March 7 Approved Minutes

Place, Gregory’s Home 

Time, 10-11:45 

Present: Elizabeth Bingham, John Lulich, Gregory Scott, Michael Silversher, David Teegarden, and Kim and Rob Griswell-Lowry, Jim Hartman.

Scribe: Jim

 Feb 8th, 2025 amended minutes approved unanimously with two changes:

1.  Discussion of Mutichoir event: Kim was offered the job, but she deferred making a decision because she was busy with writing a series of books which could be full time. The venue for this event had been secured: SOU recital hall at 4 PM on February 15, 2026. It was decided that if Kim cannot do it, we should look to the choir for another person to do this job, with Kim as a possible consultant.
2. M/S/C spelled out so members can easily understand later:

Motion made, Seconded, and Carried (M/S/C)

Decision Making (20 minutes)

• For check writing with Rogue Credit Union – (have in the minutes). Propose keeping David Teegarden and Gregory Scott; removing Elizabeth Bingham and adding John Lulich.

Signed by ____________________ And ________________________

(Signed by two board members)

Motion made by Eliz, second by Kim, Unanimous approval. Motion made, Seconded and Carried (M/S/C).

• We discussed process of getting new board members:
  • We currently have 7 and don’t want to go below that number. Going up to 9 would be ok.
  • Timeline:
    • Jim will announce to choir at our next rehearsal on March 13 that:
      • We’re looking for new board members.
      • What it means to be on the board:
        • Attend board meetings 1/month
        • Be involved in helping the choir in other ways.
        • Total time commitment is about 4 hours/month in additional time. But many board members choose to do more.
      • We’ll be asking folks who we think would be a good fit. If you know of someone who would be good, please tell a board member.
      • Working looking for people that work well on a team, and that may have legal, accounting or fundraising skills.
    • Potential board members will be asked to apply in March
    • we’ll review applications in April,
    • and those chosen will be placed on a ballot to be elected by choir members at the annual meeting.
  • Terms are for 2 years, but people may get re-elected if they wish to continue to serve.
  • Prospective board members may attend a board meeting if they want to get a feel for how our current board works.
  • Michael is open to stepping down if a replacement can be found.
  • Our current needs seem to be: legal, accounting, and …
  • We’re going to ask Marie Schwabe and Bruce McConnell. We’ll also ask David Cross once he recovers from his hip replacement.
  • Board members who have specific people in mind should email all the other board members to see if they also believe they are a good fit.

• We need to find a new section leader for altos next year as Eliz. Akin is moving out of town. Elizabeth is going to ask Debbie.
• We reviewed the Solo Selection Policy /Procedures. Rob would like to make several changes at a later board meeting. For now, we voted to make one change.

Motion: Change it from “consult with 2 to 3 choir members” to “At least one…” Jim’s motion, Gregory 2nd, passed on a 6 to 1 vote. Michael has volunteered to help Rob this year. Motion made, seconded and carried (M/S/C).

• Jewelry Sale Plan (Elizabeth): We have about 1,000 pieces of jewelry donations left that we need to monetize. We decided to bring it to Deja Vu and let them take some to try to sell. Afterwards we’ll offer to sell it to members at our annual meeting at a discount. After that the rest can be melted down and sold.. . Diane is going to do it.
• We need another church liaison, since Elizabeth Aitkens is leaving. . . Announce it to the choir (Michael Silversher will do it). It’s very simple, mostly get the contract.

Reporting: 

Performance: (Kim): Kim shared that a gig is likely at Helman School 9:30 on the 6th of May and one at Siskiyou School on Friday, May 9th. Bob and Kim are hoping to get more help next year. The theme for the Spring Concert is chosen: Be a Light. We decided to ask for a suggested donation of $20.

Publicity: (Kim) For our Spring Concert, Elizabeth Bingham will check into the cost of buying an ad in the program of Siskiyou Singers, which is one week beforehand. Cynthia Taylor is going to work with print media. Rob will get something for JPR. Jim may help get something to the Ashland News.

Music (Michael): They have done lots of work and voting, and they are waiting for advice from Rob, who got 28 pieces of music to review. Generally, they chose songs that can buoy the spirit.

Website (Gregory): There are plans to place more photos on the website.

Social (Elizabeth): We paid for the book for Dawn. it will be available online. Portland and both Eugene choirs are interested in our Joint choir deal. We need to get commitments.

Fundraising (Jim): 

• Car Donation: As you may recall, I was hoping to find a company that might buy old cars from our RVPC members if they wished to donate them to us. The company is called Peddle, and a friend of mine just sold his old Forester to them for $1,300. Here’s their website
• Grants: We’ll find out about the Oregon Community Foundation Grant this month. David will get an email. (about $7K).
• Maggie has found 4 other grants that we could apply for by using an expensive grant search tool from her work ($6K/year) that she got to look at for a free trial. They range in price from $2K to $7.5K. First deadline is in May, Maggie is open to writing it.

Rehearsal House Count (Gregory): Jan 9: 71; Feb 13: 58  Feb 20: 64

Last night (March 6): 77 people (a record)

Director Report (Rob): is working on the concert order. About 10 or 12 people will do solos. Auditions 3rd and 10th. We have the schedule for the rest of the year, through the end of April. Feedback: Kirby Shaw was hard to hear. Motion made and passed to buy a wireless lavalier mic, for about $200. it could be $200 for a wireless. Kim made motion, Michael 2nd, it passed 6-0 (David had to leave just beforehand).

Plan Time and Place for Next meeting

Jim’s: 1033 Clay Street, Friday, April 4th, 10 to noon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RVPC Board Minutes 2-8-25

Place, room at the Pony Expresso building

Executive session 10:00 to 10:30 

Regular Session 10:30:  Rob and Kim can join 

Present: Elizabeth Bingham, John Lulich, Gregory Scott, Michael Silversher, David Teegarden, and Kim and Rob Griswell-Lowry (show up 10:30A).  Not present Jim Hartman. Guest, Victoria Graham

Scribe: David

Meeting was called to order at 10:30 by John

Discussion of Multichoir event: Kim was offered the job, but she deferred making a decision because she was busy with writing a series of books which could be full time. The venue for this event had been secured: SOU recital hall at 4 PM on February 15, 2026. It was decided that if Kim cannot do it, we should look to the choir for another person to do this job, with Kim as a possible consultant.

