Minutes from the September 11th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Zimfest News Blog
Posts by Zimfest Association Board
Board Retreat and June and July Meeting Minutes
The Zimfest Association board of directors has posted meeting minutes from the June 19th and July 10th board meetings, and a summary of their February 20th & 21st strategic retreat.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
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Zimfest 2016 Survey
Another fabulous festival is over; Zimfest 2016 is now history. If you were there, please take the Zimfest 2016 Survey at https://goo.gl/forms/lF7glY8e5a0R4aC83
Posted In: Festival Details
No Comments
May Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the May 8th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
April Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the April 10th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
March Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the March 13th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
Project Kudzana — Fundraising for Zimfest 2016
Have you or your group decided on a fundraising event or idea to help support Zimbabwean teachers expenses? Share what you are planning on Facebook, or add a comment on this blog. We have had 20 Zimbabwean teachers/performers apply and we cannot support all of them unless we have your help. At this point we can probably only support about 8 Zimbabwean teachers.
The Zimfest Board has come up with a few exciting fundraising ideas to help raise some much needed funds for Zimfest 2016, with an emphasis on Zimbabwean teacher expenses. We ask you and your music community to pitch in and help support the heartbeat of our organization. Our Zimbabwean teachers bring the spirit of the music with them to share with us. Year-round this spirit holds our communities together throughout North America.
Organizing committees are hard at work in the winter months preparing for our festival, as are individuals who are applying for visas for our guest teachers. We can support them and encourage their work by helping raise funds. The approximate cost of room, board and (max) travel for each Zimbabwean guest is $760. Our goal is to provide 10 Zimbabwean’s, transportation, room, and board with the help of these fund raising efforts.
We encourage your participation to help make this successful, and let’s have some fun with the following ideas. Share your event on the Zimfest blog (post a comment) and on facebook so that we can see all the exciting events that are being planned to support Zimbabwean teachers at Zimfest. After your fundraiser event, please make checks out to Zimfest Association and mail them to Janis Weeks, 1960 University St., Eugene, OR 97403.
Project Kudzana
Kudzana means to dance! Imagine all the dance, drumming, hosho, marimba, mbira, and singing communities coming together to celebrate Zimbabwean Independence Day for the benefit of Zimbabwean musicians at our festival, an interactive celebration of Shona music. During the month of April we encourage your community to host a benefit concert for Zimfest. You can choose any time in April to host your event, focusing on the April 18 Independence date.
One Million Pennies for Zimfest
Each group could create a donation canister to have at practice and/or performances advertising the ‘One Million Penny’ goal for Zimfest. Drop in change from your wallet to go towards Zimbabwean musicians. Encourage other groups that don’t normally attend Zimfest to participate. Post pictures on the Zimfest Facebook page to show progress/competition between groups or regions.
Bite of Africa Dinner / Zimbabwe Auction
In combination with a benefit dance, offer some auction items:
- Dance, Drumming, Hosho, Marimba, Mbira, or Singing Lesson with a Zimbabwean Guest Musician
- Sadza dinner with Zimbabwean Guest Artist
- Local art, restaurant, and business donations
These are just a few of our ideas. Customize it to your community.
Amazon Smile
The Zimfest Association is registered to receive donations when people shop at AmazonSmile. You can support Zimfest by choosing Zimfest Association as the organization you would like to receive 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon purchases. Amazon will make a donation to: Zimfest Association https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1951506
EBay
Also, for anyone who sells items on EBay, you can choose to donate a percentage of the final sales price to the Zimfest Association. See http://charity.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/zimfest-association/72685/
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
6 Comments
February Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the February 21st meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
Project Kudzana — Fundraising for Zimfest 2016
Let’s get a jump on what it takes to make a great Zimfest!
The Zimfest Board has come up with a few exciting fundraising ideas to help raise some much needed funds for Zimfest 2016, with an emphasis on Zimbabwean teacher expenses. We ask you and your music community to pitch in and help support the heartbeat of our organization. Our Zimbabwean teachers bring the spirit of the music with them to share with us. Year-round this spirit holds our communities together throughout North America.
