ANNUAL SOCIAL and MUSICAL PROGRAM

Please join us for an afternoon of wine and hors d’ oeuvres.

SUNDAY, April 29 at 4:00 pm

Duluth Woman’s Club

RSVP by April 24

724-8115  or  nancy@matineemusicale.org

Minutes of Board Meeting

September 21, 2011

PRESENT:  Char Taylor, Nancy Odden, Kim Squillace, Mary Beth Nevers, Linda Wiig, Tiss Underdahl

 Review of Minutes:  The August minutes were accepted as written.

 President’s Report:  There was no formal report from Char Taylor

 Treasurer’s Report:: Nancy distributed the current financial statement and the (revised) budget.  Discussion ensued re: our shuttle bus service and whether to continue.  Tiss had checked with Voyageur Bus to inquire about a smaller van or bus that might be more reasonable: They indeed have a smaller van, seating 11-13 (called the “Sprinter”) and the charge for the evening, including all fuel costs, is $175.00.  Linda moved/Mary Beth second that we contract for the Sprinter for our remaining two concerts at Mitchell; passed unanimously.

Nancy also asked if we could have some #9 size envelopes printed, which would not only look more professional and would allow our return envelopes to be included in our mailings without having to be folded to fit.  This was agreed upon.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Artist:  Kim reported that she met with 14 agents when she attended the Midwest Presenters conference in Minneapolis in early September.  She also reported the following:

Lise De La Salle (piano) is close to being able to commit to an October, 2012 date for the series.

Brasil Guitar Duo is confirmed, and Kim is hoping to schedule a master class at the North Shore Community School, as all of their 5^th and 6^th graders are required to study the guitar.

Kim also expressed interest in going to the Chamber Music America meeting in New York City in January on our behalf.

Publicity:  Posters have gone out for the Parker Quartet concert and we’ve produced some packets of vouchers that will be distributed to 2-3 offices and schools to try to beef up the student audience.  Kim also reported that Patti Harvieux, our new website designer, is almost finished with the new design; we hope to be able to “test-drive” it prior to having it posted.

Program:   We are doing a trade ad with Lyric Opera of the North (LOON) for their upcoming performance program, but because they were going to be able to put an ad together in time for our printing deadline, Nancy has offered to produce an ad for them for the MM program.

Outreach:  Kim is hoping to enlist someone from our board who would be able to video-tape some of the outreach program that the Parker Quartet will be doing with the DSSO Youth Orchestra on 10/3.

Mary Beth suggested we might be able to e-mail the digital poster of the Parker Quartet—with the YouTube video of them—to area music teachers who could show it on their new Smart Boards.  (Someone suggested contacting Ron Kari to get his e-mail list for the teachers.)

OLD BUSINESS

            RE: the recent Gibson bequest that we received, we had previously discussed adding $5,000 out of this sum to the Scholarship fund in able to award larger amounts; Nancy also suggested we buy a 6-month CD with another $5,000 from the bequest. Kim moved/Nancy second; passed unanimously.

Discussion continued about what to do with the remaining ($13,000) money from the bequest; Kim stated how important social media has become and that we should explore different ways to utilize it. We also discussed whether it would be advantageous for us to join the Chamber of Commerce, to utilize their marketing vehicle.  Nancy moved/Kim second, we take $1,500 to be used for new, focused marketing, (to include a 2-year Chamber membership; passed unanimously.  We will decide at a later date what to do with the remainder of the donation.

Meeting adjourned at 1:40 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Tiss Underdahl, Secretary

NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 @ 12:30

Noon, Depot Board Room

Review of Minutes: The July minutes were accepted as written.

President’s Report: Char has started a draft for the season mailing letter; we suggested several things that should be included.

Treasurer’s Report: Nancy distributed the current financial report, while explaining that the current budget had been corrected andwill be presented at the September meeting.

*Motion: Kim moved, Steve seconded, that as Treasurer, Nancy is authorized to be a signatory for all financial transactions. Mostion passed.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Artist: We had an Artist Committe meeting at Tiss’ house due to some unavoidable changes in some artist’s schedules and avilablity for when we had wanted them in our 2012-2013 season. We now are planning on the Brazil Guitar Duo for 4.18.13 and pianist Lise De LaSalle for 10.12.12 or 3.13.13. Also, Kim will again be attending on behalf the Midwest Arts Presenter Convention in Minneapolis in early September.

Mary Beth asked if any of us were familiar with a group of young professionals in Minneapolis who are organized in support of their local opera companies in the Cities and how it’s bumped their audiences significantly. She said the group is currently several hundred strong and that they’ve developed not only some successful networking schemes, but also clever marketing ideas that we could possibly utilize here. Steve then suggested that we meet with the new DSSO executive director, Rebecca Peterson, and this brought us to discuss ideas about possibly doing a partial chair support in turn for some cross promotion between jour two organizations.

PUBLICITY: Kim reported that our new season brochure should be completed and to the printers shortly.

GRANTS: Steve asked if any of us were familiar with “Google Docs”, and wondered if this would be good our grant writer to employ; it would allow other board members to be able to share/critique during the grant writing progress.

