Southborough Cultural Arts Council - Regular Meeting

we're going to kick off our meeting I here at 7:05 bear with me one second um shoot hang on what happened to my document that I was just work on oh For Pet's Sake while you're pulling it up I can go ahead and roll call attendance um we have and so if each member could vote or respond present um so reani Kamari yes present Jane Gates present Liz keslan present Kate heisner present um and then Katherine Weber and Nicole bolos um are both absent um I believe we have Quorum with four for Massachusetts state law we wouldn't have Quorum um for mass culture voting on our on our grants but given that we're not having a voting discussion on the grants tonight I think we can move forward with with the session um so I'll I'll pause there and we can move perhaps into the um meeting agenda I don't know Liz if you have your document up now I do thanks yeah Kate for some reason I could not open any of the attachments that you sent today and I don't know why it's you know I it's interesting because I actually just had that problem I had logged in earlier this afternoon to get

everything ready for the conversation tonight so that everything was up um because we have kids running around like between 400 and 6:30 here is a little crazy and I knew I wouldn't have time to do it prior to the meeting and then when I came back later I had the same problem I couldn't open those documents either um so I just pulled them up again um while I was waiting to get started I couldn't open them either but I assumed it was because of the fact that I'm on an iPad no I don't think so I think there was a glitch I do too okay all right that makes me feel better um do uh so the meeting um the minutes were submitted does that mean they're online for the third yeah I have them right here if we want to just take a quick look um okay so we have this was um our December 11th um minutes and then our December third so we'll start with the third they were short um you know I don't know if everyone had a chance to review them but um essentially just outlining uh the grant discussion um our review of the grant packet and then our um you know basically decision-making process um and then folks that want to prob into that more of the recoring is available so that's the um December 3rd minutes and then the December 11th minutes that was just highlighting the revision that we made um due to the fact that we had one grant that had been approved that um in fact wasn't there was an error that wasn't designated for the town of Southboro so um I think we need to vote on just our approval of those two minutes um and I think that in in order to vote we need to say um I so if everyone could go around um we could have a motion to

approve okay is that enough to say motion to approve yeah great right um and then I can go into point two here our update on Grant dispersements um so you would have all been C copied on um the sort of procedural notes that I sent out in December highlighting sort of our steps for getting this information to uh grantees um and also submitting our acceptance packet to mass culture so we can check off both of those items that's been completed the acceptance packet with our notes went into mass culture well before the deadline um and then we sent out letters of approval to all the grant recipients that folks were B you should have been bccd on those yeah and just to add so I have Saed all of those just for a reference good idea Kate for next year um so I have in case you were wondering I have a folder I do not have the most recent version of the spreadsheet ran do you have that I think there's probably a newer version than the last one that I touched uh nope [Music] um let's set if we don't have it let's set that as an action item because we should update it and circulate it yes um so what I can do since I'm the person that sent out the since I'm the person

that sent out the letter I can update that um and then send it to you all if that works um um we did 6400 even correct we did 6,400 even um the one adjustment that we should discuss um and I believe I sent a note out about this was that um when I is reviewing the essentially all of the grant allocation um in our grant fund issued from the state and managed by town there was a Delta I can't remember the exact number I circulated this by email it was about $200 um that had been encumbered for a prior year Grant so in other words last year when Grant dispersements and decisions were made there was an overage so we issued more funding than was available in the grant fund um I think that there were a few administrative errors um that are not the fault of any one person so this is not intended to be finger pointing it's just transparency for you know going forward I think um there was some money that had been distributed over the amount that we had available to us which which meant that we had a shortage in that account by about $200 so when we had our voting meeting we are making our decision based on 6,400 allocated by the state um for this funding cycle um but in fact because 200 of that had been

encumbered for last year we were $200 short so I discussed this with Town um because we have another fund that's essentially discretionary funds um that have been raised over time for the Cultural Arts Council to use and rather than going back and calling another voting meeting I asked if we could encumber $200 of that I think there are 1,500 currently available um to apply to one of the grants um and I chose the library one of the library programs just because that's a town program it's easier administratively for the cash to just go directly to them that way still able to we were still able to issue the full award it's just that only I think 200 or so dollars of one of the library programs will come from our grant fund the rest will come from our other discretionary okay got it um so it's just it's something um for us to be mindful of going forward um you know when we actually caught this over the summer um and it wasn't entirely clear to me like where the shortage fell and how that was going to be um rectified but I think that this is a good solution now at the time it hadn't hit the it hadn't hit the books yet so it was still reflecting as the like that we had a positive amount in our grant fund when in fact that had not that was just not the case um you know receipts had been issued and or reimbursements had been issued it just hadn't hit yet so it wasn't entirely visible so um you know we have a process in place now with uh town to review some of these data points on a quarterly basis such that we have a more accurate picture um because I personally don't want this that to happen again um and I I expressed that

