July 13, 2025 ZA Board Meeting Minutes

Members in Attendance: Tendai Muparutsa, Heather Steele, Maria Minnaar Bailey, Adrienne Stewart, Michael Sibanda, Caden Davis, Jesse Larson
Members Absent: Mandy Walker LaFollette
Non-voting members in attendance: Claire Jones
Meeting lead: Adrienne
Notes taker: Caden
Was a quorum of Board members present?: Yes

June Notes/Minutes

Approved via email. Mandy will make suggested changes and send to Larry.

Check-Ins from Last Month (All)

The Board reviewed the festival Cash Management Plan, including Concert front-of-house and donations, and signed up for shifts.

Review/Approve Larry Israel Post-Zimfest Online Survey

Claire would like to add a question asking if the participant rented a room on-campus or off (where?) For what reason if off-campus?

The survey, including Claire’s addition, was approved by the Board. Claire will email Larry.

Update on Mandile Mpofu/Landlocked Interview

Claire suggests that this might be a good article to counter any misinformation coming out about cultural appropriation, etc.

Festival Updates

Site coordination and visit

• Finally received Workshop Room assignments in early July, but all rooms were clustered together in two academic buildings w/out attention to noise interference. Claire visited 7/9 and met with Kelli and toured the buildings. Now awaiting some new room assignments that fit our needs better. Will need to generate a new map for the website and festival handout.
• Claire met with personnel from our co-sponsoring Dept. of Int’l Studies. They chose not to have any special presentations for their students but many will likely attend afternoon concerts. There may be some international students who can volunteer to help with signage, a major need.
• QR codes to CWU website interactive map
  • Maria has sent a downtown Ellensburg map-she will send to Larry
  • Claire will ask Mark Swift to create QR code
  • Heather will work on printing signs

Deadlines to close registration coming soon

• July 17 for housing and dining and marketplace; Zimfest registration people need to provide final numbers and spreadsheets to CWU
• July 28 for workshops and volunteer signup – note volunteer signups have been hacked by people/bots? Giving fake names; webmaster Larry has had to delete 2/3 of signups and used a CAPTCHA to prevent more.
• Volunteer editor and layout person have begun working on Festival handout. We need to confirm those workshop rooms!

Zim Guests Updates

• Ticket purchased for B. Makombe on the Travel Fellowship; domestic roundtrip purchased for N. Chipendo using the travel reimbursement; all others need to provide receipts to claim travel reimbursement. Most have now confirmed arrival and departure dates, housing needs.
• Many arriving on Wednesday will need per diem cash for food before the meal plan starts. Heather S. has volunteered to pay them.
• We would still love to have volunteers to help orient Zim teachers onsite!
  • Pamwe folks (Caden, Jesse, David and others) will be there to help!
    • Showing workshop rooms, concert hall, help find their dorm, food, etc.
• Mark K. still working on braai plans for Saturday but everyone is busy.

Teachers/workshops team

• Working on extra instruments/needs requested for workshops (a lot!) and a schedule for shuffling between workshop rooms.
  • Heather has offered instruments if extras are needed
  • Caden will check out the set coming from Seattle and talk to Lucas about if they’re good to go or not.

Village Meeting

• Mandy will review previous festival’s village meeting agenda.