Smoky Mountain Blues Society
Meeting Minutes
1/23/11
The meeting was held at the home of Howell & Polly Doka.
A quorum was established and the meeting began at 3:15 p.m.
Board Members absent – Sharon Kniffin
We need a new brochure for 2011. Ideas included
Include significant accomplishments;
Include schedule of major planned events (Blues Cruises, Sara Jordan Birthday Celebration, and Holiday Party)
Candice Eagle, Tom Hurwitz and Robert Higginbotham volunteered to take on this project
Robert Higginbotham committed to find out about setting up the website to accept PayPal.
It was unanimously voted to sponsor two "Blues Bricks" at the Clarksdale Museum at a cost of $50 each. Mike Feeback will handle getting this done,
Current bank balance is $5229.56 with known debts as follows - $1100 from Sara Jordan Birthday party to go to Interfaith Clinic. $150 fee due to the State of Tennessee
It was decided that for separate cash boxes would be used at future events to separate income streams. As an example – at a Blues Cruise we would have separate cash boxes for 1) t-shirts, 2) auction items, 3) new members, and 4) raffle tickets. Our current "system" of just lumping everything into one cash box and trying to reconstruct what money goes where is not working.
It was unanimously voted to purchase 3 cash boxes. Mike Feeback will donate one.
Mike Feeback was able to time a society members’ donation of $75 to the Second Harvest Food Bank (given at the Christmas party) with an opportunity for matching funds resulting in the Food Bank receiving $150.
The proposed schedule for this years’ Blues Cruise Series was agreed upon as follows:
May 1st 3 p.m.
May 22nd 3 p.m.
June 19th 3 p.m. (Fathers Day Cruise)
July 24th 3 p.m.
August 21st 6-9 (Evening Cruise)
September 11th 3 p.m. (Part of Blues Festival Weekend)
October 9th 3 p.m.
October 30th 3 p.m.
The tentative schedule was unanimously approved.
Randy Ross committed to confirm these dates with the Boat Company.
Plans are to have a Blues Festival at the Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson Shed on Saturday, September 10th featuring 3 local bands and 2 national bands. Initial estimate is at a gross cost of under $5,000. In conjunction there will be a Bike Run on September 10th with all proceeds to benefit first responders.
Plans also include a kick off show on Friday, September 9th at Brackins.
It was unanimously approved to partner with Brackins and sponsor the upcoming Studebaker John show in April. Expenditure of up to $800 to cover the entertainment fee and advertising was approved. Blues Society members are encouraged to promote the show within your local networks and attend.
BITS will be presenting its’ history of the Blues program to inner city youth at Tribe One in Knoxville on three consecutive weeks in February (9th, 16th & 23rd). Doug Harris and Steve Michel will do the presentation.
Tom Hurwitz and Robert Higginbotham will coordinate a BITS presentation at the February Maryville ArtWalk in celebration of Black History month. The tentative plan is to hold the event in the Preservation Plaza to include live acoustic music, rooms of music related art and one room devoted to BITS with revolving presentations. It was unanimously approved to spend $50 per musician + $100 budget for location fee, snacks for the public, etc.
Tom Hurwitz presented plans for the 2011 membership drive. The following was agreed upon:
The drive will begin with the September 9th-11th Festival Weekend and culminate at the 2011 Holiday Party
New Members will be given T-shirts upon signing up. 1 T-shirt for single, military, and student memberships, 2 t-shirts for family memberships. If a new member wishes to substitute a long sleeve T-shirt(s) the charge will be $5 per shirt
If a new member signs up at a SMBS sponsored event that they have paid a door charge for, they may deduct the cost of the door charge from their membership fee. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE THE BLUES CRUISES, as the associated accounting would be too difficult to administer.
During the discussion it was reaffirmed that, with the exception of the Blues Cruises, all SMBS sponsored events will include a discount for members.
Mike Feeback recommended having a quarterly newsletter. It was clarified that we will only send hard copies to members who do not have email to keep postage costs to a minimum. Mike committed to handle getting this started. It is envisioned that the newsletter will be emailed to members, posted on the web, and only mailed to those members who do not have email.
CCTV – Leonard Price and Ray Brown are heading this up. The cost for training on the equipment is $24 per year. Minimum training is required before using the equipment. Those members present who were interested signed up with Leonard. Payment for the training of a few members has been previously approved.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6 p.m. The February meeting was not scheduled.