 of being recorded. Welcome everyone to a meeting of the Amherst Cultural Council. My name is Angela Mills and I work for the Town Manager. This meeting is being recorded and will be uploaded shortly to the Town of Amherst YouTube channel and all recordings can be found via the web page for the Cultural Council. Thank you everyone for your hard work and at this time I'd like to acknowledge the co-chairs, Julianne and Matt. Thanks Angela. Do you have the script pulled up? I will go ahead and I do. And Angela are you recording it? Okay Julianne is the host so Julianne and you'll save it to the cloud. Yeah let me go ahead and press record. I will make you co- well it is recording. Yep it's recording you're good you're good to roll. And Julianne you can make Matt co-host in case he needs to share documents and stuff. All right doing that now. We do have one attendee tonight. Hello Pat. Okay so briefly the pursuant to chapter 20 of the AXA 2021 we are allowed to meet over Zoom. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so on Zoom or can watch the YouTube recording afterwards. There's no in-person attendance of the public and the chat function will be turned off. And Julianne and I will do our best to keep an eye on the participants list and if we see anybody in the audience we will put a call out. Oh we do have an attendee actually and it's Pat Anabaku so we'll put out a call for public comment as appropriate. So before we do that I'm just going to go around and do a roll call make sure everybody can hear me and be heard. So we'll start with you Julianne. Hello yes. Eleanor. Hi. Cody. Hi. Hey Cody. Sylvie. I didn't actually hear you. We know. There you are. And Rachel. Hi I'm here. Hi Rachel. Okay so we do have one member of the public in attendance and if you'd like to make a public comment please just go ahead and use the hand raised function and we will bring you in. Before we move into the grant deliberation process I think we should talk about December 14th. So that's the tentative date that we had set for a voting meeting. The voting meetings is the most important meeting of the year for us because it's when we make our final approval of a slate of grants and a grant amount. However Julianne you were saying that we didn't have. Yeah I dropped the ball on trying to find another date. It's going to be hard to do so. So at this point I'm not even sure who we had that could or couldn't attend. I'm going to see if I can pull that up. And I was still waiting to hear from several of those who have exams as far as what was it? I can't attend. It looks like Eleanor and Cody and Sylvie are all out for that meeting. I'm good. I'm good. All right. We'll be doing that date. It's going to the home opening. You're traveling? Yeah. No. I have that date. I plan to go to the hockey game. So I have been planning. No I'm in because it's way before that. Yeah. Cool. Excellent. Yes I actually think I'm all through it. I've marked it down I think is like a not sure or if I'm able to. True. Yeah. Yeah. Thinks that I'm good to go for it and sorry I totally dropped the ball and sent you other dates so I'm glad that. You're in good company but you know it's okay. It's all right. Yeah. I can also make the 14th. You can. If it's the same time. Yeah. I need to mute myself to take a call make sure it's on emergency. I'm hearing generally that maybe we should just go ahead and stick with the 14th. I think that's probably our safest bet and then if we decide we need to do a later or another loading meeting we can but I think we should tentatively stick with that and you know sort of roll with the punches as they come. Does that sound okay? Yeah. I'm actually glad at this point that I dropped the ball because it all worked out and we can keep it as planned originally. Thank you all. Awesome. Great. So I'm not seeing any hands raised. I also see Emma Carr-Shabazz in the as an attendance or I'm sorry a attendee so if anybody wants to make a public comment just raise your hand and we would recognize you but not seeing any hands raised I think we need to move into our deliberation process as we said over the email we are a little tight for time and so what we're actually proposing is that we take a look at a subset of the grants that may not have met our guidelines and you know particularly for you Sylvie says this is your first time coming through you know what we wind up doing typically we have about 100 applications this year give or take we wind up giving partial funds to the vast majority of those they're all you know they all have merit and so they're all worth funding for the most part but there are quite a few that came in that either didn't have date or venue or other pieces that just didn't seem to fully meet our criteria and so Juliana and I thought maybe we should spend today's meeting going through those and making sure that we collectively agree that those grants don't meet our local guidelines and then once we do that the rest of it is kind of you know figuring out who to fully fund and then which ones to give partial funding amounts to so if that makes sense should I join should I share my screen to do this is that the most effective way I think we should possibly just just go grant by grant and I think we should start with those that we've not discussed previously so I think that would have us at sequence number 41 I believe yeah that's what I have too yeah yeah okay and I'll just make a comment for Pat and Emma Carr just because I know that they're both attached to the same grant that grant we was high it was in the 20s I think and and our full panel book is published on our website now so we discussed that grant a few weeks ago and gave it generally favorable support we haven't determined final amounts yet but it's it is not on the list of grants that didn't meet our criteria so I just thought that might be helpful information for you if you're watching at home and looking for your grant sorry Julian so you said 41 yes yes so in in some cases you know as you know we did put a call out for additional information from all grantees across the board whether they provided it or not just to be fully transparent and and faring the process so in in some