Members in Attendance: Mandy Walker-LaFollette, Tendai Muparutsa, Heather Steele, Maria Minnaar Bailey, Caden Davis, Jesse Larson, Charlie Keziah, Parker Ediger, Claire Jones, Angela Marie
Members Absent: Michael Sibanda
Non-voting members in attendance:
Meeting lead: Maria
Notes taker: Mandy
Was a quorum of Board members present?: Yes
December Notes/Minutes
Approved, pending suggestions and deletions.
Check-ins from Last month
Follow up on Zimfest 2029: No updates.
Transition Task Force Update/Recommendations
The task force meets on the 4th Sunday of each month and are going through Claire’s Festival & Site Coordinator(s) tasks document. Each member of the task force is going to go through a section, add links, and bring questions for Claire.
Communication
Claire has been doing regular blog posts and other communication with the community, for festival and Board updates. In lieu of having a current Festival Coordinator, someone on the Board may need to take that on. Should there be a communications person on the Board?
Caden has stepped up as the communications person! He will coordinate with other Board members to write and send updates to the community.
We should have a regular cadence: each meeting, a Board member can write something up. Treasurer’s report, President’s report, etc. Maria has a blog post almost ready to send.
Angela is happy to read through copy before it’s posted.
Fundraising
Can there be a board position in charge of fundraising? At the very least, someone needs to make sure we are on top of our annual end of year campaign. Parker would like to take this on. Working with a grant writing person, and making a fundraising calendar are things they would like to do.
Maria is in contact with someone who might be able to do grant writing for Zimfest. If that moves forward, Claire will communicate with them about specific grant ideas.
Background Checks for New Board Members
All current Board members (along with Zimfest teachers and certain Organizing Committee volunteers) must have a current (within 5 years) background check. Heather has access to the background check account and will initiate background checks for new board members.
Investment Policy
Zimfest Association continues to work on setting up an investment account in order to receive gifts of stock/securities.
Treasurer’s Report
Benevity – Some companies pay nonprofits for volunteer time employees put in with the nonprofit. We periodically receive money from Benevity for Zimfest volunteer time.
Heather has finished the WA State Charities Report.
Zimfest’s address officially changed to Mandy’s address from Claire’s on 1/7/26.
Board Presidency
We need to either re-up our decision for interim presidency for 2026 or find a permanent president. We don’t currently have an option for a permanent president, so we will continue with the interim presidency. Maria is the only current interim president; Claire is willing to join as an interim president in a few months, and some other Board members indicated willingness later in the year.
Recordings Project Update
Parker, Claire, and Charlie met to choose a tracklist. Commercial use requests have been sent to each group; just waiting to hear back.
Claire has recruited the volunteer assistance of Steve Spitalny of Santa Cruz to mix/master the recordings!
We need a name for the project. Zimfest 2000 CD is just called “Zimfest 2000” – this one could be “Zimfest 2025” and/or “Music Dancing Across Borders”
There was a discussion of physical CDs vs. digital downloads. The plan is for digital downloads and digital liner notes.
Tech Committee Reports (Mandy)
No Board member right now plans to join the Tech Committee, so the Tech Committee should send someone to report to the Board every 2-4 months. Mandy will let Jake Roberts (Tech Committee lead) know.
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