NORTHWEST CHORAL SOCIETY
MEETING MINUTES
September 9, 2014
CALL TO ORDER:
The September 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 6:37 PM by NWCS Board President Penny Perles. The following board members were present:
Meredith Bechtel Mary Jane Matecki
Greykell Dutton Penny Perles
Kelsey Green John Schindler
David Hitch Diane Szuberla
Noreen LaValle Ruta Veitmanis
Also present: Alan Wellman, Artistic Director.
MEETING MINUTES:
The meeting minutes of the August 16 board meeting were reviewed and two corrections were needed:
Under Corresponding Secretary’s Report, the first bullet should read: “Joan Curry and Jamie Thompson are helping Mary Jane on this committee.”
Under Old Business, the fourth bullet should read: “Meghann Lothson has volunteered to prepare business cards for our chorus.”
Noreen LaValle made a motion to accept the corrected minutes. The motion was seconded by Mary Jane Matecki. The motion passed.
TREASURER’S REPORT:
Noreen LaValle presented the treasurer’s report for August. Cash disbursements totaled $1,438.00. There were no cash receipts. Our regular account balance was $355.92. Including the J. Melcher Memorial Fund and petty cash, our final total was $3,387.92. Mary Jane made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. David Hitch seconded the motion. The motion passed.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR:
Daniel Salotti will come September 23rd to rehearse O Song! with us.
Jade Maze will present voice lessons for 6 weeks starting with October 7. We will charge $30.00 per person.
For our December concert, Alan Wellman has contracted a string quartet and 5 brass, a flute/piccolo and a bassoon player. For $3,600.00 they will attend a rehearsal and play both concerts.
We have ordered music for our new members for the October concert at the American Choral Directors Association meeting.
ADVERTISING COMMITTEE:
At next week’s rehearsal, Kelsey Green will introduce our advertising campaign to the general membership. The due date for the ads will be October 14, but we can still receive them for another week.
DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE:
David and Mary Jane have an appointment with Glenview State Bank next Monday to present our chorus to them and invite them to become a sponsor.
One of our previous sponsor firms has a new owner. They will no longer sponsor us, but made a $250.00 donation.
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE:
We have a potential new member auditioning this evening and another one next week.
Greykell Dutton will follow up with the new people who came to our Meet & Greet, but have not yet attended a rehearsal.
PROMOTIONS:
Diane Szuberla is preparing the letter to send to our 12 season ticket holders from previous years.
FACEBOOK:
Kelsey continues to constantly update our Facebook page.
WEBSITE:
We are going with a new webhost, InMotion, which will cost $7.00/month.
50th ANNIVERSARY COMMITTEE:
Committee members Barbara Stewart, John Morrison, Noreen LaValle, Joan Behrens, Penny Perles, Ann Jensen and Sue Schennum are working on some ideas – a DVD of our group’s history, a dinner (not as a fund raiser), a reception after the Annalise concert, a commemorative lapel pin and a music bag.
OLD BUSINESS:
One correction is made to the budget proposal from the last board meeting. Since chorus members are expected to pay for their own concert dress, under income, item #7909 should be $300.00. This is to balance item #8521 under expenses. Our total income now becomes $30,950.00 and our net income becomes -$8,175.00. Noreen made a motion to accept the corrected 2014 – 2015 budget proposal. The motion was seconded by Kelsey. The motion passed.
The JRC Temple will be too expensive for our April concert. We are still looking for a venue.
Meghann Lothson will have some business card ideas for us next month.
We will be able to have a bake sale next June at the Disney concert in Cutting Hall. We will concentrate on the kind of baked goods that children love best.
Penny has prepared a survey for chorus members about a possible concert tour abroad the summer of 2016. Board members approved her survey questions, but suggested that she start with the question of whether members want a trip at all and whether they want it in the US or a foreign country. Another suggestion was to ask for the top three countries they would like to visit.
NEW BUSINESS:
We will try to provide our new female chorus members with concert dresses from previous members.
David will introduce our annual members’ support donation program to the general membership September 30th. We will ask at least a minimum donation from everyone. If they want their name to appear in the program, they must donate by October 14th.
The ads for our concert program books need not be from businesses only. Chorus members can place an ad with an announcement, a greeting or commemorating an occasion.
We are preparing our season flyer. Then two weeks after sending that out, we will also send out a letter requesting donations, emphasizing our 50 year anniversary.
We will postpone sending an ad to the Oak Park Oak Leaves newspaper for this December’s concert. It is very expensive and we are unsure if the previous ad sent us any new audience members.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra sent us a list of possible dates for our performance in the lobby during their December Welcome Yule! concerts. We will request one of the Friday, Saturday or Sunday performances – the 19th, 20th or 21st.
How can we utilize the trailers that David prepared? A discussion followed. During our December bake sale, we will continuously play the Annalise trailer.
NEXT MEETING:
Our next Board Meeting will be Tuesday, October 14, 6:30 PM, before rehearsal at St. Martin’s.
ADJOURNMENT:
The Board Meeting was adjourned at 7:21 PM by a motion from Noreen and a second from Mary Jane. The motion passed.
Ruta Veitmanis
Recording Secretary
Northwest Choral Society