CALL TO ORDER
Chair Geoff Sargent called the meeting to order at 10:05 AM on Saturday February 10, 2018 at the Brandli home, 2106 9th Avenue, Oakland, CA.
ROLL CALL
Board Members Present: David Brace, Yennie Brecheisen, Jessica Furui, Brandon Godman, Mark Hogan, Chuck Hurd, Larry Phegley, Geoffrey Sargent Board Members participating via conference phone: Mikki Feeney
Board Members Absent: Bruce Campbell, David Gooding
Officers and Coordinators Present: Darby Brandli, Valerie Cornejo, Colleen Hogan, Ted Kuster, Carl Pagter, Lucy Smith Members Present: Bruno Brandli, Emil Nishi
SETTING OF THE AGENDA
The agenda was approved with four changes
APPROVAL OF THE JANUARY BOARD MEETING MINUTES
The January 13 minutes were approved as written.
PERSONS DESIRING TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON UNAGENDIZED ITEMS
None
OLD BUSINESS
Area Activities Vice Presidents:
Statewide Activities VP Ted Kuster reported that he had a good meeting with Area Activities VPs at the Great 48 in January. They shared ideas about what is working and not working in their areas.
Year-Round Appointments:
–The Mercantile Coordinator position is open. Whoever takes over must be able to tow and store the mercantile trailer and travel to various festivals.
–The Corporate Sponsorship Coordinator will now help keep track of all sponsors.
CBAontheweb.org:
The old website http://www.cbaontheweb.org was not forwarding to the new website https://www.cbaweb.org/. It has since been fixed.
Scott Gates VP for LA area:
Scott Gates was approved as Area VP for the Los Angeles area.
August board meeting location & date:
The August meeting was originally planned for the Old Time Campout at Lake Sonoma before the campout was moved to Sycamore Ranch near Marysville. The date and location of the August meeting is pending until we know if Sycamore Ranch has meeting space.
Point of Order:
To maintain a congenial and productive atmosphere during CBA board meetings, the board agreed to adopt “point of order” guidelines to stop action should inappropriate or disruptive comments occur.
NEW BUSINESS
Naval Postgraduate School Booth:
The board approved a small fee required to have a CBA Booth at the Naval Academy Leisure Fair.
Salesforce Presentation:
The board agreed to begin the process of moving the CBA membership database to Salesforce after a demonstration by Ted Kuster.
Mercantile Gas Allowance: This item was tabled until the board has a chance to review the idea of creating a paid mercantile position.
FDF Appointments:
–Chuck Hurd has agreed to be the Safety & Hospitality Coordinator.
–The Mercantile Booth can cover water sales. This was previously shared with the raffle booth.
–We are still looking for a Transportation Coordinator to transport the supplies from storage to the fairgrounds and back. We may need to hire a moving company to handle this.
–The former Mercantile Coordinators have agreed to handle mercantile at the 2018 festival if we don’t find someone to replace them in time.
–Geoff Sargent and Dave Gooding need to put together a team to set up the Vern’s Stage.
New Logo Revelation:
The 5-year planning committee hopes to launch the new branding in Fall 2018. The final 3-4 concepts will be presented at the March board meeting. Yennie Brecheisen has joined the committee.
Wintergrass Support:
The board authorized the expense to support the CBA’s presence at Wintergrass 2018. There is no showcase suite, but there will be a jamming room plus use of a small conference room in the evenings where they will put up a CBA banner, distribute Breakdowns, etc.
Havasu Booth:
There are currently no plans to have a CBA booth at the Havasu festival.
FDF Pride Booth:
The board discussed the pros and cons of having a Bluegrass Pride booth at FDF 2018. The purpose would be to raise money and distribute information about the upcoming Pride Parade and other outreach events and activities. In the end the board supported having a booth at the festival.
Bluegrass Karaoke at FDF:
Brandon Godman brought up the idea of Bluegrass Karaoke sessions during the dinner break on Friday night at FDF, giving patrons the opportunity to sit in with a professional band for a small donation. The board supports this idea, but a few details need to be worked out such as location and sound.
REPORTS
Executive Committee:
The Executive Committee approved several items between meetings:
–Donation of excess guitars from the CBA Lending Library to Heroes’ Voices
–The expense to purchase generator connections for FDF
–Stage cost increase for FDF
–Donation of two, 4-day FDF tickets for raffle at Shingle Springs Concert
–Donation of two, 4-day FDF tickets for KKUP auction
–A donation to the Morgan Hill Grange, site of many CBA and other bluegrass events throughout the year
Membership:
Membership Coordinator Larry Phegley reported that January was a busy month with 125 changes to membership so far this year. The number of current members is 2,621.
Treasurer:
Valerie Cornejo went over the current financials, as emailed to the board before the meeting. The tax package has already been sent to John Green.
Music Camp:
Geoff Sargent announced that Music Camp registration opened just a few days ago, on 2/7/18. He did not have any numbers yet to report.
Youth Program & President’s Report:
–Darby and Bruno Brandli, Randy January, Dave Gooding and Mark Hogan spent a day going through the Lending Library inventory and got rid of a total of 36 instruments. 15 guitars were donated to Heroes’ Voices. Mark took some of the banjos to refurbish and sell at People’s Music. The money will be donated back to the Lending Library.
–Along with the donated guitars, the CBA has coordinated with Heroes’ Voices to hold two guitar workshops for veterans at the year’s Father’s Day Festival. They were given (3) festival comps to help staff the workshops.
–John Green is donating fiddles to the Lending Library.
–Darby is offering 5 of the FDF family comps to families from the Visalia Golden Grass Program.
–Jack Tuttle and Darby have taken over putting together the songbook for Youth Academy.
–The design for the Kids on Bluegrass t-shirts has been approved.
–The Berkeley Old Time Music Convention (BOTMC) wants to sponsor a youth band at their Spring Fling. The board authorized payment of a small stipend to the kids who participate.
–The CBA has an invitation to participate in the Berkeley Bluegrass Festival May 19-20.
–The board authorized money to help send North Country Blue to a Women in Music event in Los Angeles on March 25
FDF: David Brace had no additional items to discuss.
Area Activities VP’s:
Mark Hogan (North Bay) –The CBA has sponsored the jam stage at the Cloverdale Old Time Fiddle Festival for the past several years and has a booth presence there. The board approved the sponsorship again in 2018.
Larry Phegley (South Bay/Monterey Bay) – Volume 5 will be at Night at the Grange on 2/24 in Morgan Hill. Bean Creek is playing at Michael’s on Main in Soquel on March 14.
Lucy Smith (Butte/Tehama) – Lucy is not doing any Spring concerts this year but plants to host the Kathy Kallick Band in September and Banjo Extravaganza in November. She plans to do one more year as an Area VP and one more year as IBMA Liaison.
Stan Allen (Central San Joaquin) – Stan reported through Darby that he is working on a new idea he has for Bluegrass in the Park in Clovis that he will discuss with the board at a future meeting.
Chair’s Report:
Geoff Sargent had nothing additional to report.
CONFIRM TIME AND PLACE FOR THE NEXT BOARD MEETING
The next meeting is 11:00 AM on Sunday, March 11, 2018 at Lagunitas Brewery, 1280 N. McDowell Blvd., Petluma, CA 94954.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 3:25 pm.