Cultural Council

Methuen Cultural Council 2022-2023 Ellen Baranowski - Secretary Karen Broscoe - Member John Broscoe - Member Jennifer Loiselle – Chair Carey Smith, Member Catherine Zembruski – Member Mee$ng Minutes December 4, 2023; 6:35 PM Loca%on: Nevins Library, Trustee’s Room In a9endance: Ellen Baranowski, Karen Broscoe, John Broscoe, Jennifer Loiselle, Carey Smith Guest: Guelmi Espinal, Mass Cultural Council Program Officer Vote on Minutes (November 13, 2023 Mee0ng) summarized by Ellen. § Mo%on to Accept: Karen. Seconded: Ellen. Vote: passed unanimously. Financial Report § No updates Council Business § Presenta%on made by Gulemi Espinal, which included ques%ons/answers: o Technically, we cannot hold back $3540 as a “cushion”. All grant money should be spent. Our new accountant (in city hall) is ge\ng older reimbursement requests, and the MCC is not confident that we will not need extra money to sa%sfy those requests. As such, Gulemi will ask about that $3540, and have an answer by Wednesday (December 6th). o This board’s membership is in be9er shape than it was one year ago. But, the state sets term limits (which can be superseded by local term limits) of 3 years per term/2 consecu%ve terms to be served. Acer six years, the member can s%ll sit on the board as “ex-officio” for one year (with no vo%ng privileges) and then rejoin as a member. Each local board should have a “chair”, a “secretary”, and a “treasurer” established on the council. Those names can be added to the council profile in SmartSimple (no deadline). o Gulemi talked about how other councils spend their money on council-sponsored programming. He highlighted ac%vi%es in Framingham this year; a fes%val which included face pain%ng, cracs, and food. It is possible to spend that council-sponsored programming money on a grant(s) that went unfunded or to partner with another organiza%on and help fund their work. There are few restric%ons on that money, however the partner organiza%on must follow the guidelines of suppor%ng arts, sciences, culture, and/or humani%es. o The MCC can send out its own “denial le9er” that follows the auto-le9er from SmartSimple. We should send it on the same date so there is not confusion for the 15-day appeal process. All appeals go to Gulemi, who then turns them over to us for reconsidera%on. There are only a handful of appeals that get sent to the MassCC from locals each year. o Going into the next grant season, we can adver%se that we have much less money than we had this year. We can put our total right on the flyers, if we choose. o The final reports (deadline: January 17th) will be generated and the auto-approval le9ers are sent via SmartSimple. Those no%ces tell that grantees to wait for direc%ons from the local council for next steps. o A long-term goal of the council should be to be included as a line item on the city’s budget. In some communi%es, it matches the 10% held back for council-sponsored events ($7540). It could increase the capacity of our council. Gulemi ended at 7:30 pm. Look Ahead § An update was made to the Google Survey to include the ques%on about how the grantee will track/tracked the number of Methuen residents who benefi9ed from their project. The survey will go out acer the grantee has submi9ed final paperwork for their project. We will send it those who have completed grants and recently submi9ed reimbursements. § Ellen will start to drac a le9er to present to our new school commi9ee and our new city council to inform them of the work the MCC has done to support the community. We hope to present at those mee%ngs in February. Adjourn the Mee:ng § Mo%on: Karen. Seconded: Jennifer. Vote: passed unanimously. Mee%ng adjourned at 7:51 pm. NEXT MEETING: January 22, 2024, at 6:30 PM at Nevins Library