December Board Minutes were unanimously approved

Topics for discussion:

1. Sheet music on the Webpage (led by Michael) – Each song put on the website would be subject to whatever we work out with the publisher. There are a zillion publishers out there. Discussion. Motion made, Seconded, and Carried   (M/S/C) to not put music scores on the website.
2. The Jewelry that is left from sale at HUB – what to do about it? We have received $22,00 plus from them and many questions remained about how to proceed. Options included: melt the metal and sell it, try and sell more through a jeweler, or sell some ourselves. Elizabeth agreed to be the contact person with HUB to obtain more detailed information, and report at the next board meeting.
3. Review opinions on two weeks off this year for Choir over the Holidays. (Led by John) General opinion was not to have two weeks off if possible.Two weeks will be necessary in 2025-2026, however, because Christmas and New Years are on Thursdays. Further in the future, we will make this decision each year depending on the days on which holidays fall.
4. Do we want to shorten the choir year. Discussion  Probably not, but we can wait until the member survey at the end of the year.
5. Performance Dress Discussion. Motion to approve statement in attachment #1 was M/S/C David will insert it into the Board Notebook

•     Treasurer’s (David)  —  See notes attached that David Sent out Jan 15th. WE have more funds than usual due to generous contributions by several members. David cautioned that this money was not guaranteed on a yearly basis and thus we need to stick to our usual expenses, with raises for Rob and Mikiko. We can use any other extra money for one time items, such as bonuses, the multi-choir event, and adding some to our savings
•     Website (Gregory). Nothing new. He will add new dress procedures to the members page
•     Acts of Kindness? (David) He called Tasia, the team leader and asked her to make a choir announcement that the team can provide meals or rides. They are up to date on following possible members in need.
•     Performance: (Kim) There are many possibilities up in the air and it’s been difficult to pin schools down for a commitment. The team will continue to look for community events.
•     Music Team: (Michael) The team will be starting its selection process on Monday, Feb 10. Discussed having Rob at the meetings. He will work it out with the team leaders.
•     Social: (Elizabeth). Nothing new. Plans are in place for the talent show and end of year events.
•     Other. Brief discussion about finding new Board members. Tabled until next meeting.
•     Director’s (Rob). He has a memorization schedule in place, but is reassuring members that it’s not necessary to memorize. It was emphasized that good posture and holding the music in a way that singers could see the director and music at the same time was important.  He is happy with two solo sectionals in each month starting in January. It opens the potential for more singers to work on their solos and possibly be selected. There was discussion about having a choir member present for auditions. This has been a practice since he choir began, and the Board left that policy in place

Next Meeting:   Greg’s house,  March 7th  10 – Noon.

This meeting ended at just after 12

Song   Eric Clapton :  Wonderful Tonight

Respectfully submitted: David T.

Attachment

“The goal of our Performance Dress Policy is for the choir to have a unified look. We want to look outstanding without anyone standing out. For our Spring concerts and other more formal occasions as determined by the Board, all members should wear “whites and brights,” which means white pants or skirts and solid, brightly colored tops (in a single bright color, no prints). For more casual performances (schools, retirement homes, community events, etc.), members can opt for official Peace Choir shirts. Members who don’t have Peace Choir shirts, will wear “whites and brights” as outlined above. Shoes should be comfortable enough to stand for long periods. For Spring concerts and other more formal occasions, shoes in neutral colors such as white, black, brown and gray are preferred.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Present: John Lulich, David Teegarden, Jim Hartman, Gregory Scott, Elizabeth Bingham, Kim Griswell-Lowry, Michael Silversher, and Rob Griswell-Lowry

Check in: We shared the best thing(s) about choir so far this season.

Scribe: Jim Hartman

Decisions, Actions and Discussions

• November Board Minutes unanimously approved: Elizabeth moved, Kim seconded.
• PDF of songs on Website (Michael): No one has gotten back to him yet. If we place PDFs on our website, we need to change the password for members. Over the summer perhaps.
• Possible expansion of songs for 2025-2026 and process?  (Rob, Music Team, Michael as liaison?)
  • Has the Music Team given input/and approval?
    • Rob will share this with the music team this February and ask them to vote on it.
  • This is going to cost money, but we can afford it:
    • We can minimize the cost of sheet music by doing songs we have already done. Still, at $3.50/copy, it could run $35 for each additional 10 copies we need to buy.
    • We would choose a song we already have done and have recordings for, so we can avoid that additional cost.
  • Why do we do it?
    • Since our choir is learning songs quickly, we would do it to challenge those experienced singers who may get bored. The other way to challenge our singers is to encourage memorization.
    • It could be an encore piece.
    • It could be a Spanish language song that we could do in schools with lots of Spanish speakers. (For this we could also add a verse to Siyahamba).
    • Kids liked Cantar as they could try to do some of the hand motions in the dance.
• Financial Report/Treasurers Report on fundraising campaign and hiring an administrator down the road? (David)
  • We are like a business in many respects.
  • Our budget is a plan, not a requirement like legislative appropriations.
  • We have enough money to get through this year.
  • Expenses have increased due to inflation.
  • New expenses this year:
    • Mikiko coming to sectionals.
    • Redoing some recordings.
  • We just got a $5,000 donation!, so we made the $9,000 goal.
  • Grants
    • Maggie is open to helping us more in the future. She is going to retire from full time grant writing in 6 months or less so she should have more time. Her last effort for a $10K grant took her 12 hours.
    • For future grants, we may want to go for a Carpenter grant.
  • If we do a joint choir event, we will need to hire an administrator.  This would be very part-time. Kim got paid $1,000 for the last one.
  • If we go over $50K in total budget, you may not be able to get some grants. Other ramifications?
  • Motion: We expect to pay for support for the joint concert but don’t expect to do this on an ongoing basis. (Gregory 1st, Eliz. 2nd, unanimously passed)
  • We may be able to have people donate old cars like JPR does. Rob will talk to Don Mathews of JPR about how they do it.
• 5 minute stretch break
• Going away Dawn Sinnott (Past RVPC President, and moving to Portland)
  • Which week?, at break? cost of cake? Or other goodies?
  • Date and time to be determined by talking with Dawn for availability.
• Should we expand the Board?
  • Michael is open to stepping down when we find a good person.
  • It would be good to get a woman as we only have 2 of 7 right now.
  • Candidates should have been in the choir for at least a year.
  • We want someone who is easy to work with and has good skills.
  •  John is open to staying as president next year. At some point we may choose a successor and have them be vice-president for a year.
  • We’ll talk about it again in March or April,

