Sunday, March 22, 2015

January 22nd, 2015 - Meeting Notes

Chicks on Sticks Annual Meeting 1/22/15


6:24 Amy has reached pure gluttony first
(not here yet Kat)
Tara, Laurel, Angie,Amy, Malia, Tonya, Anne, Gaea, Sarah, Soozin, Nicole


Chair Gaea
Note taker Sarah
Agenda Amy


Agenda Review 6:45 and accept


Reading subcommittee meeting minutes (ANNE reads)
Chairperson
Secretary
Treasurer (6-8 hours per month)
Coordinators
-Answers email and Facebook
-No more phone number
-Communicate details, costume bits etc.
<Clarification>Tara about agree to close conversation and table agenda items
<Soozin>Do we want a year-long chairperson I have collective housing and the chairperson always changes
<Gaea>I noticed certain items were never followed up on
-Amy (someone could pass the torch)
-Soozin I feel like sometimes in the past one or two people have run things for a long time and so there has been frustration on someone’s part in that
-Tonya One thing I have I like about having different people that people have different styles and like having that
-Amy - I like rotating things because we could have a hard time communicating with one person, if we make that choice then there are things we’re missing. Is there another way to capture the loose ends (maybe a new role)
-Anne “The Nagger” to nag the loose ends (laughter)
-Soozin - maybe have a new google doc or some way of capturing who that is
1 Year long
2 6 month
3 Rotating Chair (status quo) learning to be a chair, low pressure, rotating through strengths
4 Head- nagger (or 3b) someone to follow up on all loose ends


Agenda mod - 30 min late
30 min check-in
Slideshow at end?


Check-in
Laurel gingerbread, armstilts
Angie Stick to agenda, jazz fest, acro
Amy one year anniversary of loosing job, we’ve been keeping to our agenda and quorum, excited from learning to read or reading to learn, personal, gotta get on my stilts
Nicole: goal: self build a new pair of stilts (maybe add aluminum etc) us: more social meetings nice to host at homes and plan extra times for socializing or have sewing meetings or crafting meetings and I miss that favorite moment Selby Jazz Festival, new one and lots of people of color and the music was amazing
Malia: Ditto amy yay us for having meetings fav moment: can’t choose but sewing illuminated costumes, making flowers and something else. goal for myself as a chick I think about few people know how to sew and maybe I could pass sewing skills on to youth and I think it’s empowering and costume-making I miss group crafting and personally I’m doing awesome chee gong (spelled wrong?)
Tonya goal for self Costumes! Expand wardrobe and sparkly things and in a social way goal for us as group get together and sew and be creative together, fave moment was stilters ball. It’s nice to come and stilt without a gig
Anne Stilter’s ball and sewing at our house and tossing the crap around here and that’s nice. It has turned around for me as chicks. Goal for us: make more costumes that go together with individual style but it’s cool to see those illuminated costumes together and I will add on it will be fun to do some sort of a performance of all of us, doesn’t have to be super choreographed. Goal for myself: it’s all about the poofs! Encyclopedia of Exquisite Things illustrations of gigantic head dresses think ship in hair
Gaea: fav moment covered by everyone but also really enjoyed performing again after returning to Chicks and our three new chicks and new energy and perform with you guys have been super fun the extended reentry process goal as group: I agree we could do social stuff on stilts where we have the most fun but I don’t think we can do that until we get organized so my goal is I want us to get organized in a way that is achievable for us and also have more fun, my goal is to have more fun and goof off and still get stuff done synergy. I have a photo show up at the Unitarian place and reception on Sunday 12:30 to 5pm
Sarah: Highlight added to Chicks Group yes to fun and organizing
Soozin: Fav moment: illuminated costume and making them and seeing the reaction at the Little Mekong Night Market in St. Paul (new audience) reaching out to new community and the costumes looked really slick and great and have a set of matching costumes so I was excited about that even though it was bumpy to get there. Goal for self: the last couple years  have been hard so I want to lose 50 lbs and I feel like I’m a bigger person on stilts but people seem to react that way so I like being that way so i can feel good about representing for that but I used to be able to spin on one peg and skip which I like doing and showing off Goal as a group: more documentation and compile pictures better, we want more business cards chicks flickr account or dropbox or something. Documentation would be good. I also like it when we work on a group project together to work on. My strengths lie in strategic in big picture planning or objectives but not in people relationship building. I would like us as a group take a strengths finder training to see where our strengths lie and how we work together and what we do well. It could be interesting.
Tara: highlight having fun together bedlam ball, building things together and working together. Sometimes as you do a larger work project you sometimes discover strengths about the group you may not have seen and we also have pretty intense personalities also so learning as we go. Personally I have been pulling back a bit from stinting because some of my excitement hasn’t been as strong and I need challenges and if i don’t see them so I have loved creating and pushing self in the past about convey concepts and challenges but a big challenge for me was working on the greenway project which wasn’t exactly chicks but chicks were involved. Apply for grant money to have a seed to work on a bigger project to do a performance and longterm planning and get a seed of money to get that to work in a really awesome way. I would like us to do a larger project: maybe Acro Yoga or fire troupe etc. During the class a member of the aerial yoga said we always wanted to learn to stilt and stilters have wanted to learn how to do the Acro Yoga. potential collaboration and I’m excited for dreams to hear and moving them all forward. I’d love to do more costuming too giant butterfly wings for everyone.
Laurel: strand beast video creatures that work with the wind and I want stinting costumes with strand beasts on the top and sculptural costumes that function with the wind.
8:34
Year in review moved to end of agenda


