MISC:

Augusta Scholarship follow-up/slow jam: Phil Watts and Dave and Sonja Prychitko have been working to set up a monthly slow jam. The first one will be Saturday, October 6, in the Parlor at Grace United Methodist Church, and it will be there at least through the end of this year. The jams will be 3-4:30 p.m. on the first Saturday of the month. The three planners decided to use Phil's approx. 40-member picker email list and a mention on our website first, to kind of get things worked out, before we announce it in the general public. Those communications have been done.
Annual Meeting: As you know, there was confusion over who is charged with selecting the Annual Meeting band. I thought it was just me, but the responses to my "Brain Cramp" email indicated general uncertainty. The dance committee is willing to book the band, if that suits you. I'd like to include the band info on the member postcard mailing. To do that, we need to pick the band pretty quick. By-laws require notice by mail at least 10 days before the meeting, but I like to make it as close to a month ahead as possible.
Insurance, Part 3: I'm still chipping away at the multi-page apps for some prospective insurance companies. One requires a bunch of information about this building, and I'm waiting for the property manager to get back to me. Both our current agency (Hub in Traverse City) and our previous agency (City Insurance here) are looking on our behalf.
Documentary proposal: Don't know what's up with this. I emailed Grant Guston a couple of times about tonight's meeting and their original plan to present their written proposal 30th Anniversary documentary to you, but I haven't heard anything.
Old PC: The local Alzheimer's Association chapter wanted our old PC. Geoff Smith cleaned off the hard drive for free, so it's ready for its new home, whenever they can pick it up.
Fax machine: Our fax machine died last week: completely without power. It's only 16 months old and probably hasn't run 150 pages. Brother tech support said it probably took a power surge, but it ran on two surge protectors, and everything else was fine, so it probably just croaked. Stunningly, when we bought it, I did something I never do: bought an extended warranty through Office Max. So far, that's working slick, so unless something falls off the sled, we should get an Office Max gift card for the value of the machine. One of our friends is retiring from a home business and might donate her fax machine, in which case we could use the gift card for something else. But for now, no fax machine.
Phone service: No word from Jeff Santti about phone alternatives yet. As noted before, if any of you have insights into this, they'd be welcome! More incentive to shop around: our current carrier will now charge us $20 to activate our temporary call forwarding for the Festival, in addition to the cost of the service. Not to mention the $7/month/line rate hike noted earlier.
Lighthouse Bookstore: Apparently Jim and Billie are relocating their store to South Front Street, just past the Huron Mountain Bakery, so the lower-level space might not be as much of an option for us.

DIRECTOR'S REPORT - 09-05-07

BOARD ACTIONS REQUESTED

Consider local arts promotion proposal from Charter
Continue Annual meeting planning
Update on insurance premium
Post-Augusta "slow jam" proposal
Get rid of old PC

FESTIVAL

Park Contract: Dave Cotton, formerly from here and now back as a cyber-commuter, would like to help with out contract negotiations. He works in waste-water treatment, so is used to negotiating with governments and working within bureaucracies. We've visited a bit by phone, and I'd like to keep him in the loop with this, if no one minds.
Results: Projected report attached. Available on request
Concessions: Our City bill did not include any extra charges for one vendor's teardown being late, so I returned their vendor deposit.
Venue search: Jim Edwards accepted Wayne Stenberg's invitation to visit the Bark River Off Road site during their August 11-12 event. He's going to "officially" report on that soon, but we visited about it a bit. He says it's a huge space and one that would make our Festival into something completely different, if we chose to go that way. We looked at the aerial view of the site on the BROR website, and Jim explained how we might use the different areas. More on that at a future meeting, but, if you want to see the site, it's https://secure.dstech.us/form100/choosesection.asp I sent comp tickets to owners/managers of all the venues we've visited. We received a nice thank-you from Doug Barry, Van Riper manager. He and his family attended the Festival had "a wonderful time."
Interesting/expensive promotion idea: Nikke Nason of the Marquette Arts and Culture Center has met with Charter representatives for a new show next year called "Up North, The Adventure Starts Here!" that will be on the Charter Main Street Channel and Charter on demand April-August of 2008 in Lower and Upper Michigan, parts of Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. She hopes some of the major event groups (Art on the Rocks, Lake Superior Theatre, Pine Mountain Music Festival, us) might share the cost of one of these features. She suggests that it may be a great opportunity for the large arts events to advertise to get people here for the summer. The original proposal was quite "spendy": even the two-minute spot would have been a third of our total ad budget, and we'd only have been a small part of the spot. However, Nikke was able to negotiate that down, and Charter is now willing to find corporate sponsors to cover a four-minute segment on the arts for their UP North Show and Charter On Demand Segment. It would cost each organization $300 each for 13 weeks of airtime. That would produce the four-minute segment (includes taping and production as well!) featuring the summer arts events in Marquette including: Pine Mountain Music Festival, Art on the Rocks, Lake Superior Theatre, Marquette Area Blues Fest, us. The segment would air twice a day at 11 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. on the Charter Main Street Channel (right after From Studio A in the evenings) in June, July and August and available on Charter On Demand in April, May and June. It will cover airtime in Upper and Lower Michigan, parts of Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. Charter will also give us copies of the video for our own use (website, tourism bureaus, hotels, our ticket offices, etc.) plus they will advertise for it on the main channels. One possible negative: this came up after most of the relevant events were over. Nikke is investigating sources of current video footage.
Post Festival Meeting: 7 p.m., Tuesday, September 11, here.
Logo contest: We already have two entries, and one is from Denmark! How cool is that?