Reports 

• Website
  • Rehearsal notes are added weekly.
  • Leadership list is coming.
  • We hope to establish a photo gallery.
  • Directions on how to make a playlist may be added.
• Acts of Kindness Team
  • We serve many vulnerable older folks.
  • The Acts of Kindness: David will help give directions so that volunteers can provide assistance (rides, meals, and letters) to those who need it. The volunteers are there, they just need directions.
• Performance: Led by Kim and Bob Altaras.
  • Our sound person, Tom Fredericks, wants $300 per performance, up from $200 last year. We can afford it. We have six songs with solos so we really need a sound person. Tom also tries to do the audio recording and video recording. Last spring we got better sound from someone’s iphone. We could try to do this again with someone’s iphone and tripod.
  • When we perform at care homes, we could encourage donations from  the homes.
  • We may need to pay for the two venues for our Spring Concert.
  • We need to find out who is doing MLK day to see if we can participate.
• Music Team: We need to find a new music team leader.

Next Meeting:   Gregory’s Place: Jan. 10th, 10 to noon [Cancelled; next meeting Feb. 7; that one postponed to Feb. 8 due to weather; March 7 at Greg’s]

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 1, 2024 RVPC Board Minutes

Location: Elizabeth’s place

Time: 10 am to 12 noon

Present: Elizabeth Bingham, Kim Griswell-Lowry, Jim Hartman, John Lulich, Gregory Scott, Michael Silversher, David Teegarden, and Rob Griswell-Lowry.

Scribe: Jim Hartman

Action Items are underlined. These are things that are done at the meeting or need to be done.

We approved October 4 Minutes unanimously (Eliz moves to approve, David 2nd)

Discussions/Planning  (finish by 11:20A)

• Feedback from our Fall Retreat
  • Elizabeth:  Good location:  only $50/hour. (a quarter of what it could have been). $158 in donations.
  • Attendance 56 at the beginning.
  • Lots of positive feedback.
  • Rob had great energy.

• Fall Fundraising Drive
  • Last year we made $9,000, and $1,500 of that from people outside of choir.
  • Two months
  • Goal:  $8,000
  • $32,400 total budget: dues provide about 40% of our budget.
  • We contribute to the community
  • It’s a tax deduction for those eligible
  • Board should contribute next week if possible to David
  • Board members can take turns telling stories about why they donate: four of us have committed to do it.

• Reserving Bellvue Grange for Talent Show – Social Team and Treasurer Deposit –  We have a sound engineer.  Date is April 12.
• Movie Night: The Greatest Showman (We need to choose a date).  Jim can do tech assistance but is away Jan. 18 for 3 weeks.

• Dress Code Proposal – Kim

We are getting close:  Kim is going to edit it a bit more.

Here’s what was considered:

For our Spring concerts and other more formal occasions as determined by the Board, all members should wear “whites and brights,” which means white pants or skirts and solid, brightly colored tops (in a single bright color, no prints).

For more casual performances (schools, retirement homes, community events, etc.), members can opt for official Peace Choir t-shirts (long or short sleeved) or Peace Choir sweatshirts. Members who don’t have Peace Choir t-shirts or sweatshirts, will wear “whites and brights” as outlined above.

Shoes should be comfortable for standing for long periods. For Spring concerts and other more formal occasions, shoes in neutral colors such as white, brown, black and gray are preferred.

• Membership Roster Update – People want to know who are the team leaders, section leaders and board members)

Gregory:  We could add a “leadership” button, for leadership positions

• Any updates on Logo – Kim

We are still working on it.  Kim will let us know when we need to revisit this topic.

• How should we handle people getting unsubscribed?  With every email we send out, people can unsubscribe themselves.  This seems to be the best way.  We should unsubscribe people that are deceased.

•  Cost of putting PDF of sheet music on Website:  Postponed as  Michael is waiting to hear from an BMI employee.

Reporting

• Performance-Kim

Met for 1.5 hours.  Bob and Kim are co-chairs.  They are organized and moving forward.  They want to limit retirement community performances to three per year.  They looked at a list of schools we did last year.  They have members reaching out to many schools.  Jamar has got a greenlight from two schools in Talent.

The choir voted to do Verteran’s Day Choir at their pancake breakfast.

• Multi-Choir event in 2026.  David: Venue is key.  Rob has a connection with SOU, and is trying to get a good venue (must be done no more than one year ahead of time so that would be Feb of 2025.  Performance team is working on it as well.

