Members in Attendance: Mandy Walker-LaFollette, Tendai Muparutsa, Heather Steele, Maria Minnaar Bailey, Adrienne Stewart, Michael Sibanda, Caden Davis, Jesse Larson
Members Absent: N/A
Non-voting members in attendance: Claire Jones
Meeting lead: Maria
Notes taker: Mandy
Was a quorum of Board members present?: Yes
September Notes/Minutes
Approved via email
Interview New Prospective Board Members (All)
The Board interviewed two potential board members, and voted to invite both to join. We welcome Charlie Keziah and Parker Ediger to the Board! Maria and Mandy will onboard them.
Check-Ins from Last Month (All)
Zimfest Association will work on setting up an investment account in order to receive gifts of stock/securities.
Festival Coordinator (Claire, All)
Claire has announced that she will not be continuing in the role of Festival Coordinator. The Board discussed putting together a task force to decide how to move forward with the Festival Coordinator position, including putting together a list of responsibilities and timelines. Claire and Mandy are interested. We will table this for today, to finalize next month.
Claire will return as a voting member once her current contract expires in November.
Zimfest 2027 (Claire)
Decide and Announce Location of Zimfest 2027 now? OC consensus is that Central Washington University went well from our perspective and CWU’s perspective. Concerns about visas: since Zimbabweans now have to go to South Africa there is still a path to the U.S. currently. The board consensus is to hold 2027 at CWU. Claire will connect with Kelly at CWU regarding dates for 2027.
There is a possible outside site for the market and stage or for evening concerts; evening concerts would likely need to end earlier. Claire volunteered to ask CWU about this.
Wrapping Up Zimfest 2025 (Claire)
The Festival had a net loss of roughly $4,000.
We lost money on merchandising. We spent $10.6K on Zimbabwean teachers’ accommodations (lodging, travel, meals), which is more than in any previous year). Recommendation is to cap the number of teachers if we can’t afford these costs as well as limiting the amount we pay. A suggestion was made to encourage performers to do fundraising to help pay for Zimbabweans’ accommodations.
Performer payments: we pay a small fee to bands who play on the evening stage. However, several bands who had expressed willingness to decline this money were accidentally paid anyway. Heather drafted a letter to the affected bands, asking if they would be willing to return the money, and the board approved sending the letter. A suggestion was made that teacher applications include an opportunity to donate their fees back to the organization.
Concerts had lower attendance due to lack of local community participation. Maria now has a boots-on-the-ground local connection in Ellensburg.
Audio systems cost more including accommodations and meals. Can our volunteers step in?
We need a stronger policy on who gets comp tickets, and a more strongly worded donation expectations for concerts and classes.
Fundraising (Heather)
Need to prepare for fund-raising campaign to start in November; reach out to the community now and be more serious about seeking outside money (grants, etc.).
Washington State Charities Renewal Questions (Heather)
Heather asked for clarification on address and phone number to use for Washington State Charities Renewal; she will use Claire’s for now but the Board needs to decide what address to use for next year at the next meeting.
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