May 17 NIBGA Festival Organizational meeting

Northern Indiana Bluegrass Association Orientation Meeting at the Noble County Fairgrounds, U.S. #6, Kendallville, Indiana

Our Mission: The purpose of this organization shall to be educate the public and promote the awareness of, Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music.

                 Pres. Jim Winger called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.
         
                 Roll call: Officers present are:                  Board directors:
                   President - Jim Winger                             T J Collins
                   Vice-president - Joe Steiner                      Pam Keiper
                   Secretary - Barbara Collins                       Paul Saurborn
                   Treasurer - Linda Winger

           Others present: Jim Miller - Co-gate captain; Greg & Brenda Aldrich - Co-gate captains; Tonia Bacon - Band Scramble Chair;         Carolyn & Richard Bacon - Green Room Hostess; Maggie & Gary Bilby - Instrument workshop instructors; Louise & Terry McLouth - Merchandise/Membership table co-chair; Jay Winger; Dave Keiper - grounds; Chris Steiner - Instrument Workshop          Chair, Taxi Chair; Leslie Ellis - Co-gate captain; Julie Goldsmith - Kids Korner Craft Chair; Jeanette Young - Vendor              Chair & Merchandise /Membership table Co-chair.

• April Secretary report approved.
• Treasurer's report - Festival update.

INFORMATION ITEMS

• Internet has two different signals;: One on the Merchants Bldg & one on the Log Cabin. 
• WAWK - Behind the mic - Wed. 5/20 - 9:20 a.m. with Joe Steiner and Jim Winger. To advertise the festival. 
• Avilla nursing home scheduled; Paul Saurborn will go with the Trinity River Band to the nursing home on Friday 5/22 at 2:00 p.m.        The band will perform a show for the residents. 
• Port-a-jons will be delivered Monday 5/18 early p.m.   Service schedule will be: 
• Wednesday PM RV only
• Friday PM RV and Portajons
• Saturday PM RV and Portajons
•  Monday 7 AM  RV only
• RV pumps will be $10 each
• The stage will be inside the Activities Pavilion on a 12' x 24' x 24' platform. Need tarps hung up behind the stage Wednesday after tents are installed. Flowers available for pick up at Kroger's. Donated by Kroger;s. Will be set on the stage. 
• Garbage pickup:  AM on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. Old trash is to be picked up.
• Security Schedule: Thursday - 4 to 11 p.m.; Friday - 6 p.m. to Midnight; Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. No Sunday. 
• 2015 Summer Newsletter mailing schedule:


• June 21 - Barbara Collins
• July 19 - Paul Saurborn
• August 16 - Joe & Chris Steiner
• September - Pam Keiper

NEW BUSINESS

• Pres. Jim Winger reviewed the Emergency procedures used if necessary during the festival. Jim would call the shots for which procedure to use in case of a missing child. We cannot advise people where to take shelter in case of a storm but there is shelter in the basement of the Firehouse.
• All officers and volunteers are encouraged to be approachable and friendly to attendees. Show appreciation to attendees and campers.
• Julie Goldsmith - Kids Korner. Set up in Mini Barn needs 12 Tables and 30 Chairs.
• Activities are Saturday 5/23 - 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• The 'Green Room' (Band Hospitality) needs tables and chairs set up for the Bacon's in the Merchants Building.
• Workshop Review; Friday & Saturday. Set up requirements. Friday Square Dance workshop in the Log Cabin 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Need 8 chairs in the Show Arena for the workshops on Saturday 5/23. The workshop will be before the Band Scramble.
• Vendor Chair - Jeanette Young - Wood will be available for sale at Jeanette's campsite. A Church group will be opening at Bonnie's former stand with a variety of foods. The music vendor will be here. Masons will be serving food at the Lion's Stand. Other food items will be Ice Cream, Mexican food, Carmel corn, Fried Spiral potatoes, Lemon Aid,etc.
• A Jewelry vendor and a Kid's toy stand will be here. Plus a few more.
• Band Scramble - Tonia Bacon Chair; All set and ready. Band scramble drawing will be backstage at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Band Scramble will be 4:00 to 5:10 p.m.. There will be a 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place prize awarded.
• Merchandise table - Schedule for opening and closing will be determined by Jeanette Young and Louise McLouth - Co-merchandise chair. (They will train for using the CC processing after this meeting.)
• Chris Vogie will be stage manager for the festival. Announcers will be: Thursday 5/21 - Bob Gilson. Friday 5/22 - Terry Thacker. Saturday 5/23 Early shows Terry Thacker. Saturday 5/23 Evening shows - Donnie Voiles. Sunday afternoon - 5/24 -Terri Grannis. Sunday evening  5/24 - Elaine Vogie.
• "50 - 50 drawing" - Pam Keiper will chair the 50 - 50. Tickets will go on sale today 5/17 $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00. Drawing will be after the Band Scramble Saturday 5/23.
• Advertising Update; 
• Ft. Wayne Newspapers 130,000 web impressions 5 x 5 ad Thursday/Friday, Sunday.(Show ad)
• Kendallville News Sun - One page in KPC media group (show ad) * Mailing to 237 media outlets (early May)
• Updates to NIBGA Facebook page frequently to keep readers coming back.
• Facebook, Google ad buys - Joe Steiner reports

Gate Schedule - Pam Keiper & Paul Saurborn will decide when to close the gate on Saturday evening. Gibson Brothers play 5:50 & 10:00 p.m. (Gate will stay open until 8:30 or 9:00 p.m.) Sign ups for working the gate have started.

