Cultural Council

FITCHBURG CITY CLERK Mar 21 2023 5:35 pm FITCHBURG CULTURAL COUNCIL MINUTES TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2023 CITY HALL LEGISLATIVE BUILDING, 718 MAIN STREET 4:30PM In attendance: Tamar Russell-Brown, Audrey Pendleton-Chow, Elizabeth “Liz” Murphy, Eileen Berger, Shara Osgood, Aaron “AJ” Tourigny (after Article III was voted upon), and Joe Bowen (ex-officio) ● Call meeting to order: 4:35pm ● Members of the Public ○ Suzanne Hauerstein introduced herself: ■ Lives in Leominster ■ Teaching & working Artist ■ Interested in learning more. ● Looking for new members ○ We should each reach out to organizations ○ Eileen will be resigning June 30, 2023, since she will be moving out of the community ● No Treasury Report ● Grant Report ○ Eileen is finishing out FY22 with grant extension. Eileen will continue keeping ○ Audrey will send out grant letter awards ● Bylaws ○ Articles I and II were already approved at a previous meeting. ○ Vote to approve Article III as proposed. ■ Motion: Eileen; 2nd: Shara ■ All in favor: 5; Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve Article IV as proposed. ■ Motion: Eileen; 2nd: Liz ■ Speaking to motion: edit under Ex-Officio from “a former member” to “a former officer” ■ Amend to change Ex-Officio “a former member” to “a former officer”: Eileen; 2nd: Liz ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve Article V as proposed. ■ Motion: Liz; 2nd: Shara  ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve Article VI as proposed. ■ Motion: Audrey; 2nd: Eileen ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve Article VII as proposed. ■ Motion: Shara; 2nd: Eileen ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Motion to approve Article VIII as proposed. ■ Motion: Audrey; 2nd: AJ ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ● VOTE: Minutes ○ Vote to approve the minutes for November 15, 2022 ■ Motion: Audrey; 2nd: Liz ■ Speaking to motion: Audrey double checked all great application IDs and grant review voting records for all the minutes to be approved. If all edits were included, those should be accurate. ■ All in favor: 6 ■ Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve the minutes for December 5, 2022 ■ Motion: Audrey; 2nd: Shara ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve the minutes for December 12, 2022 ■ Motion: AJ; 2nd: Audrey ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve the minutes for December 19, 2022 ■ Motion: AJ; 2nd: Eileen ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve the minutes for January 3, 2023 ■ Motion: AJ; 2nd: Shara ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Vote to approve the minutes for January 10, 2023 ■ Motion: Shara; 2nd: Eileen ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ● Scholarship ○ Scholarship to give to a High School senior(s) in Fitchburg interested in pursuing a career in the arts. ○ Enterprise Bank will give $500 for a scholarship fund, like last year. ○ Tamar will ask another Bank or organization if they can match the amount. ○ CWMA, is now the Massachusetts Women's Caucus for Art, has already agreed to manage the Scholarship and be the selecting committee. ○ Vote to approve the Massachusetts Women’s Caucus for Art to manage the 2023 scholarship. ■ Motion: Eileen; 2nd: AJ ■ Speaking to motion: Shara thinks this is really great to give scholarships to more students. Joe, thank you Tamar. Tamar, thank you Cheryl from Enterprise Bank ■ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Calendar 2023 ■ Feedback starting April 1st ■ Public Input Meeting: Thursday, June 1st, 2023 after hours for Priorities Meeting ● Motion: Liz; 2nd: AJ ● Speaking to motion: Audrey clarifies previous Public Input event in August. Thought it would be easier to have the event before July. Finalize Public Input Survey sooner and start distributing them at events sooner or use the Public Input event as a launching point and have them ready for other community events like Block Party and a multicultural event coming up. Joe, agrees. Finalize survey sooner the better. Tamar, we’ll try to have it ready for March meeting. ● All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ○ Fb Group name ■ Change FB Group name from “Fitchburg Cultural Council Group” ● Background: Fitchburg Cultural Council official FB page will remain. The FB group was created to engage the community more and has evolved to being a place to promote all events in Fitchburg, regardless if it has any ties to the Fitchburg Cultural Council. It is also a place to discuss arts and culture in Fitchburg. To encourage this, Audrey proposes changing the FB group name to have a more broad title. ● Polled the fb group: ○ 53% “Arts, Culture, & Things to Do in Fitchburg” ○ 28% “Fitchburg Arts & Culture” ○ 15% “Fitchburg Arts & Cultural Activities” ○ Suggestions added on later ■ “Fitchburg Arts, Culture, & Events Calendar”  ■ “Arts, Culture, and Fun in Fitchburg” ● Motion to change the FB Group name to the most popular name, “Arts, Culture, & Things To Do Fitchburg.” ○ Motion: Shara; 2nd: Eileen ○ Speaking to motion: Eileen, Group sponsored by FCC? Audrey, maybe in the group description “sponsored by FCC.” Joe suggests a pinned post and group description. Shorter the name the better! Audrey asks Joe, President of the Fitchburg Cultural Alliance (FCA), will the new group name encourage or discourage the FCA from engaging and posting in the group, considering the separate organization’s similar name? Joe says the FCA is considering rebranding to avoid this confusion. Should be fine. Shara wonders if shorter is better, would “Fitchburg Arts & Culture” be better? Joe, I know this contradicts what I said, “Things To Do” is a good keyword search phrase. Audrey says some may not think to search for “Cultural events” when they’re looking for “Things to do” in their town, so I think this may broaden the audience. ○ All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 ■ Adjourn 5:20pm ● Motion: AJ; 2nd: Shara ● All in favor: 6; Opposed: 0 Minutes written by Audrey Pendleton-Chow