BQPA/PIONEERS

Barbershop Quartet Preservation Association

BQPA/Pioneers Board of Directors Meeting – 9/4/2014, Chicago

Meeting was called to order at 3:14 PM, with a quorum of Tom Noble, Pres., Lee Taylor, VP, Jim Gallagher, Treas., and Jack Martin, IPP, (Ed Simons having sent his regrets), although both Gerry Carroll, VP East, and Jim Milner, VP West, had not yet returned from the golf course. It was suggested (tongue in cheek) that they (especially Gerry) might be derelict in their duties to attend on time, but there being no outcry, no such charges were handed down.

June Noble stood in for Ed Simons, taking notes for minutes, as well as attending as Registrar pro tem. Also attending were Frank Fliszar (Membership Records), Raymond Schwarzkopf (East Festival Talent), and Rex Touslee.

A list of Departed Friends was read, emphasizing Ron Starling – a member, and the Bass of Four Chorders; Forry Haynes – Bari, Mid-States Four; and Wes Haddlestadt. A reverent rendition of The Old Songs was sung in their memory.

It was moved by Martin and seconded by Taylor to dispense with the reading of the minutes, as they have been posted on the website for months and were available to each attendee at the meeting in printed form. Schwarzkopf requested the spelling of his name in the minutes be corrected. With that modification, the motion passed.

Gallagher presented the Treasurer’s Report, indicating a balance before the current festival of $6511.92, having enjoyed a small excess of income over expenses at the spring festival in Tempe. A graph was presented, reflecting the running balance over the last few years. It was moved by Martin and seconded by Taylor to receive the Treasurer’s report, and the motion passed.

Carroll (VP, East) then arrived at 3:25 PM. Gerry’s “dereliction of duty” in not arriving on time was mentioned but no action was taken.

Noble reported on Actions Taken Since Last Meeting

• Appointed Roger Buehrer and Linda Noble to Communications & Publicity committee
• Drafted slides and – per BOD vote – contracted for big-screen ad at Las Vegas BHS International Convention & Contests
• Ads appeared at least 12 times on big screens
• Ads appeared at least 3 times on webcast
• Decided against advertising in The Harmonizer
• Stu Willcox renewed BQPA Corporate Registration in Nevada
• Placed flyers and business cards in strategic locations at BHS International and at Harmony University and Harmony College NorthEast
• BQPA/Pioneers Job Descriptions for existing positions are now available on website in the secure area
• Methodology has been put in place for providing BQPA Key Notes song list to requestors
• Requestors are advised to email Frank Fliszar to request the Key Notes song list, thus providing their email addresses to Frank, who sends a PDF of the song list to the requestor…

Martin mentioned a thread on one of the blogs or mail groups in the week prior to our festival which suggested that, if folks are not happy with the music they’re hearing at contests, they should attend The Pioneers’ festivals! Others also have noticed this posting as well…

VP (West) Milner arrived at 3:33 PM, and was immediately asked to report on the Tempe festival, especially for next spring. He reported that “our” weekend in April is in high demand. The Embassy Suites have thus raised their guest room rate by $5, to $114.00 per night, but that we will have the L-shaped second floor room for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The contract for April, 2015 has been signed at those rates.

Carroll gave a report on the Chicago festival. Golf is proceeding on a different course than usual, due to reconstruction of the one traditionally used. Charges are reasonable, Dave Brady having done a good job of organizing the golfing. The hotel staff have provided a keg of beer for our gathering room, although it does not so far dispense beer due to lack of CO2 gas. Carroll mentioned that Schwarzkopf is handling the Talent for Saturday evening’s quartet parade.

Schwarzkopf reported that between 5 and 7 quartets are willing to appear Saturday evening. More were contacted, but SAI chapters have an educational event this weekend, which conflicts with our festival, and the Village Vocal Chords (Harmony, Inc. champs) have a retreat. Raymond asked if there was sentiment for moving our weekend to accommodate other events, but there was none, as we have a tradition of holding this festival on the weekend AFTER Labor Day.

Raymond mentioned that some folks outside the immediate Chicago area think that our festival is just for Chicagoland folks, so we need to proactively get the word to Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Iowa folks in future. He also emphasized that singing at our festivals represents a positive opportunity for quartets, both male and female, to perform for an appreciative and knowledgeable audience, especially because our festivals are usually scheduled to take place before competitions.

Upon Schwarzkopf’s detailed request, Taylor moved and Milner seconded a motion to allow the Talent chairman a budget, with an upper limit of $300.00 (equivalent value), to be used in attracting quartets for our Saturday quartet parades, should it be necessary. Incentives are to be limited to offering up to two room-nights to a quartet or quartets to facilitate their attending and performing, and are not to be primary incentives but provided to make the groups’ attendance possible. After considerable discussion, the motion passed by a vote of 3 to 2.

Noble reported for the Communications and PR committee that notices and flyers announcing the current festival were sent to all Chicagoland BHS chapters, 4 local Harmony, Inc. chapters & 3 local Sweet Adelines chapters. He also reported that our organization comes up on the BHS “Subsidiaries” web page, and that we are also listed in the Subsidiaries section of The Harmonizer.

The registrar’s report was given by Noble: in Tempe, we counted a total of 78 members attending, including 9 new members and 3 current who did not check in but participated in the pick-up contest there. The house at the Saturday evening quartet parade numbered more than 120. New items are available for sale at the registration table: BQPA Patches ($5), self-adhesive BQPA labels ($3 per strip of 3) and self-adhesive SPEBSQSA labels ($3 per strip of 21).

Fliszar reported that we have 319 members on our membership database. He has begun transferring our database to Microsoft Access database management software, to make sure that our data does not get “stuck” in obsolete software. He will be working on methods for generating our name tags and membership lists from the new programs. He has added flags to the database which permit identifying those members who attend festivals, to limit the number of name tags printed to the most recent attendees, as the badges are a significant expense to the organization. Saved badges may be used for folks who attend after some time away.

Webmaster Milner reminded board members that there is a password protected secure area on our website, and also reminded members of their usernames and passwords.

The status of the Val Hicks “Dangers of Sophistication” article was discussed at length. The article does not currently appear on our website, having been removed by Board action more than a year ago. The board has discussed the possibility of a replacement article, to acknowledge some of Hicks’ musical ideas but leaving out prejudicial sentiments which are, forty years after the original publication, rather uncomfortable. Such sentiments have appeared not to be germane to the mission of BQPA/Pioneers. A prefix article was considered, to distance our organization from those opinions and yet provide access to the original article. However, Martin moved and Milner seconded that we should leave things as they are, with no replacement for or preface to the article put in place, and the original article be left inaccessible to visitors to our website. The motion passed.

It was moved by Milner and seconded by Carroll that we take off the table the consideration of moving the western BQPA/Pioneers festival from Tempe, Arizona. Previous discussions have not identified anyone who would undertake organizing a festival in any other location. After discussion, the motion to take consideration of moving our western festival off the table passed unanimously.

Noble proposed to arrange for 30-second big-screen ads to run at the Mid-Atlantic District Convention in October at a cost of $100 for a three-frame add like the one that ran at Las Vegas. After discussion, Martin moved and Gallagher seconded a motion to contract for such an ad, and the motion passed unanimously.

Noble asked for consideration of a draft “Vision Statement”, which had been printed for Board review. After reviewing the draft, the sentiment of the meeting was that it should be used as source material for an update to the main page of our website.

Martin moved the meeting be adjourned. Seconded by Milner, the motion passed, and the meeting was adjourned at 5:50 pm.