NACUSA Summer Meeting Minutes
Friday, August 15, 2003, 7:30 at the home of Joanne Carey

Present: Owen Lee (President), Joanne Carey (Secretary), John Beeman, Herb
Gellis (V.P.), Lorie Griswold, Bob Hall, Nancy Bloomer Deussen and Dale Victorine.

Meeting began at 7:45.

AGENDA ITEM 1:  Owen began the meeting with an announcement of our next
three meeting dates, and the dates of their associated concerts.  He also
asked for members who could offer their homes for each meeting.  The dates
and locations of these meetings will be:

Friday, September 12, at Lori Griswoldıs house.
    (Mailing meeting for the October 11th ³Big Bang² concert)
Friday, February 13, at Nancyıs house.
    (Mailing meeting for the ³Composers and Friends² concert)
Friday, May 14, at Bob Hallıs house.
    (Mailing meeting for the June 12th CPE concert.)

Score call dates for these concerts were set at Friday January 16th for the
March concert and Monday March 1st for the June concert.

The Composerıs Performing Ensemble available for the June concert will
include:

Piano
Cello
Violin
Soprano
Flute/Saxophone

We had previously all agreed that we needed a violinist in the ensemble.
Recently, Diana Tuckerıs Music Store in Mt. View has offered to underwrite
the cost of adding a violinist to the group.  We all expressed our
appreciation for this generous contribution. We discussed possible
violinists for this job.  Several people mentioned that Sondraıs sister, the
concertmaster of the Diablo Symphony, was a very good possibility.

AGENDA ITEM 2:  We discussed what kind of established ensemble to select for
our Fall 2004 concert. Our usual payment for this concert is $1500 for the
whole ensemble.  John Beeman suggested a string quartet.  Nancy expressed
the opinion that a fifth non-string instrument should be added to give more
color to the timbral possibilities. She then suggested we ask the Stanford
Woodwind Quintet if they would be willing to be the featured ensemble for
this concert. She said she would talk to Alexander Hawley, the flautist of
the group.  Herb indicated he would be in favor of selecting a chamber
ensemble as another possibility.  Nancy offered to contact Emily Ray,
director of the Mission Chamber Ensemble about this possibility. 

Other suggestions included:
--Joanne suggested contacting known early music groups, who often like to
perform accessible contemporary music.
--Bob Hall suggested asking the Richard Worn Ensemble, from San Francisco.
He said that Richard Worn plays in Barbara Day Turnerıs group but also has
his own (variable) ensemble and he ³puts on a good show.²

After further discussion, we decided to first contact the Stanford Woodwind
Ensemble and go from there.

AGENDA ITEM 3:  Bob Hall brought up an issue relating to the failure of paid
performers to prepare all of the music that was selected for the program.
This occurred at the last concert, where the performers decided on the night
of the dress rehearsal that they couldnıt adequately perform one of Bob
Hallıs songs. We also reviewed what is expected of our CPE, namely two
rehearsals plus the dress rehearsal.  Apparently, the pieces on the last
concert received only one of the two preparatory rehearsals. We decided that
we needed a policy for the future so that sudden cancellations of pieces
wonıt happen again.
ß Owen delineated the new policy:  When difficulties become apparent,
usually after the first rehearsal, the performers in question should contact
the composer right away. The composer may want to attend the second
rehearsal to hear the difficulties and help decide whether an adequate
performance is possible.  If these difficulties persist into the second
rehearsal, the performers should contact the programming committee right
away so the program is settled before the dress rehearsal.

AGENDA ITEM #4:  Herb Gellis began discussion of the topic of his article ³A
Next Step in the Evolution of NACUSAsf² (which was included in our Summer
newsletter), namely, adding a fourth concert to our season that will present
longer, complete pieces and will hopefully represent the best, most
substantial pieces that NACUSAsf has to offer.  A culminating goal would be
to attract an audience outside of our friends and family and increase the
status of our group.

Bob Hall announced that he had to leave early, but wanted to voice his
opinion against changing our Œvarietyı format to present fewer, longer
pieces.  
Herb reminded Bob that his proposal wouldnıt change our format, but merely
add a concert with a different format.

Herb proceeded to summarize his the ten points of his proposal.  Since all
NACUSAsf members received this article, I will offer an only very brief
summary here:
1. Improve our mailing list.
2. Create better rapport with and attract more attention from the media
3. Increase funding through grants (the fourth concert will cost more,
especially for better known performers).
4. Select the pieces according to a comprehensive vision of what over-all
effect we are looking for.
5. Find collaborators
6. Establish a more frequent meeting structure consisting of the Board whose
priority is to develop strategic plans that will facilitate NACUSAıs artistic
evolution. 
7. Encourage members to write longer pieces.
8. Use pieces from other NACUSA chapters if they will attract more
attention.
9. Invite a well-known non-member to present a piece in order to attract a
larger audience. 
10.  Establish a reputation that would attract the general art-music loving
public, in addition to our friends. (Barbara Day Turner is his first choice
for a model of what can be achieved).


