September 14, 2015 - meeting notes

Present: Malia, Sharon, Anne, Nicole, Tara, Sarah, Gaea, Angie
Not present: Soozin, Tonya, Laurel

Check-in's----

• Malia- Tonya broke knee-cap at teaching gig....may need moral support
• Sharon- overly busy-a little scattered
• Anne- busy-scattered-ho;ding things together
• Nicole- Holding a lot- doing ok- Norma health challenges...shock,grief, one
• day at a time
• Tara- starting BBones, pacing yourself, balance
• Sarah- Bad kale-fainting- food poisoning-took day off -connections with Nicole Aunt
• stilt appreciation
• Gaea-full fall schedule- Grad program- Ren Fest-Barebones-feeling scattered-
• high stress-presentation due
• Angie- ankle injury at fashion show -still stilt-aagh-resting

FINANCE REPORT-----------

• Balance  today $5624.26
• still have checks out-not cashed.....
• need receipts from Convention Ctr./ Little Mekong
• Tax Consultant?
• Got info from qualified friend for 3 yrs of back taxes and filed to rectify
• but some snafu's -still working it out with IRS
• From group---Do you want to have someone else do this tax thing?
• Sharon feels compensated.....
• Again-Do we want to hire someone other than bookkeeper to do taxes?
• Sharon- Once old taxes are done(this year) this would be helpful...

Discussion----

-Issues with random amounts of pay for gigs that aren't consistent i.e. $100/

stilter/gig

-Error in pay amount from Edina Art Fair gig

-Complications with gigs paying less than $100/hr or special projects---

Nothing going into kiddy-not budgeted for (Convention Ctr., St. Paul Saints, Greenway Glo)

Again of $100- $25 taken out for organizer cut, bookkeeper, kiddy-$75/hr for stilter

Special exceptions that failed to get kiddy $-----

1) Gigs got booked at lower rate(community events)

2) Special Projects( forgot to add fee for organization-usu. 10% of total gig)

3) Teaching gigs-Powderhorn

What is kiddy $ for??

- matching for grants

- liability insurance

- provides cushion when pay is delayed

- special costuming projects(like big wings)

Should create expense budget yearly to know what overhead costs are.

When short on $ what do you do (Sharon)-?

Always pay stilter first-then organizer fee- then Chicks/bookkeeper

Do insurance research NOW as we are not (? )as busy.....November..

How much $ are we short for gigs this year? Can we get a figure?

-----------------

Edina Art Fair- Anne coordinator

Anne- bad time- took on too much- messed up and undercharged Edina

Art Fair $600

Proposal-Gaea- Chicks covers $400- Anne-$200

More discussion.....

Anne has been a solid sender- rare mess-up

We all make mistakes

Move for Chicks to cover entire $600

---------------------------

Left-over lights/fabric--

Wait until next meeting

Bring EL wires 

Everyone Assess /e-mail info

--------------------------

PRO-BONO DISCUSSION -------

When do we do it? How do we decide as an organization?

• Sarah- Like the idea of donation as part of Chicks- 1 pro-bono gig per year
• Gaea- add to membership requirement..1 gig per year
• Malia- Each year is different for each of us....

• Values discussion-how do we decide who to donate to as a group?
• What are criteria for pro-bono consideration?
• Should look at who we did pro-bono work for in past( coordinators).

• Anne- mostly coordinators hearing about requests for pro-bono... Many organizations in need... Neighborhood organizations vs. fringe non-profit

•  *Anne will e-mail Deb/Soozin to compile list of past work

• Nicole- At beginning of Chicks- did  a lot of pro-bono work ... $ can be there or not(Chick sponsored gig)... Would rather teach vs. do a gig for free
• Angie- Mandatory maybe- gigs come in randomly-can't always predict... If passionate -free is good ... Curious about non-pro bono and not full rate
• Sarah- Could have x # of probono hours that Chicks would cover from kiddy per year and after that decide by gig

•  Discussion 
• Could each Chick find a pro-bono gig? Maybe too much...
• How do we count gigs that are personal vs. not?
• We can all do free- lance but how does this impact the group?

• Malia-Tied to Values Discussion. What is close to our hearts? Align with vision as decide what to give...
• Anne- Micro-grants for women businesses...$500.00 per month---could cover a pro-bono gig or supplement budget. Some depend on $ from gigs as income. Chicks create a form and organizations have to apply ahead- reward those who are organized. We create a process.... Look to groups we want to cultivate a partnership with- grants... Partners for Arts and Participation-MN State Art Board-Social service org partners with us -we collaborate on grant- provides teaching for youth- good pay.
• Sarah- What is a partial rate for a gig? Different things when people can't pay full rate. Could do 50% matching in grants

Decisions---

Make an expense budget for 2016- bookkeeper

Predict gig income for year to help estimate amount avail. for pro-bono

Have a Value Discussion

WEBSITE DISCUSSION -------

How do we update info? Wordpress- Nick Lethart

No updating done

Want to do website update-Sarah, Gaea, Deb

Password plus admin

*Send any photos to Sarah C.

