December 9, 2018 Zimfest Association Board Meeting Synopsis
Members in Attendance: Daniel Lockley, Jacqueline Fallon, Chris Halaska, Mandy Walker-LaFollette, Alex Weeks
Members Absent: Evelyn Mukwedeya, Janis Weeks
Non-voting member in attendance: Claire Jones
Review and Approve November Meeting Minutes
To be approved via email
Review/Modify Agenda
No changes made
Zimfest 2019 Update (Claire)
- First OC meeting this coming week. Have had to reassign one job (Zim Guest Coordinator) because previous volunteer had to withdraw from the OC.
- Informed Monmouth City Council of Zimfest dates for 2019, they are supportive and positive about working together as appropriate.
- A council member is interested in having a Zimbabwean food truck at the Wed. concert
- A volunteer is keen on organizing a Zimbabwean dinner. Claire got suggestions from Monmouth CC on potential off-campus venues within walking distance, team gathering info and prices.
- A senior center and a church could be a possibility
- Thursday or Sunday dinner
- Nora is revising applications in Cognitoforms per meeting w/Claire; awaiting decision on Code of Conduct/Sexual Harassment Policy.
- Further info on public workshop stats comparing 2016 and 2018: Total number of workshop sessions 2016: 90 sessions, 796 enrollments, 8.84 per class, ~415 registrants. 2018: 96 sessions, 889 enrollments, 9.26 per class, 412 registrants. This is an 11.7% increase in enrollments! Also no low enrollment workshops had to be cancelled, no refund requests for cancelled workshops! More school groups attending workshops.
- Update on Charities report, ES emails – Association’s charitable organization status has been successfully renewed. Chris and Claire did start a spreadsheet of all the reports that are due and when.
Review Zimbabwean Travel Remuneration Policy (Claire)
- Could we choose to support one group a year, like we did for Chinyakare? Offer a scholarship for a new person or veteran (for example, a few B1 Visa teachers have contributed so much and have paid their own way several times)
- Board supports the idea but we also need to think about the long term considerations e.g. :
- How much can we afford to spend for the budget? Rough estimates are $15,000 for travel plus $4,000 more for scholarship possibilities
- Do we put funding towards helping individuals or towards charities? (Note: the current Zimfest mission and fundraising does not include messaging about giving to charities)
- How do we choose who to support and what concert would we have them perform on?
- Because we had a great year last year we can slightly increase the travel, but have the similar number of Zimbabweans as last year.
Code of Conduct Discussion
Proposed Zimfest code of conduct was reviewed.
- Contact people for harassment concerns in the long term: Claire and Alex [Janis added later].
- Policy will be posted on website and included in applications
- We want to post a message about this new policy and relate it to survey feedback
Fundraising Drive and Engagement (Jacqueline)
- Set smaller donor and dollar goals throughout the year
- Remove registration software from fundraising message, other goals are fine
- From 11/26-12/9, we have 7 donors/members plus 1 recurring for a total of $278 for our new fundraising year.
- We are working on a new idea of gifting a membership
- Thanked board members for making phone calls to a selected donors.
Finance Update (Chris)
- Have continued the reconciliation of the final 2018 budget against the bank account – they match closely
- Festival made about $17,000 on workshops
- Will add a category to reflect the cash revenue from merchandise
Review Progress on Assault Allegation Follow-Up
Sending out a blog post to announce the Code of Conduct, making mention of the anonymous allegations which have been raised and how the Code of Conduct will provide a path for addressing them now and in the future
Next Meeting
January 13th, 6:30 pm PST on Google Hangouts
