BQPA/PIONEERS
Barbershop Quartet Preservation Association
Minutes: BOPA/Pioneers Board of Directors Meeting Chicago, Thursday, September 5, 2013The meeting was called to order at 3:55 pm. Attending were: Tom Noble (President), Lee Taylor (Vice-President), Gerry Carroll (VP, East), Jim Milner (VP, West), Jim Gallagher (Treasurer), Raymond Schwarzkopf (Assistant to Webmaster), Frank Fliszar (Membership Records Chair), Shel and Rosie Rosenthal (Registrars). Also attending were members June Noble (acting Scribe, in Secretary Ed Simons’ absence), Montana Jack Fitzpatrick, Frank Goode and Jerry Steffen.
Immediate Past President Jack Martin sent his regrets at being unable to attend this Festival. Although our Treasurer did not arrive until some time after the meeting started, quorum was declared and the agenda was undertaken.
The first order of business was the recognition of members and other singers Who had recently joined the “Chorus Eternal”. These included: Dave Mittelstadt (Eastemaires), Dickie Johnson (Chordiac Arrest), Russ Foris, Burt Huish (former Int’l President of SPEBSQSA), Craig Huotari, Harry Williamson (Regents), Harry’s son, Ed Williamson, George Johnson, Larry Clemons, Joe Warren (Avant Guard), Dick Reed (Avant Guard), Don Bagley (Chiefs of Staff), Jimmy Collins (old-time Pioneers member & bass), Kenny Tompkins, Ruby Rhea, Sally Briner. All rose and sang The Old Songs as a remembrance.
The Minutes of the previous Board of Directors meeting, in Tempe, AZ in the spring of this year, were read and accepted without amendment. President Noble read the list of actions taken since the last Board meeting, as follows:
Per actions at Spring Festival, Prez Noble officially appointed Lee Taylor Vice President of BQPA/Pioneers, and Jim Milner VP West.
Stu Willcox, as our Registered Agent, has submitted the required annual update of corporate officers’ names to the Secretary of State of Nevada, Where our corporation is registered
Assembly of BQPA/Pioneers Job Descriptions is now complete — being presented to Secretary for archives. A copy has been presented to VP Taylor. Some revisions are expected and will be passed along. Digital copies will be distributed to VP Taylor and Secretary Simons
A Festival press release was submitted to all Divisional bulletins & The Harmonizer.
No contributions payout to local Platoons, approved at our spring meeting, was requested by Platoons management this cycle.
Montana Jack, in collaboration with Keith Eckhardt and pursuant to discussion at our Spring Membership meeting, developed an Old Songs Survey, which collected significantly more than 200 entries.
Pursuant to approval at spring Board meeting to again rent a sound system for the Fall Festival, Tom Noble reserved same equipment as last year. Cost will be $265.00
A proposal by Tom Neal (at the spring Membership meeting) that BQPA/Pioneers organize and run a “Buffalo Bills” quartet contest, starting at the 2013 Fall Festival, was considered by the Board immediately after the Tempe festival, and was declined.
Tempe Festival Chairman’s Report — Jim Milner
The Tempe Festival in April of 2013 resulted in income of $844.00 in show and general donations, and $240.00 in new member dues, totaling $1084.00. Expenses totaled $905.54, including incidental items like our annual ASCAP fee of $19.00 and the annual fees for maintenance of our website ($79.86). The net was slightly positive, even though the fee for the ballroom had been raised and we paid for 2 pony kegs of beer, not all of which was consumed. The contract with the Embassy Suites in Tempe has been signed for our Festival in April of 2014. The price for the ballroom we had been using previously has risen beyond what we can afford, so we have elected to use the smaller, “L” shaped, Tempe ballroom on the second floor, which seats about 120, and in which the stage will be situated in the apex comer. Outside the ballroom is a foyer, also in an “L” shape, where we can set up our registration table, and sing. The upstairs ballroom is not close to being over the big ballroom, and there is no noise interference possible between them. There are 2 elevators available to the lobby for non stair climbers. The Tempe ballroom is also accessible from the 2nd floor guest rooms without going downstairs.
The price for the room is $250.00 + gratuity and tax, totaling about $305.00 per day.
Since we didn’t use even half of the beer chits in 2013, Jim ordered only one keg (about 90 glasses) for 2014. The total cost for the facilities and the beer will be about $800.00 vs. $570.00 last year.
