Meeting Notes, July 14, 2012
Committee Updates
Programming - Julia Lipscomb
o Increase inter-office communication - Director Beth, Intern Amy
 Cross committee
o NW LoveFest - Vera stage
Gallery and Communications - TDO 10 year anniversary of repeal
o Gallery show: Aug 16
o Punk Rock Aerobics
o Help new Vancouver all-ages venue
o Meetings: first Tuesday of the month
Steering - Sonya
o Focus on membership, volunteer appreciation
o increase involvement and
o Sponsorships: BECU, Chipotle
o Buddy-System for new members
o Next meeting next Tuesday, July 17
Board - Brecken
o Board transition; 7 members leaving through the year, 1-2 a month
o Financials: cut $60-70,000
o Solid fundraising
o Transition from Bank of America to Pacific Continental Bank with $20,000 line
o Creating reserve; drafting policy
Silkscreen - Eric Carnell
o End of May/Early June slower
o May: Andy McDougall masterclass was success
 quality of shop has increased since
 Will be Andy's home base for flat stock (Bumbershoot) and do outreach
o Last year, just giving out brochures had silkscreening classes overfilled for 3 months
o New poster distribution system
o Working with Gallery for September gallery; at least two continents,
o Groupon fundraiser - $10/person to buy silkscreen drying rack, printer etc.
Audio/Tech - Danae
o Working on classes; no cancelation policy
o Refined classes
o Cable Soldering workshop
Gallery - Jaimee
o New intern: Laura Crisler;
o HTML newsletter to promote shows
o Continued promotion/partnering to outside galleries, art departments, museums
o More outside donation for snacks so not just use gallery funds
o Robots from Robotic Art class in gallery
o TDO Gallery - Meeting next Thursday at 6
Veracity - Dustin (David on vacation)
o Chipotle donates burritos to all shows
o Recent and upcoming shows have been booked by new members
o Wednesday at 6:30 meeting
o Silent Planet and Sea of Teeth performing next
Diversity - Amy Pinon
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Cultural competency training
Working more closely with communications for defining diversity for strategic planning
Committee meeting agreed to attending meetings for diversity
Finance - David Sykes
o Individual donat
o Corp sponsorship increased and above budget
o Earned income
 Large discrepancy between last year and this year's shows
 Down 37%
 New surcharges make this downfall more problematic
o Expenses have lined up closely or below budget
 Facility costs overrun
 Utilities - twice as expensive as budgeted
Communications, Annie Holden
o TDO repeal
o Drink for the Kids
o Poster distribution system
o Media plans
o Crisis communication plans
o Next meeting next Thursday at 5
Evaluation Task Force - Eric Schultz
o Photo Voices ready for early August
Fundraising - Kristina
o Groupon - Reached goal! (Thanks Natalie for all the hard work!)
o July 7 - Kristina's one year
o Gala made +$20,000 more than expected
o Drink for the Kids made $20,000
o Now work on infrastructure, foundational
Governance - Timie
o Board member, 6th year
o Used to have board development, now not
o 6 years ago, many new board members, now many leaving
o Monthly meeting, next meeting Monday at 8
o Creating internship
Triforce Update - Josh, Kristina, and Beth
o (Management) Revised Business Plan
 Josh, Kristina, Beth, Sequoia, and Andrew; join if you'd like!
o Progress so far
 Outline and Timeline
 Strategic consideration
o Navigate the board transition and improve governance processes
 Schedule of Board Appointments on track
 Created Governance Committee
 Refined processes:
 Board nominations
 Board orientation and interaction
 Board accountability, checkins and tern renewals
 Advisory committee getting seasonal updates
 Jerry Everard (former board chair) charing advisory committee
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Increase cohesion across organization and comprehension of the various aspects
 Strong board and member on diversity
 More members active on finance and fundraising
 Communications and governance need more members
 More financial transparency and active reporting, led my members
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Staffing model
 Current model will be in act through 2012, will serve as foundation for developing 2013
Develop Online Registration
 veravera.org went live in June
 classes online through Google shopping cart, went live in April
Ensure Document Management is efficient and meets federal requirements
 DONE! (SO ORGANIZED!)