*authorize up to 200 for Nick to update/teach about changing website

*Put pics from only Chicks gigs on website

LITTLE MEKONG - - -

• Umbrellas for props. 
• Most expenses for Little Mekong covered except $20 
• Does Chicks own umbrellas?
• What is rate compensated to make umbrellas?
• Sometimes we agree to do something but don't have time/people power...
• Think about budget for costuming in special projects---$ for materials +
• labor to make
• Problem was people being commissioned to make something.
• Umbrellas were selling point for gig.

UPDATE ON OTHER PROJECTS - - -

Calendar Project

• Photogratper for b-day party/labor trade?
• Our next step was to make a contract.
• Was this approved by the group?
• No info on cost of project
• Anne- $100/person for photo shoot
• Traded $350 in labor for teaching/making stilts
• Did we agree to make stilts as well? 2 pair
• Anne- We were excited to pay to do a test run
• Can pay someone to make 2 pair of stilts...
• Many busy currently.....
• Tara- seems disconnect about discussion ---negotiating about 
• calendar gig
• We have traded teaching/building for calendar project? Not full consent of
• group
• Angie- should give diffinative answer to photographer. Not good to string people along.
• Gaea- In original conversation-discussion of 2 pairs stilts.
• Nicole-Want to be a part of people contacted- frustrated because not being included in decisions
• Sharon-What is the calendar budget? Clarification
• Anne- My understanding Tonya and I doing mini-shoot-pay out of pocket
• -pilot
• Sarah- borrowed teaching stilts but also Chicks name
• Angie- Have been talking since Jan. need to make decision
• Malia-felt strange to be compensated for teaching ----
• How do we decide on content for project? Objectification of Women...
• Caution with that
• Anne- Skin in game -protocol seems sticky
• Tara- good to not negotiate for things we don't have knowledge of 
• Sarah-OK to say- no contract- no teaching for now...
• Should not be forced into an unsafe situation-representing Chicks

Business Cards

• Chicks e-mail/facebook/ logo
• * Need to revise Chicks photo albulm- Google drive- Sarah
• use drop box?
• Coordinator form...do we have one? 
• Gaea created and sent to Sarah to revise
• * Send to everyone...

March Forth

•  Oct 15th _March Forth @ Cedar Thursday play day for Chicks 

2 additions post meeting via Sharon 9/22/15 - 

• We moved and passed the proposal to cover the $600 from the Edina art fair from the kitty.  
• And I believe in the calendar discussion it was made clear that Chicks has not contracted with the photographer and is under no obligation to do so.  The obligations so far have only been between Anne, Tonya and the photographer.

### NEXT MEETING: Thurs. Nov. 19th ###

Notetaker- Sharon

Facilitator:Malia

Location-Anne's 3224 17th Ave. S.

Agenda maker: Sarah

July 16, 2015 - Meeting Notes

Chicks on Sticks Meeting 7/16/15


This Thursday's agenda:
agenda: laurel
notes: Sarah
chair: Sharon
where: Sharon's house
when: 7-9pm Thursday, July 16, 15.

Quorum: Tara, Sharon, Soozin, Tonya, Malia (left early), Laurel, Sarah, Angie, Gaea (late)
Start time 7:20

-7-7:20 check in
10 min Check-in
Laurel - shirts and paint and shoes (maybe Anne’s black sketchers?)
Angie -Catsitting currants eating yummy
Sarah - Garden, garage sale, gig, painting
Soozin - Summer school for 42 teenagers finished yesterdays then going to Valley Faire really fun. State Faire show. First job with PTO.
Tara - Doing well. Week off. Violet’s birthday. Gearing up for next gig. Foraging
Sharon - make food and going to AZ next week for mom.
Tonya - Family Reunion 69 tomorrow. Archiving family history and photos for family. Woods at preschool berries deer foxes.
Malia - Good too busy and on neighborhood association. So proud of Chicks on Sticks for showing up and representing. Parents moving back to mpls from Kansas (has to leave early)
Addendum - Agenda Review and accept old minutes (forgot old minutes)

7:20-7:30 Finance (Sharon)

• Taken in 7189
• 6300 from 3 gigs
• Balance 5437 but just wrote checks
• Leaves at 2818 pending balance
• IRS taxes $26.27 owed Yay!
• I screwed up taxes again this year but they nice IRS guy fixed it
• Still don’t know about insurance
• Greenway glow
• 250 earned
• overspent by $67.79 for costumes only no one got coordinator fee or gig pay