MISC:

Augusta Scholarship follow-up: We received a very nice thank-you note and festival report from Sonja Prychitko, the August Heritage Festival Scholarship Winner. The slow-jam idea seems worthwhile; I know many people who enjoy them. If we made it a Hiawatha activity, we could probably use this room. It doesn't get much use on the weekends and it's free with our rent. It's not very aesthetically pleasing for a jam, but it's a possibility.
Annual Meeting: As you know, PWPL was booked for our annual meeting date, and, in the email poll, most of you wanted to keep the date and move the place. I contacted the Unitarian Universalist Church, the Masonic Hall and Grace United Methodist Church to start the venue search. The UUs penciled us in, but their area is all carpeted, which didn't sound good for eating and dancing. The Masonic Hall was booked. Rev. West at Grace said, "You folks are welcome to the church on Nov 3. As to cost - our church-use policy says that non-profits are welcome to use the church for no charge. Donations are accepted. So we have you on the calendar now - please let us know for sure." They have a kitchen with room to set up a pot-luck line, a pretty good-size fellowship hall with linoleum, which seems like it would be better for dancing and food. They also have a parlor that would probably hold our attendance in rows of chairs but not the "still finishing dinner" mode. It's all on one level with quite a bit of parking, and centrally located at 927 W Fair Ave. I suggest we have the meeting at Grace and that we donate the amount we paid PWPL last year: $125. The Northern Vegans have the site until 5 p.m. that day, which is when we normally reserve a venue to start set-up. I talked to their contact person, Luanne Krupi, and neither of us sees a problem with that. In fact, they will leave their tables set up for us, which will work to our advantage. I'd like to get Fall Newsletter to the printer on September 10, ideally with the Annual Meeting info, and we need to line up a band, etc., so I hope you will approve this venue proposal.
I hate to say "I told you so," Part 2: Travelers Insurance has now decided that raising our premium $328 at mid-term isn't enough punishment for our denied snow-load claim. Now they plan to non-renew us next May. Our agent in Traverse City is shopping the coverage around; I also sent our coverage information to City Insurance, who was our local agency for many years; and I'm checking with some other festivals to see what companies they use. Out current agent says we should be prepared to play at least double our current premium with a new company. Not bad for an insured who hasn't had a claim paid in 29 years.
A stunning change of pace: Just on a long shot, I asked our former bulkmail-software provider if they would consider refunding even part of our last renewal (from fall 2006), since we were never able to install it and use it. That took some gall, since the problem we had was nothing to do with the software. I offered to send copies of our bills from Pride to prove we didn't use the software for our own mailing. Yesterday we got a check for the full amount, $109. Wouldn't life be sweet if every business was like that?
Documentary proposal: Grant Guston is working with Michael Loukinen, the UP's premier documentary videographer, on the proposal to document/produce a show on the 30th Anniversary. Dr. Loukinen was swamped with the start of school, so they plan to present their written proposal for your October 3 board meeting.
Old PC: I think we've salvaged everything we can from the old PC, and, the Mac has gone a year without incident. I recommend that we give up the old one. I don't think anyone will want it, due to its age, lack of a writeable CD drive, USB ports, etc. Star Industries will recycle the material, but we have to deliver it and pay 40 cents a pound. That's aggravating, but I'll do it on principle. I can't imagine it will be more than $20, and I'm willing to pay that myself just to be done with it. I'd like to keep the printer. Grant Guston thinks we can get a cable to make it work with the Mac, and it's much better than our newer printer. I will take the "guts" out of the harddrive and have Clyde perform a data purge like he did with our old home computer. It's about time for him to sight in his deer rifle.
Phone service: Our current phone carrier, First Communications, is jacking our local service by $7/month. I hope that's total, not per line. Jeff Santti, who saved us money on our last two phone-service contracts, is reviewing our account. He says the current best rates are with AT&T, especially for packages with DSL. I'll check with Nathan Lyle and our e-commerce services to see if that would work for our internet. I'd also like to see if we could save money by substituting a cell phone for one of our phone lines. Maybe a cell with voicemail and nationwide long distance would serve the same purpose as our primary phone at the same or better price. Plus, we could take it to any event with no forwarding, etc. I think we'd always need a regular line for phone book listing, fax and credit-card reader. Update in October, I hope. If any of you have insights into this, they'd be welcome!
New contact at the Library: Bryn Smith has retired from PWPL, and the new promotions and programs person is Margaret Boyle.
Thanks again: for your understanding about the office closing for our friend's funeral. Pegi Martindale covered most of the office hours, and I was the only person who called.
An interesting prospect: Let's continue to think about the potential office and performance/workshop space at the Lighthouse Bookstore.