Board Committed to doing it in 2026.  Unanimously

• Section Leaders report: John  It seems like all is well.  Section leaders are making connections and working to implement a buddy system

• Director-Rob
  • Vets Day:  We may add “Be A Light”  in addition to “I choose Love” and “Nobody Gets left Behind.”  Elks Club:  No politics talk.  I Choose Love was  “written in response to shootings in U.S. (Charleston SC church). “We fight wars for peace.”  “We need to honor the Vets.”
  • Choir is bonding very well, lots of friendships blossoming.
  • We need to get out and share our music as soon as we can.  Coming up World’s Aids Day and Veterans’ Day.
  • Break in middle hasn’t reduced the progress we are making in learning the songs. In fact the break helps glue our community together.
  • Thinking about mixing up the choir sections during rehearsals so they can hear all the parts. This could come up in the future.  We’ll experiment in the future.
  • Memorization:  Try to memorize one song a week in January.  People can use iPads.
  • Dancing:  Rob is up to hearing ideas from Maggie.

• Acts of Kindness:  They met for 30 minutes.  They had six people involved.  Not a lot is happening right now.  Section leaders are connected to their sections and have a good idea of how members are doing.  Gregory may talk to the leaders to offer some guidance.  Their leader, Tasia, seemed enthusiastic.  David volunteered to be on the team and could be a friendly helper.

• Plan next Meeting :  Place and time    December 13th:  10 am  Kim and Rob have a place we could do it.:  Holland House:  Up on Ashland Loop Road

Song:  California Dream’n

Adjourn

 

 

 

 

 

October 4th RVPC Board Agenda 

Location: Jim’s Place: 1033 Clay in Ashland (10 am to noon)

Present: Elizabeth Bingham, Kim Griswell-Lowry, Jim Hartman, John Lulich, Gregory Scott, David Teegarden, and Rob Griswell-Lowry.  Bertie Kaiser joined us for the first 20 minutes.

Absent: Michael Silversher

• • Appreciation round robin
  • Last month’s draft minutes (Sept 6) approved unanimously:  Elizabeth made motion, Kim seconded.
  • We discussed performance dress guidelines.  Here’s what it says on the website:  “During performances, all members should wear “whites and brights” which means white pants or skirts and solid, brightly colored tops (no prints). You may wear your Peace Choir tee shirt or sweatshirt to our casual performances.”
    • Bertie shared some history and options.  We decided to go with relaxed guidelines during performances but special guidelines for our spring concert.
    • Shoes:  No regulations here as some people may have feet that get sore standing for so long.
    • Rob:  The nice thing about our whites and brights approach is that people recognize us in the community.
•  Kim agreed to write up dress guidelines for special events and share those with us next time.
• Logo discussion: We decided that our most recent logo still needs work.  Kim is up for leading that effort and we’ll invite anyone from the choir to suggest improvements.  Kim has worked in the corporate world with logos and knows how challenging it can be (For example, our current logo has too much empty space in the right hand corner and we may be too similar to the NBC Peacock artwork).  Motion passed unanimously:  For the time being it’s ok to use any of the past logos and choir members may give logo ideas to Kim for consideration (motion by David, 2nd by Jim).
• Spring Concert – We’re going to do two performances.
  • Friday, May 16th, 7 pm  Medford UCC church (1801 E. Jackson).  We’ll set up some car pools for folks.
  • Sunday, May 18th:  In Ashland.
  • That is the weekend after Mother’s Day and those dates don’t appear to conflict with any other choirs.
  • Kim is co-chairing performance committee:   They have about 6 folks now.
• Should we provide PDFs of songs on the website for folks with an I-Pad or similar device? We are still waiting to hear what Michael has to say about this after talking to his contacts in LA. We suspect that in terms of paying for music, that a PDF counts as much as a hard copy.
• John wants some help in making announcements at rehearsals.   We’ll agreed to rotate announcements, one board member per month. Kim will do October. Jim will do November. Community announcements go in notes. Elizabeth agreed to write up some guidelines about what is appropriate and not.
• Section leaders:  We need to check in with them and explain their role.   Soprano group is doing well, and well connected.

John had to leave for an acupuncture appointment.

Reports

• Treasurer’s Report. David shared a quarterly summary of activity (July 1 to October 2, 2024). We are sitting quite well right now:  We are solvent for this year no matter what. Current assets are $35K. We still need to raise money from our regular donation drive which is coming up, so that we can continue to offer the services we normally do. We have gotten some big donations from others not in the choir (like $1,000). Generally, when we need money, we can find it. We can give as many performances as we can schedule, and not worry about the extra cost. David would like us to improve financially so that we could pay Rob and Mikiko more (we pay our recording people well to make the CDs). Grant discussion:  In the past we got grants to do multi-choir stuff. We may be able to get a grant for CDs which makes our choir accessible for those that don’t read music. We might get a grant to offer transport services to choir members that need it (right now we have two folks who could use that). Maggie has lots of grant experience and should be able to help us.
• Website: Gregory. Rehearsal reports have gone on web, and they don’t need any extra editing. Sectionals are on the calendar. Rosters have been updated frequently. PDFs for notepads may go up soon. We may want to change password for members at some point. We agreed to a menu item:  “Gallery” to add more photos. Kim suggested getting a variety of text sizes to allow important new items to stand out. Jim agreed to provide instructions for how to make your own playlist. Elizabeth did it with a CD player hooked up to her computer.
• Social – Elizabeth shared some details of our retreat at Pascals. They are giving us a very good deal since they like us.  They are asking for $15 per person for coffee, tea and pastries, but we want to just go for coffee and tea and get a better deal. General format is singing at 9 am, then break, then singing, then lunch. After lunch, singing and then optional happy hour from 2 to 3 pm. We are bringing our electronic piano with mic and speakers.

For our Halloween potluck:  Jim will bring speakers that hook up to Bluetooth and provide a spooky playlist.

• Act’s of kindness:  Lots of people signed up, yet they need help with organization.  David and Gregory are up for this.  David knows of a useful app to coordinate meals for those in need that they could use.  In the future they may help with transportation.
• Director’s report –  Mikiko will be gone the first week of December, but she’s available for Dec. 1 AIDS Day. The AIDS event should have more folks this year as they will have more acts. We talked about the parade details: Rob made lyric sheets which outline the tricky parts for alto and tenor. He also will bring percussion instruments.  Update:  All went great.   We stayed together physically and musically.