Soozin - we should talk in advance
Sharon - we did talk ahead because we didn’t get as much as we planned for, so we knew it would go over
Tara - but we did get three costumes
Soozin - I move that we authorize Sharon to take 67.79 out of the kitty to cover the additional expense for costumes for the greenway glow gig with the caveat that in the future we have that discussion ahead of time
Sharon- we did
Soozin - I just don’t like double standers
Sharon - we are trying to eliminate the double standards. We discussed
Laurel - How do we know ahead of time?
Soozin - we might not know the price ahead of time but we could ask to spend up to $100 and so you request an amount a bit above that and the group can vote on it. If we said we’re only allowed to spend 50 and the rest is out of pocket
Laurel - I think this will cost more than budgeted by this much…is it ok if I get this much out of the kitty?
Tara - we had a close estimate from little mekong based on what we did before
Soozin - we had the knowledge of the expenses but we could’ve decided to limit people or limit costume budget
Tara - some of us are looking at total budget to see what makes sense sometimes it takes a while to get in a big check but sometimes the pool gets small
Sharon - We just voted
-Unanimous accepted-
It was going to be 200 over but it was 400 total
—Gaea arrived—
Tara - thought she should get paid as much as the Stilters
In the end instead of having 300 for the musicians we had two musicians so it ended up being 450
Tara - there was some communication breakdown towards the end.
Gaea - I think the whole thing went really well and I don’t think 400 over is so bad with a 5000 budget
Soozin - 400 over isn’t bad for 5000 but we’ve done MIA gigs with 2000 and never gone over and just took less pay as stilters to make this
Sharon - we could rework this
Malia - as a precedent this is a little concerning; I put money into the kitty and I’d like to get to know
Tara - I have a suggestion that stilters were getting 450 but we could take 50 less and that would cover
Laurel - I can appreciate that but I spent 3 days I should’ve been working and looking for costumes and building things so if I had not spent that time looking for things and building things
Gaea - which you did under the understanding you were getting what you were getting paid 450 and that’s why it was acceptable
Tara - Costumes - 392 instead of 300
Laurel - the amount I spent on paint which I have leftover, would be the difference in the costumes cost
Sharon - I have leftover so I could take less
Laurel - I meant not getting un
Malia - maybe we could set aside and figure this out later
5200 was approved previously via email
so on the table Difference of 188.93
Soozin - Table the discussion go back to the 5200 budget and have the project people go back and decide among themselves where to cut rather than taking discussion time during the meeting.
Angie - I’m willing to take the 88 dollars
Laurel - No, I’m willing to take the paint
Table the tabled discussion til the end for
Gaea - we have a precedence previously
Tara - we have a discussion about eliminating
Tara - it is exciting to think of doing larger things
Laurel - and artists getting paid for their work is an awesome thing
Sharon - going back to treasury report - we have to pay the musicians what is owed and now so we would be at about 2400 in the kitty we are getting an advance from the kitty to pay the musicians in advance of the 5000.
(actual 8:02) 7:30-8:00 Project follow up:
Sharon - Agree to take a break later - Malia needs to leave - doing Mekong
 - Creative city challenge evaluation (Sharon)
 - People's festival
 - Greenway Glow
 - Powderhorn stilt classes (are these ongoing?)

8:00-8:10 short break (perhaps sit on my car w/ stilts)

8:10-8:30 upcoming projects:
- Little Mekong (Soozin) (addendum add on some)
Soozin- they wanted to do 2 weekends but they couldn’t raise enough
They just want to do Aug 7 and 8 instead closing off streets. Oscar asked if we would come back after dark 4 stilters from 9-12
I said $75 an hour
maybe props budget $200 for umbrellas to make illuminated to shine down
Sharon - we did have 100 an hour
Tara - it’s important to honor that
Soozin - I could come back for 100 per hour and see if they could do it
Two nights Fri and Sat night
Gaea - Two per night?
Soozin - I think 4 per night Would we be willing to do it for 75 ?
Tara - we would only pay stinters 50 per hour that way and it would be good to keep it up
Gaea - it sounds like a fun cool gig and we might be willing to pull it down
Tonya - what if we set a precedent and told each other and all that
Tara - I think we could set a precedent and they can work it out and be clear
Sarah - I propose we accept her pushing back for 100 per hour and see what they say and then do something
Soozin - Victoria theatre is looking for proposals in frog town and revive and old theatre and they want them to submit a grant to put a show outside one on a thursday 6-8 pm
Gaea - 1000 would be a nice budget for stilters and musicians as our base of what we want to get paid
Tara - If our organizer is 150  is that enough?
Sharon - 100 per hour for 2 hours come in setup we could do it for less or 2 hours 8 people ground crew and musicians
Angie - 1400 before grant and kitty
Sharon - 100 per hour adds the kitty and treasurer and
Angie - I think 2000 is what we should go for
Soozin - I think 1400 is what we’re more likely to get it for
Sharon - That’s what happened the last two times and they cut it in half
Soozin - I’ll put in a budget for 2000
Soozin - I want to put together 2-3 person vignettes sometime (side note)
Geae - also it would be great to have it swappable
Soozin - I applied for a grant and 500 applied 62 finalists and I am one of the finalists. I proposed to make a lantern parade from mini park to frog town park a year from now. I’m proposing a 50,000 budget. A matching grant They would give 25,000 and I would match 25000. Work with artists in the community and that would be large lantern construction, teaching stinting, samba band, parade costume making, part would be hire chicks to teach stinting at frog town parks they’re confident for the parade. longer relationship with community. I’m still thinking budget story. I just wrote the forecast public arts grant as an artist and artist grant committee and working with communities and friend’s school St. Paul.
Asking for a blessing for Chicks on Sticks for the proposal I’m submitting tomorrow
-Everyone sparkle hands-
That sounds Super Awesome!
Laurel - Lots of fabric from Grandma’s do we want any for Chicks?
Soozin - How much
Laurel - Parts of Bolts
Soozin - We’ll see when it gets here

