Meeting Minutes – April 1, 2008

Location – Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, Spokane WA

Members in attendance: Jim Arnold, President; Russ Rask, Vice President; Chris Howie, Secretary; Jack Peters, Treasurer; Michele Martin, Webmaster, Pete and Janine Storms, Members

Jack's report showed no activity, so the balance remains at $2174.34.

We have received a number of responses to the President's letter talking about our troubles, and we are encouraged by the fact that people cared to write. However, while there were expressions of sympathy, there were very few solid ideas presented. Worse yet, there were no offers to step up as an officer, and so far all the responses have been from out-of-town members. This led to discussion about the local people being the most apathetic. Chris suggested that there might be more people in another area who could "carry the torch" from that area, as there is really no reason why NWSGA headquarters has to be in Spokane. We agreed to put that thought into the next letter.

To continue speaking the word, mention is made here that 1. Participation can be done through email. Showing support is not limited to physical presence. 2. The newsletter Editor does not have to live in Spokane. We recognize that many members are unable to travel to minishows and meetings, but a person can certainly offer comments and ideas through email for the officers to include in their discussions.

Chris said he had not sent the letter to David Wright and Jim Baron, out of embarrassment, as they have been the most ardent supporters. The other officers felt they should have been notified, for that very reason, and so they will be sent the letter.

We, as interested members rather than officers, would like to hold one more show at the Eagles Club. Earlier we had learned that no bookings were available through May. While there is little time left in our term of office, it is more important to do the show than anything, so we agreed to put it on whenever we could get the booking. After checking our individual calendars, we found that the soonest dates would be July 19 and 26. Russ will contact the Eagles regarding availability.

We had always felt that disbanding is an extreme and rather undesirable action, so Bill Styler's suggestion of taking a hiatus was welcome. As we said in the letter, we are waiting until May 15 to make any decisions, so we have time to examine other ideas of what to do should there be no officers to continue directing the association. After discussion, we realized we could leave the groundwork laid, and act as custodians of the bank account. The membership (and the fan base) would be informed that there is tangible material to work with, and is available for anyone who wants to resurrect the association. After some long period of inactivity, we would take the final step of disbandment. We have left the thinking at this point, and will entertain any further ideas as they come along.

The next meeting will be at Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, April 22, 2008 at 6 PM.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 PM.

Meeting Minutes – March 11, 2008

Location – Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, Spokane WA

Members in attendance: Jim Arnold, President; Russ Rask, Vice President; Chris Howie, Secretary; Jack Peters, Treasurer; Michele Martin, Webmaster

Jack reported that we had brought in $1426 from the minijam on Feb.24, plus another $185 collected by Jim. Also, we received dues payments totaling $35, so the balance now stands at $2174.34. It's very good to have a decent balance now, but more will be needed.

Jim reported some unpleasant news, and is feeling rather discouraged at the moment. He told us the Mirabeau is booked up and does not have anything in May, and the first opening is June 7. On top of that, they are somewhat cool to us and are not working to accommodate us as they have done in the past. This is a serious blow, and means we will be very hard pressed to find a place to hold a Jamboree in May. To add to his feelings, there has been absolutely no response to his request for comments in the last President's Letter. We discussed what we might be able to accomplish, and it seems all we can anticipate in the remaining time as officers is to hold another show like the one Feb. 24. We selected April 26 as the date to do this, and Russ will check with the Eagles Club to see about availability.

There was a great deal of discussion about the future of the NWSGA. We suffer mightily from lack of participation by the members, and even attendance at the events we hold is poor. The Feb. 24 show was a success mostly because of Eagles members who attended. We did have modest member attendance, but we sorely needed more, plus it was a big chore to find members who would play a showcase. Michele reminded us of our mission of promoting steel guitar, and the immediate response was that it takes other members adding to the efforts made by the officers in order to meet that goal. As an example, holding events at schools to introduce the steel guitar means we need people who can be available during school hours. Such people are hard to find.

After much deliberation, we concluded several things. One, we will not be able to hold a Jamboree before our terms expire. Two, we will attempt to hold another show at the Eagles Club. Three, we are very apprehensive that there will be no nominations for officers and will be sending, and posting, a letter alerting the membership that if there are no nominations received by the end of April, we will be forced into disbanding the organization. We are very disturbed at having come to this point, and hope that people will step forward, take the reins and put some effort into making this Association succeed. Chris offered to write the letter, and Jim will present it as another President's Letter. It will also be sent to all the members and fans in our database.

The next meeting will be at Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, March 25, 2008 at 6 PM.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 PM.

Meeting Minutes – Feb. 19, 2008

Location – Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, Spokane WA

Members in attendance: Jim Arnold, President; Russ Rask, Vice President; Chris Howie, Secretary; Jack Peters, Treasurer; Michele Martin, Webmaster

We had one renewal (Carl Cerutti) since last meeting, and bank balance is now $548.34.

Jim reported that he had talked to Bill Barnett, who said he would bring T-shirts and hats to the minijam Sunday, which will either be for sale or go into the auction. Chris will call him to arrange for transfer of materials he generated for his brochure, which can be put into a newsletter. Lee Lessig is intending to attend the show, but we are not certain whether he will play. Lee also has an unspecified donation for the auction. Jim has two items he's donating, as well as a dozen CDs from KKZX. ClearChannel reportedly will provide some promotional-type things, such as an overnight stay at a local hotel, and the like. Hoffman Music donated a nice tuner/metronome, and Duane Becker is donating five lessons. He also wants to rent a table to set up his offerings, and we determined that we would charge him only $25 as he has donated a lot already. Lastly, Michele said that Ruby Rask and a friend are working on a pair of baby blankets to include, and we have five packseats from Kelly Hydorn, of which we will save three to be raffled or auctioned at the May show. It's a fairly decent collection of items and hopefully the attendees will think so as well, and offer good bids.

Russ mentioned that the Eagles club had set out posters advertising the show wherein they had the price as $5, contrary to the $10 we had set ourselves. After ascertaining that the posters had not reached the general public, Chris suggested we let the figure stand, so that Eagles members would pay the $5 price and all others would pay $10. The suggestion was well received and all felt it solved the problem neatly.

The lineup of players on Sunday has been firmed up, as Duane Becker, Warren France, Joe Evans, Russ Rask and Chris Howie. Jim organized the schedule and will notify Duane as to his scheduled time. Chris and Jack made arrangements to gather a computer and a projector to display Band-in-a-Box. If necessary, we can rent a projector should the loaner be unavailable. At $100 for the day, we hope to not need this approach.

After the show Sunday and we know how our finances are faring, Jim will call us and we will take stock, and think about what kind of show we will be able to afford in May. Our efforts at finding corporate sponsorship are suffering from not having Marie Malloy available to help, as she is being given much extra responsibility at work and does not have free time any more. We will have to wait a while to renew efforts, and it does not seem likely that any assistance will reach us before we have to make decisions regarding large expenses for the May show.

The next meeting will be at Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, March 11, 2008 at 6 PM.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 PM.

Meeting Minutes – Feb. 5, 2008

Location – Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, Spokane WA

Members in attendance: Jim Arnold, President; Russ Rask, Vice President; Chris Howie, Secretary; Jack Peters, Treasurer; Michele Martin, Webmaster

Due to illnesses and heavy snow, the meeting on Jan.22 was postponed several times and we were finally able to meet tonight.

Jack reported that we had received a number of renewals and donations, and our balance is now at $533.34. This is very welcome news and we hope this is the beginning of a trend.

Jim has talked to a number of prospective showcase players for the Feb. 24 minijam, with disappointing results. So far we have lined up Duane Becker, Russ Rask, Warren France, Chris Howie, and possibly Joe Evans and Lee Lessig. Chris will talk to John Graham about borrowing his projector for use with Band-in-a-Box. Also discussed was the holding of an auction as part of the fundraising. There was a question of whether it should take place at this show or the May show, and it was decided that as its purpose was to raise funds for May, it should be held Feb.24. Jim said that his contact David Mercury might be able to help donate items through Pawn 1. Russ said he would talk to Bill Barnett about arranging a pickup of hats and T-shirts for inclusion in the auction.

Jim will write another president's letter and send it to Michele for website posting, notifying people of the minijam. It was mentioned that we will need to have guest cards and a sign-in sheet, as the Eagles club will need to show that non-members are inside the club legally. Jim will arrange for volunteers to manage the people flow. Russ called Bill Barnett, who agreed to handle the collection of the entry fee, and as he has a great ability to get people to contribute more, we decided to keep the entry fee at $10 and trust that Bill will encourage donations. We agreed that this is a necessary approach, as the show is a fundraiser and we badly need funds to be able to have a quality Jamboree in May.