Organizing committees are hard at work in the winter months preparing for our festival, as are individuals who are applying for visas for our guest teachers. We can support them and encourage their work by helping raise funds. Make checks out to Zimfest Association and mail them to Janis Weeks, 1960 University St., Eugene, OR 97403. The approximate cost of room, board and (max) travel for each Zimbabwean guest is $760. Our goal is to provide 10 Zimbabwean’s, transportation, room, and board with the help of these fund raising efforts.
We encourage your participation to help make this successful, and let’s have some fun with the following ideas. Share your event on the Zimfest blog (post a comment) and on facebook so that we can see all the exciting events that are being planned to support Zimbabwean teachers at Zimfest.
Project Kudzana
Kudzana means to dance! Imagine all the dance, drumming, hosho, marimba, mbira, and singing communities coming together to celebrate Zimbabwean Independence Day for the benefit of Zimbabwean musicians at our festival, an interactive celebration of Shona music. During the month of April we encourage your community to host a benefit concert for Zimfest. You can choose any time in April to host your event, focusing on the April 18 Independence date.
One Million Pennies for Zimfest
Each group could create a donation canister to have at practice and/or performances advertising the ‘One Million Penny’ goal for Zimfest. Drop in change from your wallet to go towards Zimbabwean musicians. Encourage other groups that don’t normally attend Zimfest to participate. Post pictures on the Zimfest Facebook page to show progress/competition between groups or regions.
Bite of Africa Dinner / Zimbabwe Auction
In combination with a benefit dance, offer some auction items:
- Dance, Drumming, Hosho, Marimba, Mbira, or Singing Lesson with a Zimbabwean Guest Musician
- Sadza dinner with Zimbabwean Guest Artist
- Local art, restaurant, and business donations
These are just a few of our ideas. Customize it to your community.
Amazon Smile
The Zimfest Association is registered to receive donations when people shop at AmazonSmile. You can support Zimfest by choosing Zimfest Association as the organization you would like to receive 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon purchases. Amazon will make a donation to: Zimfest Association https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1951506
EBay
Also, for anyone who sells items on EBay, you can choose to donate a percentage of the final sales price to the Zimfest Association. See http://charity.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/zimfest-association/72685/
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
January Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the January 10th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
Welcome to Our New Blog to Email System
Greetings, Zimfest email subscribers (and readers on the festival web site),
Welcome to our new email system. Zimfest news is posted on the Zimfest News Blog and sent to subscribers via email. You can choose which types of email you want to receive from us.
The board and festival organizers post announcements on the blog, and they are automatically emailed to subscribers at 4:00 am the next morning. We’ve been using this system for quite a while and just expanded it to include our entire large email list.
Zimfest news is always available on the festival web site — see the Zimfest News Blog.
News Categories
Each news post is assigned to one of three categories: Festival News, Festival Details, or Zimfest Association News. You can customize your email subscription to receive only the categories you want. See the Subscribe web page for details on the categories — https://zimfest.org/news/subscribe/
Please click the “update subscription preferences” link at the bottom of this email. That link enables you to choose which types of email you receive from us, and whether it comes in plain text or HTML format. (If you’re having trouble viewing this, choose text format; otherwise most folks prefer the layout and colors of HTML format.)
The vast majority of our email subscribers currently receive only the major “Festival News,” but many of you will want to receive all three categories, and perhaps comments as well.
Comments
Comments are public replies to Zimfest news. You can post a public reply in response to most of our emails. Clicking the Reply link will take you to that blog post in your web browser and you can post your reply there. Your comment will appear on the web site after it’s approved by our moderator. Comments are also emailed (the next morning) to subscribers of the Comments category.
—Larry Israel
Web, blog and email manager
Zimfest Technical Committee
Posted In: Festival News
No Comments
Zimfest Requests Your Help
Dear Zimfest Enthusiasts:
We hope that you are doing well and wish you the best for the coming year! We are looking forward to seeing many of you once again at WOU in Monmouth, Oregon for this year’s Zimfest – August 11th-14th.