cases as we go down just no information was sent and you know we're still in a situation potentially with with no date and no no location noted how would you like to start Matt yeah so this one this is the crowns for king I think we actually started to speak about this one and folks really liked it um it was one of the ones about portrait photography online lookbook however it didn't have it was missing a lot of details in terms of the where the win um and the how yeah it's still listed as all 2024 and just all over western massachusetts so really no particular date or location or for it so I I'll actually go first here I'm um I think that's that's something that's got it on it's a basically a website this lookbook is a website so I'm not sure that creating a website it is quite as time bound as most of our grant applications so I'm not sure that I would say it you know it fails to meet that local criteria I don't know what are there's what are other folks think a cycle for me I did comment about that location is just how do we know there will pick and you know my fear is we reward we award this this grill and he receives it on the list so I mean I only gave it a one in seven and I don't feel comfortable finding I I did not score very high either code each on the merits I think just you know because it is it does look a little bit like a personal project and also um yeah I mean I but but I didn't have it as not qualifying so Julia I don't know if you want to speak to that a little bit I know this one of the ones you were thinking might not I I don't think that all of western massachusetts in all of 2024 qualifies as providing a date and a location and there's no letter of support from anyone in the community I just feel at that point you know there's just not enough substance to the application for me to feel to be responsible to fund it and since they're requesting their full budget from us of over $5,000 you know I just I don't I don't think it's even meaningful to do a small partial it just seems like the money needs to go to actual events that we know that the community will have the ability to learn about and access and part of did they not have a strong sorry I'm not I can't having trouble opening my panel book right now did they not have a strong public publicity plan um promotion would be on instagram and that they were going to make a website and talk to local lgbtq groups and businesses to ask them to promote the project so um and just so no support from from any organizations no other named participants um just it's you know I think it's a wonderful idea I just don't don't think that without a date and location or any supporting groups or or other people that we can fund it well the reason I ask I mean folks folks rule remember we have to be specific about the denial reasons um and so the three that the two that um mass cultural council give us are not clearly related to arts, humanity or science or did not provide enough public benefit for our community compared to other proposals um the third one is you know basically any local priorities that that it didn't meet and so I I I would agree that this is this one probably does not provide as much public benefit as as many of these other very worthy ones so I think if we do go with denying this this grant and I agree for the same reasons I think we should probably go with that that third I think rather rather get into a debate about you know whether something um online has a date and venue I agree we we can simply say not enough public benefit there was nothing specific to Amherst right yeah that's right it's interesting that there's they're not applying to other cultural councils if it's like all of western massachusetts at least that I saw let me make sure that that's a good point also yeah no none okay um you want to move on to 443 yep this was happier valley comedy in this interactive based presentation based on her ted talk ted x talk professional improviser pan victor shares immediately applicable techniques to help quiet the inner critic is this one of the chamber of commerce items yes it is yes okay so for sylvie and for others who don't remember last year we had a similar circumstance where somebody was doing a presentation for the chamber they're being paid by the chamber and we were asked to essentially defray the cost of the presentation and we denied it at that time I believe mm-hmm so again it's about public benefit right like how how many people actually have access to this and what is the nature of the activity so the the I think that's right yeah it's the target audience is the chamber of commerce we we're not 100 clear whether it's open to the public or or not it is free to those who show up they list the audience as being 40 folks you know probably members of the chamber of commerce so um it it just seems a little little um outside of what we do to provide you know content for chamber of commerce meetings thanks is there anyone who would like to yeah I think consider it does have a date and location but what is the cultural and arts benefit to the community um yeah I think it comes down to not not enough public benefit this is it is tough for me because you know I think you have a lot of business owners in the chamber who who benefit from but from this um it just it feels like a professional development program that has a slight cultural aspect to it um I don't know yeah I agree with you Rachel I'm not sure that it's that it's truly on the nose in terms of arts and culture activities but it definitely does seem like a professional development opportunity yeah that part is clear yeah yeah okay is there anyone who would like to contest leaving this is not funded for not enough public benefit okay all right let's we've got to keep moving so next oh yeah are we doing time stamping not really I think we'll just yeah hopefully we can move faster than time stamping would be the goal if you want me to time just let me know we can we can shrink it down so we're on B1 yeah do you want to take the next one Matt yeah this is the Haitian cuisine tour which sounds delicious um and essentially and this one we I we may have discussed this one already but but on behalf of