Park Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call we need to order the Dane County Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission. Can we have roll call, please? Chair Richardson?

Here. Vice chair of Leon Meyer? Here. Commissioner Claire? Here. Commissioner Keurat?

You speak a little of Pam?

Commissioner Keurat?

And you're on mute. Okay.

Here. Commissioner McKinney? Here. Commissioner Pfaff? Here. And commissioner Uddesy? Here.

Oh, good. Yeah. And we for the records, we do have quorum.

That's correct.

Thank you very much. So our first order of business is to approve the minutes from 02/17/2026. Hopefully, everyone has had a chance to review them, and the chair would like to get a motion for

approval. I can motion.

It's been moved that we approve the minutes from 02/17/2026. We don't need a second. Is there any discussion, revision, deletions, corrections? Bearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Motion approved. Mote minutes are approved. Of those who are interested, the executive committee minutes will be are on or will be on the the shared drive and on LEGISTR.

Yep. They're

all they're published on here. Alright.

First thing, as you all know that we are entering, one of our two most important times of the year that is the grant review cycle. We're we're entering cycle one, and we can just get an overview, of where we are with the grant review. Believe we have a 103 total, applications that we need to, review and and consider. When I put the chart up, that includes seven capital, 23 short order, and I believe 73 project 74 project grants. So, Augusta, can you just kinda walk us through any percent changes and so forth?

Yeah. So the remarkable thing this cycle, we we have the difference between twenty twenty six and 2025, is the number of short order applications. So we have, like, about 4.6 times more short order this cycle. The project is pretty in line with past cycles, but we're seeing the numbers go up as we come out of COVID and just the world. So compared to cycle one last year, we have about 26% more requests total than 2025.

So so we have 304 346,730, from those from those 103 applications Mhmm. Come to a total of $346,730 in funding request.

Yep.

K? And in terms of available dollars, we have Augusta?

212,000 for the entire year for 2026.

Right. Oh, okay. Just just to make sure we're all on the same page, our total allocated taxpayer funded grant dollars available for cycle one and cycle two is $212,000. Mhmm. At the executive committee and we normally have more application in cycle one than we do cycle two.

The executive committee approved allocation of 55% of the two twelve to have $116,000 as our cycle one grant budget. And any question on how that, how we arrived at that number? Doug, this is your first first, grant cycle. Was that clear as far as how we arrived at the one sixteen?

I yeah. I mean, I'm not sure. Is that just from the allocated budget that the Dane Arts got? Is that where it came from? I'm not sure about that.

Yes. The the in the Dane Arts departmental budget, $212,000 from tax period dollars is is allocated for the grant pool dollars.

Okay.

And that that amount is $212,212,000 dollars.

Okay. That makes sense.

And 55% of that is we allocated for the first cycle that comes to a $116,600.

Okay.

I would like to get a motion so we have on record that our budget for this year, for this cycle rather, is $116,600 which we will stay within. Can I get a motion to that effect?

Yeah. Yes.

That Doug, are you moving?

Yeah. Yes.

Okay. Doug is moving that we approve our cycle one overall budget. Overall grants dollars available is $116,600. We don't need a motion. Any discussion on that? Bear with none. All in favor say aye. I can't see faces, so

I Aye. Have

Aye. Aye.

Okay. Motion approved. So our overall budget for cycle one is a $116,600. Now let's go to our Capital One budget. Net for for your information, Doug, from we have three, I guess, three different grant categories.

The overall grant pool dollars, which there are 74 applications. We also have, a grant category of short order grants and also capital grants. And several years ago, we approved that we would allocate 5% of our overall cycle one grant dollars to, to the capital grant budget. And that would and that would come to $508,100 $5,800. Again, 5% of the $1.16 600.

Right. Disregard my notes and my director's notes. I made a mistake on I was dealing out these numbers. So this what you see right now is the numbers we go by.

So in so in other words, the seven app the the seven capital grant applications will, will have $5,800 to work with. So I'd like to get a motion to approve the capital, grant, budgeted dollars of $5,800.

I will so move.

Been moved by Mary that we approve the cap the cycle one the 2026 Capital One cycle one budget is to be $5,800. Any discussion? Bearing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye. Thank

you very much. It that's been approved. Now our next, individual budget item is our short order grants, and we have 20 what 23. 23, which is a big increase. We usually get between five and seven.

And this year, we had a big jump to 23 with the total budgeting request of $20,216. Mark and Augusta are recommending that we allocate 5% again of dollars, which would come to $5,800. So as you can see, there will there'd be some tough decision. And again, the short hour grants are usually reviewed by by Mark and Augusta and and whatever team you you put in place and will make a recommendation on how the $5,800 will be allocated versus the 22,000 in request. So that's gonna be some tough decisions that will need to be made.

Being that, still wanna get a motion to approve the short order budget of $5,800. Can Can I get a motion to that effect?

Yes.