so I think everyone's really committed to having a more organized process um just for you know accounting purposes making sure that we're on top of things so that's a little bit of context into kind of that discussion but I you know I I didn't I thought about it I was like do we need to vote this again I don't think so because we're still going to be doing the full award amount it's just going to come from a different Source in this particular case sounds smart okay yeah yeah and we do have the budget request in um to town I think we requested around $4,000 I don't know if that entire amount will be approved it has to it'll be included in town meeting um but I'm confident that we'll get at least some funding from from town um as long as you know we use it toward Town priorities um in the Arts so I'm confident that we can you know make up whatever we issued for this particular Grant okay I appreciate that I hadn't understood what went on I was trying to figure it out from the information that's made it clear thank you yeah yeah thanks for that so um how about this I have um I have it pretty well updated the grant the basically the working document it's an Excel spreadsheet which I think is more user friendly I'll circulate that around um after the meeting and then [Music] um the next couple Fields like that columns don't need to be filled in all have to do with reimbursement and what have you so Ranna you can own this from here if you'd like um you can make the updates and then share with us and go around if you'd

like okay okay okay um okay so what do we have to do next for the so there are a couple things um so I requested um and we don't need to discuss all of this tonight I think you know tonight we can kind of see how we feel it's the first meeting of the calendar year you know we can look ahead and see what we want to accomplish over the next few meetings but um in terms of a few things that we need to start getting our heads around um we need to um plan some sort of Grant reception um we also and this is my recommendation this is not a mandate from m culture need a Communications plan around the grants that we have awarded in other words perhaps putting together some sort of I press release is a strong word I don't think it needs to be a formal press release it's something to share on our Facebook page and through other channels promoting what we accomplished in this grant cycle um when I sent out the acceptance letter or the award letter to all of the grantees I requested a couple of different things including a head shot approved language for how we can promote the event um Etc and I gave a deadline of January 31st so I think after um the 31st we'll have all of the digital assets um to be able to put together some sort of statement or press release that we can push out congrat congratulating their grantees um and then promoting the

events on our Facebook page so those are two things um and then the third thing um that I would recommend we do this year um before you know we conclude in May um is inviting some of the folks uh both that we declined um and also that we awarded grants too um to some of our upcoming meetings so that we can start to get to know folks that are interested in receiving grants but perhaps didn't provide enough information in their application to be successful um or um so we can have a discussion with them about you know how what they're doing how we can support them um and then you know for grantees that were awarded funds um to get to know their project a little better such that we can perhaps attend it um and just have a more visible presence with some of these groups that that we're supporting um so those were kind of three things that I just wanted to flag tonight we don't need to come up with a plan because candidly we don't have enough information back yet from all to really determine what makes sense um but you know that that would be my recommendation as a Point of Departure for our February conversation okay I do have a question and I don't know whether I should wait till we finish this run through or not but I did have something come up that I found kind of confusing about the times that people are that the applicants are getting their um notification uh apparently well from what I again this is interesting because my sister is one is in the inur bandage she found it very confusing so I just you know want I could ask for some clarification when you think it's a good

time to bring that up um well let's let me um actually nav's probably F let me just um wrap this up take some notes because this is important topics for our next um couple meetings so just to reiterate what you were saying Kate and get it in writing um sort of our upcoming to-do list is planning the grant reception which we know um determining how and when to communicate the grants to the public I.E Facebook Etc um and then our third initiative would be new for us which is really determining um a strategy to out for outreach to both grantees who were approved and denied um basically to um develop um relationships and Community you know sort of community recognition um do you guys want to table all of these and put them on the agenda for next time do you want to prioritize them before we move on I have a comment on that but I want to allow space Forni and Jane to to respond before I do um it's I have no idea I'm open it's okay um Rani do you have a sense of like what you like to you think we should prior next um I don't have any idea um that's okay it's kind of a lofty list I know Kate um they kind of came from you do you do you think that we should prioritize planning the grant reception so that we have one sooner rather than