um the Pearl Caribbean restaurant in Everett mass we present the Haitian cuisine takeover this initiative aims to introduce the rich flavors of Haitian cuisine um and so essentially let me see I I'm going to open their panel book because I I don't want to get this wrong but I believe this is something that kind of got sent out to many cultural councils yeah universities across the state of Massachusetts and you know I think it's a neat idea um it didn't come with any letter of support and it it seemed like the kind of thing that you know if we fund it they'll do it um and so the question becomes you know is this something that we want that we need to prioritize for our council because you know again they it does look like they apply to they listed one two three four five wells everywhere from Wellesley and to Worthington so that's pretty much spanning but there's no there's no data location they there could be a data location but there there isn't one and you know we've we proactively communicated to everyone and they they didn't even respond so yep is there I mean it does sound delicious but unfortunately I'd say this one does not meet our our criteria without a date or a location I agree I was shocked to see it as a grant you know personally if you are going to have it in colleges and universities it should fall on to dine in services in the perspective of college now cultural councils. Good point and yeah even just having a letter from the university that they'd like to have it would have you know been something we could then consider but we got nothing so okay all right shall we move on so the next one's number 54 that can no it's um oh I wanted to tell you Julie she came in at the last minute with a letter of support okay and so they have a date and what is the location yeah it came in late last night uh connections concert series yeah I've thought my head I don't remember but but she had a letter of support from the venue okay all right well um I guess there there were some other so there is a date there is a location um this one comes down to a question though I'd still say as to whether or not there is enough public benefit um to grant 12,440 dollars to you know this is 20 percent of our entire um allocation right or well I I don't think our decision right now is is $12,000 I mean what we're kind of focusing on is is who who are we gonna deny got it so all right so I guess we'll need to come back to this one then yeah to me I mean to me this seems like a worthy project you know and worthy of partial funding I mean I agree it it might be on the lower side for partial funding you know it's classical music in Northampton um but but it looks like a nice project I don't think we can deny it outright so this is the one that we could obviously we could we can do you know we can do anything we need to but but I so this is the one that came in with the venue Matt at the last minute yeah it is yeah um it's it's Northampton Center for the Arts you know what number is so so one of the things just for folks to think about before we mold this one back I was worth going to read this one because they state that they applied for um LCC funding in the locations where this show would take place and those locations are Northampton Holyoke Eastampton and Amherst except there is no Amherst performance um so maybe something changed in their plans but again I think it comes down to you know it certainly is a wonderful event um we'll just have to decide you know how much benefit there there is I read the wording of that a little differently because they say it's confusing to me at least but um they said who's in places in four cities whose residents will be significantly and positively impacted by our offerings comma and where shows will take place Northampton Holyoke Eastampton and Amherst and like I just I mean it's very possible that maybe they intended to have a show but I thought maybe it was like we're not going to have a show in Amherst but it's somewhere where residents will receive you know what if they had written it as and or yeah exactly it's it's it's the English language fun all right well we'll have to to come back to that one so then um I guess the next one is number numbers 58 and 59 which you know we cannot do two grants for any one person to begin with so were they at all different Matt really I just want to make sure my yeah well my numbering looks a little different than yours I have Ken Longstreet at 56 um that one Maloney I said I thought I struck Ken Longstreet because uh Ken asked to um pass on the entire grant he he has to withdraw his would you would you like so we should pause just for a second and tell everybody that that Ken Longstreet withdrew so um um when we were under reimbursement granting before moving to direct granting every um grants project had to be completed and we received a final grant report with all of the financial reporting documents um which could be receipts uh invoices from people who were outside of the organization who got paid canceled checks redacted bank statements any number of different documents and the treasure at that point would not issue a payment until um we were able to satisfy that the documentation was sufficient before that the town would actually cut those a check for those funds so moving to direct granting to be frank there's been a lot of confusion from grantees where um they've taken the direct granting in some cases as just being a totally on your honor however the materials that we send out and the the um grant agreement that they sign um does state that they will send us a final grant report with marketing materials with documentation such as receipts of their expenses within two weeks of the close of their event and uh we've done considerable legwork to track down these funds and um so Ken Longstreet's uh grant with the I think the bad news jazz orchestras orchestra were big band um you know they wrote a fantastic uh final grant reports minus the documentation for all of the stipends that were paid out and they've come back to us and they don't seem to have a way of you know providing that and so they've uh said that going forward uh they don't believe I guess that they'll be