Tuesday Night Live

JOHNSON TUESDAY NIGHT LIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES JOHNSON MUNICIPAL BUILDING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2026 Present: Howard Romero, Tim Mikovitz, Sophia Berard, Geoff Hollis, Charles Flaum, Tom Moog, Lauren Philie Note: All votes taken are unanimous unless otherwise noted. Howard called the meeting to order at 7:03. Committee members introduced themselves to Lauren Philie, a potential committee member. Tim moved to approve the minutes of January 20, 2026, Sophia seconded and the motion was passed. Howard said usually we have $2-3K going into a new season but we only have $521.80 this year. Howard handed out a suggested calendar for the year. The committee reviewed the proposed memorandum of understanding for the Blueberry Jam concert on Legion Field that Discover Johnson will put on if they get the grant they have applied for. The MOU says the TNL committee will find and suggest bands within Discover Johnson’s budget. Sophia asked who will be contacting the bands – the TNL committee or Discover Johnson? After some discussion, Sophia said it seems that it is unknown who will contact the bands. Charles agreed. He said Discover Johnson can send the contract and so forth if they are given a list of what they need to do. Sophia noted that the MOU says the TNL committee will communicate with bands about cancellation, which implies that we will be the ones in contact with them all along. TNL committee members said that if a TNL concert is cancelled the band and the sound engineer still get paid, no matter how far ahead of time it is cancelled. Tom said he feels we need to discuss plans for TNL before making plans for the Blueberry Jam. It was agreed to move into discussion of the 2026 TNL season. The committee discussed having 7 shows with the first on July 7. Howard said a new vendor wants to bring a food truck. The committee discussed trying to get some other new vendors. Tom asked if any of the planned improvements to Legion Field will happen before the TNL season. Howard said yes, he thinks all of them will be completed before then. The bandstand will be in the same area it has been in. Four lighting poles will be put in – one on the middle of each side of the field. They will be controlled from a panel on the bandstand. The bread oven will be getting electric service. A patch of ground about 15-20 ft. from the oven and about 50x100 ft. will be leveled and planted with grass for the skating rink. There will be no other structures on the field. Hopefully we can put a shipping container behind the bandstand for storage for the oven, TNL and the rink. TNL Committee Meeting Minutes p. 2 February 17, 2026 Tom asked if there is any problem with putting the sponsor fence where we had it last year. Howard said no. There was general agreement that sponsor signs will be in the same area as last year. Howard said he wants to explore the idea of building portalets and storage right up against the library building. He has been told we can’t bring any soil onto the site but if we removed 30 or 40 feet of the bank we would have all the soil we want. It looks like we will be able to get vehicular access on the elementary school side of the library around the back behind the bandstand. It seems that Isabelle Sullivan now wants the backstop to stay on Legion Field. Tom asked when library construction will be finished. Howard said it has to be done by the end of October. Tom asked if we are going to produce TNL during library construction. Howard said yes. He will request that the building be closed up and the scaffolding taken down before TNL starts. Howard said he needs to determine exactly where the bandstand will be. He invited other committee members to help him determine that. We need to figure out what we will put the bandstand on. It was on telephone poles before. A contractor with a narrow bucket excavator will be hired to dig trenches for the new electric lines and maybe for the bandstand, depending on what we put it on. Howard said the poster we had made for last year cost $2100. It was agreed that Howard and Tom will talk to Carrie about using the image again this year. Sophia said she, Tom and Tim can start looking into band possibilities, considering the Blueberry Jam concert along with the other shows. It was agreed that Sophia should reach out to Chris Lyon about being MC again. It was suggested that we might want to have different MCs for some of the shows. There was discussion about possible bands. Tom said it is good to be able to pay enough for musicians to make $200 each. He thinks $8-10K would be a good amount to work with for 7 shows. Sophia agreed. Johnny Betts charged $800 per show 2 years ago. Tim said Johnny is not available on August 1 for the Blueberry Jam, but he is available for TNL. Tim can source a sound engineer for the Blueberry Jam. He suggested it would be reasonable for Discover Johnson to budget about $1000 for that. A fundraising goal of $18-20K was discussed. We raised $17K the year before last from sponsors and vendor fees. Tom suggested having only 6 shows to save money. He suggested cutting the one that would have been on the first day of school. Sophia moved to plan for 6 Tuesday Night Live shows on Legion Field in 2026, on Tuesdays starting with July 7 and ending with August 11, Tim seconded and the motion was passed. Lauren asked if the committee has applied for grants in the past. Committee members said no. Lauren said she has experience with that. Howard said the only issue with grants is that they are one-time funds and we can’t depend on them for the long term. Sophia suggested that if Lauren or anyone else learns about any grants we can talk about them at the next meeting. She said she could potentially collaborate on grant writing. TNL Committee Meeting Minutes p. 3 February 17, 2026 Lauren suggested that thank you notes to sponsors for the past year should be sent separately from the message inviting them to contribute again this year. Sophia suggested committee members could sign cards at the next meeting. It was agreed to schedule the next meeting for March 24 at 6:00 p.m. (Sophia left.) Howard said he will make a presentation next time on his signage idea. Howard said there is $23,781.04 left of the Legion Field grant. He understands that the selectboard is not planning to pay the $6K the engineers charged us for the Legion Field design. He can see the logic in using the Legion Field grant for that but he doesn’t want to. Howard asked if Lauren wants to be on the TNL committee. Lauren said she would be happy to help contact sponsors, but she is not sure if she can commit to being a full committee member and helping during shows. Committee members said the commitment is flexible. Not everyone needs to be at the shows. Lauren asked if we are trying to grow sponsorship. Howard said he will send Lauren a packet of information, including the forms we use for sponsors. Tim said we are looking to increase our revenue from $17K to $20K, so we are not looking for much growth. Committee members agreed that Lauren can be a committee member even if she can only contact sponsors. She said she will think over full membership but she will commit to coming to the next meeting and she will talk to Howard about sponsors. Howard and Charles agreed to discuss questions about the MOU for the Blueberry Jam outside of this meeting. Tim moved to adjourn, Tom seconded and the motion was passed at 8:31. Minutes submitted by Donna Griffiths