later I think it's a both and so I I think that we should at this is my recommendation I don't want to be directive in how we how we do this but if we um reverse engineer from May uh I think what makes the most sense is to select a date for the grant reception um and basically also identify as a group what our objectives are for that Grant reception I know we sort of have a template format that we've used in the past do we want to repeat that do we want to enhance it um with some of the funds we're anti anticipating receiving perhaps you know have like a panel of the artists speak you know something do something like that um and we should probably determine a date um about two to three months out from whenever we send the press release such that people can have like a save the date and have it on their calendar and we can generate some audience for it um but I I think that that date should be included in the whatever announcement we circulate about um the grant Awards so in other words we should in February you know make some decisions at that meeting about um what and how we're communicating by the end of this month we'll have the information that we need to put together some language around an announcement that we could review together at the February meeting um and then have like a very um proor a basic comps plan to get this stuff out um including the date to the reception that way we're killing two birds with one stone and we don't have to like you know reinvent the wheel each time that would be my recommendation um and we have invitations out um just you know to kind of soften the decline to some of the folks that had good Grand applications but that we denied I did suggest to them you know we would be open to would you

be open to coming in and talking to us at a future meeting um and so we could actually earmark like 15 minutes at the end of the next next couple meetings for like an artist conversation to invite them in whether it's virtual or in person um so that that Ball's kind of already rolling a little bit so to speak does that I mean how does that feel that's just kind of logically what makes sense in my mind when I think about the flow it sounds good to me the only thing is I don't know why but last year and the year before we did our grant reception in February was there a reason why we did it so early in the year is there a sense of urgency I don't I mean it's I think it's probably's preference um we had we had organized last year was my first time participating so I was sort of just watching and supporting um but when I reviewed all of the mass culture materials prior like when we were readying this grant cycle it did seem as if many of the um lccs actually host their Grant reception in the spring my hunch is probably because that's like a nice time to do it the weather's probably a little better um I don't know if that that's a mandate I don't think it is but that that's what it looked like um okay and on the M culture website their timeline included um like May or June for a grand reception that sounds great okay that gives us a lot more flexibility too in a lot more time okay um that sounds good to me so okay so Jane I haven't forgotten you so we we can focus on sort of the

two-pronged approach there for our next meeting which is sort of planning out the grant reception at a minimum discussing the objective this the date and what have you and then also talking about a communication plan of the grants and the reception that could probably be the meat and potatoes for our next meeting um and of course the status on what's going on with the grant dispersements um okay so I think then at that point this point then anything that we really kind of had on the agenda for today we have covered unless there was anything else you wanted and then we could turn it over to Jane with her comments yeah no I I concur I think that we've covered everything um um I want to congratulate everyone on you know a successful cycle I think you know we the line share of the work is complete and that's great um and then I'm trying to remember there if there's been anything else that I would share that's happened um I think you know if we could could just flag in in the minutes or in the agenda um that we do need to have a meeting um to go over and reani this could just be like a quick touch base that we do offline um the basically how we're tracking the reimbursement process um and make sure that we're on the same page and Instinct with Carla so I did tell her that we would reach out end of January for a meeting so we should we should do that at some point probably last of this month first week of February yeah why don't you

to do that in between this meeting and the next meeting and then we'll put it on the okay on the agenda for next time that sounds great okay um that's it excuse me okay so Jane tell give us some texture on what the question was I was sort of half listening when you brought it up before I was concentrating on some of these other items understandable uh just a question on the timing of the notification of the recipients between the difference between the state and the town because for example um that particular band they got a response on the 31st from Massachusetts saying that you have gotten this um award from uh you know scac and then on the ninth she got something from you and that said that she had now since she do apply to a couple of other people they got really confused because uh it looked like well does that mean we got two 250s or just one 150 and since the terminology coming from uh Southboro was scac and most people don't think about the letters I mean you use them when you're working in it all the time but for her she just kind of skimmed over that and thought it was one was from Southboro and the other one she thought they were both from Southboro and that makes a lot of sense I'm you're saying [Music] we they're they're sell they're sent to different times for the same thing and it'sing for the recipient she at first thought it came from