- Break -
8:27
People’s Festival and Powder horn stilt classes we got 20 per hour for one and we got two instructors because it was important. The 5 who did it was really great
She’s excited to teach again…I’m asking 25 per hour which she paid for the first gig but less on that
I’ve talked to her about a couple options through the winter or not
I need to coordinate with Liz but that’s difficult on all fronts because she is very busy
Gaea - Poeple’s festival went on and was adorable children
8:29
Greenway Glo Recap
Angie - Fabric was really cheap pants for 4 stilt pants and two were built
We have extra lights for costumes
ELwire and other things leftover
We could use this for the umbrella thing too
Two extra pants because Angie doesn’t need hers for a dress
Laurel - I used a dress I had but didn’t get all the lights so I’d like them
Sarah - I had an outfit
Sharon - I also wanted an outfit
Tonya - the costume I was working on last year, so I didn’t get it done but it got finished and sharon wore it so yay! There had been at one point a voting for EL I was going to get parts and we had a vote that I was going to get money to buy my own EL wire and it was approved. Tonya I don’t care too much but we still want it. Also a bunch of years ago I found lights and brought them over the Sharon’s with 4 AA batteries string lights battery power.
Sharon - Can we coordinate via email for costumes needed and distributed. So that’s
Angie - If anyone buys them again, buy them on Amazon if there’s time because they’re much cheaper so they were more expensive cuz I bout them without time

Creative City Challenge Recap and Feedback
Gaea-let’s do this nice and an area
usually I ask everyone to do one of each then we do a popcorn
POOP Sandwich - Positive Opportunity Opportunity Positive
Leggings, looked nice, colors looked great from a distance and close up, laurel and Gaea acro table and candelabra, awesome site and working with talent, fun working with everybody and getting together even though it was a lot of pressure and seeing howe everybody did things. ditto doing new thing (Gaea) and partnering with a new org, tara loves to perform and pull time from 7 years ago. Tonya Frowny Face was awesome, Anne with the whistle was great, faces
Categories:
-Opportunities for Improvement-
Laurel - Not being here for the first part and not enough time and attendance
Angie - Deciding the director part of it I asked everyone and no replies and then Gaea said maybe
-Positive/ what went well-
-Don’t ever do this again-
*More notes were taken on paper for debrief and Gaea said someone would photograph the feedback on lists*

8:30-8:50 other open projects/Nag sheet progress check in

8:50-9:00. Confirm next meeting & choose: chair, agenda maker, & note taker.  (September 14, 7-9pm)

• Monday Sept 14
• Soozin Chair
• Tara Note taker
• Gaea Agenda
• Soozin - backyard
• Sarah - rain date as the location for the meeting

Add on - Official Address for Tax Form - Angie requested
-Anne’s address is Chick’s on Sticks tax info Jemiah’s house - it needs to be a stable house Sharon, Tara, Soozin, Anne
Gaea - I think we should tell Anne and offer to see if she wants to move it to her house (Laurel is volunteering to do this thing)
Angie - Convention center gig left a note to send it to Sharon’s house so hopefully it gets there instead of Jemaih’s house
Soozin - you could find the person who will write the check and ask them also.
Sharon - we could also tell Jemiah and warn him that it might happen

Laurel 50 off for un-used paint
Angie - I’ll take 80 off my pay because it was the most
Gaea - Sheets I can take it off 10 bucks and 2 for spray paint…take $25 total
Tonya - you can take some off $25 I came to all the things but I didn’t bust my ass

Budget fix:
189
50 Laurel
139
25 Gaea
114
25 Sharon
89
35 Tonya
54
45 Angie
9 Tara
0:-)