2)Meetings (Every other month April and October Off-limits and only one in Summer) March May July September November January generally Third Thursday 7-9
We agree 7-9 on Thursdays is doable
March 19
May 21 (Amy will be in Greece-poor Amy)
July 16 (Anne won’t be here and Violet’s Bday)
Monday Sept 14 (No Angie this is a MONDAY)
Nov 19
Jan 21 2016!


7:48
Voting member policy (do we like having non-voting members and voting members) Are non-voting members for gigs? Yes. we like this
It leaves a way for people to not damage quorum and get gigs and contribute early on
Laurel - I think it would’ve been nice to be a non-voting member for the first bit. Do we always have to wait for the annual meeting to build quorum do we add them and then putting them on a non-voting status for 6 months….will there be a probationary period for 6 months
Tara - clarify about do we want this to be can we change half way through
Amy - I like the idea of flexibility importance
Anne - poof hilarity dead
Gaea- important thing to bring up adding people mid-year and made them choose then and there if you were going to be voting member I think part of what we need to establish is non-voting or voting status commit for the year or can you change halfway people in good faith should commit
Anne - I think  we should make a good faith commitment and mindful and trying to stick to one or the other
Amy - if you say tonight you want to be a voting member you are committing to these meetings and miss only two
Anne - head-nagger t-shirt and poof with built in flashing siren and tiara


Voting member do we want to be?
Gaea yes
Sarah yes
Soozin yes
Tara yes
Laurel yes
Angie yes
Amy yes
Nicole yes
Malia yes
tony a yes
Anne yes
Sharon (assumed yes)
Amy (sent email to people
Soozin (Gabriella said no)
Deb said no because she might be living in NYC
Amy (Kat said no)


12 total
9 Quorum


8pm
Year-round roles do we want new members?
Malia - new members topic having a thought generally I’ve heard of friends of color who want to learn stinting and make a goal this year to teach them and see how they like it and then maybe invite them later because it would be great
Gaea - I like that and want to figure that out
30 gigs income of 15,091.00
Sharon found checks!


Soozin, Tonya (small number of gigs), Tara, Laurel, Angie, Amy (small), Nicole, Nicole, Anne, Gaea, Sarah
(Sharon says no not actively stilting gigs)
Predicted 5 gigs per chick per year
Soozin last year one sub (mark saffron) two gigs in one day and may day build day etc etc. So after adding the stilters.
Malia - don’t add people but put people on trainee status as sub of sub
Gaea - I like the idea of opening up and teach people to stilt but they won’t be already performer “member-ready” in the first season
Malia - maybe learn how and have different layers
Laurel- trainee fun things idea on months that we don’t have chicks we could have a fun thing during the same meeting time like it could be a new people learn things and play or craft and sewing or eating or bringing the poof to show people walk in the park
Malia - Awesome idea and maybe lets schedule and people pick a time they want to do something who takes on what and when.


Fun year meetings (surprise agenda item based on Malia is awesome)
Feb 2/19 lantern-making at HOBT 7-9 (Sarah will remind)
April 5/23 Mayday build Chicks Fun help Angie
June 6/18 Hosting Gaea, Amy, Sarah Hosting
Aug 8/6 Anne hosting
Oct 10/15 Build and Barebones Tara
Dec 12/17 Malia Sewing craft party


Gaea
I propose: We are not opening up for new members this year but we will start running workshops to invite people to stilt so we can open it up in future years so we can expand the love of stilting (consesus)
Malia - addendum keep an eye out for people who might be a good chick and have them secretly in our back pocket to “audition”
Tara - create a back-up list maybe have a list for coordinators
Gaea - it could be tough to fall back on back-ups too soon after two days not hearing from chicks
Tara - yeah, how much time can go by before you go to back-up list
Gaea - Maybe March conversation Back-up stinters and lead time and how long you wait