Director's Report - 08-01-07

BOARD ACTIONS REQUESTED

Vote on whether to return one concession deposit if the City doesn't charge us extra
Set Annual meeting date and start planning
Update on insurance premium
Consider scheduling a documentary proposal from Grant Guston

FESTIVAL

Park Contract: Next year is the last for our current Tourist Park contract, so we should open negotiations on that soon if we intend to stay. I had an interesting visit with Mayor Tourville at the Festival. Apparently people have voiced their concerns about our leaving the Park. He said he does not know any history of our issues but he's interested in meeting with us informally after things settle down. Also a first-time Festival-goer cc'd us a letter he sent to the mayor. The letter said, in part, "Our original impetus for visiting was to take in the Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival. I hope that you can pass along my congratulations to your constituents who work so hard to put on a well run and family oriented event. We are looking forward to many more visits to the U.P., and especially future Hiawatha festivals." That can't hurt!
Results: Advance sales were $71,905, $744 ahead of last year's. Weekend deposits were $92,219.27, bringing total income to $164,124.27. We budgeted for $158,650. I do not have the breakdown of deposit categories from the Festival yet, so was not able to produce a useful budget report.
Raffle/Silent Auction: The dulcimer sold for $450 - not what it was worth and not as much above the minimum bid as I'd hoped, but still a gift of $450.
Concessions: Concession gross sales, net sales and our share were up from last year. Our share for both years is about 13% over all. Of the nine returning 2006 concessionaires, six had lower sales this year, and three had higher sales. Those differences seem to be the result of having three more vendors to share the Festival-goers' dollars.
I held one concession deposit because their site was not cleaned on time. Our concession contract allows us to keep a deposit if "Concession site is not cleaned of all debris by 12 noon on Monday, July 23, 2007." When we finished our tenant walk with Hugh at 6 p.m., Monday, there were several grease containers, a large table and two refrigerators at the site of that booth. The refrigerator doors were unsecured - a real danger right across the road from a campground play area. Hugh, Ron and Jeff and I horsed them around so the doors were face to face and couldn't be opened. The booth owner is a good vendor with a lot of other irons in the fire, so I recommend that we return the deposit IF our final City bill does not include charges for the late clean-up. I think this should be a board action, since it's a variation in a contract.
Venue search: Wayne Stenberg called about our site search. He's involved with Bark River Off Road, which owns a huge site. They are interested in us as a potential event tenant. It's pretty far, and the aerial view on the website didn't show much shade. But I emailed him our Venue Requirements anyway. Their next event is August 11-12, and he wondered if any of us could come down then and take a tour. Nichole Swanberg from Munising got back in touch (thanks to Heidi, I think!), so I re-sent our Venue Requirements to her again.
On-line orders: We had $16,971 in online ticket orders. Can't tell how many of those orders we would have had anyway, but I think it was more convenient for people to order without waiting for office hours and the busy phone lines. We had fewer bumps in the road than I expected. Most involved people adding orders wrong or whaling away on the submit button, even though the order form specifically said to click it only once. When people continued not to "get it," Nathan built in a feature that voided identical orders submitted within a certain time. That took care of all but the most determined.
Post Festival Meeting: 7 p.m., Tuesday, September 11, here.

MISC:

On-line banking: That was a big help in letting me see the Festival deposits without waiting for Lori to work up the General Ledger and send it to me. Thanks again!
Annual Meeting: Hard to believe, but it's time to think about it. If we stick with the first Saturday in November, as we have in recent years, it would be November 3.
I hate to say "I told you so": We received notice from Travelers Insurance today that our recent policy review resulted in a $328 increase to this year's premium, raising it from the $750 we paid to a total of $1,078. Seems perfectly reasonable, since we're the same risk we've been for years, and probably no company has paid a claim on us in 29 years. I'm checking with our agent (who came to the Festival, by the way) to see if we can reduce the rate by raising our deductible (currently $500) or dropping some -or maybe all - of our commercial-property coverage and just keeping the liability. If they're not going to pay our claims anyway, maybe we should consider "self-insuring" our physical possessions. I'd also like to shop the policy to some other agencies. However, when we switched to the current agency in 2002, the best we could get from a local agency was higher than our adjusted premium for the current policy, so that may be a fool's errand. But I love those
Documentary proposal: Grant Guston - who's helped with the Mac as needed - would like to present a proposal to document/produce a show on the 30th Anniversary. He says we could use it for promotions/web site/local television. Should I ask for a proposal or presentation for your September meeting?
New contact at the Library: Bryn Smith has retired from PWPL, and the new promotions and programs person is Margaret Boyle.
An interesting prospect: Let's continue to think about the potential office and performance/workshop space at the Lighthouse Bookstore.