Members in Attendance: Daniel Lockley, Mandy Walker-LaFollette, Tendai Muparutsa, Heather Steele, Maria Minnaar Bailey, Alex Weeks, Adrienne Stewart, Michael Sibanda
Members Absent: Alyson Quinn
Non-voting members in attendance:
Meeting lead: Alex
Notes taker: Mandy
Was a quorum of Board members present?: Yes
May Notes/Minutes
Approved via email.
Membership/Donation Letter (Daniel)
This is ready to go, and will be sent out after the meeting.
Board President Candidate Discussion (Alex, All)
The Board is continuing its discussions regarding current candidates for Board President. Ideas are still evolving. The Board is still open to considering additional candidates and encourages interested individuals to reach out to .
Zimfest 2025 Updates
- CWU (Ellensburg, WA) – on hold to see if another WA State host offers less expensive, more preferable services.
- WOU (Monmouth, OR) – newly-hired Conference Services coordinator is checking with other stakeholders for 2025 or 2026.
- UPS (Tacoma, WA) – Conferences Manager writes that they are full during our timeframe and expressed five additional concerns about hosting our program. Offers only a gym for evening concerts, but says it can be discussed further.
- U of I (Moscow, ID) – Tendai visited the campus in mid-May and spoke with the conference coordinator. It was helpful to have a Board representative talk in person with them.
- They are willing to put together the festival, and have availability for the last 2 weekends in July of 2025.
- Main stage being indoors or outdoors is our decision, they would be able to put a stage together. No charges for the use of the classrooms. There is an auditorium with a small stage and not much dancing room, but also a ballroom that can be used in a similar way to WOU.
- Ground floor classrooms are a possibility (in 2009 we were in some second floor classrooms).
- Tendai will be returning at the end of July and could reconnect in person.
- Pullman airport is much bigger now than in 2009 (many people needed to fly into a bigger airport and drive in 2009).
- We haven’t seen anything in writing from them, so we need to follow up again. Heather will email the U of I contact again.
- Gonzaga (Spokane, WA) – Heather spoke with one of their events managers.
- The dorms that would be available have no bedding (not even as an addon)
- Prices seem doable, considering a 50% nonprofit discount
- They don’t book camps/conferences more than 1 year out, and on-campus groups are given priority. November of this year is when they would expect to book for 2025, which is late for us.
- Conclusion: Heather will keep a line of communication open in case this ends up being an option we want to move forward with.
- WWU (Bellingham, WA) – Back in the running as they can allow festivities until 11 PM. Adrienne will follow up with Claire about whether to move forward.
- Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA) – Claire completed a successful site visit with the understanding that Whitman might be able to host for future years, but not 2025.