Nancy BD had many objections to Herbıs proposal, which she offered in a
paper that represents collaboration among Lori Griswold, Sondra Clark and
herself. 

She summarized six points of concern with regard to Herbıs proposals:
1. We have not demonstrated a participation level that would carry them
forth.  She emphasized that not more than 12 of our members are currently
contributing time to NACUSAsf.  She suggested that others could contribute
to the group by working on-line.  She is in particular looking for companies
who are giving grants and would welcome volunteer efforts to find these
grant opportunities and also supply the applications to our grant-writing
committee (members Nancy BD, Sondra Clark and Brian Holmes). John Beeman
suggested that Nancy e-mail this request to our members.
2. Our programming strategy (to include as many composersı as feasible) is
based on our financial limitations; it also generates greater ticket sales
and involves more members in the processes of our organization.
3. Adding a violin to CPE is a good idea, while we continue to use and value
our dedicated ensemble.
4. Promoting composers outside of NACUSA is not part of our goal.
5. Longer works could be sponsored by NACUSA but underwritten by the
performed composers or financed through grants or other support.
6. The call for extra meetings needs further discussion.  Considering our
participation level (#1), the commitment for this kind of expansion may not
be here at this time.

Further discussion of these points ensued. There was some concern that the
fourth concert might siphon energy from our current strategy and goals.
Nancy and Lori expressed their disagreement with Herbıs description of our
concerts as ³pop².

Herb emphasized the need to be persistent about fundraising.  Keep pursuing
grants and try another silent auction perhaps next year.  Our last, very
small silent auction made $205.  He suggested that soliciting items from
near-by businesses such as restaurants or gift stores or performing groups
brought more money than offering our services to people.

Owen asked Herb:
1) How do we attract the attention of the media?
2) What he considered the next step to be, i.e. what do we do next?

To the first question, there were no easy answers.  Nancy volunteered that
getting attention takes time and persistence.  While she has in the past
gotten publicity by bringing ready-to-print articles to the desks various
music critics or entertainment editors, she doesnıt have the time to do this
now. 

To the second question, Herb answered that we need to have more meetings and
to arrange a meeting with Barbara Day Turner to give us ideas and help us
come up with an over all plan.

Nancy reiterated that we canıt do much more without more money and Owen
added that Herbıs goals for NACUSA would require more work from all of us.

Nancy said she would like to ask specific people to do specific jobs.  She
then asked Dale if he would spend a little time looking on the web for
available grants.  He consented to make this effort. Herb informed us that
there is a philanthropy website, but he didnıt know its name.

Owen asked Herb to go ahead and get Barbara Day Turner, or someone else, to
meet with us.  Other people or groups to consult include:  Emily Ray
(Mission Chamber ensemble), Century Chamber Orchestra, Composers Inc.,
Earplay and San Francisco Contemporary Players.  Such advice could help us
achieve more polished performances and increased attendance.

There was more discussion about the value of our current Œvariety concertsı
versus programming longer works.  We discussed how many long pieces could we
program and figured it would be three or four.

At this point Dale had to leave, but wanted to bring up a concern.  He
suggested that people whose pieces are rejected should receive some
communication as to why they were not included in the concert.   We all
agreed on this point and determined that in the future all composers would
get some kind of response to their submitted piece(s).

Regarding the projected fourth concert, Owen concluded that our vision of
this concert of Œmoreı elevatedı longer works was not yet clear.

We still need grants however, just to maintain or slightly improve the
quality of our concerts and our engagement with the community. Nancy
informed us that the President of NACUSA, Deon Nielsen Price, told her that
every grant that we submit has to go through the National Council.  She
wondered if this was true and Owen said he didnıt know.

Owen summarized our two focuses:
1) Maintain what we have and keep trying to present high quality
performances of our best music.
2) Work toward adding a fourth concert of longer works
a. We still need to formulate a vision for this concert
b. We need experts to come in and talk to us
c. We need to follow through with meetings to organize and raise money

If we do work organize a concert of longer works, Nancy suggested that we
let the ensemble that will play them choose the repertoire.  Owen said that,
while generally we try to reduce competition in our group, the fourth
concert could be like a competition for us, and our performing ensemble
would select the winners.  Nancy agreed that this would be fair. Those
present agreed with this approach.

Owen asked Nancy to write up her view in response to Herbıs article and send
it out to everyone either by e-mail or snail mail. Nancy also mentioned that
she has been to many NACUSA concerts of other chapters, and they also
present lots of pieces on their programs.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 PM

Respectfully submitted,

Joanne D. Carey
Secretary to NACUSAsf
[Edited by Herb Gellis]