The January meeting of the Smoky Mountain Blues Society (SMBS) was held on
       
01/31/10, 4 p.m. at Mulligans on Ebenezer Road

Note: there was no meeting in December, just the Christmas Party.

16 members were in attendance at the January Meeting.. 

Dick & Kitty Qulia attended the IBC in Memphis and offered the following highlights

        Approximately 111 bands + single & duo acts participated
       
Labron Lazenby & LA3 won at the Rum Boogie in both the Thursday and Friday night competitions
       
Finals were held at the Orpheum.  11 acts, LA3 was the eighth act and very well received “they brought the house down”

        LA3 outsold other bands in CD sales, although this is not an “IBC official statistic”

Mike Feeback discussed the following

        The Christmas party raised $330 which went to the Food Connection

        The cans collected (and there were many!) went to Manna from Heaven

        5 new members were added between the Christmas Party and the IBC

Competition night at Brackins

        Membership needs to increase for many reasons including funding

        Members need to start thinking about new names to elect to the board soon

        KMA Live at Five still gives discounted admission to SMBS members
               
Higginbotham will post reminder on website

        The 501(c)3 application will be submitted in approximately 2 weeks.

Approval can take anywhere from 3 to 18 months

        We need to start planning for the next IBC competition soon.  Ideas included:
               
Holding competitions at multiple venues: 

Live at Five,

Patrick Sullivans,
Brackins,
Sassy Anns,
Heritage Center in Townsend were mentioned

                Holding competitions over multiple months
               
Send a single/duo act along with a full band next year
               
Enter an indendently produced CD next year
               
Line up corporate sponsors once 501 ( c) 3 is established

(we may be able to do this once we have filed)

Use competitions as fundraising events for

1) the SMBS,
2) sending acts to the IBC

 

General Discussion included the following:
       
       
Membership tables need to be set up at appropriate shows.

        Sharon Kniffin volunteered to discuss setting up tables at Live After Five

shows with Michael Gill

        Steve Michel will look into getting banners for us to use with membership tables

        The Blues Night Out should be re-established. 

Pick one local band each month to support by membership attendance.

        Set up a calendar on the SMBS website for member-bands including

LA3, Soulfinger, Bluestone, Barrelhouse Blues,
Craig Ferguson Project, Avenue C, One Step Up, others
Higginbotham agreed to post the info.

It was suggested that we contact Geoff Trabalka (West Side Cats),

Lost and Found, Relentless Blues about membership.

        Post information about the Weekly Relentless Blues gig at Patrick Sullivans

on Sundays and encourage membership support.  Higginbotham will post

        Post information about the Weekly Blues Jam at Smokeys hosted by Mighty Blue

on Tuesdays and encourage membership support.  Higginbotham will post.

        The Blues in the School committee needs to energize. 

Emily Feeback will arrange a meeting. 

                Pat Thompson volunteered to research grant opportunities
               
Higginbotham volunteered to get involved
               
Pat suggested that we meet with school representatives to find out

what they need before designing a syllabus/program

                Barry Faust can be a valuable resource and is supportive
               
Hector Qirko indicated that he would be interested in being involved (T. Spencer)

        The Blues Heritage Foundation is putting on a Blues Festival on June 5th.  

Bill Morganfield will be one of the headliners.

                This festival would provide a good opportunity for a membership table.

        The Blues Foundation will be raising its rates to $125 this year for local societies to join.

The meeting ended at 5:20.  No votes were taken by the board during the meeting.

The next meeting will be held at Mulligans on Sunday February 28th at 4 p.m.
with an acoustic jam to follow.

Editors note – let’s encourage more young players to come to next jam

as Mulligans is a non smoking/kid friendly venue.

POST MEETING ACOUSTIC JAM TO BENEFIT HAITI RELEIF

The jam started a bit after six. 

Two young players participated  
Joe King (approximately 16) sat in with Steve Michel, Tim Spencer and Gary Moye.
Joey Kukura (approximately 15) sat in with Robert Higginbotham, Dick Qulia and Gary Moye

Rey Pineda and his son Warren finished out the night with Doug Harris and Gary Moye on the last set

$129.19 was raised in the tip jar for Haiti relief. 
       
T. Spencer, D. Michel, and Higginbotham  verified with independent counts of the cash collected.
       
Higginbotham will process the donation.

================================================================================