able to do that for future grants so they just were going to pass on funds from us which is a very frustrating situation to uh to be in um does anyone have any any questions about that sorry I didn't mean to uh all I meant was we should just let the group know that that Ken Ken wrote to us and said I'm withdrawing from FY 24 so we don't have to consider that that grant and certainly I you know we should all be thanking Julianne for her incredibly diligent efforts and the correspondent stuff but but for what for our purposes today we just need to know that we don't have to factor in that that application apologies for oversharing folks but that's that's how the sausage gets made and and you know we have had um guidance from the town that they they you know want additional um kind of scrutiny on on the reporting since folks are getting the money I mean you know at least the event happened you know um but uh that's where we are so so the numbering that I have that still has the Ken the Ken Longstreet in there has um Scott Maloney the IAM grants at 50 applications as 57 and 58 both yep um and so I believe that neither one of these gave us a specific day nor a booked venue and then we did not get any response to the outreach is that accurate we might have gotten an actual date in the end because there's there's a date quote April 24th no letter um but I still don't believe that it it meets our criteria without a location or or even really meets kind of our um you know arts culture science and open for discussion though I don't I don't think even from the description on this I was very clear on what it totally was and yeah I think I think without a location and with that I would be okay with not funding it anyone any other uh thoughts here I would support what you all just said okay move to the next then I I think this is this is what we have to do in terms in terms of efficiency but I will say this is a little bit of a bummer meeting it's kind of a bummer meeting to to focus in on the ones that don't meet criteria um but I you know I think just in the in the name of using our time well I think we have to do it so I appreciate everybody hanging in there um yeah really what we like to give money to to arts and art our organizations um okay so on that tip though jumping down to number 65 we have Jason Montgomery um and this was uh yeah so this was the attack bear press um this is texting poems so you text a request to them they text a poem back to you um they did not respond to our inquiry um and then we actually have not had any communication with them since oh year and a half now and and that relates to Julianne's efforts in terms of of getting documentation for their previous grant so although they technically have another three and a half weeks to provide a final grant report for this year's activity the lack of communication and specifics on this current grant I think makes them you know unlikely for us to fund and I did happen to pass by emmer's books and checked out their poetry vending machine unfortunately I didn't have any quarters but um one thing that we haven't been too much you know enforcing but was a disappointment when I got there was that only the MCC was credited there we have uh on the actual vending machine it said nothing about emmer's cultural council uh supporting it which all right I'm being a stickler and um I think that's something we need to communicate out more clearly and in our um materials and one of the reasons for that um sorry to digress but was when we had the fall block party I literally had people who were fully engaged in arts and culture who said I didn't even know we had an emmer's cultural council you guys don't do anything you don't fund anything so um actually having that um that accreditation or or or credit sorry academic um really really does you know serve the community so that they know that we're here and serving them any any we also have a better logo MCC and awesome t-shirts so you know I just feel like and and stickers so um for those reasons as well I mean I you know if I was an Austin based emmer's based artist that that's it looks better than an MCC logo but I'm but I'm biased you're a little partial yeah okay so unless anybody wants to make a plea I think we're going to to not fund attack bare press text poems uh that brings us down to 60 sorry 60 uh 71 this is Camilla Prius la barachita that's terrible pronunciation I'm sorry de more um uh and this one we really liked or I personally really like the application but did not have I think I guess they just said spring they didn't say a specific date is that the issue Julianne yeah it's really just disappointing as far as we we did not hear back and it looks like a quality event but again with with the without the the date and I believe there was maybe no letter of support either um um yeah let me see if I can pull the exact one again yeah that's too bad and I just I just double checked that we don't have any emails from them nothing and I I just feel like you know we we stated it very clearly in our local guidelines and then we send out that courtesy email and I just it's you know it's too bad it's something to think about for next year you know the the venue and date confirmation is not required by MCC um but we are requiring it this year and so we have to stick true to that looking into kind of the fine detail here I am seeing that the other cultural council they applied to was um were Boston and Springfield so perhaps it's just that they were applying and that like others they would get a date you know but they didn't even contact us so we really have have no it just doesn't meet criteria without that yeah there's I think there's kind of a spray a spray technique that some applicants use where they just spray out applications to a lot of cultural councils and and that means that you sometimes lose track of your application status and and don't review the local guidelines carefully well yeah but I there's really no um kind of excuse for for not communicating if you do intend to go forward then yeah they got a very clear email so um okay so then moving on to 72 this is Morgan James Peters um Thunderchild it's really too bad also there's