Since November and December have holiday conflicts late in the month, we’ll combine bass and tenor sections then.

Next Meeting:   Friday, Nov. 1,  10 am,  Elizabeth will host

Adjourn

 

 

 

Sept 6 RVPC Board Minutes

Location: John Lulich’s place

Time: 10 am to 12 noon

Present: Elizabeth Bingham, Kim Griswell-Lowry, Jim Hartman, John Lulich, Gregory Scott, David Teegarden, and Rob Griswell-Lowry.

Absent: Michael Silversher

Scribe: Jim Hartman

Action Items are underlined. These are things that are done at the meeting or need to be done.

Last board meeting we had only 3 in attendance, so no quorum was met.

Both July and August minutes approved unanimously.

Kim Griswell-Lowry approved unanimously to join the board. The resolution stated that the board’s vote to invite her as a member, combined with her acceptance, was sufficient for her to be a member as of the last board meeting. Since Laurie Christomos resigned from the board July 31 to take care of family and moved out of the Valley, we were back to having 7 board members, so we truly did not have a quorum

Reports

• Treasurer Report from David: Since recent robust registration and payments, now we have our usual surplus in the bank. During registration it would have been good for David and Greg to have had more help. Quarterly report coming next month.
• Membership Report from Elizabeth: As Joyce will not be here until the 3rd week of September, Kim will take on a leadership role. We have 20 copies of membership guidelines which we need to make available. Membership forms need to go to Mailchimp. Greg gives forms to Kim. Roster online is updated weekly. Section leaders can go on line. Greg noted we should be sending out names to section leaders and team leaders (Ex: Social or publicity). Rob needs to get the list of folks who can play different instruments. Roster is online as a pdf. The excel file is on Gregory’s computer, and may be placed on RVPC google drive.

Should we make PDF’s available for folks that wish to use their IPADs in choir? We may revisit this. If we did place it online it would be password protected. We should talk to Michael first (Gregory will do this).

Buddy System: How is that going? Sopranos have lots of new people. Section leaders can figure it out. Section leader could be the default buddy. John will follow up with section leaders.

Should we provide copies of the songs we do, full mixes, to people interested in joining the choir? Link to youtube videos may be ok. We are already giving the public the names of the songs we are doing.

• Publicity report from Rob: We just did JPR announcements to get new members. Last Saturday, 3 times a day, twice a day, during the week this week, 20 spots for $300. In addition to flyers around town, we also got it in the Grants Pass Paper and the RV Times.
• Social report from Elizabeth: The welcome back potluck went well. We have Wesley Hall for Halloween. For the Fall Retreat, we have Pascal Winery (By Talent) $50/hour. 9 to 3 pm. 3 to 4 for happy hour. Rob needs to go check out the piano and space. We may want to encourage donations. David moved for it to be a Pascal Winery from 9 to 3 pm, and then 3 to 4 for happy hour, Gregory 2nd, unanimously approved.
• Facility report from Gregory: We asked for better lighting at the Methodist Church, and they are pretty busy and can’t think about it right now. We offered to help pay for upgrades. We may want to find a better venue for our spring concert.
• Website Report form Gregory: Lyrics are now on the website. The calendar on the website can be uploaded onto your phone, which is nifty. Gregory will see if Calendar access can be expanded easily to others such as Rob who could make last minute changes. Sectionals are starting in October.
• Other: Joint choirs event report from Elizabeth: Portland Peace Choir are backing out, so it looks like it’s late for us to take it on. We may do it in 2026. The last time we did it the SOU Recital Hall was packed. Rob knows their scheduler. President’s Day weekend in 2026. Rob will look into it.
• Director’s Report: Good concerts inspire folks and bring in new members. We did that last spring. It’s a challenge to get younger, non-retired folks. The heart and soul is the music committee, to get the right songs. We need to keep the core stuff happening: Enthusiasm and fun. Jim: We need to emphasize that dues are $225 on a sliding scale. You can pay as little as $45 or $5/month and if you can pay more it’s good. Jim will make this announcement next rehearsal. In terms of attendance numbers at our events, Gregory keeps a count: We had 62 last Thursday’s first rehearsal. The opening potluck we had 52. Gregory has been counting folks, and he will send the number to Rob and others. We need to be open to get announcements by text as we have one new member doesn’t do email. We are hoping to attract younger folks, and they tend to rely on texting more. If we place choir notes on the web page then those text folks can access the choir notes. Gregory will do that.

Decisions/Discussions

• Overall Leadership on membership teams – how are we doing, changes
  • Performance (leadership vacancy?): David up for helping out here as he is connected with Bob and Avram who did it last year.  We need to look at membership sheets to see if anyone is up for it. It would be good to keep good records on our performance contacts. We could just put them on google docs. Kim expressed interest in being a co-leader of the performance team. David will contact Bob to see if he is OK with this idea.

Sept performance: International Day of Peace: Sept 21, At Chamber of Commerce in Ashland.  Kim may lead it with Bob. [Since canceled.]

• Acts of Kindness (New Leader: Tashia Simon): Could be expanded to include meals and helping people walk. Besides talking to Tashia or section leaders, we could encourage folks to also use suggestion box to let us know which members need assistance. Jim will announce this next meeting.
• Publicity (Ariella stepping back): Empty for now. Kim is interested in helping with that. Cynthia Taylor may do it, but is gone for a month.
• Notetaker (Liza new leader): She would like to send them out directly on Mailchimp, without Elizabeth reviewing them. We agreed to try this.
• Others:  We need a new Name Tag Person.

