Members in Attendance: Mandy Walker-LaFollette, Tendai Muparutsa, Heather Steele, Maria Minnaar Bailey, Jesse Larson, Charlie Keziah, Parker Ediger, Claire Jones, Angela Marie
Members Absent: Michael Sibanda, Caden Davis
Non-voting members in attendance:
Meeting lead: Maria
Notes taker: Mandy
Was a quorum of Board members present?: Yes
November Notes/Minutes
Approved via email. Mandy will make requested edits and send to Larry.
Miscellaneous Check-Ins
Claire has transferred Zoom payment and login to Heather. Additionally, we are now getting the discount for nonprofits that Zoom offers.
Mandy will remove Claire’s personal email from permissions in Google Drive.
Adrienne has stepped down from the Board after completing 2 years.
Tech Committee Update (Jake)
In the past, Janis was a member of both the Board and the tech committee, and was able to provide communication in both directions. This might not be necessary, but we should discuss how that communication will happen moving forward.
Larry and Claire decide together on content, as festival coordinator and webmaster. Claire will no longer be that liaison and co-coordinator either.
The two options are to have a member of the Board join the Tech Committee, or to have a member of the Tech Committee report to the Board every other month.
Parker is interested in being involved in the website discussion, as part of the media curation discussion.
Some of the current projects in discussion:
- Organizing and curating media, both in terms of storage and pipeline.
- Webmaster of the website; content, content moderation, and structure/logistics. Currently there is an issue with the reliability of our web host.
What is Zimfest’s stance and strategy over digital assets and policy? Jake and the Tech Committee would like to have more of an open dialogue with what’s important to the festival. With all of the changes happening, are there tech solutions or projects that need to be done?
Claire: We want to make sure that tasks and responsibilities are clear, and make sure that the work the Tech Committee has done over the years is utilized to the best of our ability.
Investment Policy
Zimfest Association continues to work on setting up an investment account in order to receive gifts of stock/securities.
Concert Recording Use (Parker and Claire)
Parker and Claire have a proposal to use 2025 evening concert recordings done by Alex to produce a Zimfest 2025 recording for sale to support Zimfest. If we use volunteers for mixing and coordination of what to use and communicating with bands, this could be low cost.
Would this include songs that are freely available on YouTube? Maria and Heather note that it’s a different market and use case to have a CD recording versus watching a YouTube video.
We have a spreadsheet of songs/recordings we have permission for. There is not very much, so when we want to use audio/video on the website or YouTube there is not a large amount to draw from. Producing these recordings would increase our options.
The Board thinks this is a good idea, Charlie is interested in participating, and Parker will communicate with Claire and Charlie to schedule a meeting.
Giving Tuesday and Financial Update (Heather)
The Board reviewed the festival Profit & Loss 2025 report from Gary. There was a net loss of $7,864.34. Heather and Parker noted concern over the bank balance, which is around $17k.
The giving campaign generated $6,799, including the donation matching.
Maria will write a blog post thanking donors as well as thanking Adrienne for her time on the Board.
Proposals for Hosting Zimfest 2029
There have been two proposals indicating interest in hosting Zimfest 2029.
Maria will contact both parties with follow-up questions.
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