RMT Meeting Minutes, July 11 and 13, 2008

Region 22
RMT Meeting
July 11 and 13, 2008

MJ called meeting to order on July 11, 2008 at 5:00pm with MJ Mortillaro, Dawn Banerdt-Adams, Heather Johnston, Jennifer Johnson, Joan Machtel, Gil Swanson, Shirley VanDeWege, and Rhonda Puntney in attendance.

And again on July 13, at 8:00 A.M. with Dawn Banerdt-Adams, Heather Johnson, Joan Machtel, Gil Swanson, Shirley VanDeWege and Rhonda Puntney in attendance.
Minutes from previous meeting were approved.

Coordinator Reports
1. Finance Coordinator – Dawn Banerdt-Adams
a. Reviewed the 2008 Winter School budget report
b. Reviewed the 2007 and 2008 convention budget income reports
c. Discussed the necessity of keeping the $25. all-events ticket in place - Consensus
d. Discussed amounts of gifts to be given to choruses and quartets competing at International Contests
i. The amount of the Regional gifts to remain the same as last year - Consensus

2. Communications/Technology Coordinator – Joan
a. Badges for 2008 contest were mailed to choruses 2 weeks ahead of contest
b. 2007-2008 Annual Regional Evaluation (ARE) was completed and sent to SAI via e-mail/attachment on 6/28/08. Confirmed receipt received 7/1/08.
i. 14 choruses participated
c. Final report was sent to RMT via e-mail/attachment
d. 2007-2008 State of the Region report was completed and sent to SAI on 6/28/08. Confirmed receipt received 7/1/08.
e. Completed 2008-09 Regional Directory

3. Marketing Coordinator – Rhonda
a. Wrote and distributed press release to media markets in the Green Bay/Fox Cities area.. A small article appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
b. My suggestions for next year are to write an all encompassing press release that competing choruses and quartets can use locally, write and distribute a press release to the media markets in Cedar Rapids, and investigate the possibility of webcasting the competition

4. Membership Coordinator – Gil
a. Continue to check the International membership lists every month, and compare with chapters, and the lists are now largely correct
b. On 2/2/08 sent a complete packet to all membership chairs as an email attachment. It included lists and international links for manuals & handbooks, PR/Marketing, Online Sales, free materials, membership brochures, Members Count! Toolkit, Divas Wanted, Public Service Announcements, News Releases, Past membership articles from Intl., Pitchpipe recruiting articles, Recruiting video, etc
c. Between 7/29/07 and 6/18/08 I have sent new member welcome packets to 63 new members. Packets include a welcome letter from me, an overview of regional events, RMT names & contact info, regional map. New members are listed in Catch 22, and are recognized at fall & winter regionals.
d. Member retention should become a focus of the region
e. Kept constant contact with membership chairs
f. Provided a membership information CD containing items in a few categories (Membership Drives, Forms to process memberships, membership ideas from Region 22 Membership Chairs) to every chapter during May convention/contest
g. Suggested the formation of a Nominating Committee and a Finance Committee (both committees per standing rules.)
h. MJ is heading the Nominating Committee
i. Gil provided a list of possible candidates
j. Joan provided listing of possible interested names suggested by choruses on the Annual Regional Evaluations
k. Dawn would head up a Finance Committee to assist in formulating a proposed budget that would be approved by RMT
l. Completed Regional Standing Rules, OK’d by Anita-Corporate Secretary, signed by MJ, sent to Intl. for signature. Awaiting return & will make copies for RMT, Chapters and others designated.

5. Education Coordinator – Heather
a. Tasks Completed or in Process:
i. Held Faculty Training May 31; Faculty, Dixie Dahlke was awesome and the team left with renewed energy and vision.
ii. Set up Yahoo Group for Education Faculty to facilitate communicationi
iii. Assigned Education Faculty Buddies to every chorus. This is someone to provide more of an individual connection with each chorus. This person will visit each assigned chorus once and will be in contact with them on a regular basis to assist them in any way (i.e. finding coaches, administrative assistance, etc.)
iv. Laura Pallas had to cancel as faculty for January, 2009 so I managed to book Darlene Rogers. The title for the school is “Catch It-Pass It-Own It”, focusing on vocal production and personal responsibility for improving the musical product.
v. Contacted Rhonda to prepare and send the Flier for “Sing, Dance and Light Up the Stage”
vi. Contacted Judy Olson on the schedule for “Sing, Dance and Light Up The Stage”
vii. Restructured the Long Range Planning Calendar to make it more user friendly and contain more specific details
viii. October, 2009 Director/Arranger Retreat – Jen Johnson is taking care of this, I suggested she work with Carmen, suggested faculty is Sylvia Alsbury
ix. Future Tasks:
1. Prepare EC Faculty Booklet (similar to the old DMA Faculty Book), combined with 22K Gold – this will be given to all choruses and quartets to use as a resource when looking for musical assistance.
2. Oversee faculty visits
3. Book faculty for:
a. 2009 Quartet School
b. 2010 Area Schools
c. 2010 Arrangers Retreat2011 Fall School
d. 2011 Quartet Retreat
e. 2012 Winter & Fall School

