Minutes
of the Meeting of
the Board of Directors
(Close page to return to previous page)
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
HOPEWELL VALLEY CHORUS
June 2, 2009
The meeting of the Board of Directors of the Hopewell Valley Chorus was held on Tuesday, June 2, 2009, at Marilyn Licciardello's house. After a social dinner, the meeting was called to order by the president, Marilyn, at 7:55 pm.
Present: Marilyn Licciardello, John Kling, Carole Woodford, Jackie Turner, Sandy Stein, Christina Rowntree, Kate O'Neill, Lynn Ebeling, Marcia Snowden, Chris Piatek, Carol Southard, LuAnn Wood, Carole Allison, Marjorie Herman.
Marilyn opened the meeting by welcoming guests, Carol Southard, LuAnn Wood, Carole Allison, Marjorie Herman.
Marilyn welcomed our new Vice President/Membership officer, Chris Piatek, and thanked our exiting VP/Membership officer, Jackie Turner for her four years of excellent service to HVC.
The minutes of the last meeting of HVC were approved.
TREASURER'S REPORT:
Christina reported that we have approximately $15,000.00 in our accounts.
Christina distributed a print-out showing ticket sales from 2005 to the present. Ticket sales through these years have remained more or less constant.
The high ticket sales person in the Chorus for the Spring Concert was Kay Batt.
Christina then reported on the present state of our various fund raising efforts. She said that we have made $190.00 on the mug sales, and $370.00 on the sale of CD's (the CD sales, however, are not specifically sold as a fund raiser).
Our fund raising drive made $11,900.00 last year, but this year has only brought in $7,600.00. However, this figure does not include the $2,000.00 in matching funds, nor does it include the (approximately) $3,000.00 in the endowment.
Christina reported that Lynn Ebeling and Bill Williams solicited the largest amounts of donations for the drive.
Christina reported that the June 13 Cabernet/Caberet event has sold enough tickets to cover costs, and hopefully will sell enough tickets to raise additional money for our 50th Anniversary needs.
VICE PRESIDENT/MEMBERSHIP REPORT:
Jackie reported that we started the season with 62 members and ended with 55 members:
25 altos...to 22
12 basses...to 10
16 sopranos...to 15
9 tenors...to 8
Christina Piatek will assume the duties of VP/Membership after this Board meeting.
We will have early registration again in the coming season. Dues will be $35.00. Chris P. will send out an email to the membership concerning early registration.
Post cards inviting people to return to, or to join HVC are sent out one month prior to the beginning of rehearsals. Jackie asked Marjorie to determine our membership needs so as to avoid misunderstandings regarding which voice parts can accept new members.
FINANCE REPORT:
Sandy reported that the grant proposal to the Bergen Foundation was denied. Sandy will modify the proposal and apply for it again next year.
Sandy will contact the Dodge Foundation at the end of summer in order to re-apply for a grant from them at that time.
As HVC had a booth at Pennington Day in May, Sandy will be submitting a request for the Pennington Day Grant.
Two grants are expected from Mercer County, one of which is a general operating needs support grant, and another which is a special projects grant for our 50th Anniversary needs.
Sandy will look into applying for the Horizon Grant.
Sandy discussed the Calendar Raffle which will be held in October, November and December. She has located a printer where we can have 1,000 tickets printed for approximately $100.00. Each ticket must have specific details printed on it, detailing the location and dates of drawings.
After considering payouts and other fees, Sandy said that we will need to sell 300 tickets in order to break even.
Sandy wants to pull winning tickets at 3 pm on the fourth Monday of each month of the raffle. They must be pulled in a specific location (printed on the tickets) where there is a copy machine in order to make immediate photo copies of winning tickets, with witnesses present. Kate suggested using the Pennington Borough Library, and using special "guest" ticket pullers when possible for enhanced publicity for the event.
Kate reported that she and Carol S. met with a representative of the Princeton Area Community Foundation, an organization which is an "umbrella" for local foundations. Their contact there suggested that we try to solicit funds from individuals in addition to applying for grants. She will meet with them in order to give them further direction in this endeavor.
During our Annual Fund Drive, donors are mailed a thank-you letter, then two tickets in a separate envelope, and then another separate envelope containing a copy of the concert program. Carole A. reported that this year we did not send the copy of the concert program due to the high cost of postage.
In a discussion of the matter, it was determined that it appears as though most of the free tickets mailed to donors are never used. John and Marilyn suggested that the thank-you letter could be worded in such a way that it could be used as a ticket for admittance to the concert, so that one mailing could cover both purposes.
Jackie pointed out that people who donate money to various charities are often put off by the fact that so much money is spent on postage, making them less likely to send in donations. For this reason, the Board felt that if we can eliminate the postage for the mailing of the programs and the tickets, we could achieve the same goals with less postage.
Board members were asked to do their own research as to whether or not any of the donors they solicit ever use their free tickets, and we will re-visit this matter at the next board meeting.