We are writing at this time on a matter of great importance to the Zimfest Community. As you know, Zimfest depends on volunteers for its survival. The board is comprised entirely of volunteers. The work at the festival is done by volunteers. And perhaps most importantly – each year a dedicated group of volunteers forms the organizing committee for the upcoming festival. We are fortunate to have a paid festival coordinator in Claire Jones. However, as has been noted previously, the amount of work that Claire does compared to the amount that she is compensated really amounts to her volunteering a fair bit of her time as well.
Each year, it has become progressively more difficult to recruit an organizing committee. As a board, we have taken steps to reduce the burden on the organizing committee (e.g., having Claire provide continuity as coordinator from year to year; repeating the festival at the same location to avoid re-inventing the way we do things). Nevertheless, the inability to recruit an organizing committee is a bad sign for the Zimfest Association. If we as a community cannot address this problem, the board may be forced to consider additional steps to reduce the burden on the organizers such as holding the festival every other year.
We recognize that many of you are very busy. It’s a sign of the times. Nevertheless, if Zimfest is something that’s important to you, we ask that you dig deep and find time to join this year’s organizing committee. The 2016 Zimfest Organizing Committee currently includes:
Claire Jones – Festival Coordinator
Alex Weeks – Online registration and website
Jake Roberts – Registration payment system; Onsite Registration lead
Michael Beardsworth – Concert Producer; Evening concert management
Marilyn Mohr – Zimbabwean Guest Coordinator
Carla Starck – Volunteer Coordinator
The leadership roles that are still open include:
Concert Programmer
Workshops and Teachers Coordinator
Marketplace coordinator
In addition, participants are needed to help out more generally. If full responsibility for any of these roles sounds overwhelming, it is certainly possible to share the job with another person. If you have questions about what’s involved, how the organizing committee operates, how much time it is likely to take, we encourage you to email Claire for more information (claire.jns1 {at} gmail (dot) com).
We hope that several weeks from now, we can report back with good news that we have a fully staffed organizing committee. In the event that we continue to struggle with recruitment, we will need to consider other alternatives and begin asking more challenging questions regarding the sustainability of the current Zimfest operating model.
We look forward to hearing from many of you!
—The Zimfest Board
Posted In: Festival News
2 Comments
Board Retreat and June and July Meeting Minutes
The Zimfest Association board of directors has posted meeting minutes from the June 19th and July 10th board meetings, and a summary of their February 20th & 21st strategic retreat.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
Zimfest 2016 Survey
Another fabulous festival is over; Zimfest 2016 is now history. If you were there, please take the Zimfest 2016 Survey at https://goo.gl/forms/lF7glY8e5a0R4aC83
Posted In: Festival Details
No Comments
May Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the May 8th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
April Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the April 10th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
March Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the March 13th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
Project Kudzana — Fundraising for Zimfest 2016
Have you or your group decided on a fundraising event or idea to help support Zimbabwean teachers expenses? Share what you are planning on Facebook, or add a comment on this blog. We have had 20 Zimbabwean teachers/performers apply and we cannot support all of them unless we have your help. At this point we can probably only support about 8 Zimbabwean teachers.
The Zimfest Board has come up with a few exciting fundraising ideas to help raise some much needed funds for Zimfest 2016, with an emphasis on Zimbabwean teacher expenses. We ask you and your music community to pitch in and help support the heartbeat of our organization. Our Zimbabwean teachers bring the spirit of the music with them to share with us. Year-round this spirit holds our communities together throughout North America.
Organizing committees are hard at work in the winter months preparing for our festival, as are individuals who are applying for visas for our guest teachers. We can support them and encourage their work by helping raise funds. The approximate cost of room, board and (max) travel for each Zimbabwean guest is $760. Our goal is to provide 10 Zimbabwean’s, transportation, room, and board with the help of these fund raising efforts.
We encourage your participation to help make this successful, and let’s have some fun with the following ideas. Share your event on the Zimfest blog (post a comment) and on facebook so that we can see all the exciting events that are being planned to support Zimbabwean teachers at Zimfest. After your fundraiser event, please make checks out to Zimfest Association and mail them to Janis Weeks, 1960 University St., Eugene, OR 97403.
