July, 2016

NORTHWEST CHORAL SOCIETY

MEETING MINUTES

July 12th, 2016

CALL TO ORDER:

The July 2016 Board Meeting of the Northwest Choral Society was held on July 12th, 2016 at the Perles residence, 500 South Crestwood Lane, Mt. Prospect, IL.  The meeting was called to order at 7:11 PM by NWCS President Penny Perles.  The following board members were present:

Angela Carlson                Mary Jane Matecki
Kelsey Green                   Penny Perles
David Hitch                      Diane Szuberla
Noreen LaValle

MEETING MINUTES:

  • The meeting minutes from May 2016, will be reviewed as a part of the August board meeting.

TREASURER’S REPORT

  • Noreen LaValle presented the treasurer’s report for May 2016.  Cash disbursements totaled $2,517.29.    Cash receipts totaled $2,094.75.  Our regular account balance was $15,740.26.  Including petty cash, our final total was $15,775.26.  Mary Jane Matecki made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.  The motion was seconded by Kelsey Green.  The motion passed.
  • Noreen LaValle presented the treasurer’s report for June 2016.  Cash disbursements totaled $3,145.09.  Cash receipts totaled $3,470.25.  Our regular account balance was $16,487.96.  Including petty cash, our final total was $16,522.96.  David Hitch made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.  The motion was seconded by MaryJane Matecki.  The motion passed.
  • Noreen LaValle also presented the Profit and Loss Budget vs. Actual for July 2015 to June 2016.  This document was reviewed and next year’s budget for all the expense categories were reviewed and updated.  Mary Jane Matecki recorded all changes.  Official review and acceptance of the Profit and Loss Budget vs. Actual, Statement of Financial Income and Expense, and Profit and Loss Budget Overview for July 2015 to June 2016 will occur at the August board meeting.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE:

  • We will ask Christie for help with the fall donation letter.  
    • Last year’s gifts for donation:  
      • Donation >$50 – Free concert ticket
      • Donation > $150 – Free ticket to 50th anniversary dinner.
    • Kelsey proposed we have a raffle where the donor will have his/her name put on a number of tickets based on the amount donated.   
  • Meet and Greet
    • It was proposed that Jade could give a group voice less on to all those who attend the meet and greet.  Jade could give individual voice lessons to any choir member who has been having lessons with her during the summer.  
    • It was proposed that the meet and greet poster be formatted so that it has tear off tags for people to take.  
    • David Hitch asked for any choir photos from the last year so that he can finish putting together a video for the meet and greet.
    • Suggestions for raffle items: NWCS tote, CD, one concert worth of music paid for by the group.  
    • For the next concert, we could have a split the pot raffle with half of the proceeds going to a charity.

WEBSITE:

  • Mary Jane has updated the website shop to a new system.  She paid $62 for the update.
  • All passwords for the group (website, Go payment, Paypal, GoDaddy) should be updated for security purposes.  Mary Jane will do additional research on a password manager such as LastPass.

PROJECT SOOTHE THE SOUL:

  • A group of singers will perform an outreach concert the Friday after the winter concert at Diane’s church.
  • Additional possible outreach concerts could be performed at Covenant Village ort Lutheran Village.

NEW BUSINESS:

  • A new donation envelope will be printed for the fall donation letter.  The Symphony center group photo will be added to the envelope.  A space for the CVS code for debit cards will be added to the envelope.  Additionally the NWCS will be colored in red.  A new format of donation envelope was proposed that contains a small window to display the address.  An order of envelopes without the window is $133 and with windows is $137.16.  It was decided to use the envelopes with the windows.
  • Venues for this year’s concerts
    • December 2016: St. Raymond’s
    • April 2017: Still undecided
      • Grace Lutheran is unavailable.
      • First United Church of Oak Park wants $650 for the space
      • A request to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights has been sent.
      • St. Luke’s in Park Ridge and Trinity Lutheran in Mount Prospect are also possibilities
      • The April 2017 concert date may change.
      • Kelsey proposed asking St. Sylvester’s church.  Penny will follow up.
  • The Miami University Men’s Glee Club alumni group has been contacte
    d for possible new members.  We may want to contact ISU, U of I or NIU men’s groups in order to get more male choir members.
  • Possible choir trips:
    • Tours Interkultur: February 16-20, 2017 Princeton, New Jersey.  Early bird registration is July 25, 2016.  We are too late for the early bird registration
    • 3rd European Choir Games July 16-23, 2017 in Riga, Latvia.  Most likely there will not be enough interest to send a group.
  • Ask Matt (Men’s section leader) or others to be responsible for recording and uploading rehearsals.
  • It was proposed that there be fewer board meetings this year:  
    • October
    • January
    • March – Bring in council members
    • May – Annual choir meeting
    • June – Elect officers
    • July – Budget 
    • August
  • The choir handbook will be reviewed in the August board meeting.
  • The board will talk with Alan about adding more secular Christmas music and carols to the December concert in order to bring in more concert attendees. 

NEXT MEETING:

  • Our next Board Meeting will be Tuesday, August 9th, at the Hitch residence.

ADJOURNMENT:

The Board Meeting was adjourned at 9:10 PM by a motion from Noreen LaValle and a second from Mary Jane Matecki.  The motion passed.

Angela Carlson
Recording Secretary
Northwest Choral Society