The guest room rate will be $109.00, including the usual amenities such as complete breakfast and a free “Manager’s Reception” (happy hour). Shel and Rosie commented that since we are already close to spending more than We collect in donations, we will need to consider what to do for accommodations for the spring Festival in 2015 and thereafter. It was also noted that there will be a schedule conflict in 2015, due to main Christian and Jewish holidays occurring the same week as we usually gather. Further conflict exists due to the college and university visitors, especially parents, who take up many hotel rooms around the time of our Festivals.
Chicago Festival Chairman’s Report — Gerry Carroll
We have the same $69.00 guest room rate this year at the Hillside Best Western as last year, with the Lafayette room, a keg of beer and the daily breakfast thrown in at no charge.
Some schedule discrepancies regarding the meeting room and beer keg availability are probably due to minor misunderstandings between Don Fee and John, the function rooms manager, here at the Best Western — nothing that couldn’t be worked out, and in fact, was. (In fact, Don is arranging for soda and bottle beer to be placed in the Lafayette room this evening, in the absence of the beer keg...)
Gerry reminded us all to compliment management at Best Western, as such compliments grease the negotiation wheels for the next year. We were also reminded to tip the wait staff appropriately, especially in the breakfast room. .. Gerry expects to be negotiating with Don Fee for next year’s Festival within about the next month. He has also asked Raymond Schwartzkopf to assist in the negotiations and to understudy Gerry in his Festival East VP duties and organizational activities. Gerry also reminded us that Dave Brady should be complimented on his work to organize the golfing, which has gone very well.
Talent Chair’s Report — Raymond Schwarzkopf
There are conflicts on Saturday, 9/7/2013, with a concurrent SAI educational weekend and an annual retreat by the Village Vocal Chords chorus, so it’s unlikely that We’ll have any women’s quartets appearing on our Saturday parade. Raymond received 4 “yes” replies from quartets for Saturday evening, 4 “maybe”, and l9 “no” responses.
He also arranged to have Ray Henders come and Emcee our parade. (Ray says he has “three new jokes”, which may or may not be the case. . .) Raymond also noted that his schedule is very tight, as he has to drive to Ft. Wayne, Indiana to coach a group there as soon as the Friday contest is over, but will be back for the Saturday parade.
Webmaster’s Report — Jim Milner
The list of Top 25 Favorites from the Old Songs Survey has been put up on the BQPA/Pioneers website.
Registration Chairs’ Report — Shel & Rosie Rosenthal
Taking the numbers from the roster, we currently have about 300 members. In Tempe, only about 60 registered, although significantly more of our members actually attended, and Rosie and Shel encouraged us to request members to register and update their address information. It’s also important so we can determine how many members actually attend our Festivals. About 16 new members joined in Tempe.
Shel and Rosie noted that they had requested the use of an easel in Tempe and were warned that we would be charged $20.00 or $30.00 extra. However, it does not appear that such an extra charge was included on the invoice for our Tempe Festival. Shel warned us that donations may not be sufficient to cover our future expenses in Tempe if the expenses rise as we seem to be expecting. It was agreed that we need to be aware of this, and that it needs to be watched.
Rosie and Shel are submitting their resignations as Registrars, effective at the end of this Festival. They ask that we put out a request for replacements.
Membership Records Chair’s Report — Frank Fliszar
Our roster has 303 members listed. There was considerable discussion on whether some of the data elements on our current database (and some of which appear on our name-tags) continue to be useful. Montana Jack and Raymond both suggested that we ask Keith Eckhardt to take a look at our database with a view towards eliminating superfluous fields. Raymond also suggested we look at digital registration methods. Frank was asked to correspond with Raymond and possibly Keith, and he agreed to provide a report on the data elements in the database, to facilitate discussion on whether to retain some of the data. Obsolete data may be difficult to maintain, and if it becomes stale may not be useful at all, representing a cost rather than an asset. President Noble asked Frank to take this discussion off line, and report back to the Board.
Other Old Business
Montana Jack reported on the results from Old Songs Survey, which was authorized by our organization at the 2013 Tempe Festival. About 250 people responded to the survey that was organized by Jack and Keith Eckhardt. It was presented first on the BQPA/Pioneers Google email group and then on the Harmonet, resulting in the list of the top 25 favorites that has been published on the BQPA/Pioneers website and our email group. Paper copies of the list are available at the registration table.
Jack has presented the Top 25 Favorites list to Adam Scott, at BHS headquarters, with a view towards encouraging the possible publication of something like a “Treasured Old Songs” songbook. Jack will follow up with Adam to see if this can be moved forward.
Jack mentioned his concem that we encourage younger folks to come join us.
