Bluegrass & Old-Time Country Music Society – NL, Inc.

General Meeting Minutes – April 20, 2008

Meeting held in the Community Room of Sobeys, Howley Estates, St. John's. Chair, Frank Davis.

Chair welcomed attendees and outlined the activities of the Steering Committee formed at the last Public Meeting in December. 

The Society is now incorporated as a non-profit organization. It has a new set of by-laws. In February it applied to the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council for a grant to assist funding for the Society's annual Festival.

He then turned the meeting over to Facilitator, Neil Rosenberg.

1. Agenda Proposed:

                1              Festival Grant Announcement

                2              Election of Directors

                Moved: approval of agenda.  Seconded and carried.

2. Agenda #1, Festival Grant Announcement

Facilitator reported on the $7500.00 grant received from the Professional Festivals Program of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts

Council for the Society's fourth annual festival, the Old-Time Country Jamboree to be held July 26-27^th in Bay Roberts.

3. Agenda #2, Election of Directors

Facilitator pointed out that in order to carry out this first election of Directors two sections in the by-laws would have to be specially interpreted:

Article 4.1:

                Moved: Because we do not yet have an Application for Membership as specified in this section, "member" will mean at this election

"Everyone present at this meeting". Seconded and carried.

Article 5.1.2:

                Moved: Because the nomination process did not include a mechanism whereby candidates could choose whether to stand for either a

one-year or a two-year term, the board members elected at this meeting will make those choices in a board meeting. Seconded and carried.

Nominations: Ed Breen, Frank Davis, Clayton Kennedy, Dave Kiel, Peter McGuire, Gordon Murphy, Russ Pack, Marie Yetman, Ted Rowe, and 

Phil Smith.

Because there were fewer than 12 nominees, all were declared elected by acclamation.

                Moved: Adjournment. Seconded, carried.

 The meeting was held at the Masonic Temple in St. John's on Sunday December 2. Chair, Frank Davis.

 1    Chair welcomed attendees and introduced the agenda.

 2    Chair stated the objectives and purpose of the meeting as outlined in the announcement circulated to the membership.

 3    Chair presented a review of the activities of the Society since its establishment, circulating two pages of documentation:

 Bluegrass Society Events Record 2003-2007

 Summary of Events 2003-2007

 The topic of the Society's T-shirts came up, and it was suggested from the floor that these could be sold at the Bay Roberts jam sessions and similar events.

4    Neil Rosenberg reported on the festival to date. (Report based on a two-page outline).

5    Ted Rowe reported on options for the future, covering five points:

      A    Constitute the Society as a non-profit incorporated organization.

      B    Decide if the mandate is to focus on bluegrass, old-time country, or a mixture of the two; and if the emphasis upon acoustic string music is to be kept.

      C    Decide if jams and coffee houses should continue as independent affairs or brought under the umbrella of the Society.

      D    Decide if the festival is to go ahead this year. The Province is putting in place funding for such events, to be available from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's festivals program. The application deadline is February 15, 2008. Nationally, the Department of Canadian Heritage has a program that subsidizes festivals connected with municipalities. The deadline for applying to the latter is January 14, 2008; applicants must be incorporated not-for-profit organizations.

      E    If the Society incorporates and decides to apply for funding for the festival to go ahead in 2008, then it must also decide upon the location of the festival. Surveys at the festival show that 50% of the attendees are from the St. John's/Mount Pearl area, the rest from outside the area.

 6    Wayne Miller led a facilitated discussion, focusing upon the preferences of the group for activities and events.

      A    The meeting was divided into three smaller groups each of which developed a list of activities they considered important. A list was created.

      B    Each participant was then given five post-it sheets on which to divide 100 points for the activities he or she considered most important.

      C    Here is the list along with the points received by each activity:

            Local concerts 310

           Grow old time 195

           Picking sessions/jams 195

           Bluegrass concerts 165

           Festival 150

           Web page 135

           Workshops 95

           Reach people not connected 95

           Coffee houses 60

           Encourage band development 30

     D    Based on this exercise Miller created a pyramid chart of the interests in a program of activities. At the base, representing the broadest support, was:

            Local concerts, coffee houses/jam sessions

      In the middle was:

            Workshops, skills

      At the pinnacle was:

            Festival

      Although no vote was taken, there was general agreement that this pyramid represented the consensus of the meeting.

      Miller raised the point that a balance needed to be struck between two streams of interest in the society, bluegrass and old-time country.

      E    In discussing incorporation and the development of the Society under this new structure, Miller suggested that the various issues could be dealt with through topical working groups and regional chapters.

      F    In discussing the objectives of the Society, Miller stated that although many bluegrass associations included "preservation" in their statements of objectives, he felt that what we are doing is more properly considered "celebrating" the music, and that this ought to be kept in mind when developing our list of objectives.

      G    In discussing the web page, Miller suggested that this is properly considered a tool, part of our structure.

 7    At Miller's suggestion, the chair collected the names of those present at the meeting who wished to be involved in a steering committee for incorporating as a non-profit organization. This includes:

      Ed Breen

     Frank Davis

     Clayton Kennedy

     Molly Kennedy

     Dave Kiell