Burlington Writers Workshop 4/16/23 Leadership Team Meeting Minutes, Approved 5/7/23
Attendance: Janet Mckeehan-Medina (Co-Chair), Katie Lazarus (Co-Chair), Dick Matheson (Treasurer), Millie Eidson (Secretary), Sam Fenner (Managing Director), Jon Fenner (Comms Team), Jane Nevins (Fundraising), Rebecca O’Bern (MSR), Ashley Hajimirsadeghi (MSR), Julie Hay (Board member), Skip Keith (member)
Meeting convened at 7:01 PM
Key action items bolded and underlined.
Review and approve minutes from previous meetings (Millie)
- Motion passed to accept March minutes with exception of one sentence. Will be checked by Sam on recording.
- Special meeting minutes: Motion passed to accept with addition of wording to clarify thank you gift as under discussion; thank you notes are being sent
General (Sam)
- Green Mountain Book Festival, no longer doing used book sale
- History project: send Sam names and emails of people who might have information to add to timeline
- Narrative craft workshop starting this coming week
- Short story: Shifting of leadership and possibly time slot; look for volunteers to help, especially with tech aspects
- Poetry path: will be at Intervale and more visible, will have scan codes back to BWW; try to track success—add question about poetry path bringing in new members,
- Start collecting information when people join about how they’re learning about BWW
MSR Update (Ashley and Rebecca)
- New issue to be released on Friday
- Capping free submissions at 120 but still accepting tip jar submissions (up to 80)
- Getting in feedback requests; motion to raise price from $35 to $45 was approved
- Brought on new readers; need a few more for CNF
- Tour of MSR: will set a time
- Managing Editor: interview process; Jon coordinates with editor so will interview final candidate
Review proposed changes to Corporate Bylaw for 2023 (Jon and Dick)
- Correct numbers: section number 3.2 is missing
- 4.1: remove wording about MeetUp
- 4.3: additional wording to clarify the requirements for Board approval
- 5.2a: change Board positions to Board officer positions: Board members elected by annual meeting but the officer positions are elected by the Board members at next Board meeting
- 5.3: clarify wording
- 5.10: add words to clarify
- 6.1: Such special meetings requiring immediate action may be called by the Board President or at least 51% of all Board members.
- 6.4a: Discussion of wording change or new section to ensure that motions must be passed by a majority of the Board members (currently 7 members but could change).
- Discussed whether Board member could vote later after seeing minutes or give proxy to another Board member before the meeting: no decision
- Discussed possible new section allowing any board member to call special meeting with 48 hours notice
- 8.1 typo
- Jon and Dick will finalize revised proposal for Board approval at May LT meeting, then presented to members at annual meeting
Other Comms Team updates (Jon)
- WildApricot: several tried it; required multiple clicks to signup for access and then the event, and event didn’t send reminders with links
Funding Group (Jane)
- Reviewing draft operating grant submission, due May 8
- Plan to have it ready April 30 when group meets again
Other (Sam and group)
- Zoom license fundraising appeal thank you
- Thank you notes are being sent with blooming plum tree
- Language for a possible thank you gift proposal is on the “Works in progress page” based on discussion at special meeting
- At this point a month into the fundraising appeal, it might not be worth arranging for thank you gifts.
- $800 raised so far
- Grant application, if successful, may bring in $1000
- Were aiming for $2000 to cover estimated license purchases
- Required funds may be less, now estimated as $1000, with business program discount for 10 licenses
- We may need to buy more licenses if adding more workshops
- Consider proposal of thank you gift for future fundraising appeals, but still some concern about giving a thank you gift for a donation under a fundraising appeal whereas those donating at different times don’t get same thank you gift. This would be a LT, not a Funding Team, decision.
- To equalize the benefits, could extend partial time in CM status for everyone based on amount of donation if less than current CM requirements
- Outside a campaign, would be extra work to track
- Better to evaluate CM program after a year
- Motion: Include note with future fundraising appeals of how to reach CM status. Passed.
