March 15, 2015 NIBGA board meeting

  March 15, 2015

Northern Indiana Bluegrass Association Orientation Meeting at South West Conservation Club, Bluffton Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana

• The meeting was called to order by  President Jim Winger at  12:50 p.m.

•    Officers present are:                            Board Directors:

     Vice President - Joe Steiner                     Paul Saurborn
     Secretary - Barbara Collins                      Pam Keiper - via phone conference call.
     Treasurer - Linda Winger
 Others present are: Past Vice President - Sandra Carnes; Christine Steiner - Festival workshop Chair & Taxi Chair;  Jeanette Young - Vendor Chair & Merchandise/Membership table. Brenda & Greg Aldrich - Co Gate Captains; Jim Miller - Co Gate Captain; Joe Wyandt (past board director).

• Secretary's report - Barbara Collins emailed the February 15th minutes to all on February 22, 2015.  Paul Saurborn motioned to accept. Joe Steiner seconded. All say yes. Motion carried.
• Treasurer's report - Linda Winger emailed February financials to all on 3/11/2015. Financials were reviewed and discussed. T J Collins motined to accept. Paul Saurborn seconded. All say yes. Motion carried.

 INFORMATION ITEMS

• Grants: George Miller contacted Jim Winger and said, "I have spent time on their website (gov/arts). While the application deadline is not until March 13, applicants were required to submit letters of intent to apply by January 9. So we missed jumping through that hoop. Good to keep in mind for next year though."  George has been working on finding grant possibilities for NIBGA. 

OLD BUSINESS

• Jim Winger was told that the board agreed to not use COX Media Promotional Company for advertising. Jim then notified Cox Media. 
• Band Hiring update - Joe Steiner; Joe shared the list of bands he has hired and ones still under consideration or waiting to confirm. There was discussion on bands and Joe will be continuing to work on the line up.  The band schedule will be finalized and discussed again at the April meeting. 
• Chris Steiner discussed the Ebay usage and the hits. She reports there were at least 340 hits. Chris will continue to watch Ebay and report. Chris will try using the Sellers Account on Amazon. Jim Winger explained how and why it is a good way to do on line purchases. Use the NIBGA Amazon site and receive refunds. 
• Scholarships - Barbara Collins reports no Scholarship activity as of now. Linda Winger - Treasurer, has sent the $1,000 2015 Scholarship to Suzuki music school in Fort Wayne, IN
• Jim Winger ask the officers to review the suggestions that Dennis Narker sent to the board. Dennis submitted several good suggestions that could be possibilities to increase local attendance to the NIBGA festivals at the Noble County Fairgrounds. 

NEW BUSINESS

• Vendor Chairman - Jeanette Young gave update on vendors for the spring festival. The food stand that Bonnie used to run will be a Full Service Food Stand run by a Kendallville Church. Other vendors so far are Children's Toys, Mexican Food Stand, Ice Cream Stand, Maison's  (Lion's) Food Stand. Jeanette is in contact with several other vendors and trying to get more.
• Joe Steiner - Nursing Home Band. The band that will be performing at the Avilla Nursing Home during the Spring festival will be Trinity River. A band for the fall has not been scheduled yet.
• Festival fliers need printed and mailed. 
• Facebook and Google ads need created and scheduled. 
• Stage Manager; Due to Gloria's health, Bill Merrill will not be chairman for the festival stage announcers. Chris Vogie has offered to be the Stage Manager. All say yes. 
• Music Workshops for Spring and Fall. Christine Steiner reports. Chris suggested splitting up the workshops by having 6 for Spring and 6 for Fall. She suggest eliminating the mini workshops and go to more advanced workshops. Cost would be $300 paid to teachers/directors plus  week end festival tickets. The board agreed to the suggestion.
  Chris recommends:
  Spring::: Bluegrass Jam (Bilby's), Guitar, Bluegrass Banjo, Claw hammer Banjo, Mountain Dulcimer, Dancing )to be finalized yet).
  
  Fall::: Guitar, Bluegrass Banjo, Claw hammer Banjo, Dancing (to be finalized yet), and others "To Be Announced". (Working on Mandolin and Fiddle). Christine Steiner will put information on the workshops in the April newsletter.
  
  On Friday and/or Saturday evenings there will be a open jam at the stage area after the last band performance.  (This will replace the BUG)

• Merchandise at the festivals. Jeanette Young and Louise Mclouth will be co-chair for the Merchandise and Membership tables for 2015. 
• Jim Winger shared a copy of the Backstage Country Style newspaper now being published by Dave Crabill due to the passing of long time owner and publisher Jim Egoff. Jim E. was a long time supporter of Northern Indiana Bluegrass Association. 
• TABLE:  Confirm list of how many Golf Carts we need for festival and who will be needing use of them. 
• There was discussion on possibilities of setting up for pre-buy festival passes. The board will work on a system of setting up but do not have details in place yet. 
• There was also discussion on possibility of starting use of credit/debit card machine at the Merchandise/Membership table during the festivals. Chris will look into details of what is needed to use SQUARE. Possibily extend to the gate if it works out well.
  (Later it was decided that it is not practical for use at the gate at this time. Many would not know how to do or have the phone to use it with. Also it would hold up the line at the gate considerably when there is a heavy traffic flow.) 
• Paul Saurborn motioned to adjourn. T J Collins seconded. President Jim Winger adjourned the meeting at 2:15 p.m.

The next meeting of Northern Indiana Bluegrass Association will be April 19, 2015.
    * This will be the last meeting for this winter.*

Secretary - Barbara D. Collins