Kate also wants to re-visit the notion of discounting tickets that are sold prior to a certain date, to decide if it is worth doing and what the cut-off date for "advance purchase" should be.
LIBRARIAN'S REPORT:
Carole W. reported that there are 7 packets missing from the music returned after the spring concerts.
She reported that we have one drawer left in our filing cabinet, so that she needs another 5-drawer legal cabinet. Christina is looking into a donation of a filing cabinet.
Carole and Marjorie, once again, will be going through existing files of music to sort and file what they have.
Carole has returned all of the music that had been rented or borrowed.
CONCERT MASTER'S REPORT:
Marcia, in reviewing the Spring Concert, said that attendance at the our concert at the U/U Church was fine, and that the bus trip up to Bloomfield went smoothly.
After a discussion of the matter, Kate made a motion to send $500.00 to the U/U Church, and Marcia seconded the motion, which was passed by the Board. Christina will send a check for $500.00 and a thank-you letter to the church.
Marjorie said that she was very pleased by the experience of performing with the Bloomfield Orchestra, and hopes that in the future we could budget similar Chorus trips into our schedule.
After a discussion of a location for the upcoming December 11 concert, it was decided that Marcia should inquire into the use of the U/U Church for that event.
Kate suggested that, since we would probably not be singing the December concert at the Pennington Presbyterian Church, that we offer to perform there with a smaller group at some time in the future.
Marcia is still in search of an acoustical shell for our 50th Anniversary concert at Kendall Hall. Kate reported that there is a shell at the HVHS, owned by the Fine Arts Department. Marcia suggested that Marjorie contact Peter Griffin, head of the FAD. John also volunteered to speak to Brian, head of the Choral Dept. at HVHS about the shell, as well.
After a discussion of the rental of a piano for Kendall Hall, LuAnn offered the use of her own piano for free. We would need to pay piano movers to move it to Kendall Hall and back to LuAnn's home after the event.
A long discussion followed, touching on such points as to:
- the final cost of the 50th Anniversary concert (which could conceivably reach $3,500.00),
- where and when would we find a space in which to rehearse with the Chorus and the musicians?
- rental of a reception hall
- the need to use food provided by the facility
- the need for student volunteers in the hall
Marjorie passed out a print-out outlining financial concerns for the 50th Anniversary Concert.
As we were denied the Bergen Foundation Grant, we will not have the money on hand that we were hoping for.
One possibility to solve this problem would be to cut down on the number of musicians we hire for the concert.
Another possibility is to hire fewer instrumentalists than planned for the Holiday Concert and to use the money saved to pay instrumentalists for the 50th Anninversary Concert.
Christine pointed out that we have a cushion of money in unused funds that we can fall back on if the need arises.
Sandy made a motion that we go ahead with plans to spend that which is necessary for instrumentalists for the 50th Anniversary Concert, planning to be frugal in upcoming concerts in an effort to make up the difference, along with using our financial reserves only if absolutely necessary, and to continue in fund raising efforts to gain extra funds.
Carole Woodford seconded the motion, and the motion was passed.
50TH ANNIVERSARY CHAIR'S REPORT:
LuAnn and the 50th Anniversary Committee met and discussed the following items concerning the Cabernet/Caberet fund raising event:
- They will make food and decorate the facility early in the day.
- Rehearsals will be at 5 pm that day.
- They hope to advertise on the Hopewell Valley Winery's website.
- They have sold 120 tickets so far, hoping to sell 175.
- There are 5 raffle prizes.
- Press releases will be sent via email to all members.
- Entertainment will begin at 8:15 pm
- Auction winners names will be drawn at 9:45.
PUBLIC RELATIONS REPORT:
Kate reported that Facebook membership has not grown.
Fifteen Hopewell Valley Chorus members volunteered for the Trenton Children's Chorus this year.
Media publicity of the Spring Concert was good, and both spring concerts were good for internal and external PR, with the bus trip proving an excellent opportunity to build internal PR.
Advertisements for Cab/Cab has been put on our website and have been sent to all of the local papers.
The Opera New Jersey is donating two tickets as a raffle item to Cab/Cab.
MUSIC CONSULTANT'S REPORT:
Marjorie has received the last movement of the commissioned work from Matthew Harris.
The director of the Trenton Children's Chorus preparatory choir is reviewing a draft of the commissioned piece to ensure that the children can master it and collaborate with us on this concert.
Date for Spring Into Song is March 21, 2010. Marcia will check on the availability of this date with the U/U Church.
Date for the December concert is 12/11.
NEW BUSINESS:
Trenton Thunder - an email will go out to all members from Chris P. listing all of the details.
Date for Marilyn's beach party is August 8, with a rain date of Aug. 9. An email will go out to the membership.
Date for the next Board meeting - Sept. 8 at Kate's house at 7:30 pm.
(Close page to return to previous page)
Hopewell Valley Chorus home page: http://www.princetonol.com/groups/hvchorus/index.html
PO Box 93 - Pennington, NJ 08534 - 609-737-2468 (membership) - 609-737-3177 (information)