Been moved that thank you, Doug. It's been moved that we approve the short order grant budget of $5,800. Any further any further discussion? Bearing none, I'll oh oh, I'm sorry. I should I should also add no. Well, that that let's approve that first. All those in favor of budgeting $5,800 for short order applications, say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. I didn't hear a couple more. Aye.

Nope. Aye. Okay. Thank you.

Motion approved. Now, Mark, do you wanna explain that we've since there is a big difference between the allocated $5,800 and, the request of 22,216, Mark, do you wanna explain that you're gonna take $5,000 from another line item in the department budget?

In the office budget, yes. I'll take another 5,000 from two different lines to add to the short order so we can at least compensate the applicants with some kind of funds related to their request. Not all will be funded based on what they submitted, but we wanna have at least half of what they requested available for allocating funds to the short order applicants.

So the so the the real short order budget will be the 10,800 because from from the offices, another line item will add to that. There's still a bit, you know, difference between the request of 22,000 versus the $10.08 that we have available, to allocate. But that's a challenge that, that we've had over the years, and that that and that is likely to continue. Now the final final deduction is we out we give our panelists $100 to do the heavy lifting of reviewing the grants in detail. We have 30 panelists, $100 each.

So that will be $3,000 that will be allocate that that will be given to panelists as a thank you for putting in many hours of work including re reviewing the grants, scoring the grants, and then coming to the panel review session, is an hour and sometimes two. And that's our thank you for putting in the hours. So when you subtract that, our net budget for cycle three for the grant school dollars for the for the 74 applications will be $101,400. That's our bottom line number that AM that is what we'll plug in into the formula that we will make it will make decision to make it work that we stay within that number. So I would like to get a motion to put on record that our cycle one net budget grant pool budget for the seven four applications is $101,101,400 dollars.

Can I get a motion to that effect?

A motion.

There was, Kelsey? Yeah. Okay. It's been moved by Kelsey that we approve our net cycle one grant budget of $101,400. Any further discussion on that? Questions? Bearing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

I can't see face it now. What once again, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Ayes have it. Motion approved. So that is our net, our net dollars that we have, to work with. So we have 101,000 to work with. We've got 346,000 in request. So we have a challenge ahead of us again this cycle. Now the panel the panel review session will be taking place very starting soon. Know mine is next week, but we still need two chairs.

Oh, thanks, Kelsey. I saw you signed up for

We got one. So we need one additional chair. What's the date for for that chair?

Thursday, March 26, and it would be 08:30AM to 11AM.

Called once. Called twice. Share.

Maybe it was I'll not

see it. And, Doug, I I since this is your first time, I would suggest that you sit in on one of the sessions. Okay. Again, you you pick the time, you know, that is best for you and, you know, all all I'm asking is that you sit in to observe because we rely on the panelists a great deal. They do the heavy lifting as far as they review, they dissect the grants in much more detail than we could ever can't could because, you know, since we need to scan our not only our assigned grant, but review as many as we can.

There were at one point in time, we asked commissioners to review all of them, which was a big ask. Now we are asking that you at least read through at least read through the summary. But, Doug, it'll give you more confidence in the process as for so you'll see that when the panelist score scores each of the app application, again, they do a deep dive and they they debate among themselves before they score because we we really rely on their scores that we put their scores into a mathematical formula, and then that tells us how the dollars should be allocated based on the panel score and our available dollars. So, again, I would strongly suggest that that that you pick a time to at least sit in. Even if you can't sit in for the entire period, I yeah.

So I would suggest just so you have, more, trust and confidence in this portion of the process. Do I One more chair. He's gonna ask the question. Oh, I'm sorry.

Do I join by where it says joining the Zoom open to the public and listening in? Is that how I do it?

No, Doug. I'll I will send you a link, like our commission meetings.

Okay.

And you'll

Yes. I'll add you to a calendar invite, and then I'll just loop you into the emails going forward.

Okay.

You can either sign up on the spreadsheet or just email me.

Okay.

Maybe what I'll do is I'll send you an email after our meeting with the dates, and you can just let me know which one you wanna join.

Okay. If you can sign up on the spreadsheet though, Doug, it'll let the chair know that you'll be there, and then we can plan for that. You're welcome. Join any of us.

And are are are they done through Zoom or they done in person?

Zoom. Zoom.

Okay.

Yeah. So, the session that you signed up for, Auguste, will also send you the list of the application there will be reviewed during that session.

K.

And they're usually about 12, at least for my session, believe they were they were 12. So that's about how how many will will will be, reviewed. Of course, now each commissioner was assigned, application to read, which, again, you are strongly encouraged to to do so. Hopefully, the, one of the grants that you were assigned to read, the panel session that you sit in on, that one or several of them will be reviewed. So, again, it'll it'll help you as you read through them to see what the panelists look for and what they consider to be important in in the merits of the application, the and the proposal that is being submitted.

So, Deshaun, are we, okay on March 26?

Yep. You can sign me up.

Okay. Great. So we have our chairs

Thank you.

