March 2014 Cantus board minutes
Cantus
Board of Directors Meeting—1221 Nicollet Avenue, Suite 231
March 24, 2014
Present: Doug Affinito, Amanda Davisson, Wendy Holmes, Tom Northenscold, Jean Parish, Adam Reinwald, Don Ristad, Matt Tintes, Libby Larsen, Noel McCormick, Marit Smaby Nowlin, David Ranheim, Karl Reichert, Jim Dorsey
Staff: Jeff Bina, Tim Peterson, Mary Lee
Absent: Martha Graber, Brock Metzger, Julie Carver, Barb Thomas, Chuck Peterson
AGENDA
Balance Sheet:
- Cash was approximately $27,000 as of February 28, 2014
- The Line of Credit remains with an outstanding balance of $40,000
- All is Calm settlement check delayed at the Post Office; Hennepin Theatre Trust mailed check in mid-February, then issued a replacement check on 3/17; Original check did eventually arrive.
- February was a light touring month
- Approximately $60,000 of touring revenue will settle in early April
- Line of credit will be paid off by end of April
- $134,000 in temporarily restricted assets; unchanged from prior report
- Kickstarter surplus “seed” money will carry over to next year’s sheet
- Going to work for Opera for the Young, explore other opera work
- Gary Ruschman leaving at end of 13-14 season
- 10 years with Cantus
- Appreciated the security of Cantus but now searching for something that is his own.
- Adam Reinwald leaving at end of 13-14 season
- Wife Trisha is pregnant
- Searching for different professional opportunities
- Offer made to Blake Morgan, a tenor from the February audition day
- Has sung with Conspirare
- Graduate of Western Michigan University; BMs in Vocal Performance & Music Education
- Also applied to Yale graduate program; a runner-up for that program
- Blake accepted the Cantus position in mid-March
- Current singers’ contracts run through July 31, 2014
- 14-15 Cantus will come in on June 16, 2014
- Overlap period will help in molding the Cantus sound
- Getting the right people is more important than just filling the spots
- Proceed as business-as-usual for board members
- Please keep confidential
Tom Northenscold: Talking points for board? Emphasize the collaborative nature.
- Mary will provide this
- Defer press questions to Mary
Marit Smaby Nowlin: Consider going to multi-year contracts?
- Mary Lee: First-year singers are always on a yearlong probation period
- ML: Has been discussed in the past, but 1-year contracts was decided as the way to go.
- ML: Maybe bring it up for discussion again
- Erin Schwab will be the host this year; have used her before, but not last year.
- Dakota Jazz Club venue is almost sold out
- Sponsorship tables at all-time high
- Auction items (four solidified):
- Cantus concert
- Dinner with Cantus (hosted by Don Ristad)
- Cantus 10th Man or Woman at Covers
- Extreme Sandbox (4 or 5 people)
- Auction Items (Prospects):
- Twins Suite
- Little Free Library ($300)
- Vine Park Brewing Experience ($250 or $500)
- Ideas for sponsoring these remaining auction items?
- Amanda Davisson volunteers to sponsor Vine Park Brewing Experience
- Board members are encouraged to help start the bidding at auction time
- Schedule the Ask earlier in the evening
- While energy is still high
- Start at $2,500 level (need to find a plant for this level), then $1,000 level seems more manageable.
- Jim Dorsey: Assign discreet educational activities to each dollar level for more meaningful giving.
ii. (FYI only: decision on Pohlad grant no later than March 28)
- Sifting through information from last fall’s brainstorming exercise (vision & mission)
- Take it back to the full board and company
- Intentionally doing this without a facilitator; wouldn’t have been true to Cantus’ way of doing business
- Vision & mission discussions within company are taking a long time, as expected.
- Should become something everybody can own, identify with; put it up on the wall and relate to it everyday.
Jean Parish: The process can be long and is really more complicated than it seems.
- Five board members will re-up for another term (Karl, Wendy, Noel, Libby, Martha)
- Three will rotate off at end of fiscal year
- Tom Northenscold
- Barb Thomas
- Don Ristad
- Jean Parish stepping down at end of fiscal year.
- Currently looking for candidates to take Jean’s place
- Governance Committee is keeping an ongoing pool of candidates
- Thanks to Governance Committee for driving this project
Things that are working (continue):
- Singer-led concert previews
- Date reminders from staff
- Board material preparation and dissemination of content
- Detailed financial reporting, well-informed discussion
- Open and honest discussion between board, staff, and singers
Things to discuss:
- Doug Affinito: Meet at times of year only when it’s useful
- David Ranheim: Committees are maturing, reduce the need for board meetings
- Go to six meetings a year? Then two with singers; leaves only four to get through business; could become too rubber stamp
- Libby Larsen: Go to four meetings a year, have them be efficient, too many meetings might lead to inaction.
- David Ranheim: Recruiting new board members might be easier with less meetings; less of a time commitment.
- Tim Peterson: Possibly take away the February and October meetings
- Jim Dorsey: One meeting could be dedicated as being a retreat
- Consider the following options: natural cadence, six meetings, four meetings
- Staff member to take a pass at the feasibility of the above options
- Have the Executive Committee be the sounding board
- Then, make a recommendation to the board
- Item for next meeting
- Use of name tents at meetings already in place
- Picnic in late summer is a great opportunity, attendance has been spotty; maybe change to a Thursday night?
- Start board dinner earlier; 5:30pm for food, then meeting starts at 6:00pm.
- Take time for more human interaction; devote time in meeting; what’s going on in each person’s life
- Get to know the artists better by having them come to board meetings – 1 In Fall, 1 in Spring
- Mandatory board appearances for new singers
- Marit Smaby Nowlin: Board member could adopt a new singer
- Fundraising, Development committee (what is their scope?)
- Sustain and grow non-board contributed income
- They can provide additional exposure/consultation for projects (example: Mission and Vision)
- Very easy to use Cantus recordings however we’d like, very few roadblocks
- Goal is to push our content out to the user, rather than having them come find it
- SoundCloud monthly download – live Cantus content not available anywhere else
- Promoted on Facebook, Twitter, Email newsletter in the future
- Also, some special occasion downloads for holidays, major Cantus events, etc,
- SoundCloud has a good dashboard for tracking activity
- Download Cards
- Credit card-sized plastic cards that have a unique code to download a Cantus track from the Dropcards website.
- Handed out at concerts and education sessions
- Younger people take them more readily, popular at master classes.
- Dropcards collects user information, could get emails, too.
- Strong ongoing relationship with Minnesota Public Radio
- Thanksgiving with Cantus nationally distributed
- Live broadcast of Christmas with Cantus show at Westminster
- Share the approved songs from live concert recordings for all their distribution avenues, e.g. Choral Stream
- Send full-length programs to the European Broadcasting Union (45 to 60 minutes of content)
- Cantus Media Initiative funded by NEA
- Board encouraged to push/share it further; talk about “free music”
- Shares and comments are what counts on Facebook; “likes” don’t increase visibility.
- This is an important part of our mentality of being accessible, generous, and staying nimble.
- Way ahead of orchestras on this
- Not a far leap to having these people donate or come to concerts
- 107% of goal for Dvorak: Going Home
- $29,000 for Dvorak
- 99.1% of goal for season
- Cantus Idol
- Watch your email for promoting the Idol pre-vote online videos
- Next season touring
- Currently at $332K on goal of $475K
Board of Directors Meeting—1221 Nicollet Avenue, Suite 231
March 24, 2014
Present: Doug Affinito, Amanda Davisson, Wendy Holmes, Tom Northenscold, Jean Parish, Adam Reinwald, Don Ristad, Matt Tintes, Libby Larsen, Noel McCormick, Marit Smaby Nowlin, David Ranheim, Karl Reichert, Jim Dorsey
Staff: Jeff Bina, Tim Peterson, Mary Lee
Absent: Martha Graber, Brock Metzger, Julie Carver, Barb Thomas, Chuck Peterson
AGENDA
- Wendy Holmes: Call to order 6:06
- WH: Approve: Minutes of February 24, 2014 meeting
- TN: Present: Treasurer’s Report, YTD FY14 Financials
Balance Sheet:
- Cash was approximately $27,000 as of February 28, 2014
- The Line of Credit remains with an outstanding balance of $40,000
- All is Calm settlement check delayed at the Post Office; Hennepin Theatre Trust mailed check in mid-February, then issued a replacement check on 3/17; Original check did eventually arrive.
- February was a light touring month
- Approximately $60,000 of touring revenue will settle in early April
- Line of credit will be paid off by end of April
- $134,000 in temporarily restricted assets; unchanged from prior report
- Kickstarter surplus “seed” money will carry over to next year’s sheet
- WH: Accept: YTD FY14 Financials
- Adam Reinwald Present: Singers
- Going to work for Opera for the Young, explore other opera work
- Gary Ruschman leaving at end of 13-14 season
- 10 years with Cantus
- Appreciated the security of Cantus but now searching for something that is his own.
- Adam Reinwald leaving at end of 13-14 season
- Wife Trisha is pregnant
- Searching for different professional opportunities
- Offer made to Blake Morgan, a tenor from the February audition day
- Has sung with Conspirare
- Graduate of Western Michigan University; BMs in Vocal Performance & Music Education
- Also applied to Yale graduate program; a runner-up for that program
- Blake accepted the Cantus position in mid-March
- Current singers’ contracts run through July 31, 2014
- 14-15 Cantus will come in on June 16, 2014
- Overlap period will help in molding the Cantus sound
- Getting the right people is more important than just filling the spots
- Proceed as business-as-usual for board members
- Please keep confidential
Tom Northenscold: Talking points for board? Emphasize the collaborative nature.
- Mary will provide this
- Defer press questions to Mary
Marit Smaby Nowlin: Consider going to multi-year contracts?
- Mary Lee: First-year singers are always on a yearlong probation period
- ML: Has been discussed in the past, but 1-year contracts was decided as the way to go.
- ML: Maybe bring it up for discussion again
- WH: Committee Reports
- Development (Noel McCormick)
- Erin Schwab will be the host this year; have used her before, but not last year.
- Dakota Jazz Club venue is almost sold out
- Sponsorship tables at all-time high
- Auction items (four solidified):
- Cantus concert
- Dinner with Cantus (hosted by Don Ristad)
- Cantus 10th Man or Woman at Covers
- Extreme Sandbox (4 or 5 people)
- Auction Items (Prospects):
- Twins Suite
- Little Free Library ($300)
- Vine Park Brewing Experience ($250 or $500)
- Ideas for sponsoring these remaining auction items?
- Amanda Davisson volunteers to sponsor Vine Park Brewing Experience
- Board members are encouraged to help start the bidding at auction time
- Schedule the Ask earlier in the evening
- While energy is still high
- Start at $2,500 level (need to find a plant for this level), then $1,000 level seems more manageable.
- Jim Dorsey: Assign discreet educational activities to each dollar level for more meaningful giving.
ii. (FYI only: decision on Pohlad grant no later than March 28)
- Planning (Karl Reichert)
- Sifting through information from last fall’s brainstorming exercise (vision & mission)
- Take it back to the full board and company
- Intentionally doing this without a facilitator; wouldn’t have been true to Cantus’ way of doing business
- Vision & mission discussions within company are taking a long time, as expected.
- Should become something everybody can own, identify with; put it up on the wall and relate to it everyday.
Jean Parish: The process can be long and is really more complicated than it seems.