Golf Cart Allocation - If you are not using your cart, someone else gets your cart for the day. Need to share. Carts came in on Friday 5/15.

Grounds Update - Taxi signs need put on the golf carts today.

Reminder: All officers, Chair & Gate captains on stage for introduction at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday 5/23.

Paul Saurborn motioned to adjourn. T J Collins seconded. Meeting adjourned at 2:55
Next Meeting: Thursday 5/21 at Wingers Trailer. A 10 minute wrap up.

Secretary - Barbara Collins
Done 6/3/15

Ralph Bondy, very ill

May 2, 2012
Lorraine called to say Ralph is in the University hospital, London, ONT after a triple bypass operation 2 weeks ago. Ralph has been a fixture at the festival and can be seen driving the taxi's around the fair grounds.

Lorraine was hopeful that Ralph would be transferred to a hospital closer to home in Windsor, Ont. soon.

She wanted the Kendallville festival folks to know that they might not make it down this spring.

Ralph Bondy

10588 CR 42 RRH 3

Maidstone, ONT   N0R 1K0

Canada

Jane Adams passes

Jane Adams, wife of Fran and mother of Sandy Tedford, died Sunday (July 11, 2010) morning after a battle with cancer. Sandy has been the craft workshop chairperson at our festivals as well as an active supporter of NIBGA.

Thoughts on NIBGA festival Workshops

For many years we at NIBGA have offered free instrument workshops at all our festivals. These workshops attempt to cover all the usual bluegrass instruments, guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, bass and occasionally dobro, songwriting and harmony singing. These workshops are all conducted by volunteers, either members of performing bands or by NIBGA members.


The workshops are limited to ½ hour each on Saturday mornings for several reasons:


* Limited space available to conduct the workshops in that time frame.
* Volunteers are usually working on a tight schedule.
* Participants prefer to complete the workshops before the stage performances begin.
* Some participants are not at the festival on Friday.
* Some don’t want to conflict with Sunday morning church service.



These workshops, of necessity, are “one size fits all”, with the leader having to teach a generic course. This leads to half the participants being unhappy.


* We have had comments like “I didn’t learn anything because it was too basic” or “It was too hard and the instructor was over our heads”, and this was from two people in the same workshop! Also, it is difficult to teach or learn much in ½ hour.


It is becoming apparent that a better approach would be to have fewer workshops but targeted toward specific ability levels like “Beginner”, Intermediate” and “Advanced”. These would be one or two hours long and require a fee of $5 or $10. There would probably be two such workshops at each festival with the instruments and ability levels rotating. If more instructors and added facilities could be made available this could be expanded.


This probably would not be satisfactory to those folks who like to attend all the workshops but should be an improvement to those with specific needs.


This is a work in progress and not meant to be a final solution. Accordingly, your comments and suggestions are welcome.


Dave Vogie
Workshop Chair

Gate volunteers needed at Memorial festival

Hear Yea, Hear Yea
The spring Memorial bluegrass festival is just around the corner and we're looking for gate volunteers to help in the following places:

1. Cashier's: Good at making change a plus, inside job a plus, air-conditioning a minus.
2. Outside: Collecting money, putting stickers on vehicle & campers, answering questions in general, just an out & out good job. In rush hours we would like to have at least four [4] outside collecting.
3. Two hour shifts (more if you want) at your convenience our associate captains, Dave Smith, Patty Page, Al & Leslie Ellis and with a big welcome to our new associate captain Jan Mead will be on hand with all to help the new volunteers. And of course the gate captains Pam Keiper that's her and Paul Saurborn that's me will be there also to keep things moving along.

So summing things up … volunteering will help us in keeping prices down and makes for a more enjoyable all around show. So sign up at gate or catch any of us and we will be glad to help you, come meet and greet new friends and old.

Thanking you in advance,
Gate Captains - Pam Keiper & Paul Saurborn

Activities at the festival for “non-musical” members

Would you like to see additional activities at the festival for “non-musical” members of your family?  I’m trying to come up with some ideas for additional activities for children and spouses.  General areas include:

1. Children's activities, such as Ultimate Frisbee Challenge, volleyball, organized games and activities.
2. "Non-musical Spouse" activities, such as organized sessions on various topics, a "tea party" lounge area for sharing crafts, etc., a book swap, dancing/clogging lessons, etc.
3. Music for Non-musician workshops, etc.