For each of the panels. Thank you very much for that. That's very that's very important. So we we we have our dates, we have our chairs, and we're ready to to move on to that phase of the process. K. Any further any other discussion on on the grant review topic? Okay. So let's move on to the next thing. Any further discussion on the new grant allocation models?

Yeah. Mark and I have discussed a couple of different items that we wanna look into for implementation in the near future. Mark proposed an individual artist grant. It's called an artist and community collaboration grant. So that's something that you developed at the Wisconsin Arts Board. Right? We'll take a look at that and see how it fit. It seems like it will fit in with the types of applications we're getting. We're seeing a lot more individual artists and makes sense to kind of fit that process with the community needs.

It forces the artist to match with a nonprofit, so they automatically have a fiscal receiver. So they're not opted by themselves. It worked at the arts board. I thought it would be a good one to try and implement. Now it'd be a matter of how we allocate funds to Yeah. To that new category.

Yeah. That that's my question. So are you in your thinking, are you will you be recommending that we then allocate x number of dollars or x percent of the total budget just for individual applications so they'll all be competing for a finite Correct. Set of dollars? Correct. Okay.

Yeah. We also based on the feedback that Deshaun presented from the focus groups, we're seeing a lot of interest in a legacy grant. So a grant specifically tailored for returning organizations or established organizations. So I'm gonna look into the legacy grant model that Wisconsin Arts Board has and Madison Art Commission. And then we also talked about this having a set award amount. So it would be if you are awarded your $1,500 or $2,000 just so they know if we apply and we get it, we know how much we're getting instead of trying to kinda guess or having it fluctuate. So those are

And finally, we're thinking about not so much what they think they'll make for the future in terms of their organization, but what they did in the past as an application. So tell us what you've done so they're not trying to make up what they'll plan to do in the following year, which is a lot harder than saying, well, we completed this project last year. We're gonna do something similar next year or this year. A lot easier than saying, well, I think we wanna do this next year, but we're not sure. So it makes the whole process easier. We did that at the Wisconsin Arts Board as well, which made the whole process much easier.

No. I, I noticed, in, the application that I was reviewing for my panel session, there were it seemed to be many more true project grants and not an annual thing that that they do, but it was a one time specific new crew project. They had a start and ending versus an ongoing app operation. So that and so and that is what we really hope to be moving to where it is a crew project, and a lot of them were were new projects that had not been that funding had not been requested for previously. So that was I mean, I noticed that in my set of of grants, know if if anyone else had had noticed that as well, but that would be a question to see that they were true project grants or app applications rather.

So in anything else on the on the, your thinking on the allocation models?

One other one would be if we do it

by budgets, annual budgets of the organization, separate them between those. Those would would be considered higher budgets over 500,000 and those below something like that, which would put applications in a more equitable position with each other. So those are some of the things we're thinking about for presenting to you in May. Okay.

Mary?

Yeah. Just a little clarification. Curious how you're thinking about new. Like, are there parameters on that? Like, this would be a first time or a first or second time person, and also how you're thinking about legacy.

Well, that's what the legacy would take into consideration. Those that have applied numerous times like Mass and Opera, Symphony, they would go on to a legacy category. So we're thinking maybe the past three years consecutive app applications in both cycles, so then put them into a legacy position.

But, you know, but based on the survey, what they're asking for, those that have applied before and established organization, they'll need to give you their information about who they are and how long they've been in business.

That's a legacy award. So I get awarded one year, and they automatically be awarded the same amount the next year

without having to apply. Oh oh, without having to apply? It's continuous for two

years, maybe three years depending on what we decide. But, yeah, that will eliminate them having to apply each year.

And that that will that won't conflict with the county's procurement process. And that the county also does multi year contracts in in a sense?

It wouldn't

be a multi

year contract. It would be the same as the app a grant review. They just wouldn't have to go through the process. They would just we'll just file the same paperwork each year as opposed to a multi year grant. Does that make sense?

Okay. So

if ASNOP would apply this year, they get the legacy award. So they won't have to apply next year, but there'll still be same information will be sent to them in the following next year based on what they got this year, a contract. So there's no difference in how it's procured.

But they'll still tell us what their project is for the next year. Right.

Right. Okay.

Without having to add all the information of what they do traditionally in these applications. Okay.

So this may be for another time, but just curious, Deshaun, do you have any reaction I mean, you were thought through this so carefully. Is do you have any thoughts about what you're hearing?

Just mostly that those I think those things are worthwhile to explore. I think the setting up a set amount after looking at this year's budget intrigues me more because I think I'm sure everybody on the call will agree, like, it feels terrible seeing $350,000 in need, and we have a $116,000 to give out this cycle. It's it doesn't feel good. And as an artist applying for that, it also doesn't feel good, which came up a lot in the in the the focus groups and in survey, the lottery system of I'm applying for this, and I know I won't get that. And so if they're coming in with a set amount, it allows them to, again, get peace of mind.

