April 10th Meeting Notes

Chicks on Sticks

Meeting 4/10/14

In attendance: Soozin, Deb, Anne, Kat, Nicole, Malia, Tara, Sharon, Tonya, Amy B.

Facilitated by Soozin

Notes by Malia.  Corrections or clarifications welcome. (I can only type/write so fast!!)

Sharon:  Called  Pam Lesch, cost would be $95/hr, est. $300.  (Malia’s tax person)

Also knows a person, Jessie Macinerny, w/o CPA liscence, would be willing to do it for free.  Needs to do 3 years of back-taxes.  Taxes themselves would be $300.  Jessica has been helping us for free, would like to pay her $50/hr,

Soozin: proposal: Approve up to 5 hours ($250), for Jessica to do it. If it takes more to approve by email. (if it’s 1-2 hours over this).  Tonya: doesn’t want our meeting process to get in the way. 

Vote: Passed.

Amy: financial question: we paid Nick $200, took $10 site-renewal out of that.  (said thank you!) Need $20 / year budget for Hawkhost.  (proposal)

Vote: Passed.

“I want Chicks to continue if…” discussion.

Deb: thought: many important things listed here.  What are the 3 top things blocking us from evolving and making progress?  Agree on them and agree to address those first..

Tonya: let’s go around, name our top 3.

Deb: Quorum/attendance, first.  Then new members.

Anne: way of making timely decisions, esp. re finances. Making a way to dream/access kitty.  Straightforward documented way of inviting new Chicks in.  Wants to keep business & fun.

Kat: Decisions: reducing quorum, Meeting: business and fun, membership.

Nicole: Ability to make decisions.  New members / diversity.  Keep doing gigs, plan some fun performance events.

Malia: quorum, meetings, members.

Tara: values to guide us.  Membership: clear way to add, bring in new members.  Agree on a commitment for meetings on a regular basis.

Sharon: way of making decisions in a timely fashion.  Meetings and commitment. .. division of labor for paid/nonpaid gigs.  Community fun/creativity.

Tonya: wants to stilt.  That’s it.  Done making babies, wants community.  Wants to be part of a performance, or practice.  Ready!

Amy: Values/trust: feeds into everything else.  “We trust and empower one another.”  Meetings/commitment. Decision-making: timely fashion & quorum.  Shelley passed along she really wants to see Chicks continue, and wants to see more stilting in the park.

>>Anne: quorum is currently 7. 

Soozin: Quorum based on active membership (decide what that is).  7 was 2/3.  5 of the ones listed don’t live in MN.  Membership: clear way to add new.  Keep doing gigs, figure out who we have as active members that are doing gigs, will help us decide how many new members we need.

Tally:

6 meetings/commitment

5 membership

5 Quorum

4 creativity/fun

2 values/trust

1 Money

Malia: Proposal was worked out in February.  We didn’t have quorum to pass it.  If we can agree to it or start there this could simplify things.

Clarification:  take out 2014.

We propose there would be 6 board meetings per year.  A voting member would be someone who could attend at least 3 of the 6 meetings.

Anne: we need to be sure we are not scheduling in such a way that certain ppl can’t come

Soozin: ideally you’d be committing to all 6 meetings, to be a voting member.

Amy: self-selecting.  You can change your own status… ask yourself if you can commit to 6 meetings.

Soozin: Chicks Annual meeting?  Reviews everythings, people can re-enroll, or say they need to take a break this year, etc. 

Tonya: would like it to happen January.

Deb: likes idea of keeping track of who’s attending when.  Protocol & rules can liberate us, with clarity.  We are well intended, but drop the ball.  Don’t want to spend all our time checking attendance. 

Amy: likes that we are saying it’s a certain time that recurs, so we don’t have to spend time Doodling, etc.  Having an agenda really helps, so ppl can chime in on things even if they can’t be there.

Amy: 2/3 active membership for quorum?  The next question we need to ask is “Are you a voting member?”

Tonya: do the math, then quorum is whatever the total is.

Collaboratively crafted proposal: Meetings and Quorum

We propose that Chicks on Sticks set up a scheduled, recurring meeting every other month for a total of 6 per year.  These meetings must have quorum.  Quorum would be 2/3 of the voting members .  If any member cannot commit to attending at least half these meetings, she would become a non-voting member for the year.  There will be an annual meeting, where members can choose to re-commit as a voting member.

Next steps:

A: Notify all members, ask if they can commit to be a voting member, clarify that you can participate if you can’t commit, but they will be a non-voting member and not counted in quorum. 
(Amy B agrees to do this)

B: Choose the date/month for the recurring meeting.  (after we know who is up for being a voting member.)

Note:  This would have to be accomplished in the next 30 days.

Vote: Unanimously Passed!  :-D  twinkles and cheers.

After break—  (handwritten notes so less detail…!)

Anne: Membership.  How do we measure?  Ability?

• Confident enough to navigate more than a grassy park
• Can handle people close together, curbs, sidewalks, different surfaces
• Enjoy interacting with people, performing (not surly)
• Show up for the gigs in a timely manner, Responsible about finding replacements if needed.

Nicole & Anne approve adding Laurel and Sarah if we get that far--

Next Meeting:  Thursday May 15, 7-9pm

Sharon: (new members) There needs to be some kind of participation in the overall organization. Helping support getting gigs, doing taxes attending meetings etc...

Deb: We need to settle on an agreement and write it down before we invite new

Tara: We also need to define what makes us run & have some articulated commitment

Malia: Diversity is important—would like to think about where new Chicks are coming from, and how we are developing talent / reaching out to other populations

Soozin: There could be some kind of application or asking process.

There are many areas of engagement that members would be asked to participate in:

• Gig-recruitment and Admin
• Creating Costumes
• Performing
• Attending meetings
• Outreach

Proposal:  The Agenda for the next meeting:

1)      Vote on new members / Quorum (*decide whether you will commit to being a voting member for this year.  Once we have this number, we can know how big quorum is.)

2)      Make a calendar for the year (choose a recurring date)

3)      Discuss membership and related issues, including:

• Process of inviting
• Responsibilities and expectations / tasks
• Qualifications

Homework: think about what makes a good member and what we would want in membership so that we can come up with some common criteria.

 

            Note: In our June Meeting, we’ll address Mission, Purpose and Values.

Passed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned.