Holyoke Local Cultural Council Meeting August 28, 2023

Holyoke Local Cultural Council Meeting Minutes                                          August 28, 2023

Location: Holyoke City Hall, meeting room adjacent to ballroom

In attendance: Anne, Tim, Chloe, Chris D, Navae, Koco, Nadia, Chris F (ex-officio)

Absent: Gloria, Gabriela, Mark

Agenda

Grantee communications

Treasurer’s report

Review of HLCC-sponsored events

Grant writing workshop updates

General announcements

Previous business

Other business

Opening Remarks

• Meeting moved up one week due to Labor Day holiday per council vote
• Welcome new members: Chloe and Chris D.
• Held introductions

Grantee communications

• Anne passed around two items – a flyer from Premier Entertainment about Fanfare Brass Choir happening on Friday 9/8 at the library. Second item — note of appreciation from Enchanted Circle Theater folks for funding creative youth arts lab for LGBTQIA+ youth in Holyoke.

Treasurer’s report

• Two requests for reimbursement for 2023 year = one for Sounds of Summer and one for Find Your Voice. 
• Leaves 2023 amount reimbursed = $35,979.45
• Still encumbered for 2023 = $51,598.55
• No changes for 2022 or 2021 (see notes from meeting on 8.7.23)
• Chris D inquired about difference between “encumbered” and “unencumbered”
  • Encumbered = amount that has been awarded in funding and now reimbursed
  • Unencumbered = amount that has been awarded in funding but not reimbursed
• Tim – more action happening with 2023 as more grantees are seeking reimbursement

Review of HLCC-sponsored events

• Tim went to event at Holyoke Media last Friday, 4 singer songwriters who performed their own sets. It was not sponsored by HLCC, but expressed opinion that this organization and facility are wonderful. 

Grant writing workshop updates

• Wednesday September 13th at Holyoke Media from 6:30-8 pm
• Facebook page event was made
• Flyers have not been made – Anne inquired about whether folks would like to have flyers made
• Tim – word of mouth seems to be most effective
• Anne – agreed that Facebook and word of mouth are typically most effective forms of marketing
• Nadia – suggested having it posted on Explore Holyoke calendar. Koco is sharing with Explore Holyoke
• Chloe – inquired about existence of Instagram account and talked about different audiences. Youth use Instagram, Facebook engages older audience. Having an HLCC account could help engage more youth. 
  • Question of whether anyone is interested in running an Instagram account, no one volunteered but will still keep it in conversation for future meetings
  • Navae – asked if we want to split up responsibilities and have council members take over specific time periods of managing IG account.
  • Chloe – asked if we have interns, Anne confirmed none exist however the city is making more effort to engage with youth on committees etc
• Anne updated slides and they are in HLCC folder on drive 
  • Question of how we want to conduct workshop. Presentation followed by roundtable discussions?
  • Question of prior attendance. Last one only had 4 attendees. Prior years have had more attendees to workshop.
• Chloe brought up relationship with Holyoke Community College and engaging with art students, trying to get more people to engage with applying for grants
  • Anne brought up encouragement of taking on different tasks with HLCC including engaging with different audiences
• MCC is doing online grant writing workshop Sept 12 online at 6 pm (details on MCC website)
• Tim – asked if Holyoke Media is promoting event. Anne confirmed no because it is our event, not theirs. 
• Discussion of format of workshop
  • Typically in past, grantees
  • Navae: started with presentation to explain process. Afterwards there is usually Q&A (often conversations are about whether things are fundable, etc). Navae liked prior workshops where we had small round table conversations in the past and then larger group discussion.
  • Chris F talked about benefits of having small group discussions and relationships you can build
• Chloe asked about whether a flyer exists, volunteered to make one if someone shares basic details (Anne agreed to; will send copy from FB event)
• Chris D – asked about how people learn about cultural council. Anne – much of it is person-to-person communication or follow up with past grantees. There is social media presence. Anne noted someone could make a flyer about this process.
• Chris F noted that people will find out about process/grant eligibility from others shouting out HLCC for their prior support. Schools that are doing productions know that HLCC wants to support youth arts events and have funding available.
  • Koco talked about how information is received from different places. Not as much outreach on HLCC’s part – rely on the state to push some of the messaging. 
  • Anne – could lean on city to support outreach
  • Requirement for organization to acknowledge receipt of HLCC funds in their communications/marketing
  • Chris F talked about local library promoting eligibility for HLCC funded events. Institutions often share their experiences/relationships with HLCC
  • Anne – talked about making buttons that say “ask me how to get free money” 
  • Chloe – suggested making pins with QR code that links to website for grants
  • Anne – suggestion of making this long term goal of outreach and engagement
  • Tim – talked about same grantee recipients and wanting to expand scope/audience of grantees
• Grant writing workshop:
  • Slides + presentation in advance
  • Will determine whether to do larger group conversation or small groups
  • Chloe – suggested to make PSA and have Holyoke Media share it with community colleges, good way to get the word out. Chloe volunteered to make script for PSA and will connect with Bevan from Holyoke High School about having students record
  • Nadia made one-pager about sustainability grants, will update to include more detail about organizations/eligibility. Anne will help edit

General announcements

• No announcements

Previous business

• Tim asked if we are entering into Brick Race. Anne noted that we could. Chris D asked what it was – Anne clarified it is like a boxcar race, but with bricks. 
  • HLCC has done a brick before, Art-Zilla, Prince tribute, David Bowie tribute, Van Halen tribute
  • Date of event: Saturday October 14th in the morning
  • HLCC will do Brick Race. Chris suggested “disco inferno” as theme. Council members agreed on theme of “Barbie disco inferno” for brick
• Last date of grantee submissions: October 17th
  • Chris inquired about presence of potential grantees at Brick Race and last minute applications. It would be good for us to have a presence. Many grantees submit last minute.

Other business

• Question of revisiting bylaw discussion
• Navae – MCC has booklet of guidelines for local cultural councils. If we were to address things at local level, it might be things that MCC doesn’t specify (e.g. meeting attendance – would still require legal review, etc). 
• Navae – does it need to be bylaws or can it be guidelines?
• Chris D – do we need bylaws in general? What is the purpose? Asked if there was a prior situation that points to the importance of having bylaws, no one commented that there was.
• Koco – brought up this coming up in several meetings, doesn’t think there seems to be enough interest. The general approach with the council is that if you want to see something happen or take something on, as long as you check in with the council you have the autonomy to move forward.
• Navae – talked about prior situation with meeting attendance that suggest the importance of having bylaws. Do we just need a bylaw about attendance?
  • What is the current number of meetings to require for attendance (or maximum number of absences) in order to stay on the council?
  • One example is missing three meetings in a row. 
• Not having enough members present affects quorum. 
• This comes back to grant writing process – we need people present to review grants and vote
• If not enough people are in the same room and have read the grants for our grant review meetings in November, it prevents us from achieving quorum, which in turns prevents us from doing our work as the HLCC
• Need to ensure that council members have read the grants in advance, consider them and vote on their eligibility
• Anne talked about council members eligibility for grants
• Chris D – volunteered to work on guidelines  project
• Navae – also volunteered to work on guidelines project 
• Question of what it would look like or be called – Navae is in favor of simplifying
• Cultural councils don’t have bylaws but non-profits (like arts councils that are non-profits do)
• Koco noted that information is available on MCC website about LCC 
• Navae – inquired about survey feedback. Anne does not have surveys here but will send out e-mail to council. Per the results of our most recent community survey, our 2024 funding priorities are: Public events like concerts or festivals, Field trips for students to museums or performances, Arts education in the schools, and Support for community arts and cultural organizations
• We will receive $63,800 in funding this year from the state. We will be bringing funds from 2021 that when  unencumbered may increase total to $75-$80K. 
• Chloe inquired about existence of e-mail for HLCC – there is Gmail account (holyokeculture@gmail.com) otherwise we use our individual e-mails

Tim motioned to adjourn meeting at 7:35, Chloe seconded. Unanimous vote. Meeting adjourned 7:35pm