• Liaison Roles
  • Performance
  • others
• Lock in Venue or Date for Spring Concert (or leave up to Performance team?) First find out what other choirs are doing (The Repetoire singers and Siskiyou singers), and check in with Mikiko. Rob will check that out. Consider 2 days for a concert in Medford and Ashland, since we work so hard.
• Lock in Date for Talent show (or leave up to Social Team?)
• The next few weeks – Technology and Announcements
  • Next Thurs (12th)- wear a tee shirt with print
  • Jim will introduce himself and will go over some member guidelines at next rehearsal:  Sliding scale, Website, Acts of Kindness, and encourage folks to get to know someone new.
  • Downloading songs may be different for those on apple vs. windows/android. Greg noted the “three dots” used to download are only needed on Apple devices. Jim will find or develop directions on how to make a playlist on apple.
  • Minute writers?
  • Rob will talk about how to use the CD.
  • Thurs (19th) – introduce board, Performance dress, performance team, social team
  • Thurs (26th) – business stuff (Jim or Elizabeth), Music Team (Christy or Diane or both), Public Relations (??)
• Logo Discussion (David): David gave us a one page logo preference survey that we’ll discuss next meeting
•  Next Month’s meeting will be at Jim’s Place: Oct 4, 1033 Clay in Ashland (10 am to noon)

 

 

 

Rogue Valley Peace Choir Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
August 9, 2024 at the house of Elizabeth Bingham

Present: John Lulich, Elizabeth Bingham, Gregory Scott, and music director Rob Griswell-Lowry. No zoom participants.

With the departure of Laurie Christomos, the board has six members. Debate followed as to whether we had a quorum. We concluded that we probably did not. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved, but may need to be re-approved at the next meeting.

Music director’s report: The recordings are done. Rob has sent the MP3s to Greg for the website and to our CD maker for making CDs. With the development of streaming, some people no longer use CDs, and we may not need a physical CD for every member. The Music Team is anticipating a bumper year for members and has ordered 100 copies of all sheet music items. We can manufacture fewer CDs than that. It was agreed to order CDs based on the number of members listed in the Spring Concert booklet. That is 16 sopranos, 26 altos, 14 tenors, and 14 basses for a total of 70 CDs. If that is not enough we can order more later. Rob will divide the sections into first and second.

Website report: Greg received the last two MP3s this morning. All are currently up on Google Drive in the Peace Choir folder. Greg has learned how to create links to Google Drive files and folders from the member’s page and will do that work this weekend. Users will have the option of obtaining their section’s songs by downloading a single folder or streaming directly from the website by choosing individual songs. A collection of full mixes will also be available but will only contain the 11 songs newly recorded this summer (there are 4 others).

Membership report: The potluck will be Thursday, August 29 at 4 pm. Setup will be at 4. We must be out of Wesley Hall by 6:30 for another event. Elizabeth will contact Membership Team and Music Team people to help. The Music Team plans to assemble the sheet music packets in time. Rob will shortly provide Christie Sinclair of the Music Team the last sheet music items so that they can be photocopied at Prontoprint. While printed copies of the Membership Guidelines will be available, they will also appear on the members’ page replacing what’s there now, which is an abridgement of the document. The potluck will be open to everyone, including choir family members. Kim Griswell-Lowry will announce the potluck through Mailchimp.

Board membership: We have received Kim’s application. Without a quorum, it was not possible to take an official vote on co-opting Kim on August 9th, though an unofficial vote welcomed her aboard unanimously. It was agreed, however, that the vote at the previous board meeting inviting Kim to apply to be a board member was sufficient to consider her a board member now. To prevent any confusion, we can have a confirming vote in September. Kim has agreed to recuse herself from executive sessions that discuss Rob. We continue to look for additional members.

First rehearsal: Rob will be in charge of music issues such as how to encourage people to practice. The board will make administrative announcements before or after our break. Team leaders can also announce for their teams, but community announcements should be provided to the rehearsal note-takers for inclusion in the Mailchimp email describing the rehearsal. We will end the rehearsal with a first go at “Our Pretty Planet,” which is a round. In later weeks, Music Team members can speak briefly to introduce particular songs and explain why they were chosen.

The Methodist Church: Greg will contact Elizabeth Aitken about obtaining a contract with the church for the coming year. He can write the church a check as soon as that is done. John had issues with the Methodist Church as a venue, particularly the low lighting levels. However, Rob observed that the layout of the sanctuary was good, including its acoustics. We are not aware of a superior alternative, though if anyone becomes aware of one, we can discuss it. We agreed that Greg will ask Elizabeth A. to tell the church that we may be able to help pay for lighting improvements, in particular brighter light bulbs (and quickly replacing any that burn out).

Publicity team: So far this has been Elizabeth B. with help from Laurie and from Diane Garcia. Moving forward, Kim can take a leadership position. Ariella St. Clair may be able to help as well. In addition to the flyer—already designed—Kim will set up underwriter announcements for our rehearsals on JPR. We will not announce the potluck on JPR.

Treasury team: We will go to the bank to replace Elizabeth B. with John when everyone is back in town.

Performance team: It will be a month or two before we need to get this one going.

Next board meeting: 3 pm on Friday, September 6 at John’s house, which is 2640 Roberts Road in Medford, 97504.

 