Project Kudzana
Kudzana means to dance! Imagine all the dance, drumming, hosho, marimba, mbira, and singing communities coming together to celebrate Zimbabwean Independence Day for the benefit of Zimbabwean musicians at our festival, an interactive celebration of Shona music. During the month of April we encourage your community to host a benefit concert for Zimfest. You can choose any time in April to host your event, focusing on the April 18 Independence date.
One Million Pennies for Zimfest
Each group could create a donation canister to have at practice and/or performances advertising the ‘One Million Penny’ goal for Zimfest. Drop in change from your wallet to go towards Zimbabwean musicians. Encourage other groups that don’t normally attend Zimfest to participate. Post pictures on the Zimfest Facebook page to show progress/competition between groups or regions.
Bite of Africa Dinner / Zimbabwe Auction
In combination with a benefit dance, offer some auction items:
- Dance, Drumming, Hosho, Marimba, Mbira, or Singing Lesson with a Zimbabwean Guest Musician
- Sadza dinner with Zimbabwean Guest Artist
- Local art, restaurant, and business donations
These are just a few of our ideas. Customize it to your community.
Amazon Smile
The Zimfest Association is registered to receive donations when people shop at AmazonSmile. You can support Zimfest by choosing Zimfest Association as the organization you would like to receive 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon purchases. Amazon will make a donation to: Zimfest Association https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1951506
EBay
Also, for anyone who sells items on EBay, you can choose to donate a percentage of the final sales price to the Zimfest Association. See http://charity.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/zimfest-association/72685/
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
6 Comments
February Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the February 21st meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
Project Kudzana — Fundraising for Zimfest 2016
Let’s get a jump on what it takes to make a great Zimfest!
The Zimfest Board has come up with a few exciting fundraising ideas to help raise some much needed funds for Zimfest 2016, with an emphasis on Zimbabwean teacher expenses. We ask you and your music community to pitch in and help support the heartbeat of our organization. Our Zimbabwean teachers bring the spirit of the music with them to share with us. Year-round this spirit holds our communities together throughout North America.
Organizing committees are hard at work in the winter months preparing for our festival, as are individuals who are applying for visas for our guest teachers. We can support them and encourage their work by helping raise funds. Make checks out to Zimfest Association and mail them to Janis Weeks, 1960 University St., Eugene, OR 97403. The approximate cost of room, board and (max) travel for each Zimbabwean guest is $760. Our goal is to provide 10 Zimbabwean’s, transportation, room, and board with the help of these fund raising efforts.
We encourage your participation to help make this successful, and let’s have some fun with the following ideas. Share your event on the Zimfest blog (post a comment) and on facebook so that we can see all the exciting events that are being planned to support Zimbabwean teachers at Zimfest.
Project Kudzana
Kudzana means to dance! Imagine all the dance, drumming, hosho, marimba, mbira, and singing communities coming together to celebrate Zimbabwean Independence Day for the benefit of Zimbabwean musicians at our festival, an interactive celebration of Shona music. During the month of April we encourage your community to host a benefit concert for Zimfest. You can choose any time in April to host your event, focusing on the April 18 Independence date.
One Million Pennies for Zimfest
Each group could create a donation canister to have at practice and/or performances advertising the ‘One Million Penny’ goal for Zimfest. Drop in change from your wallet to go towards Zimbabwean musicians. Encourage other groups that don’t normally attend Zimfest to participate. Post pictures on the Zimfest Facebook page to show progress/competition between groups or regions.
Bite of Africa Dinner / Zimbabwe Auction
In combination with a benefit dance, offer some auction items:
- Dance, Drumming, Hosho, Marimba, Mbira, or Singing Lesson with a Zimbabwean Guest Musician
- Sadza dinner with Zimbabwean Guest Artist
- Local art, restaurant, and business donations
These are just a few of our ideas. Customize it to your community.
Amazon Smile
The Zimfest Association is registered to receive donations when people shop at AmazonSmile. You can support Zimfest by choosing Zimfest Association as the organization you would like to receive 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon purchases. Amazon will make a donation to: Zimfest Association https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1951506
EBay
Also, for anyone who sells items on EBay, you can choose to donate a percentage of the final sales price to the Zimfest Association. See http://charity.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/zimfest-association/72685/
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
January Board Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the January 10th meeting of the Zimfest Association board of directors have been posted.
