Burlington Writers Workshop Leadership Team Meeting, 9/22/22 (approved 10/9/22)

(Specific to-do items underlined and bolded.) 

Attendance: Janet Mckeehan-Medina (Co-Chair), Dick Matheson (Treasurer), Millie Eidson (Secretary), Sam Fenner (Managing Director), Jon Fenner (Comms Team), Jane Nevins (Board member), Davy Yue (member), Julie Hay (COI Team), Rebecca O’Bern (MSR), Ashley Hajimirsadeghi

Started at 6:00 pm

General

• Review and approve minutes from the previous meeting. Approved

Jon and Comms Team

• Pandadoc
  • For online signatures especially conflict of interest (COI) forms
  • Free version
  • Is it worthwhile setting it up?
  • Can download and print or scan docs and would need to fax or other way to show signatures; currently can type in name 
  • Additional services can be complicated to maintain depending on volunteer availability
  • Update asset list to include description, and note that this asset might not be continued if not feasible to maintain it 
• Web Hosting
  • Transferred to cloud service account
  • Outage with HostGator one day
  • Will verify whether any other issues with Comms Team
• Zettle for in-person credit card purchases
  • Ties into PayPal account
  • Will use at Book Festival
  • Could be used by members at group event
  • BWW has sales tax account with VT but as a non-profit does not have to charge it
  • Square is free also but also doesn’t give details for reconciliation

MSR: Ashley and Rebecca

• Issue #63 available and screen shared, mixed media nature theme for art work
  • Interviews with authors will be available next week
• Closed feedback requests because had a lot of them; will open again soon for people to get paid feedback on their pieces
  • Finance Team previously discussed increasing the charges from $35 to $45 because of so many requests and positive feedback, would increase BWW income
  • Need another poetry reader
  • Interest from other readers pending
  • Add announcement to BWW newsletter when it opens again

Sam

• Book Festival
  • Starksboro Public Library donated 1500 books for used book sale on Sat. and Sun. Sept. 24-25 at City Hall Park
  • Horse trailer would help transport them between Sat. and Sun. nights; don’t have yet
  • Can get a bag of books for $20, collect paper bags for it; drop off to Sam at the stall in the City Hall Park
  • Lit Night at the Lampshop: (originally called the PubCrawl) or possibly next door at the Radio Bean
  • Multiple writing groups participating
  • 6:45-7:25 BWW reading, Nancy Kilgore coordinating and will determine order of readers; then Sam will email
  • Space is likely to be limited for book sales from a large number of anticipated authors, so authors should be prepared for limited space and no room for multiple copies or displays
• What BWW will promote
  • PM authors will have their works included on author page but not specifically promoted in newsletter; qualified by how many workshops attended in a specific period
  • Look at data on page clicks for impact report; may be helpful in promoting BWW to funding agencies
  • BWW promotion not currently a major effort other than social media
  • Modify PM to say Qualifying PM on what they’re eligible for; looking at PMs to verify their attendance isn’t challenging
  • On new What’s Happening page, include a BWW non-endorsement line; listed events are for information only
  • Clarify and organize type of events when describing them on the document
• Contributing members update (with Jon)
  • Definitions finalized and Sam will contact them to let them know they qualify through card (or email if they don’t open the card)
  • Contributing members can sign up for $6/month and automatically show on CM list; can contribute yearly
  • List CMs receiving an unspecified discount in general, but extend a 50% discount to master classes (not Paid Class/Host Series Classes) for which BWW pays the speaker a fixed fee. Do this through end of year. This would make benefits more clearly appealing.
  • Won’t do this for host classes that are split income in half with the hosts.
  • Quantify benefits as much as possible and try to improve formatting of event text to facilitate scrolling through them
  • Expiration date for CMs: donate $72, one year from date; donate $6/mo until donation ends; volunteer on average 3 hrs/mo until volunteering ends
• BWW member update
  • Will close off being able to sign up for workshops or classes without being a member
  • Only requires filling out the form, for free 
• Welcome message
  • Need one when people signup on the form, Sam will draft a welcome letter for Work in Progress page 
• Conflict of Interest Committee Update and vote to approve (with Dick)
  • Four motions approved: 

1. Any qualified reviewers as selected by the co-Editors of the Mud Season Review, which could include board members and officers of BWW, should receive $75.