July 12 RVPC Board Meeting Minutes Location: Michael Silversher’s: 1213 Iowa Street (between Garfield and Lincoln), Ashland  Time: 3 to 5 pm Present: Elizabeth Bingham, Laurie Christomos, Jim Hartman, John Lulich, Gregory Scott, Michael Silversher, and David Teegarden (via zoom). Director Rob Griswell-Lowry joined following the conclusion of the executive session, and left 10 minutes early. Scribe: Jim Hartman Review/approve June Minutes: Approved unanimously. Elizabeth made motion, Michael seconded. Decision Making Executive Session – Board discussed when and how often sectionals should happen and the feasibility of having Mikiko present. We also discussed the budget implications of having to record 11 songs rather than the 4 we had budgeted. Board also discussed possible new board members. Decide/finalize liaison commitments for 2024-2025  [15 mins] We reviewed the liaisons: Music – (Michael) Performance – (Laurie) Fall Fundraising Campaign (David) Finance – Longer term fundraising (grants, jewelry, ongoing at events – David) Facilities – (Gregory) Publicity and Public Relations – (Laurie) Acts of Kindness – (Gregory) Website – (Gregory) New liaisons and discussion for committees: Membership (Elizabeth volunteered to take this on) Gregory will continue to keep track of who paid, as he makes the deposits. When we get new members, they fill out a form indicating what committee they may want to join. Joyce passes this info along to committee leaders. We also need to add new members to Mailchimp. Kim does Mailchimp for us, and Gregory will let her know who to add. If someone doesn’t pay, we need to simply ask what kind of scholarship they want. Because we hand out membership guidelines each year, the question arose as to whether we should continue to do this as the material is on the membership page. As some members aren’t computer savvy, the decision was made that we will ask members how they would like to receive the membership guidelines (digital or hard copy). Mailchimp and Communications (Someone from Board?) Kim has been doing a great job with this. Lisa has been doing Mailchimp as needed. Kim has been adding Rob’s messages as requested. Bertie has been doing most of the notes from rehearsals. Elizabeth will do the final proofread of the notes and send them back to LIza. Alternatively, they can send a Mailchimp test to Elizabeth. Social (Elizabeth is up for it!) Rob: Talked with Mikiko and she is willing to continue doing sectionals right before practice, as it is convenient for her. She did it last year. Mikiko likes coming to schools, yet she is busier, so we need to have a substitute pianist from time to time. This substitute would need to do our Thursday rehearsal before the gig. Recordings: Rob did 11—more than expected—because many of the recordings from songs we sang in previous years were not of acceptable quality (e.g., no piano). Next year, the board would like an earlier heads up on exactly how many songs we need to do as this affects the budget. If we need to do an executive session, we’ll let Rob know ahead of time through the agenda so he’ll know when to join us at the meeting. Discuss coming back together in fall –  So far the social committee is not planning an event. [15 minutes] September: We decided to do a “Welcome Back” party that will be held indoors, as it can be hot and smoky. Decision was made to hold Party at Wesley Hall, August 29th (6 pm to 8 pm). It will be a potluck and we’ll get some registration done, welcome new members, and do some singing. Our first rehearsal will be Thursday, Sept. 5. Discuss size of board and, if appropriate, seek new board members. [10 minutes] We currently have 7 board members but we would like to add more women for representation. A soprano would be best as that section is currently not represented. Discuss Training for new board members.  [5-10 minutes] What do the new folks need? Laurie didn’t feel additional training was required. Jim wants a mentor to learn how documents are organized. The past Secretary Anne is open to helping him. Items tabled for next meeting: Discuss website access for members only for download of the Spring Concert. Do we want to do a survey on whether to produce CDs of the Spring Concert? Review current facility for rehearsal. John thinks we could use more light and would like us sitting closer together. Discuss incentivizing membership to volunteer for participation. Other Business Treasury Report from David: We reviewed two documents given to us by David: Statement of Financial position and 2024-2025 Budget. Overall, we are doing fine. Jewelry sales are not quite what we expected. We anticipated we would make $25,000, but we have made $15,000 after 700 of 900 pieces have been sold. We may lower the prices on the remaining 200 pieces. Thanks to jewelry sales we have a surplus. We have $8,000 in savings, and we have $1,500 for unexpected expenses. This year’s total assets are about $3,000 greater than last year’s. We spent about $3,000 in this financial year to upgrade our website. This money was taken from our savings, so the actual difference in assets, based on cash flow, was about $6,000. As we have discussed, this year’s increased income came from jewelry sales, which totaled about $15,000. This extra income means that we can be assured that we will have enough funds to cover our expenses next year without looking for more income. Gregory: Shared checkbook activity report from June 14 to July 12, 2024. Cash flow is good, as we just transferred $5,000 from savings to checking (this reduces the sum David reported). We have a CD of $10,000 now in reserve, but anticipate withdrawing $3,000 when the CD expires next week. Between savings and the post-withdrawal CD, our reserves will be about $10,500. Our goal is $12,000. In our yearly cycle of funds, August typically is our low point. Board notebooks: Everyone has a complete copy.  David has the originals, they are in google docs, and also on a flash drive. Director’s Report: 3 of the 4 singers have finished their recording, and after the last one, Rob would do the mixing. Yet Brian V. just had back surgery. He has made the CDs for us. We may not need to make CDs for everyone, which cost about $3 each. Gregory: We can tell people they can have a CD if they want them. It may be a challenge to get the tracks on the website because the procedures for doing that are new. Gregory will make this happen, but may need assistance with $50 of consulting. (Charlie McChesney will participate). The song “Oil in the Ground” has been improved. Fall Retreat: Will be on Oct. 19th, Saturday. This will be a day-long event. The first step is to get a venue. Jan will help plan it. Next Board Meeting: Date August 9th, at Elizabeth’s place (295 E. Nevada Street), 3 to 5 pm. Website: Our spring concert is now on the member’s page.

 

 

 

 

 

June 14, 2024 RVPC Board Minutes

Attending:

Laurie Christomos, Jim Hartman, John Lulich, Gregory Scott, Michael Silversher, and David Teegarden. Elizabeth Bingham is in Italy! Director Rob Griswell-Lowry joined following the conclusion of the executive session.

Place: David Teegarden’s

Scribe: Jim

Odds & Ends

A replacement board notebook page (fourth page of Members Guidelines) and Performance Team sheet were given out.

May board minutes and the membership meeting minutes were approved.

Rob’s Contract:

Outcome of executive session—after discussion we made one modification to Rob’s contract: Rob is to “attend RVPC board meetings as needed.” The board also approved a thank you bonus of $250 each to Rob and Mikiko.

Regular Session Begins:

Rob joined us and signed the contract.

Decision Making:

We discussed and reviewed the collaboration and decision-making process of the board and last year’s role of the executive team. It is desirable to hear from every board member before making a vote. We strive for consensus but it is not always possible due to time constraints.