- Executive (no update)
- Governance (David Ranheim)
- Five board members will re-up for another term (Karl, Wendy, Noel, Libby, Martha)
- Three will rotate off at end of fiscal year
- Tom Northenscold
- Barb Thomas
- Don Ristad
- Jean Parish stepping down at end of fiscal year.
- Currently looking for candidates to take Jean’s place
- Governance Committee is keeping an ongoing pool of candidates
- Discussion Board Survey Action Steps (Amanda Davisson presenting)
- Thanks to Governance Committee for driving this project
Things that are working (continue):
- Singer-led concert previews
- Date reminders from staff
- Board material preparation and dissemination of content
- Detailed financial reporting, well-informed discussion
- Open and honest discussion between board, staff, and singers
Things to discuss:
- Frequency of board meetings
- Doug Affinito: Meet at times of year only when it’s useful
- David Ranheim: Committees are maturing, reduce the need for board meetings
- Go to six meetings a year? Then two with singers; leaves only four to get through business; could become too rubber stamp
- Libby Larsen: Go to four meetings a year, have them be efficient, too many meetings might lead to inaction.
- David Ranheim: Recruiting new board members might be easier with less meetings; less of a time commitment.
- Tim Peterson: Possibly take away the February and October meetings
- Jim Dorsey: One meeting could be dedicated as being a retreat
- Consider the following options: natural cadence, six meetings, four meetings
- Staff member to take a pass at the feasibility of the above options
- Have the Executive Committee be the sounding board
- Then, make a recommendation to the board
- Item for next meeting
- Team building/getting to know fellow board members
- Use of name tents at meetings already in place
- Picnic in late summer is a great opportunity, attendance has been spotty; maybe change to a Thursday night?
- Start board dinner earlier; 5:30pm for food, then meeting starts at 6:00pm.
- Take time for more human interaction; devote time in meeting; what’s going on in each person’s life
- Providing feedback to ensemble
- Get to know the artists better by having them come to board meetings – 1 In Fall, 1 in Spring
- Mandatory board appearances for new singers
- Marit Smaby Nowlin: Board member could adopt a new singer
- Committees and purpose
- Fundraising, Development committee (what is their scope?)
- Sustain and grow non-board contributed income
- They can provide additional exposure/consultation for projects (example: Mission and Vision)
- Cantus Media Initiative
- Very easy to use Cantus recordings however we’d like, very few roadblocks
- Goal is to push our content out to the user, rather than having them come find it
- SoundCloud monthly download – live Cantus content not available anywhere else
- Promoted on Facebook, Twitter, Email newsletter in the future
- Also, some special occasion downloads for holidays, major Cantus events, etc,
- SoundCloud has a good dashboard for tracking activity
- Download Cards
- Credit card-sized plastic cards that have a unique code to download a Cantus track from the Dropcards website.
- Handed out at concerts and education sessions
- Younger people take them more readily, popular at master classes.
- Dropcards collects user information, could get emails, too.
- Strong ongoing relationship with Minnesota Public Radio
- Thanksgiving with Cantus nationally distributed
- Live broadcast of Christmas with Cantus show at Westminster
- Share the approved songs from live concert recordings for all their distribution avenues, e.g. Choral Stream
- Send full-length programs to the European Broadcasting Union (45 to 60 minutes of content)
- Cantus Media Initiative funded by NEA
- Board encouraged to push/share it further; talk about “free music”
- Shares and comments are what counts on Facebook; “likes” don’t increase visibility.
- This is an important part of our mentality of being accessible, generous, and staying nimble.
- Way ahead of orchestras on this
- Not a far leap to having these people donate or come to concerts
- Review FY14 objectives
- Discussion: Company Reports
- 107% of goal for Dvorak: Going Home
- $29,000 for Dvorak
- 99.1% of goal for season
- Cantus Idol
- Watch your email for promoting the Idol pre-vote online videos
- Next season touring
- Currently at $332K on goal of $475K
- WH: Next meeting: May 19, 2014 – including the full Cantus ensemble
- WH: Adjourn Meeting 8:00pm
