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Business Meeting Minutes

8/07/06

Tribes Hill Annual Meeting Monday August 7, 2006

Members Present:

Bill Wisnowski
Susan Lang
Mike Morris
Pete Tamburrini
Ruth Post
Mary Beth Kean
Lipbone Redding
Elza Meuller-Roemer
Carl Knobloch
Marc Von Em
Susan Kane
James Durst
Madhumita Chakrabartti
Rick Rock
Iris Cohen
Fred Gillen, Jr.
Matt Turk
Lara Herscovitch
Steve Kirkman

Fred Gillen, Jr. read the mission statement and wanted to thank everybody for the past couple of years he's been President. He said the few conflicts that we've had are normal and that this is part of the natural order and building of a community. Fred then gave a run down of the past year's events. His notes follow:

Summary of year's activities
  1. Pleasantville Music Festival July 16, 2005:
We ran the merchandise tent and many of our artists performed. We established our relationship with the fest, promoted our Sept Tribes Hill show, and made more people aware of Tribes Hill, plus some of our artists performed on both stages. It was a pretty smooth day and some people worked really hard to make it happen.
  1. Falcon Ridge Folk Festival July 21-24, 2005
We hosted our campfire song circles... one of which hooked us up with Jim who set up our new web site....
  1. Mountain Stage New Song Festival August 26-28,2005.
We hosted the campfire song circles, which on Saturday night was for the first hour or so, a wonderful celebration of KJ, who WON the contest. We also had a Saturday night showcase at the festival, which four of us did as a "band" doing 2 of each of our songs and one cover song, all together as a group. We were the only organization of our kind out of I think 5, who did that instead of solo in-the-round things...
  1. Tribes Hill Music Festival at Hammond House, Sept 11, 2005
This day was a cross section of our last year: it included some conflict, some putting aside of conflict and some good work together, both in the usual ways (simply working together to pull off the day) and in singing with Pete... (I've seen the film and it was absolutely wonderful that we facilitated what Pete did at the Hammond House...)
  1. NERFA, Nov. 11-13, 2005:
We hosted our night showcases, late night open song circles, and daytime open song circle, all of which was pretty effective in further connecting us with the larger community... There were a few issues, but overall the room was, as usual, a bright light of the conference for a lot of people.
  1. "Tribes Hill Presents" at Westchester Arts Council November 27, 2005
Susan Kane, Kathleen Pemble, and Hope Machine played and it was a good day.
  1. Tribes Hill Solstice Show December 11, 2005:
We heard from many people who had been to the previous solstice shows that this one was the most collaborative and had the greatest spirit of group togetherness. I agree with this. Instead of the past model of someone obviously leading a song and others following, this show was more the whole group working together to make one whole show... Not to knock the things people have done in the past to be inclusive, but I personally felt this was a new dynamic for our group... I think the egos were left home that day and it showed!
  1. Folk Alliance Conference, Austin, TX Feb. 9-13,2006
We hosted a showcase room in the conference, which gave us the opportunity to mix it up with some more national people, and I think having some presence at the conference was good for Tribes Hill. Anne Saunders came by the room and when I went to introduce myself she said: "I know who you are Fred, I know what Tribes Hill is, and I appreciate what you are doing." This was a nice moment for me and pretty much sums up what the conference was like. The world out there is at least aware of Tribes Hill. I was asked to speak on a panel called "What Is Folk Music?" which reinforced for me just how cynical and negative so many people in our field are, but just how open-minded people just coming in are, and this was really depressing. It reaffirmed for me that we need to in many ways make our own, new community, and avoid the "music business" as much as possible... I want to acknowledge this organization for giving me some financial support to get down there too... and especially James Durst who had a vendor table and treated it like it was a Tribes Hill table!
  1. Art-in-the-Park, May 13, 2006
Our 3rd year doing this and this time we had a budget, which I think is what happens if you stick with something. So we all had a great time, got paid a bit, and made new members for this community. Thanks to IRIS for this big time!!!!!!! The even gets more people each year...
  1. "Tribes Hill Presents" at Makor, May 17, 2006
This show was set up by Peter James, who hooked up with Tribes Hill at Falcon Ridge in 2005. The first one featured Susan Kane, Pat Wictor, and Hope Machine, and went well enough for there to be a second show this November, which will feature Jonathan Byrd, Pat Wictor, and Open Book...
  1. Pleasantville Music Festival July 15, 2006
This year we ran the merchandise tent again, plus we ran the acoustic stage. We negotiated for some stuff and got about half of it. We had a bigger stage, some money to pay sound crew, more prominent mention in the promo materials, and received ___ comp tickets... So if we stick with stuff, it gets bigger. The fest drew about double what it drew last year....
The most important thing to me was:

TRIBES HILL MAIN STAGE SET: WE WORKED TOGETHER AND
DID A WHOLE SET WHICH WAS A TRUE COMMUNITY SET, WITH NO
EGOS. IT WAS LIKE A BIG CELEBRATION OF WHAT WE ARE
REALLY ABOUT!!!
  1. Falcon Ridge Folk Festival July 20-24
We hosted our usual song circles, which were cut short Sat by a fire. We got the lay of the land and can be more organized if we want next year.
The most important thing to me was:

AT ACOUSTIC LIVE SHOWCASE ONE DAY IT POURED RAIN AND ALL OF THE ARTISTS PLUS THE SMALL AUDIENCE THAT HAD GATHERED (INCLUDING APPROPRIATELY ENOUGH JOHN PLATT FROM WFUV) HAD TO SQUEEZE INTO THE TENT, WHERE EACH ARTIST DID AN INCLUSIVE, CELEBRATORY SET...WHICH FOR ME WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT I'VE EXPERIENCED YET IN TRIBES HILL. ONE BY ONE JOE CROOKSTON, LARA HERSCOVITCH, PAT WICTOR, KATHLEEN PEMBLE, ABBIE GARDNER, AND HOPE MACHINE USED THEIR 15 MINUTES EACH TO LEAD THE GROUP IN WHAT WAS REALLY AN AMAZIING CELEBRATION OF COMMUNITY... I KNOW I'M LEAVIN PEOPLE OUT BUT IT WAS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL MOMENT... I THINK WE'VE BEEN BUILDING TO THIS FOR A LONG TIME.

So we've grown as a COMMUNITY, we're growing as an organization, and I think we can be proud of what we've managed to do... And remember what Margaret Mead said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has!

  • F. G.





After Fred finished his report several people paid membership dues.

We held elections for new officers. The results are as follows:

James Durst was nominated for President by Fred Gillen Jr. Lara Herscovitch seconded the nomination. James accepted.

Susan Kane volunteered to take on the position of Vice President. Madhumita Chakrabartti nominated her and James seconded the nomination.

Madhumita agreed to continue on as Treasurer. James nominated her and Iris seconded the nomination.

James nominated Mary Beth Kean for Secretary. Iris seconded the nomination. Mary Beth accepted.

The following members were nominated to the board:

Kathleen Pemble
Steve Kirkman
Ruth Post
Lara Herscovitch
Iris Cohen
Fred Gillen, Jr.
Bill Wisnowski
Matt Turk
Elsa Meuller-Roemer
Marc Von Em
Mike Morris
Carl Knobloch
Dennis da Costa (by acceptance)Iris motioned to accept these board members. Ruth seconded the motion.

Rick wrapped up the meeting by suggesting we invite Pete Seeger to become an honorary member.

He also shared information about grant money that is available as a result of the Payola scandal. He proposed writing a Grant with Folk Alliance to place independent artist CD's in New York Libraries. The deadline is September 12, 2006. We will need our Certificate demonstrating Non Profit status. No one has been able to reach Monty to find out what progress has been made. Ruth agreed to look into it and help in any way she could.

The meeting adjourned. We ate then enjoyed a song circle around the fire.