NORTHWEST CHORAL SOCIETY
MEETING MINUTES
April 9, 2013
CALL TO ORDER:
The April 9 Board Meeting of the Northwest Choral Society was held at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 1095 Dempster/Thacker, Des Plaines, IL. The meeting was called to order at 6:33 PM by NWCS board president Penny Perles. The following board members were present:
David Hitch Penny Perles
Noreen LaValle John Schindler
David Martin Diane Szuberla
Mary Jane Matecki Ruta Veitmanis
Also present: Alan Wellman, Artistic Director, Greykell Dutton and John Morrison, chorus members, and Dick Knepler, guest.
Penny thanked everyone for all their help to make our April 4th concert a rousing success!
MEETING MINUTES:
The meeting minutes of the March 12 board meeting were reviewed and no corrections were needed. Noreen LaValle made a motion to accept the minutes. The motion was seconded by Diane Szuberla. The motion passed.
TREASURER’S REPORT:
Noreen presented the treasurer’s report for March. Cash disbursements totaled $2,051.31. Cash receipts totaled $1,000.87. Our regular account balance was $14,994.43. Including the J. Melcher Memorial Fund and petty cash, our final total was $18,066.43. Mary Jane Matecki made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. Ruta Veitmanis seconded the motion. The motion passed.
The Schaumburg Prairie Center for the Arts, site of our June concert, requires $1,000,000.00 insurance coverage for damage and liability. We can get this with a $250.00 rider from our current insurance company.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR:
Alan set the dates for next season’s concerts: December 7 & 8 and May 10. In place of a third concert we will do a road trip. The venues are still TBA, but, since the May concert is of Anglican choral music, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church of Park Ridge could be appropriate.
For this June’s concert, the women will wear black tops with 3/4 or long sleeves, black slacks, black hose and shoes. Men will wear long sleeve black shirts, black slacks, black hose and shoes. Multi-colored carves for the women and red ties for the men will be provided by NWCS.
PROMOTIONS:
Since we will only have 2 concerts next season, we need to adjust the price of our Early Bird tickets.
We still need a graphic for our June concert postcards.
Diane presented the ticket results of our April concert. 219 people attended the concert. 9 people were given complementary tickets and 4 were given free tickets as helpers. The income from tickets sales was $3,821.96. 43 members sold 192 tickets and 53 tickets were sold at the door.
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE:
Dick Knepler is looking into where we might find donors for our chorus.
David Hitch announced that Heartland Alliance is willing to work with us to present holiday concerts for underprivileged children.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE:
David Martin stated that we might have one new member this evening.
FACILITIES:
John Schindler asked that we continue stacking our chairs after rehearsals.
SUNSHINE COMMITTEE:
Flowers were given to Gary Eberlein after his recent illness.
OLD BUSINESS:
At Alan’s suggestion, the board concurred that our 2014 trip will be to Minneapolis, July 10 to 13, Thursday to Sunday. We will present this to the membership this evening. A deposit will be needed at the time of booking. At least 30 members are needed for the trip.
Mary Jane made a motion that we join Americans for the Arts. Noreen seconded the motion. The motion passed. For a membership fee of $50.00, one member may attend its meetings through December.
We need to ask Geoff to put our updated Handbook on our website.
Our April concert bake sale gave us a profit of $439.50.
NEW BUSINESS:
By our next board meeting we need a slate of candidates for the board members election. Penny asked that we all come forward with suggestions of whom to approach as candidates.
Alan stated that the board should also have non-singing members – for example, business owners and political members of the community who can promote our group in the community. One qualification of a board member would be that he/she enjoy choral singing. Also, committee chairpersons need not be board members.
So that we can accept credit card payments, we have applied to Go Payments from Inuit.
Meredith Bechtel has volunteered to oversee the posting of concert posters in the communities. Jane Peterson has volunteered to take care of women’s concert wear.
Greykell will make CD copies of our December concert for the membership.
Future activities we could participate in:
◦ September 13, 14 and 15 – Des Plaines Fall Fest. The Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce will have a booth and give 2 hour slots for organizations to present themselves. We will ask for a slot on Saturday.
◦ October 11 and 12 – Des Arts Festival. We will try to participate again.
◦ 4th of July parades. Could we march in some of them in the Northwest suburbs?
NEXT MEETING:
Our next Board Meeting will be May 14, 6:30 PM, before rehearsal at St. Martin’s.
ADJOURNMENT:
The Board Meeting was adjourned at 7:16 PM by a motion from Noreen and a second from Mary Jane. The motion passed.
Ruta Veitmanis
Recording Secretary
Northwest Choral Society