January 21, 2016 - Annual Meeting Notes

Chicks annual meeting 01-21-16
Soozin, Sharon, Tara, Sarah, Laurel, Gaea, Angie, Nicole, Tonya 

6-7 potluck YUM! 7-7:20 Check in 

agenda review:
 
Add:
- night grant
- building work through chicks (kitty money?) 

Soozin approved agenda 

Sarah seconded 

Soozin moved to approve notes from last meeting Gaea seconded 

Hop sandwich:
- highlight
- op. for improvement
- possibilities for the future

Highlight:
- Height of adventure: Sarah, Sharon, Gaea, Nicole, Laurel
- Larger group works.
- Little Mekong 2nd year in a row & in publicity tv thing: Soozin - Being in a show: Tonya

Opportunity for improvement:

• -  Sarah: Better pacing for large projects (knowing how much time it will actually take to make a thing happen)
  
• -  Gaea: on large group things, everyone doesn’t need to be part of it but needs to be
  possitively engaged (which includes: “I’m not going to be part of this and step out.”)
  
• -  budget and roles need to be clearly defined. Sharon
  
• -  Soozin: opportunities to divi up responsibilities. being smart around budgeting. being
  ok with divying up responsibilities. stepping up or bowing out or??? Let everybody
  actualize.
  
• -  Branding: business cards, signs at events, Sarah
   
• Possibilities:
  

• -  Gaea: acro!!! & more of what we’ve done this past year: Sarah & Laurel second/third
  
• -  Sharon: create a few characters to take to gigs. shtick (clowning or...?): Soozin, Tonya
  seconds clowning especially during parades. Umbrella fights perhaps. :-)
  
• -  Tara: Chicks collaborating with another group (fire perhaps) to create a thing of our own. Grant for performance piece with choreographer perhaps to perform over the
  summer.
  

• -  Soozin: Center for Hmong would like to learn to stilt. find funding to teach stilting long term.
  
• -  Angie: new opportunities for this summer grants, etc. also excited about pushing boundries of stilting (acro etc)
  
• -  Nicole: would be fun to restage something from the past and new things too but am not sure about amount of time available
  Tonya: maybe will stilt again but would like to be involved whether it is on stilts or involved in another way.
  Treasureor’s report:
  - Balance: $3922.49
  - Haven’t been paid for monarch fest yet.
   
• Membership vote:
   
• Voting: Gaea, Anne, Angie, Nicole, laurel, Soozin, Sharon, Tara, Sarah
  Nonvoting: Deb, Malia, Tonya, Kat, Amy, Shelley
   
• Do we need more people? How many people are available at this point for gigs. State of the Chicks: survey monkey 
• new people: survey monkey...maybe good to do once a year.
   
• Who’s available to take gigs this year: Sarah, Gaea, Angie, Laurel, Tara, Anne, Deb, Soozin, Nicole, (Tonya group show) Sharon.
   
• Sarah move that we accept voting members Gaea seconded.
   
• BREAK! (5 minutes)
   
• April workshop:
  • Stiltasana: Helen Good....& Jay Ruby
  • April 9 - 11 (Saturdy - Monday) - could go Sat. night - Monday $245 for 3 days. $185 for 2 days
  • Need to find your own housing.
  • Mars is hosting in Madison
  • 7pm presentation on Carpetbag Brigade
  • Star offered to teach people in the area her kind of (acro) stilt basics.
  • Tara: remembering working with Wise Fool workshop. They use platform stilts and we don’t. Will the April workshop be taught on platform stilts. Gaea no issue translating from platform to the kind of stilts we use (peg stilts). Will they be willing to adapt their teaching to peg stilts? 
  • Chicks will not pay people to attend.

Financial transparency:
 
Gaea: We have massive transparency problem.
we could start a Mint account. Tracking but cannot access he bank account. Then we will be able to see when pay comes in for gigs and we won’t have to pester Sharon. Mint is free: action on bank account would be linked to Mint account.
 
We are pretty much a board of directors and are all legally liable for the group finances. 

Soozin: Not real sure about “free” things
 
Sarah: Fan of Mint. helps in perpetuity if Sharon is some day not treasurer.
 
Tara: Sharon, what would you find most helpful. 

Sharon: Having finance info available to everyone won’t help in the way Gaea says. Someone else will eventually take over and it will be a lot more obvious
 
Tonya: Microsoft Money is not sharable and it won’t transfer to the new computer without messing with Saron’s personal Money account. Mint has a lot of protections that Facebook doesn’t. More like Paypal than Facebook.
 
Soozin: Propose a dollar amount for Sharon to set up transfer of finances to Mint account.
 
Sharon: do and then get back about time it took and if reimbursement would be good.

Third Thursday fun nights:
Tara: Take Sharon out as thank you for all that work. Any place is fine. Will send out email to see when and who is available.

David Bowie: June 11
Cleveland parade
no pay to stilt but yes budget to make costumes and travel expenses. Mary Jo
Sarah: Min. number of people for it to be viable? Good friend in Cleveland could find housing. Gig timing???
Can Tony come too?
Set up a meeting with Mary Jo.
Soozin: coordinator
Interested in gig: Sarah, Laurel, Soozin, (maybe Tara & Tonya), ask: Anne Costume creation: Gaea & Tonya might be available to help

Business cards:
- no address needed.
- Sarah Sent out google doc.
- contact Soozin if you are interesting in helping make business cards happen. - $50 allocated last summer to make business cards happen.

Skillshare:
Sarah brought it up last time (says Sharon).
Sarah would like us to do. Physical stilted skillshare, drunk people comebacks, photo op
Everyone interested: Sarah will coordinate when it is warmer.

Liability insurance:
No updates. Table until next time. Lookinto: Tara, Gaea, Sharon

Website update:
Sarah hasn’t done anything. needs to make a password

Night Grant - Soozin: 
Got $25,000 if you can match that. Working with a grant writer for the matching funding.

Chicks: teach kids at CHAT (Center for Hmong Arts T...) & stilt in parades Is it ok to use the name Chicks on Sticks in grant writing for this? everyone: yes.

Costume budget:
25% taken off of the top or is this treated differently?

Soozin: money allocated to make costumes and materials. nothing should be taken out of costume budget for kitty etc.

Gaea: I don’t want to pay double into kitty
everyone should pay equally into the kitty. if the stilters and costume makers are the same don’t pay in twice on the same gig.

Sarah: event with only costume budget, does this change?
 
Gaea: is there a way to give a nod to it but not take the whole 25%? 

Gaea: per/hr stilted is current method.

equability question:
- pay into kitty per hour (stilted and making costuming)

or
- Pay per stilt

Sarah:
- honor administrative effort
- pay costuming a living wage

Sarah half baked: anytime chicks decides costumes need to happen, we add flat admin fee per gig
- don’t pull from kitty to pay costumes. 

Soozin: ok to get paid for costumes and

Gaea: I propose for this gig, stilters get 100% of costuming budget for this gig and we discuss it at the next meeting.
 
Sarah second that.

Sarah: close the meeting all seconded...!!! 

### Next meeting: March 10.###
Location: Gaea's house
Chair: Soozin
Agenda: Sarah

Notes: Laurel