Posted In: Zimfest Association News
No Comments
Welcome to Our New Blog to Email System
Greetings, Zimfest email subscribers (and readers on the festival web site),
Welcome to our new email system. Zimfest news is posted on the Zimfest News Blog and sent to subscribers via email. You can choose which types of email you want to receive from us.
The board and festival organizers post announcements on the blog, and they are automatically emailed to subscribers at 4:00 am the next morning. We’ve been using this system for quite a while and just expanded it to include our entire large email list.
Zimfest news is always available on the festival web site — see the Zimfest News Blog.
News Categories
Each news post is assigned to one of three categories: Festival News, Festival Details, or Zimfest Association News. You can customize your email subscription to receive only the categories you want. See the Subscribe web page for details on the categories — https://zimfest.org/news/subscribe/
Please click the “update subscription preferences” link at the bottom of this email. That link enables you to choose which types of email you receive from us, and whether it comes in plain text or HTML format. (If you’re having trouble viewing this, choose text format; otherwise most folks prefer the layout and colors of HTML format.)
The vast majority of our email subscribers currently receive only the major “Festival News,” but many of you will want to receive all three categories, and perhaps comments as well.
Comments
Comments are public replies to Zimfest news. You can post a public reply in response to most of our emails. Clicking the Reply link will take you to that blog post in your web browser and you can post your reply there. Your comment will appear on the web site after it’s approved by our moderator. Comments are also emailed (the next morning) to subscribers of the Comments category.
—Larry Israel
Web, blog and email manager
Zimfest Technical Committee
Posted In: Festival News
No Comments
Zimfest Requests Your Help
Dear Zimfest Enthusiasts:
We hope that you are doing well and wish you the best for the coming year! We are looking forward to seeing many of you once again at WOU in Monmouth, Oregon for this year’s Zimfest – August 11th-14th.
We are writing at this time on a matter of great importance to the Zimfest Community. As you know, Zimfest depends on volunteers for its survival. The board is comprised entirely of volunteers. The work at the festival is done by volunteers. And perhaps most importantly – each year a dedicated group of volunteers forms the organizing committee for the upcoming festival. We are fortunate to have a paid festival coordinator in Claire Jones. However, as has been noted previously, the amount of work that Claire does compared to the amount that she is compensated really amounts to her volunteering a fair bit of her time as well.
Each year, it has become progressively more difficult to recruit an organizing committee. As a board, we have taken steps to reduce the burden on the organizing committee (e.g., having Claire provide continuity as coordinator from year to year; repeating the festival at the same location to avoid re-inventing the way we do things). Nevertheless, the inability to recruit an organizing committee is a bad sign for the Zimfest Association. If we as a community cannot address this problem, the board may be forced to consider additional steps to reduce the burden on the organizers such as holding the festival every other year.
We recognize that many of you are very busy. It’s a sign of the times. Nevertheless, if Zimfest is something that’s important to you, we ask that you dig deep and find time to join this year’s organizing committee. The 2016 Zimfest Organizing Committee currently includes:
Claire Jones – Festival Coordinator
Alex Weeks – Online registration and website
Jake Roberts – Registration payment system; Onsite Registration lead
Michael Beardsworth – Concert Producer; Evening concert management
Marilyn Mohr – Zimbabwean Guest Coordinator
Carla Starck – Volunteer Coordinator
The leadership roles that are still open include:
Concert Programmer
Workshops and Teachers Coordinator
Marketplace coordinator
In addition, participants are needed to help out more generally. If full responsibility for any of these roles sounds overwhelming, it is certainly possible to share the job with another person. If you have questions about what’s involved, how the organizing committee operates, how much time it is likely to take, we encourage you to email Claire for more information (claire.jns1 {at} gmail (dot) com).
We hope that several weeks from now, we can report back with good news that we have a fully staffed organizing committee. In the event that we continue to struggle with recruitment, we will need to consider other alternatives and begin asking more challenging questions regarding the sustainability of the current Zimfest operating model.
We look forward to hearing from many of you!
—The Zimfest Board
Posted In: Festival News
2 Comments