another great one um touring storytelling music and music performance um but we never got any response from them correct just double checking the forms but I'm sure we would we would have caught it if they had all right I'm curious can everyone here my teenage are talking in the background because if so I'll mute no one can hear them okay no no thanks so unfortunately um Morgan James Peters we have to I think you know deny because we don't have any um confirmation yep so moving along to 73 pioneer valley symphony this is all over town the education concert they have a date this is in the greenfield high school auditorium um this is a $350 grant request I assume this one is included on our list because the public benefit it's just it's it's greenfield students only right yeah this is during the school day in at greenfield schools so you know it's along the lines of not enough public benefit there could be the uh amherst resident who has reason to be in greenfield public schools during the school day but it won't be amherst school children um so I think it's it's just something that you know I I can't support taking funds that we could be using you know for our own students for instance and saying you know that we need to support programming in greenfield if they can't access so yeah I agree and I think we may have actually touched on this one at our last meeting I will say just for everyone's kind of benefit I did hear from a a board member over at um the um pioneer valley symphony orchestra that it pretty much is I think at this point an all volunteer organization so um but but from a public benefit to amherst as a whole unfortunately um yeah we we have to pass on this one all right so jumping down to number 77 this is recovery and poetry um and multidisciplinary date was going to be in january of this next month uh just as virtual and physical location we did not get any follow-up that I can see um it's a neat concept uh it also it also seemed like a pretty under underdeveloped um application generally but I think a unique concept and um so I but I think unfortunately I don't think there's any way we can we can fund this one you know so keep moving down um 87 hours this is tough oh there are just one to everyone they all you know yes they do they do and they have Worthington located listed as the location that's odd why is that odd well don't like you said no they usually apply to everyone um they they do they're a group as I recall if I if I look in the book I think out of New York City area perhaps and they come up this way and you know they at some point um past councils have had given them um some funds maybe a partial grant but we haven't uh funded them anytime recently and it's um yeah the mailing address is east end avenue New York which is fine but uh and with a physical address in Worthington mass and um yeah and they kind of acknowledge Amherst virtually and I think they kind of cut and paste you know your community here virtually into their applications so no I agree I think you know that's that's really too far and we have you know we have plenty of classical music that's being offered you know right here in town so I think we're on the same page there unless anybody goes down on me this one you know as you all know 81 is the Silverthorn Theater and the issue there was we range and they have Hampshire College Theater what was the issue there no final grant report no communication I've been reaching out and reaching out and reaching out um and you know it's it's frustrating that the the emails for documentation coming from the same email address get no reply while the emails to get the check cut you know do get a response so very very disappointing and I mean folks things things happen sometimes you know with these volunteer organizations we've heard back from groups especially over COVID where somebody was ill somebody dies somebody's house has a tree fall on it like you know life goes on and we really do truly you know work with those folks you know to the best extent that we can as far as how the fiscal cycles roll and and whether you know their money can still be available but uh at this point yeah with with having requested information we we can't fund it which is just unthinkable because I believe there's so much community benefit here so we're gonna have to I think write our letters this year to capture this issue so I mean I agree with you if they don't obviously if they don't if they don't provide their grant report they need to be they can't be funded technically everybody knows technically they have until the end of the month to you know to complete their project so I think we need to capture that window in our grant letters now and just be really clear that we need we need to complete a grant report before we're going to approve a grant from you you know and that way we won't have this issue next year as long as we write that down um but I but I'll say that you know um yeah if they do manage to materialize with a grant report or correspondence I would like to put them back into the mix in other words yeah I think right now and I think I had committed to calling them at some point and I and I will I I totally forgot what the issue was I thought it was all captures my with the email blast I will I will call them since that that issue they're just they're so good and to have them performing here in Amherst would be yeah fabulous and I you know yeah you know for instance I did finally track down receipts from a 2022 grant from Springfield symphony orchestra and it was just a formatting thing somebody emailed them but they couldn't be open they weren't really attached and I've been I mean asking repeatedly and finally got it just the other day in the nick of time to keep them off this list so you know again volunteer organizations and you know who's responsible who who has these documents you know year to year so um it's uh it is a challenge I appreciate that okay so jumping down to number 70 or sorry 84 this is songkeepers um uh golf park uh thumping soul in the park sounds amazing outdoor pop-up outdoor dance club a musical session of hand drums house music afro beat soul funk I mean my personal notes I just have you