OLD BUSINESS:

re: Our recent and sizable bequest that we received, we continued discussion as to how we use this money. Do we use some to beef up our scholarship program?…Should we consider a small portion for a DSSO sponsorship (discussed in the Artist committee seection)? This discussion will be continued at our September meeting.

Website Hosting: We had made a decision earlier to make changes from our current website host and Kim distributed 4 proposals to consider.

NEW BUSINESS:

Re: Our sponsorship with MPR, we have had a trade proposal from them: The regular sponsorship was only $4 extra this year and in exchange for an MPR ad on the back of our programs, we’ll receive an additional $100 in radio promos for each of our concerts.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:00.

Respectfully submitted,

Tiss Underdahl, secretary

NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 – TBA, Depot Board Room

Review of Minutes:  The June minutes were accepted as written.

President’s Report:  Char announced that she will begin working on the “season” letter that will be mailed out with our brochure in early September.

Treasurer’s Report:  Nancy distributed the our year-end fiscal report; one item of note: We ended up to the positive in the amount of approximately $1,700, for our 2009-10 budget, due significantly to a grant received from the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation and the nice news that our donations were up $2,000, from what we had projected in our budget.  Also reported: our season ticket sales were up slightly, though single tickets at the door were down.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Publicity:   Tiss offered to either contact or follow up with Karen Sunderman (WDIO host of “The Playlist”), for possible inclusion in this locally produced show, and Duluth-Superior Magazine.

Grants:  We’ve received $14,000, in grants this year, but had budgeted for $17,000; there is a grant that is about to be submitted to SMDC (Essentia).

OLD BUSINESS:  

Discussion re: the bequest we received from the estate of Katherine Gibson ($18,000), and our website re-design, was tabled due to the low turnout for this meeting.  (Nancy offered to find out who does the website design for the Duluth Curling Club.)

The meeting was adjourned at 1: 12, pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Tiss Underdahl, Secretary

NEXT MEETING:

THURSDAY, August 18th, 2011 @ 12:30 

Noon, Depot Board Room

Review of Minutes: The May minutes may have an error; Steve Highland will be contacted to confirm.

President’s Report:: There was no President’s report.

Treasurer’s Report: Nancy distributed the May and (to-date) June financial statements, as well as the corrected 2011-12 Budget; Nancy moved/Kim 2nd.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Grants: It was announced that we received two grants from Arrowhead Regional Arts Commission, one for $2,690, and one for $4,380. Both are reflected in the corrected budget that was distributed. We however were declined for our grant by Arts Midwest; one factor in not receiving that award was the sheer number of grant applications they had received.

Artist: Kim reported that ALL copies of the artist and venue contracts are signed and received for the upcoming season, and they were given to the treasurer. And she gave a brief update on artists we are hoping to engage for the ’12-13 season:
Vinca Quartet, fall of 2012
Lisa DeLasalle, piano, March, 2013
Brazil Guitar Duo, April, 2013

Publicity: We started discussing the production of the upcoming season’s brochure; it was decided that it would be sent out the day after Labor Day. Kim reported on a meeting that she, MaryBeth, and Tiss had with “Fuse Duluth”, including Lara Wilkinson from the Chamber of Commerce, and Jordan Milan, from the College of St. Scholastica. Some of the ideas that were tossed around in this
meeting were the use of Facebook “indexing”; CSS has a student-run ad agency (The Bluestone Group) that might be engaged to develop social media plans; Tiss said she would contact Karen Sunderman from Channel 8, about getting a slot in their “Playlist” weekly show featuring one of our artists; the use of Twin Ports Nightlife for inclusion in their website.

We also decided to pursue a change in how we maintain our website and a change in our host server; Kim will be contacting various vendors to get estimates and details for their services.

Scholarship: We awarded two camp-ships this summer; due to the small number of awards we decided to up the amount to $100 each. (Recipients were Katie Harvey and Lani Dalbacka.)

OLD BUSINESS:
RE: the bequest that we recently received, we tabled discussion about disbursement until the July meeting.

Meeting was adjourned at 1:46, p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Tiss Underdahl, Secretary

NEXT MEETING:
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Noon, Depot Board Room

Thank you, and we hope you enjoy the new site and learning more about one of the oldest, continuously running classical musical presenting series in North America!

"Hailed by The New York Times as "something extraordinary," the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has rapidly distinquished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation." - Daniel Eno

Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 7:30pm

Parker Quartet – www.parkerquartet.com

Pilgrim Congregational Church – 2310 E 4th Street

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"His resonant bowing soared and sang until a long cadenza of trembling arpeggios and glissandos brought the movement to a forceful close." - The Time Herald Record

Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 7:30p.m.

www.arnaudsussmann.com

Mitchell Auditorium, College of St. Scholastica
1200 Kenwood Avenue

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"The Imani Winds...delivered a performance that can only be described as stunningly beautiful and technically amazing. Without a doubt, this ensemble is North America's premier woodwind Quintet." - Mike Telin, Cleveland Classical

Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 7:30 p.m.

Imani Winds - www.imaniwinds.com

Pilgrim Congregational Church – 2310 E 4th Street

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