You you're wasting less time focused on this, and you you know where else you need to procure your money. So that makes sense. The legacy model, I think a lot of folks were asking about that, particularly to lessen the application burden year after year. If you kind of know us and trust us when we have a track record, don't make us go through the whole thing again. Some kind of truncated process was primarily what they were asking for. That makes perfect sense, to allocate. So, yeah, I think it it makes sense, as long as we go about our, digging into this the right way and then once we make our decisions given enough runway to inform the community I think is paramount, so before we make any changes. But I think all those things are worthwhile looking into and bringing it back to the table.

Okay. Alright. Anything anything else on the allocation, model? Okay. Thank you, Mark Augusta. Next, mission statement and vision statement. I'll turn the, you know, the mic over to Fran.

Thank you kindly, Rod. I appreciate it. I'm gonna share my screen here. So, I just wanna give a shout out to Am and Deshaun and, of course, Mark and Augusta for working on this, with me. And we took a good look at all of the, mission and vision iterations out on the various sites, that have evolved over the years. Here. Let me let me make this a little larger for you. Can everybody see that? Can everybody see that okay? Yes.

Okay. Alright. So first, starting with the mission statement. So I'm in this section here. We determined that a mission statement really should talk about what we do and what our impact is.

It should really be one sentence. It should be memorable, and it should really guide all of our decisions. So, currently, the iteration that was most prevalent out on various sites was engaging participation, connecting people, and inspiring expressive living in Dane County, Wisconsin. And so what the group now has proposed is this one in red, to enrich the quality of life in Dane County, Wisconsin by supporting, promoting, and ensuring equitable access to the arts, culture, history, and creative expressions for all residents. Creative expression for all residents.

So that's what we're proposing for the new mission, we thought. And please chime in, anybody who helped work on this. But we felt that it it was pretty all encompassing, of what we do and really pulled out the high or key important elements of what Dane Arts does and is achieving. So any other comments or thoughts on this?

Okay. It's

it's very it's very clear. Good job to everybody who worked on it.

Thanks, Bossy.

Okay. We if possible, we do want to up formally approve our mission and vision statement, if if the group is is ready to do that. Again, I'm I'm not sure if this was sent in advance or this is everyone's first time seeing this.

First time for something Yeah.

I think that

we we should go

back right now. Okay. That's it. If if the commissioner is is is comfortable in doing that. So, Fred, would you like or to, make a motion to approve the, the mission statement as presented?

Sure. I will make that motion.

Why are you why are you we still need other commission members to see and review the commission and vision statement. So if you approve it now, then does that become an mission statement? If it's approved by the majority, yes. But I I didn't I didn't I didn't think everybody had from the creation has seen this more than once to give them some time to reflect on it. It

That's that's why I asked if this was sent in in advance. And No. No. It, okay, it was that's in advance.

I did not send it.

No. I think we should do this prior to the new board arrival and and when all of you leave in May whoever's leaving, and and wait for the approval from from the county exec on current numbers and do that before we start a new fiscal year and commission year. Does that make sense?

This Okay. So so okay. Because you are proposing that we, right now, mull over the mission statement but not have it approved until after June.

Well, not so much after June. I just wanna make sure every commission members have a chance

to Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. Okay. Yeah. We could we

possibly, put could we possibly add these to the to the minutes? Is that an appropriate way to do it?

Yes. Yeah. That does. Again, yeah, that's why I asked if they because this was sent in advance so that everyone has had a chance to mull it over and apparently not so, yes, your your your point is is well taken. So you are okay. So today, we are simply introducing, the recommendation from, from the committee, for the commissioners to consider and and, at a later date, we'll do some tweaking and, ultimately, file approval. Right?

Okay. That was different than what we had planned in the executive committee meeting.

Just Right.

That's the advice that four or five commission members that aren't here. I don't know if they've seen this. You know, we have we have to have a commission meeting where everybody's present. Right. So I just don't wanna approve something and then hear from a commissioner. Why have a chance to see that? I don't know what that's

Well, no. But goal of attending the meeting.

No. But but then we are approving it at a commission meeting. They need to be here. If they are here, then they're I wanted to

be here.

Right. I just

wanna make sure everybody else is Yeah.

Point point point well taken. We need to see it mulling over in our heads. Someone might come back with a tweaking of a word here and there. There's no problem there. So that's the proposed mission statement. Now, Frank, we'll move to the vision statement.

Okay. And just also to make clear, this is in our shared drive in the marketing and branding folder. So everyone has access to this, and you can come in and review this. I'm I just cleaned up this document. It's called Danart's branding and marketing guidelines final, and it's just sort of the final version. It doesn't mean it's approved. Okay. So moving on to vision statement. So doing a little research on vision statement, we agreed it should be one sentence. It should be the change or the thing that we're working towards.

AM also defined that as inspirational high level description of the desired future that we aim to bring about. Currently, it's all Dane County citizens and residents leading expressive lives in connection with one another, which we didn't feel was super aspirational. So what we're proposing is the arts as a vital civic force, strengthening connection and belonging, fostering growth, and igniting a vibrant creative community. Any other thoughts or comments on that?