Westboro because it just said SC uh you know scac and she didn't really she slid by that until she realized wait a minute that's not the amount that West per was going to say they were going to do blah blah blah um and she got really confused as to what was coming from where and which was Massachusetts and which was the town was Southboro and how much she actually got because she notified the band leader and then went oops goofed and had to you know fix the problem so I guess they go out all they go out at different times yeah so the um the steps are I'm just pulling up the letter I don't know this is an example this is I don't know if this is the same yeah I think it is but um okay so the the process is as follows and the grantees should be I'm not discounting the question I think that if there's a procedural hiccup then then we should address it um that said I do think it's important for granes to be aware of the process um and it's their responsibility once they apply for funding to familiarize themselves with the website um and the process with the state is that we submit an acceptance packet documenting officially what funds we've encumbered and by how much um as soon as we submit that acceptance to MX culture that's all handled digitally um it generates an automated message I I think it's I don't know how personalized it is but it it is automated from mass culture um into indicating to the grantee whether or not they um you know were

awarded funding and from what council um our letter does not use acronyms for the one that we from our committee right sent out we do not use acronyms um so ours was pretty specific um and the purpose of the letter from our council is to congratulate the grantee and then to provide a little bit more detail on what's actually required of them for the reimbursement so each notification serves a slightly different purpose and it's super important for grantees when they're applying for funding to be aware of that um so that's something that we can help them with but I I I guess I just want to stress that it is their responsibility to to know that I understand I understand that I just wanted to know because they came uh more than two weeks apart which was what and I had asked her they've gotten grants for years and said she said this has never happened before so that's so our our letter came earlier or later than the states the States was first okay have been issued on on the 31st and ours came about a week later okay I can see the confusion here because in our town just with the nomenclature for what it's worth we are the Southboro Cultural Arts Council right the scac a committee under the town of Southboro tasked with administering MCC grants and so we we are the local we are the L LLC the or the whatever local LC Whatever It Is We're the local it's it's almost like almost like a DBA we're like doing business as South bro Cultural Arts Cultural Arts Council so we could certainly clarify that in I mean it's on

MCC letterhead but we could clarify that in the first line of our letter the Southboro Cultural Arts Council in parentheses you know the local cultural Council for the town of Southboro um we have chosen our own logo and our own name that predates all of us so I think it is a little bit confusing because at one point the scac I believe had its own specific agenda that an addition to approving grants um but as for like the timing that is peculiar to me because we followed their process to a te so I don't quite understand that well that's why I'm saying I don't even know whether it had to do with them or whether it had to do sbor and nor did she but she was confused all she knew was the first letter she did know came from the state and then the second one that came on the eth I guess uh she said and it had Caitlyn's name on it and she didn't know Kate was and where it was from until she after after she got excited and went oh we got another 250 and let everybody know and then she read back and read the little details and all oh wait a minute this has never happened I've never seen this before I goofed and she had to go back and apologize so I just wondered if there was any way we can make the difference of the letters if nothing else if they're going to be spaced and it may not be up to you guys to be able to do that it may be what's happening from the state level just to make it clearer that differentiate what the letters are and they are applying to the same yeah I mean there's some minor edits we could do next year we could certainly add in as you may have heard or as you have probably heard from MCC you could definitely clarify that way but

um um to cas's point I mean I do think that uh the State website is you know it it is true I I hadn't really thought about the perspective of the applicant that's applying to five you know five local groups like us um and I don't know what their communication looks like from this state how specific it is um yeah I mean it would be helpful to know like what problem we're trying to solve if it's the language and the letters or if it's the timing of the letters or if it's confusion because there were perhaps more notifications from the state because they applied to multiple councils so I mean I don't know but we're we're very open obviously to adapting to our like our language and our letter um if that if that's the core issue um if the core issue is the timing um you know I I don't really have much comment on that because there's much we can do about that um right Jane perhaps you could take this as an action and get a little bit more texture from Sister about like what exactly the communication breakdown was on their end that be helpful it would be really helpful for us to understand what problem we're trying to solve because we haven't received that feedback from anyone else absolutely yeah I'd love to see like if it's helpful I I'll I'll defer to you on this but like if it's helpful to see the communication that she got from the state first at least we would know like what we're following up to yeah and the template we sent out was just personalized and again that's it's also something from the MCC toolkit so it's pretty proforma I think we can edit it and like make it a little bit more our own flavor and brand as we

you know continue to sort of enhance what we're doing but I don't think it's a big problem it's probably very easily solved the question oh I think it's yeah I mean I she just told me how she was really confused and so I wanted to figure out where this might and you've given me what I need to know the questions to ask her back again which I will okay yeah and it you know it's fully we're a very transparent space so whatever you know feedback she has and you know my contact information was also listed in that letter so she can reach out at any point um if she needed if she needs Clarity on on whatever's in included there sounds good to me okay see let me just scan my email and see if there were any other questions that we got I don't see any I don't see any here um we received some really positive notes back you know expressions of gratitude and then there were also positive there positive notes back on the declines that we sent in December to so all positive for the most part all right well what do we think do we want to wrap up um yeah our next meeting should be a good one I would ask um I would ask all of you to think about what you think would be fun for the grant reception because we'll talk about that and pick a date and sort of plan it