2. The cap for a given Paid Class/Host Series Class payment should be set at $125 (equal to a Master Class payment) and any overage would go to BWW. Whether this was accomplished via an attendance cap of 25 for a Paid Class/Host Series Class, or a 50/50 split up to $125 for the Presenter, could be determined on an individual Paid Class/Host Series Class basis.

3. That the basis for payment of Retreat Presenters from outside BWW be the same as for Master Class Presenters and the basis for payment for BWW Member Presenters be the same as for Paid Class/Host Series Class Presenters.

4. If there are extra expenses for any Presenter for any Retreat, they need to go directly to the Leadership Team for approval.

• MSR paying $75 to manuscript reviewers. Any qualified reviewers as selected by co-editors should receive $75, including board members. How is this influenced by non-profit reg that only 49% of a board can have a financial interest? Attorney advised on IRS requirements. Set up rules to make sure we don’t exceed half of board involved (unlikely).
• Cap for a given host class should be $125, any overage will go to BWW. If split 50-50 with a BWW member offering a Paid Class/Host Series Class, will only get $125.
• For retreat presenters outside BWW, same basis as others.
• If extra expenses for any presenter for retreat, need to be approved by LT.

• New section: What the LT would like you to know (or Notes from BWW LT)
  • In newsletter, add this section and include a couple of important items from each meeting 
  • Could have similar section updated on website
  • Orient the items to the interest of members
  • Released on a regularly scheduled basis like first of each month (newsletter, 3^rd week of the month)
• Click Up: best practices
  • Encourage LT members to use it 

Dick: Finance Team

• Nomination for Board
  • Julie Hay nominated by Dick Matheson; motion seconded and passed
  • Currently contributing to COI team, experience with multiple boards, former teacher and MBA
  • Board can appoint interim replacement when needed; membership at annual meeting then approve 
• Treasurer
  • Income $1754 for first half
  • Receiving income from master classes 
  • Declining donations, sustaining and regular
  • Made up by reduced expenses from eliminating studio
  • MSR a little above breakeven in first half, but without the major expense of annual Submittable fee, the second half should show a good amount of net income, all else being equal
  • IRS tax report 990 that nonprofits have to submit; due in May; lacking certain contact information that the IRS will recognize; IRS will not accept us as qualified to make report online, so phoned it in for two years which is not usual procedure
  • IRS Report is small, only 8 questions; need new volunteer to take this on and complete it
  • Think about additional services to benefit members since we have income available for worthy projects
  • Develop a reserve fund that is not tapped when adding new services
  • There is a $10,000 grant intended to be used for capital expenses
  • Impact Report: People want to know value and benefits of workshops when donating; brief summary of the impact, genres, attendees—publish once a year
  • Ask for testimonials
  • Send google form to attendees to get feedback about what was most valuable; questionnaire previously done about which workshops and master classes are desired
  • Number of participants can be estimated from registrations but need hosts to send in numbers of those who don’t register but participate
• 2Q financial report; failure to file tax form; additional services for Members
• Proposal to record LT meeting and save the recordings
  • Important for official records and COI, resource, not necessary to be reviewed
  • Not on website for general access because recording can inhibit discussion (minutes record issues, not who said what which shouldn’t matter)
  • To view have chair’s permission
  • Need storage capacity: can pull off audio from video to reduce file size 
• Develop Leadership Team Job Description
  •  Other nonprofits can provide examples
  • Can be part of training, Julie will start this draft.
• COI documents 
  • Access to COI team and LT only as issues are worked on, before they’re decided
  • Even when decided may not need details released publicly, but just available if questions
  • Public: purpose of COI. Julie will develop draft to send to Jon.

Adjourned 7:38 pm. Date for next LT meeting: Oct 9, 6 PM