March, 2015

NORTHWEST CHORAL SOCIETY
MEETING MINUTES
March 10, 2015

CALL TO ORDER:

The March 2015 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 6:34 PM by NWCS Board President Penny Perles.  The following board members were present:

Meredith Bechtel        Mary Jane Matecki
Robyn Waldman Borek        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 February 10, 2015 board meeting were reviewed.  No corrections were needed.  Meredith Bechtel made a motion to accept the minutes.  The motion was seconded by Mary Jane Matecki.  The motion passed.

TREASURER’S  REPORT:

  • Noreen LaValle presented the treasurer’s report for February.  Cash disbursements totaled $1,690.00.  Cash receipts totaled $370.00.  Our regular account balance now was $11,857.24.  Including petty cash, our final total was $11,892.24.  Robyn Waldman Borek made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.  The motion was seconded by Mary Jane.  The motion passed.  
  • We paid Nichols Media the entire cost of recording our December concert.  Gargoyle Brass will repay us their share.

ARTISTIC  DIRECTOR:

  • Alan Wellman announced the dates for our 2015-2016 season concerts: December 5th, April 9th and June 4th.  These would all be Saturday evening concerts.  Several members mentioned that our best attendance for December concerts are Sunday afternoons in the Northwest suburbs.  Since we hope to again record this concert with the Gargoyle Brass, we must consult with them and pick a venue appropriate for recording.  Also, if we do two concerts with our June program, Alan suggested we do them on the same day, for example, at 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM.  This would be less expense than two concerts on two different days and in two different venues.
  • The cost for the instrumentalists and the soloist for our April concert will be about $1,600.00.
  • Alan has ordered the music for the June concert.

PROMOTIONS:

Diane Szuberla has distributed tickets for the April concert to our membership to sell.

FACEBOOK:

Kelsey Green has placed our concert tickets for sale on Eventbrite.com and Goldstar.com.  She has also announced our concert on Facebook, created an event and will continue to post historical facts about the music.

DEVELOPMENT  COMMITTEE:

David Hitch’s company is in the process of moving to a new location.  As soon as the move is complete, he will have more time for his committee duties.

PUBLICITY:

  • Penny prepared 164 packets with information about our Annelies concert for Jewish synagogues and organizations.  We will ask chorus members who live nearby to hand deliver them.  The rest will be sent by mail.  Penny also sent out 30 more postcards.
  • The Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation will send an email blast to its members about our concert.  We also gave them some posters to display.
  • Penny placed a poster in the Evanston Library and Kelsey posted one in the Des Plaines Library.  We will ask chorus members to post one in their neighborhood libraries.  Penny has also placed announcements in area newspapers, both online and print versions.

WEBSITE:

  • Mary Jane stated that there is still a problem with our website and PayPal, but John Morrison will come to help us.
  • Our website has the ability to send out email blasts.  However, we have not been actively collecting email addresses from our audience members.  Diane has the email addresses of our donors and Geoff Green, our former graphic designer and website manager, may also have some.  At our next concert we will ask audience members to submit their email addresses.
  • Robyn suggested that we ask other music organizations in the area, e.g. Chicago Master Singers and the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, to exchange email lists with them.

50th  ANNIVERSARY  COMMITTEE:

The committee will meet next week before rehearsal.

2016  CONCERT  TOUR:

Our concert tour to Europe is cancelled.  Not enough members signed up, especially tenors and basses.  We will look into a
less expensive and shorter trip within the U.S.  Soprano Beth Phillips described a recent concert tour to the Washington DC and New York area that she took with another choral group.

OLD  BUSINESS:

  • We will reimburse Lori Lyn Mackie, our collaborative pianist, and Alan for outreach concerts.  This will also apply to a pianist or director we need to invite from outside our group.  However, if a member of our chorus directs or accompanies us, they will not be financially reimbursed.
  • Mary Jane will ask her husband to record our Annelies concert.

NEW  BUSINESS:

  • Penny has contacted school districts near Palatine:  Palatine/Rolling Meadows, Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Des Plaines and Schaumburg.  They are willing to place our Disney concert poster on their parent and studentwebsites to promote our June concert.  We must adhere to their guidelines and have the poster approved.
  • Tickets for our June Disney concert must be ordered through Cutting Hall, Palatine.  They do keep a percentage of the ticket sales.
  • The piano at St. Martin’s will be tuned March 13th.
  • The Board will order wraps for lunch at our Saturday, March 28th rehearsal.  We will have a sign-up sheet for members to bring other items.
  • Robyn will be chairman of our Nominating Committee.
  • Possible venues for our 2015-16 concert season:

◦  December – as mentioned above, we need to see if we will be recording that day.
◦  April – First Presbyterian Church, Arlington Heights.
◦  June – Southminster Presbyterian Church, Arlington Heights, or Edison Park Lutheran Church.  Since this will be our 50th anniversary concert, we would like to stay in the Northwest suburbs as this has been our largest pool of audience members throughout the years.

NEXT MEETING:

Our next Board Meeting will be the third Tuesday of the month, April 21st, 6:30 PM, before rehearsal at St. Martin’s.  

ADJOURNMENT:

The Board Meeting was adjourned at 7:33 PM by a motion from Noreen and a second from David.  The motion passed.

Ruta Veitmanis 
Recording Secretary
Northwest Choral Society