the largest day.
Bass & Baritone
Having a bass and baritone will help us complete one of the sets that Margie has that we will use for Zimfest. The board unanimously voted yes to proceed with the buying of the bass and baritone.
Discussion on whether to maintain separate festival and association bank accounts
Chris doesn’t think there is a real reason to have two separate bank accounts and doesn’t see the benefits. It is a hassle moving money between the two. All of the moneys will be divided between the festival and association anyways. Past history – we were giving the OC more control over the festival budget. Now the festival is more board run. Nothing will be changed until after the festival.
Fundraising Drive and Engagement (Jacqueline)
Shared the next steps: need updated donation dollars to be able to update the community on how we are doing so far, still looking to set a participation and a membership goal, update association members page, idea of including prices of impact is a good idea. The board will review the section and comment to give suggestions of which tiers of impact to keep. Chris doesn’t recall seeing any gifts In Memory of come in yet. Continuing to make different posts on Facebook to work at increasing engagement. Encourage liking and asking friends to respond. Good responses on some of the posts. Shared a draft of FB posting calendar with the different ideas and responses to post. Create some volunteer spotlights to share.
Security and privacy improvements on Board and OC Google Drive files: More investment is needed in organizing Google Drive and coming up with a long-term strategy for managing access. We will look at implementing a privacy policy. Continue at next meeting. Research some privacy policy examples.
Board Recruitment (All)
What skill sets are we looking to bring on to the board? Fundraising, grant writing, volunteer engagement, and marketing are the main areas of focus. Started discussing a few people to reach out to. Each board member should commit to targeting at least one person for board recruitment.
Next Meeting
June 10th, 6:30 pm PST on Google Hangouts