Use of executive team to make decisions: this is where just the legally required board officers meet to make a decision when there is not enough time for the board to meet. We decided we would allow this procedure to lapse as it does not appear to be currently needed. It can be revived if necessary. Note also that many teams can make their own decisions in a timely manner and don’t need to get the board to weigh in.

Making emergency board decisions through email: We would like to avoid this.

Making emergency board decisions through Zoom meetings: The board was open to trying this and several members have Zoom accounts to set up meetings.

Officers Elected for the 2024–2025 Season

John Lulich was elected RVPC board president; David Teegarden, treasurer; Jim Hartman, secretary; Gregory Scott, assistant treasurer.  In the future, we may select a vice-president who would be training to be the next president. All board members serve for 2-year terms except for John who is finishing a 3-year term. [Actually, John is in years two of three. David and Elizabeth are finishing three-year terms.]

Review of Action Teams and Support that the Board Could Give

Teams have different needs and require different levels of board support. Teams can keep the board informed by filling out a sheet describing key decisions  (this sheet is in the Board notebook – the very last page on the Forms tab)  made at their meetings. Some teams will have board liaisons. It was agreed that team leaders serve at the board’s discretion.  We discussed encouraging choir members who had issues to first bring these up to their respective Section Leader or Team Lead. Perhaps we should include that here.

Music Team: Meets in February and March, 6 to 8 times, Michael and Elizabeth will continue to serve as board liaisons to this key team. The board is satisfied with the songs selected over the years.

Performance Team:  Action: Laurie will be the board liaison.

Long Term Financing: Grants, member gifts in kind like jewelry, and ongoing events.  Action: David is liaison and Jim will join him. Two RVPC members have been helpful: Maggie Sullivan and Ariella St. Clair. We might consider asking members to donate old cars they don’t want anymore like JPR does.

Membership: Needs to gear up in August. There may be a potluck a week before the first rehearsal. How can we appeal to a younger population? We did grow some this last year. Action: Laurie will be liaison.

Donations Campaign: From choir members. This does not require a liaison as it mostly consists of the treasurer or other board members speaking to the choir at rehearsal and sending out messages.

Website: Also no liaison. Gregory is the webmaster and Charlie McChesney is the assistant webmaster.

Mail Chimp: Again no liaison. Kim Griswell-Lowry has managed this and Liza Yates has handled meeting minutes.

Acts of Kindness Team: Current leader is Tasia (Anastasia) Simon. Section leaders should assist with this because they know their sections. Gregory will be the board liaison. 

Publicity and Public Relations: Laurie and Elizabeth will be board liaisons.

Social Team: John has been the team leader but needs to step back from that now that he is president. The organization and leadership of this team will be discussed at the next board meeting.

Further issues will be discussed at the next board meeting.

Recordings of songs for next year

Rob: This is on track. Mixing will happen at the end of July. Rob is overseeing it. Rob is redoing some old recordings. He has rearranged “Leave the Oil in the Ground.” We will have 11 new recordings out of 15 total. Four good ones from previous years will be used.

Spring Concert Recording

CD made from last spring concert: $125 if we want it. Laurie offered to pay for it. Action: These CDs will be offered to members at a price still to be determined. 

We did not get a video recording of the concert to sell to folks as the videographer said it came out to jerky. However, there is a Youtube video of our Spring Concert that folks can check out at https://youtu.be/jCP7yOcXrFc?si=3O3a7htT7ypv0pmH. 

Art Buck took photos at the concert, at least one of which will go on the homepage of our website.

Next Meeting: July 12 (Friday) at Michael’s: 1213 Iowa Street (Between Garfield and Lincoln). 3 to 5 pm.

Fall retreat: This is for all members to get to know each other and practice the songs over an extended period of time. Most likely it would happen some time in October.  We’ll discuss this in early August.

The Hiroshima Vigil will take place in August. A group of RVPC members may sing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

RVPC Members Meeting Minutes

May 23, 2024

Announcements

• Reminder: website has member contact info. Password voices4peace
• Multi peace-choir concert Feb 16, 2025 Portland
• Videos of the Spring Concert may be available if enough members want to purchase to cover cost ($250) [this will not be produced; quality issues]

New Business

• New board members voted in: Jim Hartman and Laurie Christomos
• Current board members re-elected for two-year terms: Gregory Scott and Michael Silversher

Reports

Treasurer

• Budget/expenses have remained stable since 2017.
• Assets due to sale of jewelry donated by a former choir member have provided us with some extra reserve funds that could ensure that we meet our budget from choir-generated funds only for several years.
• Member dues cover approximately 50% of expenses. Other expenses covered by donations and fundraising.
• Fundraising Committee will be activated in upcoming season to search for sustaining community sources of funds,, including grants.

 Music Team

Christy Sinclair announced the 2024-25 repertoire

Year in Review

Barb Settles  presented 21 things the choir accomplished this past season, including:

• 10 performances in addition to the Spring Concert
• 3 socials
• Transitioning to an interim director mid-season
• Well-attended Spring Concert

Honorary “Lifetime” Membership Award: Hideko Snider

 Thank Yous

• Team leaders (Avram Chetron, Ariella St. Clair, John Lulich, Joyce Ward, Christy Sinclair, Diane Garcia, Gregory Scott, Charlie McChesney, Susan Bizeau, Maggie Sullivan, Berti Kaiser)
• section leaders (Christy Sinclair, Berti Kaiser, Elizabeth Aiken, Carol McNamara, Charlie McChesney, Robert Serrett)
• accompanist (Mikiko Petrocelli)
• choir director (Rob Griswell-Lowry)
• returning Board members (John Lulich, David Teegarden, Elizabeth Bingham)
• outgoing board members (Anne Beaufort, Barb Settles)

Closing Song

John Lulich announced choir members’ vote of favorite song of the 2022-24 repertoire, “Power of Kindness”  and members sang it in a closing circle