Community Fund Board

Minutes Montpelier Community Fund December 7, 2012 Members in attendance: Julie Hendrickson, Eliza Dodd Bernie Lambek, and Beth Boutin Members absent: Warren Vail Others in attendance: Bill Fraser, City of Montpelier; George Shuma; and Kim Bent, Lost Nation Theatre Agenda: I. Montpelier Arts Program II. MCF Board Member Terms III. Next Steps- Application Review Process IV. Miscellaneous I. Montpelier Arts Grant Program Bernie welcomed Bill, George, and Kim to the meeting and gave a brief overview of the Montpelier Community Fund’s purpose and scope. Bill provided the MCF board with an overview of the Montpelier Arts Grants Program. On average 12 applications were received each year. Ten thousand dollars ($10,000) was historically appropriated to support arts on a small scale, with the objective of helping art projects get up and running, as opposed to annual support to an arts organization. The program supported a mixture of art mediums – painting, photography, music, theatre, dance, etc. The overall expectation was the project would enhance or support/benefit downtown Montpelier – either by taking place within the downtown, being located in the downtown, or promoting or having an impact on the downtown. The grant maximum has historically been $1,000. Awards were issued with conditions – examples include - evidence of site access (i.e. stage space or owner approval) and accessibility for persons needing access, etc. No one was issued funds until award conditions were satisfied and a contract was signed by the recipient of funds. Any undistributed or unawarded funds were rolled over for giving in the next fiscal year. Bill thought there may be a balance of funds from FY13 to roll into the pot of funds available for FY14. George and Kim were arts grant program reviewers. Contributions to George and Kim’s organization occurred outside of the arts grant program. Bernie asked Bill if the City would still require contracts with the arts grant recipients and all other grant recipients. Bill stated the City needs documentation of approval but does not necessarily need contracts. MCF Board members will continue to discuss documentation needs with the City. II. MCF Board Member Terms Sandy Pitonyak requested the Board determine its term limits. Board members present drew numbers (1, 2, and 3) out of a hat to determine terms. Terms received were: 1 Year – Beth 2 Years – Bernie 2 Years – Warren 3 Years – Julie 3 Years – Eliza III. Next Steps- Application Review Process MCF Members present discussed review of applications received should be handled and next steps for the Board. Supporting prior grantees is a priority of the Fund. Applications received past the December 1 due date will not be penalized in this first year of the Fund for their late submittal. The fund has a total of $118,000 to grant –$108,000 for former ballot items (Outside Agencies) and various projects/groups granted money by the City (Community Enhancement funds), and $10,000 for arts projects. As per the MCF policy recommendations to the City Council must be made by the end of January or early February. Working backwards from this time frame the Board decided that members must be done reviewing grant applications by mid-late January. Members present decided to meet at length in early January and again in mid-January to discuss applications received. A third meeting will be scheduled in January if needed. Bernie requested the past grantee spreadsheet be revised to include grant amounts for FY12 and FY13, and all FY14 applicants with the dollar amount requested. Eliza will create this spreadsheet and route it to all Members. Julie proposed Members use an A/B/C ranking system, with A as the highest – Yes – ranking; B as the - Must discuss at length, but not quite sure - rank; and C as a - This application/project won’t work - ranking. Beth will draft a scoring criteria chart for ranking applications based on the grant award criteria in the Montpelier Community Fund Policy and the application. A draft will be circulated to the Members for comment. Next Meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, January 4, 2013 from 3-6pm. Members will need to come prepared to discuss and make funding recommendations on all arts grant applications received. Additionally, in advance of this meeting, members should review as many of the other applications received. Subsequent application review meetings will be based on the amount of time needed to discuss and make recommendations on the art grants applications. IV. Miscellaneous Sandy P. recommended that applicants when submitting their electronic application for FY15 funding they email all attachments as 1 PDF document, as opposed to several individual documents. This will make maintenance of the applications much easier.