there is information on the MCC website uh of like ideas um and things other communities have done if you want to poke around I know that website has so much information there's a lot of good stuff it's just like hit or miss if you can find it and then if you can like ever find it again and just for background both um so this I guess this will be my third year so I was pretty new like Kate the first year um there had not been a reception in a very very long time we had a reception at the community house um and um like an evening reception during the week we had Kate Donahue come our rep she gave out these lovely certificates each of the recipients got up and talked a little bit about their program we had like light food it was really lovely that was two years ago last year we had a really similar thing at the library instead and Kate came she's really uh warm and one of the recipients gave a like a sides for maybe one or two gave us slideshow um and talked a little bit about their projects so that one also was also pretty well attended mostly attended by recipients only so I think that's something to think about is how do we get other people to come and um we do have a little money too um I don't believe we had to pay to rent either please so really it's it was very inexpensive uh I I I think it was very inexpensive food and what have you but um give some thought to like maybe what you've done in other you know other places in your life or other types of events or what you think might be fun um

or what you think might draw people out um It's a Wonderful excuse to just get people who are interested in arts and culture in our community together so um and like I said we really don't exactly have a strong precedent of what's been done I I think anything's open for discussion and I'm so thrilled that we have so many new members because um yeah because anything you guys come up with is great Liz to help those of us who and I think reani you attended last year right yeah so perhaps Liz and reani you've both attended Jane and I have not um so you know from your perspective could you share one thing that you really really liked about the reception and one thing that you think we should consider altering or if there's nothing you know if it was perfect great but just to help us kind of as we think about suggestions for for next month so you know uh last year I was there but I had no idea what's going on I was new you know so yeah so I was there for only for watching and know what's going on and Ryan told me just attend this so you'll get some ideas and all that yeah yeah it was great though I got to meet you and recruit you yeah and I made you and that's why I'm here yeah and see your beautiful art um so I think it's if you think about the typical attendee they are coming by themselves they are the person in their organization who was nominated if it's a bigger organization like your sisters Jane they're the person who was nominated basically to write the Grant and take responsibility um and in other cases

it's like it's that's the one person right or that's the their only person in the program so a lot of people are coming alone and socializing in a big group is not a lot of like people's favorite activity or comfort zone so I think um a feedback or like advice I would have for us would be to um have a maybe a more specific um agenda uh maybe an activity right off the bat or we all identify which members so maybe one person greets people and then we hand them off and introduce them to members of our group we divide and conquer because I I think it's not everyone's idea of a a really fun time to go to a reception where you don't know anyone um so I think that we want something that will break the ice quickly and make it comfortable some people seem to have a wonderful time because they came with people they know or they came with folks they're involved with and but then we a lot of people that came alone and that's hard to do so I think we should just keep that in mind okay that's really helpful actually okay so um yeah but um yeah and if we do something in the spring um I really I like the idea of um something that's uh interactive or involves some kind of a program or activity uh for maybe even for families or something that you know gives it's okay that gives people like a a good reason yeah yeah one thing I've been thinking about is you know how to connect the sort of Southboro Cultural Arts ecosystem with the broader Arts ecosystem you know in Greater Boston in the state of Massachusetts and um the

public art trianal in Boston is opening um I think in May or June um and I also know that one of the curators um for the trustees um is from Metro West and I believe she might be involved in the trienal project I need to double check all my facts here um but I think she's from westbo um so I'm just trying to think of ways to kind of highlight what South bro is doing in the sort of context of some of these bigger projects and things that are going to open in the spring um so I'll take what you just said and kind of noodle on that as we think about what we want to accomplish in the grant reception but I love the idea of that you suggest was having some sort of activity making it feel a little bit more appealing to like a broader audience than just like you know the grantee so to speak yeah yeah yeah um all right great well thank you very much I will adj adjourn our meeting at 7:46 um do we have a date for the next meeting or should we review the date we picked a long time ago make sure we like it yeah let's review and make sure it works for everyone um I can't remember if we put it in the calendar or not let me see we have it um tentatively as Tuesday February 25th okay um at seven yeah um do you guys want to stick with zoom while we're in the winter months I think it might be helpful um I was just thinking

it mean then we would at least what do you guys think I'm fine with it stick with zoom okay um all right I'm I'm okay with that data if you guys are stick with seven o'clock yep okay all right [Music] um cool all right I'll let everybody go all right so motion to adjourn I'll second that great all right I'm GNA stop recording okay