Jim will also talk to people at Fugazzi and other businesses, plus promotional people at ClearChannel, to look for donations we can include in the auction. Additionally, contact will be made at Mark's Guitars and at Vintage Guitars, in hopes that they would want to set up a table as vendors at the May show.

In an earlier meeting, we had discussed the simplification of the dues structure, and had said we would change it at the beginning of the year. It was discussed again, and Chris moved, Jack seconded that the dues should be $20 regardless of individual or family status. The motion passed unanimously, and Michele will update the website accordingly.

The next meeting will be at Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, Feb. 19, 2008 at 6 PM.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 PM.

Meeting Minutes – Jan. 8, 2008

Location – Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, Spokane WA

Members in attendance: Jim Arnold, President; Russ Rask, Vice President; Chris Howie, Secretary; Jack Peters, Treasurer; Michele Martin, Webmaster

Jack's report of our finances showed that we had no activity, and the balance remains at $343.34.

Jim presented a letter he had drafted and wanted to send to the membership and the fans, which described our situation and asked for assistance and contributions to help us put on the May show. The officers all felt it was well worded and asked nicely for help. Jim will finalize it and send it on for publishing. He also had a letter he will send along with his membership renewal to Ray Shawley of the Seattle Western Swing Music Society suggesting that their members might want to join us as well, and reminded him of the connection we already share through the induction of Darrell Klein and Dean Simmons into their Hall of Fame. Russ mentioned that we need to remember to have a tribute to Darrell at the May show.

Jim has a new proposal for prospective sponsors, worked up with Marie Malloy. It contains a multi-tiered schedule of involvement and rewards the contributor with radio advertisement commensurate with the level of contribution. KKZX is in agreement with the terms, as they will be providing the air time. We reviewed it and made some suggestions, and Jim will take it back to Marie for final work. Appleway Chevrolet has been approached with a proposal, and has shown moderate interest. We are waiting for word back from them.

Jim wanted to know if we thought we should try to hold a minijam between now and May. The idea was favorably received, and Chris suggested it have performances in the morning and jamming to Band-in-a-Box in the afternoon. There was also the suggestion of having an auction, so we will need to ask people for items they want to donate. Jim had suggested a date in late February or early March, and Michele reminded us to watch out for conflict with Superbowl and similar events. We started to select the first Sunday in March and then Russ said his band might be willing to perform backup duty and would already be set up at Valley Eagles in late February. This, coupled with Valley Eagles' offer to us to have the club for free, caused us to select Feb. 24 as the date. Once Russ confirms his band's availability, we will make it firm.

Chris brought forth the substance of some comments by Joel Johnston regarding the handling of member non-participation, plus areas where we could be doing more to involve them, and we agreed to renew our efforts to reach the membership. Joel said that the previous officers had conducted telephone blitzes as one method, and we agreed that we should do the same. The member and fan lists were divided up and each officer (including Michele) will call about 24 people to chat and gather information, plus update information such as email addresses. We will tell of the May show, and hint at the Feb. one, and the goal is to have much information which can be published in the next newsletter.

Jim made an example of what we are asking in the letter to the members by renewing and donating an additional $60. He also will be writing more letters for posting on the website, and said he will add a link to NWSGA to the KKZX website. Chris mentioned an email he received from Bill Styler, who at the last Jamboree had sounded interested in participating, but had not contacted us since. He now says he has been doing some behind-the-scenes work for us, has a contact who has experience obtaining grants and doing promotion, and expressed interest in participating when he has a little more time. The news was well received, and we look forward to getting his and our grant people together for a brainstorming session.

Jim asked Russ to contact Bill Barnett to get some copies of the magazine he was creating for taking to Scotty's convention. We really could make use of his material, and Jim felt that, as we had covered Bill's expenses, we should be entitled to use of his work. Chris asked Russ to check for anything that was in electronic format.

The next meeting will be at Frankie Doodle's Restaurant, January 22, 2007 at 6 PM.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 PM.

Northwest Steel Guitar Association