6. Director’s Coordinator – Jennifer Johnson
a. Welcomed Jennifer to her first meeting
b. Will continue to work closely with Heather

7. Events Coordinator – Shirley VanDeWege
a. Convention 2008 Discussion
i. Recommended that Jo Wyatt be CC for 2009 - Consensus
ii. Recommended that Carol Pann continue as CVC for 2009 – Consensus
iii. Better pre-convention Harmony Mall communications from the chairman to CRC and EVC.
iv. First bulletin has to be out sooner as well as well as CRC, CC, EVC and one or 2 members of the RMT ( I suggest for next year MJ and Gil) to proof read and catch any errors prior to the mailings.
v. Strongly recommended that tickets being sold to non-members of Region 22 should be sold for at least $5.00 higher then the membership will be paying. I don’t feel this is fair to our members to pay the same price as someone off the street. Consensus
vi. Strongly recommended that Region 22 should at all times have an Assistant Convention Chairman working hand and hand with the Convention Chairman. If something should happen unforeseen to the CC (and we know it could) we need to have someone who can step right in. I really feel we need to do this!
vii. Jo Wyatt – CC, Carol Pann – CRC and Shirley VanDeWege – EVC plan to meet as a team at the Cedar Rapids Marriott probably in August and go over who is to do what according to the International Guidelines.
1. Suggested that Rhonda Puntney our Marketing Coord. join us for the meeting with Vicki from the C&V Bureau due to the fact that they want to do lot of publicity in Cedar Rapids for Region 22 and the Sweet Adelines coming to their town.
b. Discussed arrangements for the 2008 Fall Workshop – Sing, Dance and Light Up The Stage - : September 19 – 21, 2008 It will be at the Best Western Hotel, located at 31 Dodge Street, Dubuque, IA 52003 Phone (563) 557-8000.
i. Jeannette Schupp from Milwaukee Showcase will be handling registrations
ii. I am working with the American Lady Yacht Crises to try to arrange a Champaign Brunch Cruise at 11 AM – 1PM on Sunday the 21st.
c. Winter Workshop – January 23rd – 24th will be at the North Star Conference Center Comport Inn and Suites in DeForest, WI. There address is 5025 County Hwy V, DeForest, WI 53532. Phone number is 608-846-9100
i. I would like to recommend we continue to use this venue for the next few years for our Winter Schools, due to their cost to us and the location with highway access in the winter months with snow and ice.
d. Convention 2010 - April 22nd - 25th will be at the Cedar Rapids Marriott.
e. Conventions 2011 and 2012
i. Radisson Paper Valley Hotel/ with Competition at the PAC. – consensus

8. Old Business
a. Coordinator responsibilities – define so we eliminate unnecessary overlap

9. New Business
a. Meetings – look at when we meet and if we need to change them
i. Discussed having three one-day meetings in the Milwaukee area (Gil’s meeting room at her apartment complex) to eliminate the majority of hotel stays needed.
ii. Set up the following dates
iii. Oct. 25, 2008
iv. Feb. 21, 2009
v. July 18, 2009
b. Mileage reimbursement
i. SAI is now allowing .50/mile for travel.
ii. RMT discussed raising our mileage allowance to .50/mile.
iii. Consensus
c. Discussed how the Catch 22 is being put on the website
i. The Chorus Leaders, Directors and CAL members (with e-mail) are alerted via e-mail that the Catch is available and per their agreement at town hall meetings, they are to alert their membership that it is there and they are to provide hard copies to members of their choruses that do not have access to the internet.
ii. About 18 hardcopies of the Catch 22 are mailed to CAL members that I do not have an e-mail for and the few that have personally requested my mailing this to them.
iii. Rhonda has set up a Region 22 Blog site and this information is on the Region 22 website.
d. Discussed time and places of special recognition for membership

10. Fall School 2009
a. Discussed Stevens Point
b. Shirley will revisit the two sites there

11. $3500 gift from Cedar Rapids – discussed it’s use
a. No Consensus Reached

12. RMT concerned with the size of the First Place Quartet Trophy.
a. Heather brought her last First Place Trophy from some years back and this years and Shirley took a picture of both together to show Carol Pann
b. Heather offered that 22Karat Gold would be happy to take charge of purchasing the trophy with the Region paying for the cost.
c. Shirley said she would pass this on to Carol and let her decide if she would like to still take charge of the trophy or have 22K do it.
d. Shirley will keep CSC and RMT informed.


Respectfully submitted
Joan Machtel, COC