Year-round roles
Malia- Rotate chairperson and have a head-nagger who could pass on the “poof” if it’s needed
Gaea - Could be nice I like that option
Malia: "I propose we have a rotating chair, secretary and agenda-maker so we all get a chance and to have an official head-nagger position which is consistent throughout the year but if they feel it’s too much they can pass on the role. The head-nagger is somebody who volunteers for the position and then is voted in by the group."
(agenda-maker must collude with head-nagger)


-Proposal passed-
Soozin nominate Gaea
Vote unanimously approved!
Laurel back-up nagger
takes her place if she’s not around or nag if Gaea is not nagging


Soozin I like head task-mistress not nagger
which devolved into cat o nine tails and black vinyl stilt chaps

Slideshow
Adjourn meeting at 8:45 pm!!!! early!!!!! wee


Announcements!
March 7th Anne premier book goes to mad mouse city
January 31 HOBT 10 and 12 Snowflake Bentley
Gaea photo show Sunday January 25
Amy - Community sings 7pm January 31 at the Walker

Chairperson in March Sarah!!!!
Note-taker Malia
Laurel agenda-maker


Sarah: you need to make a form for coordinators and the gigs they make.



















Monday, March 9, 2015

November 20, 2014 Meeting Notes


Chicks November Meeting
11-20-14
Members present:
Voting
Amy Ballestad
Gaea Dill-D’Ascoli
Sharon Dill
Anne Sawyer-Aitch
Tara Fahey
Nicole Amaris
Malia Burkhart
Tonya Knuttila
laurel Chapman

Nonvoting
Sarah Chapman
Angie Courchaine

“Not really here” 
Kat Corrigan

Meeting Chair: Gaea
Note taker: Laurel

Action Items:
    • December 13.  Business card deadline: get photos to Soozin + Malia.  (Please, CC all chicks when you send photos.)  ALL CHICKS

    • December before solstice.  Pinup Calendar: (see Tonya’s doodle poll) meet to discuss details.  All Chicks interested in this project.

    • December.  Powderhorn park stilt class: meet to discuss details.  Nicole, Tara, Angie, laurel, Malia, Gaea, Sarah.  Possible subs: Anne, Sharon, Amy.

    • Before January meeting.  Little Mekong gig: meet to discuss. - Gaea. Amy, Sharon, Anne, Tara, Nicole, Malia, Tonya, Laurel, Angie, Sarah.

    • Before January meeting.  Define Chair & other position details:  Meet to discuss & email to Chicks (vote on this in January meeting).  Gaea, Sarah, Laurel, Amy, Sharon

    • Before January 22nd Meeting.  (See end of email for details) Amy: Agenda.  Anne: Place.   ALL CHICKS: agenda requests to Amy asap, add meeting to your calendars, & make a tasty for the potluck (preferably just prior to the meeting)!

Check in: (7:05-7:30)
Review agenda: 
Add “Tonya was in attendance” to last meeting’s notes & approve.
Approved.

Finances
Sharon
  • Outstanding gigs Chicks needs to be paid for (& pay stilters for): Little Mekong (Laurel: 2 hrs).  Pillsbury House (Nicole & Anne: 1hr each + coordinator fee)
- Unanimously agreed to pay Nicole, Anne, & Laurel for above gigs out of Chicks account now (prior to Chicks receiving checks for the gigs).
- Sharon has not heard back about previous years taxes yet.  
  • All other finances are up to date.

* Priority before next meeting: meet to talk about Little Mekong gig - Gaea.  all in attendance: yes.

Play dates: none

Project updates
Business cards: 
  • review $ expense for cards
  • December 13: deadline to get photos to Soozin + Malia
  • Everyone would like to be ccd on the photos

Pinup calendar (7:45-7:55)
  • committee meeting agenda item: talk more about costumes, $$, barter (teach photographer’s daughter: teach her to stilt birthday party
  • come up with a proposal for birthday party + 11 yr. old (or 11 yr. old + all party goers #?)
  • who would like to teach, make stilts, draw up a proposal
- flexible $: c. $99 each (is this per person, per hour, per calendar month?) + barter
  • we would make the photos into a calendar 
  • meet in December before solstice.  
  • photo shoot can be in the studio and/or outside

Gaea: there are Chicks who also do photography: Gaea & probably others (laurel).  
Gaea, Tara (& others): Is this what we want to spend this money on?  
Would this come out of Chicks account or each Chick (in the calendar or all?)
Discussion on being sexual beings without portraying ourselves as sex objects.
We need to discuss this further.  Table for a later date.