So how how as commissioners, you know, review this later, how would you like to proceed in there? Would you like commissioners to, to, to make their suggestions on the shared drive, and then the committee will meet again to take a look, at those suggestions and then come back with with the final, recommendation for both the mission statement, and the business statement that I'm I am suggesting that we have that wrapped up by the June meeting to make a, to to to approve at at the June meeting.

I'm gonna jump in. I don't think anybody's gonna make any changes. I just wanna make sure everybody sees it. So I think we make the May meeting decision and let everybody know in advance as soon as we finalize this decision on mission and vision. That's fine. Because I really don't think the other four or five folks or even some of you may make any changes because, it stands at on its own merits written as Fran put out here.

Okay. So is there a consent I can't see faces. So is there a consensus on that will be our approach and that we will include, both of the statements, in the minutes so that we all those who are present can see it. Those who are not will get the minutes and see it, and we'll be ready, to make. In the meantime, if there are any suggestions to to either send those to friend or or add them to the shared drive with the understanding that we'll be making that we'll be approving either, hopefully, both, during the May meeting. Is is there a consensus on this?

Sure.

Yes. Yes.

We can we just, put intention in the minutes so that we're asking that everybody review? And if they have any questions or concerns that they bring it to them. So it won't be till the June meeting then that we

will No.

No. May. May. Right. Yeah. Also, the minutes that we we will be approving during the May meeting.

Yep. Okay.

And feedback is welcome, I would say. I would encourage

people. Yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. I I just a quick, note about punctuation. Yeah. I wonder about commas and semicolons. I wonder if anyone there are different approaches to this. I wonder if there's any like, Mark and Augusta, is there someone at the county level who would wanna make sure that it's representing that the punctuation is the way they want it? You could do it two different ways. In other words, you could put a I I don't see the text in front of me now, but you can put an extra column in that, comma in that first one after, I think, history. Right? And then this this the vision one could be separate the chunks could be separated by semicolons. This may be minor, but we live in Madison.

Yeah. Yeah.

Got a lot of academics who are gonna be like, what?

Yep. And just to be to

be clear, the vision statement isn't a complete sentence. You know? And so there, you know, there was discussion around that. I, you know, I think it's okay. It gets the point across even though it's not a complete sentence. But that's if that's something that people would like to discuss, and I'm I'm all about it.

That's a good point. Yes. I have some grammatical issues, punctuations that I can suggest when I send them to you, Fran. Okay.

But it's beautifully done. Thank you so much. I love it.

Thank you to the team

for sure. And, yes, we do want to be grammatically correct. So so once we have the content, then we'll tweak it as needed. Okay. So

I have a statements. I have a Okay.

Just to comment, I really, you know, sitting through these sessions, Fran just exhibited this amazing leadership because we really had robust conversations and really talking about the meaning of specific words. And and we weren't all in agreement. So I when she presents this, it seems like it was really easy, but there was just a lot of discussion and depth of thinking that went in on this. So I get a little worried about then people not attending this meeting and understanding that, and then they're just gonna read this and and not understand all that went into it. So I'm just gonna say I don't agree that we shouldn't approve this.

I think it should be approved. And then I think we're open to other commissioners that aren't haven't attended this and understand what went into it. They certainly can comment on it, and then we could always revisit it. But I'm not in agreement that this is not approved at this meeting, which is what I think the whole intent was of having this having this group of people really spend an enormous amount of time and thought on on coming up with this recommendation.

Would that include grammar and punctuation we could change at a later date if we approve today?

Yeah. Again, I think those are the punctuation is a minor. It doesn't change the intent of the language of what what's done here. So I think that's something that could certainly be be, tweaked. Then

I vote on it. So we can make a motion, and, we will will either vote in favor or not.

I would I would make a

motion that we approve the mission and vision statement as presented today.

And I would second that.

Then I won't talk to anybody else.

Then With the understanding punctuation can be altered.

It it's been

And and the understanding that if somebody has a, you know, a a very strong opinion, we can always revisit it.

Or we encourage them to attend the meeting.

Right. Yeah. It it We encourage them.

It has been moved that we approve the mission and vision statement as presented. Any further discussion?

Thank you for sharing that, Anne.

That's all. If if there is no further discussion, all in favor of the two statements approval of two statements, aye. I need to speak in Aye.

Aye.

And we have a majority of eyes. So, did you see them different, Mark Augusta? I think we have the majority, saying aye. So, Kelsey Kelsey, I didn't see your note. Sure. Just appreciate the effort. Oh, okay. Okay. So, the most the motion has been approved. We have our new enhanced mission and vision statement. Thank you, Fran, Anne, Anne, Mark, and Augusta and Deshaun.

And and Deshaun. Do we start implementing the new statements then on all our sites?

So, yeah, the next step would be for Augusta and I just to get together, and we can can get everything updated in the location. She already took the time to indicate where all of those are, so that should be a pretty pretty quick update. Augusta, do you have any concerns?

I don't think so other than it What? Some versions of our logo with remnants of it, like Engage, Connect, Inspire, but but we can do it piece by piece.

Yeah. Well Like, the intent is that the motions approve effective immediately, so now we systematically go through and make We'll

take care

of it. Right?

Because Like

I said, I'll message you.

We can start to put it in place.

It's not at all. Love those, so we can take the ones that happened.

Definitely. So just yeah. Just

Alright. Thank you. We have Can

I make a point on that?

On the shot. Yes.

Yeah. I just, I get that approved effective immediately, but I also think that we're discussing a whole slate of changes right now. And to to Dan Hart's, I think we should be mindful of how we make changes to the public. Like, to to just update our mission and vision, and it's just a new thing, to me, feels like not the best approach in terms of us actually communicating to the public, especially if we want a greater presence in the community. So I just think that we should be mindful and think about, well, what is that communication to the public like about this thing?

So do you have a recommendation on how we communicate that?

No. Because we we're just having a conversation right now. So I have no time have had no time to think about that, but I think that I would not recommend that we immediately just go update all the websites and things right now without communicating to the public.

So can I just I I have a thought on that? So my thought is the mission and vision in that exercise is actually more of an internal exercise. It helps us define our work. And so we went through that discussion talking carefully about all of the elements of those and the work that we do, and we were factoring in, I think, some of the upcoming changes. And we we discussed at length about the reference to youth and fostering, and whether or not that should be something to include, and we felt that that was, yes, an important part of the work that we do.

I personally feel that is Joe Q Public gonna care what our mission statement is out there? Like, I don't think they're going to analyze it. This is just my opinion, but I don't think they're gonna sit and analyze what our mission or vision is. It's for us that we know and understand the work that we're doing and what we're saying to the public about it. Then I think the work that we build off of that and share with people is gonna be really critical.

Now that being said, I wasn't anticipating we're gonna put out a press release that the mission and vision statement changed. I wasn't thinking this was something we were gonna be, you know, really shouting from the rooftops. It was gonna be a subtle change because there's inconsistencies all over. So this was gonna sort of lay a foundation for our work that was more stable. That's how I was envisioning it. Yes.

Yeah. Which is fair. And and I and I understand that. My my only counterpoint is while, sure, I think if we make the change, will the community care? Ultimately, no. But I think there's an opportunity to make the community care is my point. Mhmm. But, like, by all the changes we're doing as opposed to just acting and expecting people to come to us, the conversations we've been having about how do we connect better with the community which is the whole foundation of things like the road show. And so I think that there is an opportunity to be vocal about, hey, we're updating this thing for this reason and here's where that's taking us. Like, here's this new version of Dane Arts and how we're moving forward.

So even if we don't, I'm not saying we need to put out a press release right now but thinking about if we're gonna update this stuff immediately, how are we communicating that in something like the roadshow of like, hey, we have this updated mission and vision and here's what that means for your township or your city within the county as we go around. So I just think that there is an opportunity to communicate it to build stronger affinity with artists and organizations and, you know, government officials, etcetera, throughout the county.

I think, yeah, I

think there's a way that we could make it work with both Fran and Deshaun's ideas. Like, maybe maybe a press release is too much, too far, too much effort, you know, and something we don't wanna put our efforts into. But I think sharing with the public the these exciting changes or these exciting improvements might be just a joy to share with the community. So social like, you know, a a social media post of, like, you know, we we have reenvisioned our mission and vision statements. We'd like to share it with you or sharing it at our grant review sessions at the beginning introduction or even at the Dana Arts conference.

I think that there's, you know, smaller ways that we can share with the community the joy and the efforts that we're putting into, improving everything.

I I am. And I'd be I'd

be I'd be happy to work with people as well in order to figure out what exactly that is or what type of messaging or, statements we're sharing with the public.

Pam?

Yeah. So again, I just one comment. I love this love this meeting. Right? We're having these conversations where we're we're really giving difference of opinion, and then we're gonna find the alignment and consensus. This is what happened when we did the mission statement and the vision statement. To me, what a great a great commission. So I think that's great. I have a little nuance on what everybody is saying. I don't feel the mission statement, the vision statement is a change that needs to be communicated.

I think it's getting us consistent and having better language around what we're really all about. So I am with Fran and that this is more of an internal thing, and then it sets the foundation as we do communicate with the how we're gonna do this and how and how it impacts, you know, our our different target audience members. That's where I think the communication has to go out, which I agree with both what Kelsey and Deshaun are saying. It really needs to be thoughtful and and and, done purposefully. But the mission and the vision is really just the the canvas that we needed to better define, so I don't think that needs a a specific communication out to the public.

And can I just say also, I really hear Deshaun's concern, and he's wanting us to put our money where our mouth is in essence? So, like, not just talking the words, but making the actionable changes. And I think I think this is the foundation for that, and I a 100% agree. Like, with or things that people can actually tap into, I I think that's really, really critical and that this is a basis for that. So I'm not entirely disagreeing with the issue.

What plays into our anniversary fiftieth is when we would make a really announcement about this alignment with the mission and vision statement. I agree with all of everything, but everybody said, but that would be a one time that we could really really showcase the change in language, the mission, and vision.

That's a year away, though, Mark. Are we gonna wait a year?

Well, I was gonna do

it now. Yeah. No. Literally, with organizations in that. Yes. Okay.

And mentioned at the business conference or at other grant cycle meetings that we have of the change coming, but that is it's part of the twenty twenty twenty seven anniversary of words in everything we send out.

Okay. Yeah. What can I just add one other thing? Yeah. Logo logo has been tossed around now for quite some time. People have some pretty strong feelings about the logo and where we're going with the logo. So, Mark asked me then to schedule a meeting after the conference for us to talk about logo. So anybody I'm inviting anybody, and please put this in the minutes. Anybody who would like to participate in the discussion on logo, I'm happy to facilitate that conversation. I'm by no means a logo expert, but, we can have a talk about it and try to figure out if it needs updates and what that might look like.

Any last comments, mission statement, and our communication efforts? This has been a great con conversation. Again, I guess everyone can be can be correct at the same time, and I think this is one of those those those time. But, again, as we are communicating as we are walking our own talk and communicating what our new our new statements are, we are informing everyone, not as in my view, we're not asking for a comment or permission to move forward on implementing on using our new statements. So I just I I didn't know if if that's what you meant, Sean, that we need to get feedback first on how the public feels about our new statement.

I okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Because that and they won't as I am in frame of saying, this is the internal statement or focus for us internally as how we are going to move forward and what our focus is gonna be. And so now, of course, we need to walk our own talk. K. Well, let's wrap this one up. Any any last minute comments on on this topic? Okay. Thank you. Look. Mary, you're gonna say something?

I emailed the possible grammatic sorry. Punctuation.

Oh, okay. Okay. Real quick on the portal on the commission portal, Augusta.

Yeah. So I'm proposing that we discontinue the use of the commissioner portal because it has not been used in quite some time, and then Fran set up the shared Google Drive, which serves a very similar function. So unless anyone objects, I'll just recommend that we keep the portal up, but it would just will not be updated. And then going forward, we'll use the Google Drive to share files and stay up to date and collaborate.

That's so our official source of minutes and agendas is LegitStar for ongoing conversational type of things. That's what, the shared drive is for. Okay. Anything else on the portal, Augusta? No. Great. Mister Mott, director of report.

You have the notes. Yeah. I apologize for error on the grant cycle information, but everything's moving forward. The business March conference, have about 45 folks registered now. The early date goes into the March. We're just putting out social media on a regular basis. We have all the presenters set. So everything seems to be organized and ready to go for the conference at the April. We have the posted calendar that we're thinking about how we present that for 2027, the anniversary, and what we do next. And you have notes from the meeting I had with Stephanie. And, what's your friend's name, Fran, that was with us? Sylvia.

Yes. Sylvia. Right. And, Bettina. Mhmm.

So I don't know what our next session is for the thinking of the anniversary, setting.

It's coming up next Monday, I believe. Let

me see. Alright. Thank you. I'll have my notes in front of me.

Yeah. Next, Monday, the twenty third at noon.

And one of the things for, Vanessa and I are doing to start getting to some of these communities we've never been to is taking trips with our posters and our calendars and information about the business conference. We couldn't do it last week because she was sick, but we will start hitting places like Dane, Bristol, Burke, Cottage Grove, areas we've not been to before. I've already reached out to those, miss municipalities and and little towns to say they were coming. So we're gonna start doing that We started wanting to do that today and yesterday, but, obviously, the weather didn't allow us. So that's one of our focuses in following with Deshaun's notes, you know, getting the word out of who we are.

We've never been to any of these areas, and that's also one of the suggestions in my conversation with county executives of the rural communities. So we're gonna make a point to get out to these communities over the next several weeks as we promote the work of Dane Arts. And I'm still getting a lot of people who have no idea even here at the county who Dane Arts is. So we still have a lot of work cut out for us. Thank you for the work you've done, Fran, on the, vision mission statement, all of you involved in that.

Again, we still need some volunteer help with the conference. Please let me know if you're definitely going by the end of this month so I have an idea who's there. We have quite a few volunteers lining up from Park Bank, UW. So, hopefully, we'll have enough volunteers. But everything's set for the conference, for the grants, for looking at the poster and calendar, looking at the you saw that Ford and Madison will keep our name on their posters.

We've given them over 70 artists. I asked them if they needed help this year, and they said, no. They're good. I we quite recommended that they keep our logo on their posters after all we've done for them, and they agreed to that to do it, I don't know, for the next three to five years with Dana Art's logo on that. So that was great, impact. StudyBlock Madison, we have an artist in resident at StudyBlock Madison again. Doctor. Rebecca Rivera is working there. He's also presenting at the at the conference. So we have a great relationship with SteinerBlock and a number of other resources there in in the community. Do you have any questions on my notes?

One quick quest the business of ours, how we're doing on the registration numbers? Is it, is it coming along?

I think everybody's waiting till the end of the last month when they get their final early bird. So we have 45 people registered.

Okay. And we're shooting for 125, a 150.

Okay.

Okay. I have no idea how that will turn out, but I never have any idea how it turns out.

How's our how's our marketing efforts compared to last year? I know we had who's that little that powerhouse fella you hired? Mister Moises? Yeah. Moises.

That's really Hula and kicking it kicking it big time with Hula. We're doing a lot of social media. We have a team of four people. Maybe Shay is handing off social media. We're on Instagram. On Facebook. We're doing regular posting LinkedIn. We're having other folks who are act adding and sharing our information. So Okay. Again, my hope is and it's always been this way. We don't know until the very last minute how many you have and people wait to sign up. Hopefully, the March, we'll get at least a 100 folks listed and registered to sign up. K.

But we're using his recap from last year and kind of because that was very successful with everything he laid out.

And are we contacting those who have been to conferences before?

Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes.

So we're hitting all the things that they're asking Okay. And collecting donations for the end of the evening, for the conference. So we think we're all good. We meet on Thurs next Thursday again, and then we'll meet every week after that up until the conference. That's my report.

Any questions to Mark? Comments?

What's the best way to I mean, I've I've put on the events calendar a place to sign up for the conference, but what's the best way to communicate with you, Mark, and Augusta when we'll be there and who's coming?

Just send me a note and we'll we'll list it. I did do a site visit that's reminding me about the site visits on my notes. Please make a site visit when I saw the Children's Theatre Madison show. It was a lovely show. Glad we were there. People were happy to see us there. So it's always good to represent. It was a small crowd, but the show is really dynamic, and the little girls that were in the audience were just so fun to watch. And their relationship between the actor and stage with the audience was really nice too. So remind you that there's a lot of events that we can attend to. Just let me know so we can get you tickets. That's something else.

Going once, going twice, Mark, anything else.

If you're able to attend the Social Rx meeting, that would be great. Give us some idea on Thursday. It's a webinar of the Social Rx. We've raised $200,000 to bring this group in from Atlanta to start working with the health care industry on allocating the rights for doctors to prescribe the arts as a wellness health care tool. So we had a meeting yesterday with a a school academic session, and we have a meeting today with I mean, meeting tomorrow with health care professionals and a meeting on Thursday with community arts professionals. Again, statewide letting you know about the about the, Social Rx wellness program that we're working on.

K. Thank you. Anything for, Mary, on the events calendar other than what you just mentioned?

Yeah. I've I've posted it. There's some great things coming up. On the second tab is is about the, business of arts conference, if you wanna put your name in, but it sounds like it would be smart to let just email Augusta and Mark directly to let them know. And I would just ask, are there just keep reminding us, Mark and Augusta, if there are certain days and certain times of the days you need help, or if you just would like a presence and sort of

A presence. That's I I think we have enough volunteers. Okay. And the group that we have in place, that's the team that's working on this have been together now three years. So we have a pretty good process in place.

Excellent. Excellent. Okay. Our next meeting date is April 14 at 08:30, and that will be when we will, have our final, deliberations on the grant allocations. And, hopefully, we can follow our same process. We'll get the scoring to you, ma'am, in time for you to to join us at the executive committee meeting for one final look, and then we'll present it all to the commissioners on the fourteenth. Public comment on item not on the agenda, none. Such as other business is allowed by law, none. Any last minute announcement from anyone, comments?

Can I just say I went to a bunch of Dane Arts sponsored events? Two of them I didn't even know we had sponsored. Went to, 1919 at the Barrymore that the Four Seasons did. It was called after the war nineteen nineteen. An incredible, like, rockumentary. It was kind of like Hamilton meets I'm not sure what. It was it was amazing, though. It was really amazing. Packed house at the Barrymore, and lo and behold, there was the Dana Arts logo at the end. I had no idea that we were supporting that event.

Also went to the Chrysalis event. I know, Mary, thank you. You were there as well, the storytelling event, which just warms my heart every year. These events are incredible people, and Dane Arts does so much for the community. I'm just blown away every time I go to stuff, and I see that we're supporting this as well. So our reach is far, and we should be proud of this work and take advantage of these events. They're amazing.

So I went to the in international festival at the OG. Yeah. Week Yeah. Last Saturday where I introduced two of the performances, which is really fun to do. So I can wait.

And they're always needed they're always in need of emcees and Augusta performed there with the Yes. Ken Fitzsimmons from 1919 with the Kisses is presenting at the conference on that program and the work on how you make money as a musician.

Nice. He's a genius. Just saying.

Alright. I think we have worked with nine thirty two. Do you have motion any any last minute comments, anyone else? Then can we get a motion to adjourn? They're all going once. Doug? Yes. Yes. We a motion to adjourn. It is 09:32AM. We're right on the button. Thank you very much. Have a good rest of the week, and we'll see you. And be sure to read your grants, your applications. Thank you.