In attendance: Hanan Bell, Joan Fairbanks ,Jackie Kirn, Teresa Metzger-Howe, Bora McAteer, Koko Morgan, Bruce Sherman, Gennie Winkler, and Samantha Young
Approval of Minutes
The minutes for both the Board Meeting, October 7, 2024 and General Meeting, November 13, 2024 were approved.
Finances
The Board authorized Doug Potter, Bora McAteer, and Jacqueline (Jackie) Kirn as signatories for the Rain City Symphony's bank account.
Bora is familiarizing herself with the budget, income, and expense process. She sent out an income and expense statement. The income as of November 30 was $9,433. Grants have not been received. In-kind donations currently not being tracked. Bora will check into how this can be done. Annual financial donations over $250 will need to be acknowledged. Bora will send out the written acknowledgements for the donor's tax purposes.
Koko will send thank you notes to Jane Buckner and Marj Graf for their generous donations.
Grants
The King County 4Culture grant as well as the payment request for the Seattle Arts and Culture grant have been submitted. The King County grant is still pending according to their website. It is a $2,100 grant.
Membership
The on-line membership form is available. We still need a paper form to give to new people at the first rehearsal. The issue of correcting membership information was brought up. With our current website software, it is difficult to make corrections. Hopefully, this will be resolved with the change in software.
Music Director
Teresa added a short Ravel piece to Winter quarter repertoire. To increase the number of string players, she will send personal invitations to those who showed interest Fall quarter and didn't play with us.
Concert
The Fall concert was a success. The new venue was great. One hundred-seventy-six people attended. The YouTube site of the concert has had 325 views. The donations were enough to cover the rental fee of the hall. The suggested donations sign at the entrance, as well as, the overhead screen display in the hall helped encourage donations. A check list of needed items for the door greeters would be useful. An email signup sheet was put out at the concert. Only one person signed up.
Music
Hanan has sent out the music for Winter quarter. The bowed pieces will be sent out as soon as he receives them.
Publicity
The concerts have been publicized by handing out postcards, using social media, inviting people personally and through emails. The more ways people are invited to the concerts, the more likely they are to come. The symphony needs two email lists - one for the Symphony members and one for friends and family. How to populate the friends and family list is still being looked at. Also, the best email program to handle the email lists is being discussed. In the past, there was a button on the website for adding names to the emailing list, however it didn't work and was removed from the site.
Charlotte will increase the number of postcards for handing out by Symphony members as well as the number of concert programs next quarter.
Election of Officers for 2025
The following people were unanimously elected as Officers to the Rain City Symphony Board of Directors:
Jackie Kirn, President
Gennie Winkler, Vice President
Bora McAteer, Treasurer
Koko Morgan, Secretary
The other Board members are as follows:
Music Director: Teresa Metzger Howe (ex officio)
Membership Director: Samantha Young
Librarian: Hanan Bell
Publicity Coordinator: Charlotte Hotchkiss
Development Director: Jackie Kirn
Venue Coordinator: Joan Fairbanks
Steve Marx (position to be decided)
Venues
If a new agreement with MCNW, we will need to begin looking for a new venue.
2025 Work Plan
The Symphony Board members need a calendar for mapping out the timing of projects. The projects include:
1. How to best use Mail Chimp
2. Creating an new updated website
3. Creating an email invite list
4. Job descriptions created by all Board members.
This could be done with SharePoint for non-projects. It can be used to organize files and create a calendar. For SharePoint to populate various calendars other than Outlook, you have to link it up. Gennie will ask the Mid-Summer SharePoint person about the details for using it.
Next Meeting
The next Board meeting will be Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 7:00 pm at Hanan's house.
Topics for the next meeting:
1. Music Center of the Northwest agreement
2. Creating a new website---Do we need to hire someone to design and provide technical expertise for the website? Need to get proposals from several people?
3. More information about SharePoint.
Next Meeting
The next Board meeting will be Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 7:00 pm at Hanan's house.
