Topeka Blues Society
Monday, October 14, 2013
6:30pm @ Uncle Bo’s
BOARD MEETING MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER at 6:40pm
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Suki Willison, Bill Beasley, Gerry Schmanke, Paul Schwartz, Luan Betts, Brian Gabel, Chardy Hern, Gib Ramirez, Stacy Jeffress and Karen Osborn
BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Rod Peterson
TBS MEMBERS PRESENT: Mike Betts and Patty Beasley
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF 09/23/13 MEETING: Paul made motion that minutes be approved, Gib second; approved.
SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT: Karen had handout showing expenses (printer ink and BMA/UPS mailing costs) and deposits (two membership renewals). Bank balance is $5,497.24 with additional $50 in petty cash. Bill made motion that report be approved, Gib second; approved. Handout is attached to paper copy.
OLD BUSINESS
Best Self-Produced CD entries
We have several CD’s from which to choose: The Ol’ No. 5s, Connie Hawkins and the Blues Wreckers, and Grand Marquis. We listened to a few songs from each CD and then took a vote. Six votes for Grand Marquis, two votes each for the other two. Grand Marquis will be entered – Luan will take care of the details.
SOKBF photos and fundraising
Rod has the CD of photos taken by Randy Roach. Chardy has not made contact with Cindy Olsen regarding fundraising, but does have a meeting with Visit Topeka. Suki and Brad will attend with her. Chardy will also go to Mars website and look for donation link – ask if Mars would consider sponsoring the Blues Festival . . . “Blues from Mars” or something like that.
Keeping Blues Alive (KBA) nomination
Suki and Karen entered TBS in the “organization” category of the KBA awards. All information was mailed and verification was received that it arrived in the Memphis office on Friday, Sept. 27th.
KSNT Sunflower Heroes entry
Our Blues Society was nominated for the Sunflower Heroes contest on KSNT. All nominees will compete for $100, winning by votes. Karen has notified Board and membership via email and Facebook, asking them to go to the website and vote for TBS.
JAM4DAN at Celtic Fox
Their organizers are meeting tonight (Oct. 14th). We do know that Sunday, Jan. 19th will be “Blues Day” – Old No. 5s are playing. We will suggest that our Blues Challenge winners play every year for their Blues Day. They are not asking for TBS involvement, but would like our presence. Noted that the night before is our IBC Kick-off party.
IBC
Ad space in the IBC program needs to be reserved by Dec. 6th, artwork by Dec. 13th, $385 for 1/2 page. Suki moved that we place an ad, Bill second; approved. Suki will contact the IBC promoters about TBS working a day in one of the venues. Luan will work on bios and pics from our artists – these will also be sent to Music on the Couch. Chardy and Brad have been visiting with the Youth group – they are planning on going to Memphis, will work on learning and practicing a Blues set, and are thinking of changing their name.
Artist Showcase
Suki checked with Ramada to see when is an “off weekend” for hotel capacity and events for possible Artist Showcase. No response from hotel as yet.
Purchase of drum set and bass amp
Bill looked into costs in purchasing a backline (drum kit and bass amp) to be used for our festivals. Found nothing affordable yet, but will continue looking. Chardy will also look into this.
New TBS membership brochure
Karen will contact Rod to design a new TBS membership brochure.
NEW BUSINESS
Blues Cookbook
Stacy showed a Blues cookbook that was a fundraiser for another Society, called Blues In My Kitchen. She suggested we gather recipes from artists playing at Bo’s, as well as our membership. We could sell the book and have our membership application as the back cover. All agreed this is a good idea, and Suki and Stacy will begin gathering recipes.
Jammin’ in JC
A comment was made noting that Jammin’ in JC seems to have a lot of money for their event, and how did they do their fundraising? Suki said the local merchants fund this event.
T-shirts
Gerry mentioned that the Paxico Blues Festival has their shirts many weeks before the actual event, allowing for pre-sales. They always sell all their shirts. They also sold all the “women’s cut” shirts. He was wondering what we pay per shirt and if we can possibly get our shirts earlier,so we may take advantage of presales. Karen will send him our costs. It was also mentioned that we need an official TBS tshirt. After some discussion, it was decided we could ask Seaman district if their art classes would like to have a contest to design our next shirt (Seaman was chosen since the youth band going to IBC is from that school district).
Memphis Showcase/JVB
Suki announced that the Josh Vowell Band will be in Memphis on Nov. 29th, playing at the Galaxy Showcase. She will do some promoting for this, but will not call it a Kick-Off party, so it’s not confused with our January IBC Kick-Off party.
NEXT MEETING DATE: 6:30, Monday, Nov. 18, Uncle Bo’s
Bill moved that the meeting be adjourned, Gib second; adjourned at 7:40 pm.
Respectfully submitted 10/22/2013
Karen Osborn, TBS Sec’y/Treasurer