I could sure use people that would like to get together and share ideas, and possibly be in charge of a particular area or event.

1. Want to host an hour or two of a tea party? 
2. How about share how to do your favorite craft? 
3. Maybe lend your teenager to instruct youngsters on the fine art of kazoo for a hobo band or supervise a volleyball game?

You get the idea....

I need people to be on the planning committee, people to demonstrate crafts, supervise games/activities, teach instruments to rank beginners, and I need IDEAS.  I can be reached via email at cooperrider@yahoo.com, phone at 419-721-8016 (after 9 p.m. only, please!), or mail at C. Cooperrider, 253 Madison Ave., Findlay, OH  45840.   

If you think these activities would be worthwhile, please let me know.  Without support, it can’t happen. 

Chris Cooperrider

Family oriented activities at Tri-State - ideas & help needed

Hey all,

I'm trying to come up with some ideas for family oriented activities that will take place during the Tri-State Festival.

• General areas include:
• Children's activities, such as Ultimate Frisbee Challenge, volleyball, organized games and activites.
• "Non-musical Spouse" activities, such as organized sessions on various topics, a "tea party" lounge area for sharing crafts, etc., a book swap, etc.
• Music workshops, etc.

I could sure use some people that would like to get together and share ideas, possibly be in charge of a particular area.

• Wanna host an hour or two of a tea party? 
• How about share how to do your favorite craft? 
• Maybe lend your teenager to instruct youngsters on the fine art of kazoo for a hobo band? [Where is Bobby Davis when you need him?!?!] 

You get the idea....

Please let me know what you think and if you'd like to be on the planning committee. Thanks!

Chris Cooperrider

IBMA Survey response

Nancy Cardwell of IBMA ask several associations to respond to a survey she is conducting. Below are our responses along with her questions. Joe Steiner added some additional thoughts at the end.

1. Name of association, year it was organized, current membership numbers, region you cover, your specific title in the association:

Northern Indiana Bluegrass Assoc., Inc formed in 1976 as a non-profit 501C4 . Current membership is 621. Although our focus is the upper Midwest we have members in seven states and Canada. I am president.

2. What is the mission statement, or main focus of your association?

The purpose of this organization shall be to educate the public to, and promote the awareness of, Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music.

3. What programs are you most proud of, that your association is involved with?

Through our Traditional American Music program we have exposed over 15,000 students to bluegrass music in the upper Midwest.

4. What are the greatest challenges facing your bluegrass association at present--and looking into the future?

Volunteer and officer succession is a major concern. The demographics of our audience is not getting any younger. Schools are reducing their expenditures due to the difficult economy.

5. What are the greatest opportunities you see for your association in the future?

Additional educational programs in area schools but this also represents our one of our challenges.

6. Is there anything you would like other membership constituencies in IBMA to know specifically about bluegrass associations? (broadcasters, artists, agents, merchandisers, labels, educators, media, etc.) Do you have any advice on how the industry can work together better with bluegrass associations, for everyone's benefit?

Unless we can broaden the audience for bluegrass we are all going after a decreasing revenue stream. Together we must find a solution to this problem

Jim Winger - President NIBGA

• As Jim said, the focus of our organization is to educate the public about, and promote awareness of Bluegrass and Old Time Country Music.  The main ways we do that now is through our festival (which includes music workshops), our club newsletter (which provides information on bluegrass events), and educational sponsorships such as scholarships and the TAM programs.  But, we are always open to, and seek out, new ideas for doing this, such as other types of concerts or more intensive educational workshops.

• That said, one of our challenges is that we want to provide a venue for performers, with fair compensation, but yet must maintain our reasonable gate prices to avoid alienating our audience and membership.  And, our audience changes over time, such that it is difficult to adequately evaluate the propensity for higher admission and acceptance of the wide variety of musical styles which can all be labelled as, or are close to, bluegrass.

Joe Steiner

Late night Monday at IBMA

We didn't get to bed until about 2:45a. Sat up and talked about Chris Cooperriders upcoming presentation in the Volunteer seminar to be held on Tuesday morning.

Linda and I were awakened with a 7a (8a Indiana) phone call from an event producer member wanting information on three bands. It was hard to go back to sleep so we groggily got up and got ready to go.

Jim attended the Video on the web 101 seminar and Linda was at the Recruiting Volunteer seminar.

Chris did great Linda said. The audience was amazed that a festival could be run on a $25 weekend ticket with true volunteers. The two other panelists had over 500 paid volunteers. (tickets, real cash, food, etc.)

Jim spoke with a lawyer about changing from a 501C4 to a 501C3 organization. It looks like it is doable but will take time this winter to make it happen.

We will be moving the sound equipment down to the NIBGA showcase room at 2:15a. Time for a little inter-eye inspection.