Migrate to Pacific Continental Bank and Key Bank
 Putting all new deposits and expenses through PCB this month
 Closing BoA as soon as all existing expenses cleared
Address usability and data cleanliness issues in Salesforce Database
 Developing
 More thorough volunteer hour tracking
 Track space and resource rentals
 Track silkscreen short run jobs
 Improve class registration
 Clean up contact and donor records
Establish Sustainable Budget Model and realistic plan to build an operating reserve
 Operating reserves policy drafted and presented to board
 Reserves purposes and strategy will be core discussions
Communications Team
o Capitalize on the anniversary of the repeal of the Teen Dance Ordinance
 Event at Vera planned for Aug 16,
 Private event at Fremont Mischief's waterfront for Aug 15
 Artifacts from TDO/AADO will be posted online daily
o Develop focused donor profiles and corresponding elevator pitch and message platforms
 Lots of language being drafted
 Surveying current and art members, donors, artists, and partner organizations: "Why
Vera?"
 Finalizing language for surveys and discuss at October's member's meeting
o Develop a media plan
o Create a crisis communications plan
 Completed
o Clearly define diversity
 Currently drafting the process with diversity committee
o Improve print and social media
 Converted Facebook profile to a 'page'
 New poster distribution sign up process
 We need you to sign up and distribute posters as poster pirate
 spotify, instagram, twitter, tumblr
o Demonstrate revenue increases
 Rentals still low
 Attendance
 shows on target, class attendance still low
 Individual and corporate giving is up
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Programming Team
o Strengthen relationships with KEXP and SIFF
 Stage at Bumbershoot
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 On-air mixtapes
Working on long-term KEXP partnership that features
 Event partnering
 Music/audio sharing
 Member opportunities at both places
Increase opportunities for member involvement in programming
 2013 goals
Focus on diversity with programs tied to social justice and opportunities for young and emerging
artists
 Cultural Competency training was successful
 Planning more workshops, trainings, discussions around social justice
Continue increase professionalism and operational efficiency of all programs
 Shows doing great
 Gallery
 new press blasts/emails
 reaching out to visit and partner with other galleries and museums
 Silkscreen
 improving lesson plans
 finding ways to improve the shop
 Audio/tech
 planning to reach out to schools and community groups to promote classes
Improve recognition of volunteers, members, board, and staff
 Star Wars party was successful, but sparsely attended
 Field Day
 Brainstorming more ideas
Revise organizational evaluation
 Working with J. Eric Stewart
 Photo Voice training
 July 26
 More to come
Complete orientations for all committee members to participate in
Development Team
o Plan successful gala and maintain relationships year-round
 Beat goal by $20,000
 Set Feb 23rd at Triple Door for next year's gala
 Been keeping in contact with sponsors
 Advancing timeline for 2013
o Leverage Give Big to bring in new donors and strengthen existing relationships
 Brought in $13k
 Get excitement up through match-donations
o Under expected goal
 Too much reliance on partners this year?
o Increase the success of A Drink for the Kids
 Brought in $20,000, twice as last year
 30% from sponsors: Rhapsody, Zipcar, Ninkasi, Fremont Mischief, Eyes on Fremont, and
Fin Records
 Zip Car sponsorship successful
 Added live auction to two of the nights
 Strengthened bond with local business partners, including bars
o Create annual event for donor and constituent celebration
 Macklemore event allowed some of our friends to see us in action
 Hosting party at Fremont Mischief in August
o Advocate for continued funding from City of Seattle
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 "Funding is as solid as can be at this stage in the process"- The City
 Reaching out to the Mayor more with invitations to event
 Planning meetings with council members
Solicit reliable corporate sponsorships with stronger system for fulfillment
 Corporate sponsorships are why we're trending ahead
 Lots of great relationships
 Using fundraising events as the place for corp sponsorships
 Putting in a proposal for yearlong partnership to Rhapsody for 2013 (hoping for biggest at
$25,000/year)
 Striking a balance between local and national corp partners
Explore capacity building projects with good foundation matches
 Looking into foundation funding opportunities
 Letter of intent sent to Bill and Melinda Gates
 Requested meetings with Paul Allen Foundation and Murdock Foundation
Find new ways to communicate Vera's story
 McMillen grant in January was first try at gallery focused grant-writing
 More talk about membership participation outcomes, not just projects (shows, gallery etc.)
The Main Event
Board Elections
o Not enough members to meet quorum
2012 in Review & Slideshow
Revised Business Plan
o End of strategic part, draft by November
Targeting Markets
o Who are we/who are servicing? Where do we want to be?
o Neighborhood breakdowns by credit cards
 Looking at maps by zip code
 Class attendees
 Membership
 Show attendees