Jim Gallagher presented the Treasurer’s Report, which is appended to these minutes. Our current overall balance is $6320.16, after all expenses from the Tempe Festival. The report was accepted.
New Business
Mounting a recruitment effort for new Chair(s) for BQPA Registration Desk was discussed further. Some suggestions have been made: Don Doss, Bill Meyers, Maggie and Gary Mathews, Harlan Mellem and Jerry Larsen. President Noble will approach these suggested folks... It was suggested that candidates should be tech capable
Adopting the draft BQPA/Pioneers “Key Notes” song list was discussed. The discussion went towards offering this on our website, and a motion was made by Carroll and seconded by Gallagher to place the list on the website — the motion passed. Gallagher suggested adding asterisks to denote the to 25 favorites. Raymond suggested offering the song list on the website, but only after getting the requestor’s name and email address, inviting them to our next event. Raymond offered to provide and implement a widget or daemon to collect the information and automatically provide the response and the Key Notes pdf. We agreed to take this off line and see if this can be implemented. Trying to initiate a festival in the East, Southeast or Northwest, or CHANGING our Western venue, Shel suggested we consider moving the western Festival to either the west coast (Portland or Seattle) or Salt Lake City, so as to encourage new members from those areas. Montana Jack has a contact in Portland who may be willing to organize such a Festival. Lee suggested that expecting growth could not be assumed... Raymond notes that the northwestem barbershoppers are rabid... Adding a Festival was not recommended. It was agreed that this topic would be presented to the membership at the general meeting, for their reactions. It was agreed that this should be tabled for further discussion, and brought up at the spring meetings in Tempe. Consideration of buying top 25 songs from BHS for next festival was dropped. It was noted that Rosie has copies of each and every one of the top 25 songs with her, in a folder, should anyone wish to sing one of the songs from the sheet music.
Consideration for codifying moderators’ criteria for approval of messages submitted for posting to the BQPA mail group. A draft of proposed criteria accompanied the agenda. Discussion included mention of the moderators being Jack Martin and the Google group owner, Keith Hopkins, purportedly a BQPA member who is not listed on our roster. Raymond discussed moderation styles and mechanisms, suggesting that the moderators should not be officers of the organization, but should consult with the President and/or the BOD as necessary. A motion to accept the draft criteria was passed. Mechanisms for moderation of our GoogleGroup need to be investigated before applying moderation criteria.
The possibility of removing Val Hicks’ “Dangers Of Sophistication” article from our website was discussed at some length. The article already has been relegated to a position on our website that’s somewhat difficult to find. The article seems dated and offensively exclusionary and sexist, especially given our encouragement of female membership and participation. Its warnings against the use of good musical and vocal techniques are uncomfortable to many BQPA/Pioneers members, especially those who have retained their membership in BHS, Harmony, Inc., and/or Sweet Adelines International. Lee Taylor knew Val Hicks quite well and believes that Val would be embarrassed to have the article representing his legacy exclusively. Raymond knew Val as well, and believes that there are some aspects of and concepts in the article which we should preserve. It was moved and seconded that the article be removed from the website. Raymond requested that the file be preserved, and the link to it just removed . The Board asked Raymond to draft a replacement article, referring back to the Hicks article which would continue to be available on the BHS site.
Other New Business
Raymond asked whether BQPA/Pioneers is as an organization willing to grow into technical and digital presence. Should we not move towards digital registration? He’s concerned with succession planning and broader communications. VP Lee asked Raymond to summarize technical possibilities — what would be relevant, what the low-hanging fruit might be, and report back to the Board, and Raymond agreed. Are there tools we can use to enhance our PR and our contact with interested parties? I Are there tech tools to simplify registration, and perhaps pre- registration applications, to enhance the information we have in hand prior to each of our events?
Frank Goode presented a proposal that we (BQPA/Pioneers), or volunteers from our organization, visit various senior centers and assisted living residences, to sing for the residents, many of whom can sing, and encourage them to form quartets and to come to our performances and sing with and for us. In a later discussion with Frank his suggestion was fleshed out a bit. We might ask for volunteers to identify a couple of places (for instance, Frank is living at the very large Concord residence), arrange a visit or two, fonn a presentable quartet, go out and perform and encourage residents to consider forming quartets, but certainly to come and attend our event. This would require some effort on the pan of the volunteers, but might result in more folks, especially women, coming to our events and participating. The Board thanked Frank for his patience and for his thoughtful suggestions, and the topic was to be mentioned at the Membership meeting on Saturday. A motion to adjourn was entertained, seconded and passed, and the meeting adjourned as approximately 7:00 PM