Skip to main content

Business Meeting Minutes

2/5/07

2/5/07 Tribes Hill Meeting Minutes

Members Present:
Bill Wisnowski
Mike Morris
Andy Craig
Iris Cohen
Susan Kane
Carl Knobloch
James Durst
Madhumita Chakrabartti
Laura Warfield
Mary Beth Kean
Rick Rock
Janice Rost
Steve Kirkman
Dennis da Costa

7:30
James called the meeting to order. Iris motioned to accept minutes from 1/8/07. Carl seconded. All agreed.

Old Business

Pleasantville
•Marc sent Rick a copy of the e-mail he sent to Phil and Jim Z. introducing Phil to the Pleasantville Festival community as someone to run the festival. Marc was not at the meeting so he was not able to further update us. James said he would follow up with Phil.

Folk Alliance
•James, Laura, Dennis, Anthony, Marc will be attending Folk alliance conference in Memphis.
•Dennis has some space on a table and he agreed to put out some Tribes Hill CD's.
•Member's present attending the conference agreed it was too late to put together a Tribes Hill showcase.

Grant/NYSMF
•Susan spoke with someone from The Rockefeller Foundation regarding our submission. They said our Artistic purpose was good, details on administration were fuzzy but Folk Alliance's financials tainted the deal for them.
•Susan did some further research and found that FA's tax returns have been all over the place for the past several years. She did note that their 2006 numbers are much better.
•We are in the process of completing our application to remain in FA under their 501(3)(c) umbrella.

Folk Alliance Elections
•No members present reviewed the candidates for FA's Board of Directors.
•Dennis motioned to let James and Rick choose the candidates for whom to cast our vote. Bill seconded. All agreed.

Solstice Show
•Janice let Lisa Wenzel know what date we have chosen for our annual Solstice Show and that we would ike to present the show at the Golden Apple Coffee House again. Janice had not heard back from Lisa W.
•Laura and Andy will investigate alternate sites so we can take the show on the road.
•Bill is looking into a Connecticut site.
•James encouraged everyone to look anywhere for alternate site proposals. He said Bring proposals and we will consider it.
•Janice asked how far away we would consider taking the show. Rick suggested a 75 mile radius. Bill suggested one hour.

New Business
By-laws
•MaryBeth suggested we review our by-laws and prepare amendments to consider at the annual meeting. She agreed to chair a committee. Susan Lang (in absentia) agreed to be on the committee. MB will ask Ruth if she will be on the committee and MB will post our current by-laws on the Bulletin Board so members who are interested can review the by-laws and forward to MB via e-mail thoughts or suggested changes.

Yactivate.com
•James is acquainted with someone who is pod casting on yactivate. He suggested if there is sufficient interest different members could produce a show a week to pod cast on the site.
•There are different levels of entry. The first level is free but you have to utilize their advertisers by promoting them on your pod cast.
•Someone asked why we couldn't just do this on our site. It was suggested through yactivate we would benefit from their promotion and marketing.
•Madhumita moved to table the discussion till the next meeting to give members an opportunity to visit yctivate.com and consider their level of interest. Dennis seconded. All agreed.

Web Site
•Rick received quotes from Slabmedia to make updates to the website. The following changes are being considered:
•Giving dues paying members password access to the calendar only so they can post their own gigs. ($250.00)
•Launching a Blog ($250.00)
•Inserting a Wimpy Player so we can put (dues paying) member's music up on the site. ($100   $5 per month   Wimpy player licensing fee $30)
•We discussed the proposed changes and the following questions were raised:
•How many songs can we upload?
•Can we do a public Blog and a Members only password protected Blog?
•Dennis motioned to allow Mary Beth and Rick to upgrade the site as proposed. The motion was seconded and all agreed.
•Carl motioned to limit spending to $700. Andy seconded. All agreed.
•We also discussed opening a pay-pal account. We would be charged about .75 per $15.00 transaction. Proceeds would be deposited into our bank account.
•Dennis motioned to set up the account. Carl seconded. All agreed.
•It was suggested we raise membership dues. We briefly discussed the issue noting added benefits to members with the site upgrades. James suggested forming a membership committee but no one volunteered and no decisions were made regarding this issue.

Annual Meeting
•It was suggested that everyone think about ideas for the Annual meeting so we can address this issue at the next meeting.

•James told everyone that in 2009 The Hudson River Valley will celebrate the 400th anniversary of being settled. Towns up and down the river are already planning festivities offering opportunities for artists to perform.

9:00
Laura moved to end the meeting. Andy seconded. All agreed.