Character building workshops/Hugo (sp.?) Theater Improv classes: table until next meeting: Soozin not in attendance.


(7:55-8:05) 
Stilt Class at Pillsbury house: doesn’t apply to us.
- Malia talked with Masa: extended (intermediate level) stilting classes could be cool

Stilting classes at p-horn park:  New director at park building is really supper excited to make this happen: Gaea, contact.  $25/hr to teach stilting & background check.
  • they would provide space (no room rent because we would be teaching for the park not independent contractors).  
  • interested to teach (if all contract details are good):Nicole, Tara, Angie, laurel, Malia, Gaea, Sarah
  • potential subs: Anne, Sharon, (Amy in income-fulcrum limbo)
  • teaching stilts: how many do we have/need to come up with? would the park buy them & store them or would we bring them back and forth for each class?
  • contract details, waiver details, class size per teacher, frequency, sign up not just drop by.
  • Table for further discussion at a later date. 

Break (8:05-8:10)

(8:12- 8:22)
Gaea: proposing year long chair position (perhaps also note taker).
  • $ or no?  If we were a nonprofit, it would be a conflict of interests but we aren’t so it’s ok.
  • Elect a chair in every January
  • Sub committee: Gaea, Sarah, Laurel, Amy, Sharon: at Laurel’s shop + wine (or Gaea’s)
  • define position + email chicks the conclusion (discussion on email and hopefully vote at January meeting)

Mission/Vision/Values (Malia)  (8:22-9:00) 
3 gigs we each wouldn’t take:
  • Malia: we already do this (no one is available for gigs we wouldn’t take)
    • endorsing political candidates, objectifying women (i.e.: strip tease), & questionable funders (won’t block last one but inform everyone)
  • Gaea: product endorsements, political candidates, & objectification of women.

sub note: if product endorsers or political candidates want a picture with chicks, do we say yes or no?  
  • In a public place, we don’t have control over this, legally.  
  • Sharon: You can ask them to take the photo down if you find out they are getting $$ for it.

  • Anne:  “I don’t know how to define porn, but I know it when I see it.”  I know gigs I don’t want to do when I see them.
  • Sarah: Gigs directly opposed to women empowerment (i.e.: MRA event? purity ball? Pickup artists...) - probably subjective & not regulate-able.  
  • Amy: NBA (didn’t know it going in but it was all drunk guys - would not block gig), anything that disempowers women (slippery slope)
  • Tonya: I know it when I see it.  
    • I wouldn’t: Philip Morris (Tobacco but wouldn’t block), 
    • don’t want us to get too bogged down with too many rules that we have to meet every two hours (would do the Flint Hills gig, wouldn’t wear Koch bros or Flint Hills shirt) 
    • nothing too “oogy.”  I don’t think we need too many rules but glad we are having the conversation.
  • Sharon: no political candidate, product endorsements, or disrespecting of women.  
    • If we are a business, we need to do business with who we do business with.  
    • If the coordinator puts it out there and no one wants the gig (too icky), they can call back and say, “I’m sorry, no one is available.” 
    •  
Sub note: Malia: can we empower each other if we get to a gig and it is not a good thing (safety or women disempowerment)? 
* Gaea: I would worry about contract breaking as far as professional reputation.  
* Anne: state fair drunk guys being inappropriate wasn’t comfortable but it wasn’t in the control of the gig coordinators or contractors.  Important distinction between the gig & everything else.   

  • laurel: disempowerment of anyone (race, gender, etc), political candidates, product endorsement.
  • Tara: racist, not safe
  • Tonya: would like to discuss “product endorsement”   
  • Angie: disempowering women (very fuzzy, wouldn’t block anything)

3 things we want in a gig:
  • Amy: Sexuality is part of each of us, we are sexual beings.
  • Tara: Art, creating new works for us, & parades
  • Angie: Art 

Sarah: create new gig info to send out in email:
Have Coordinators fill in form:
History - (what you know or “I don’t know.” is totally legit.)
conflicts - 
Gaea: proposed opening up conversation for another meeting.  
9pm - Table all further discussion until January.

JANUARY MEETING: January 22, 2015 
6-9:30pm  Potluck at 6pm.  Gaea: vote on that now.  Approved. 
Note taker: Sarah
Chair: Gaea  
Agenda: Amy
Place: TBA (Anne) 

twinkles all ‘round.*