know this is a high a high partial pending logistics but we never heard any response right yeah this one unfortunately with no date uh or locate well it has a location not a secured location but no date no communication it does not meet our criteria just that uh we skipped the one above um at least I think we should have had the the for the brass event that's in Boston what's the number um number 83 oh yeah something I'm missing that one yep you're right uh nothing wrong with the event I think it just falls under not enough public benefit since it is in Boston yep I agree with that in Worcester actually but yeah I agree oh no I'm sorry it's both Boston and Worcester okay I have that as well and I just have a quick question for the following one that we're going to get to next the um is I have in my notes whether the contact person is the same as the um grant in number 72 which we talked about a few minutes ago for Thunderchild yeah because the name I saw I think I saw the same name on the application in the panel book I mean I don't know if that makes a difference enough but but I just had that as a question and if we're it's on the list for not being funded at all then the point is moved so there is um just one email address I believe um yeah there's there's just a single single physical address in Greenfield and a single email address it's two different people um at least in terms of lead applicants but I think you know that being said neither one of them is providing us with with the details so I think unfortunately we have to deny them all right so moving down to 85 um this is Janice Sorensen um and this is Magpie Farm and Art Depot and this was oh this is a person who essentially wants to be reimbursed for house parties that she held um at at her home and I think that just doesn't really fit our public benefit concept I I have to agree as far as you know I don't know what the the the marketing kind of approach was but I don't think people got the word the word well some people did but they're all our friends I guess not the inclusivity that we're we're striving for I was saying well and this was at in in Buckland also I believe where will the project take place Buckland at Magpie Farm it was basically promoted by word of mouth but I feel like she she had a flyer but you know yeah it was at at their house so exactly so okay unless anybody wants to advocate for this one let's move on so are we looking at 93 no Rebecca is that not enough public benefit or doesn't meet our criteria I think I think we can use doesn't meet criteria there um okay I don't know yeah that's you're right it's probably it's probably safer to say public benefit compared to other proposals um okay does sound like it was fun for those who attended up there yeah exactly and I'm not sure I'm not sure it doesn't meet our yeah right on the edge all right on back what happened with them well they have two all right and technically we can only consider one of the two they they came back with dates and a letter of support for the the grant with the lower amount oh wait no the the one one let's start over they have two they have dates and locations for both as it turns out but we can't fund two of them they should have put it through as one grant um with both locations all of the dates and and asked for the full amount but um with that I would I would say if we're all in agreement that we would strike and Cody's got a question strike the the lower um amount that they're asking for to be able to deliberate about the the higher amount yes Cody I mean in terms of public benefit I would disagree and say the image community does go to I see this is for the homelands festival yeah so I do see this public benefit but you know being an event planner I don't think they just clearly state that but from personal knowledge yeah folks from areas do travel up absolutely no one's questioning the public benefit I think we'd like to be having a different conversation which is would be along the lines of you know wanting to fully fund all of the events from the two different grants and yet we are limited by our guidelines where we can only accept one grant application from each individual or organization so we need to do a better job with educating folks that they have to put everything into one grant and where it gets a little you know messy is um you know the the funds that are spent in the documentation for the funds that are spent also tie back to that particular grant in in the end and need to reflect the date whoever the stipends would go to all of those kinds of things all need to align um so it's it's just one of those things that happens every year that some folks apply for more than one grant and I I think the judicious thing is to keep the grant for the higher amount and to have to you know put the lower amount aside as the one that we can't fund and and then to to really explain this to folks there you know directly that what one thing so I she's I mean you're right julien we that's kind of been our practice and there have been occasions when grantees have written back to us when they realize this and they've combined there you know we've we have been we've worked with folks who have realized the error of their ways I made a note to myself I'm going to reach out to mass cultural because folks have given us the feedback that there are councils out there who want a separate application for each project that your group is is putting forward and this is a local guideline that was in place before I got here I don't really know the history of it how it came about certainly I I prefer it this way because it's more efficient than chasing the same person for multiple grants but I want to ask our MCC rep if if are we are we the outlier or are we the norm you know do most cultural councils do what we do because it does it does kind of stink if if there's you know if if an organization has got to follow if the rules are that different from one town one council to another so I'm going to check on it but but you know I think unfortunately I think julien's right and certainly I will advocate to fully fund the other nolembeca project and you know and I think we'll just kind of and we'll communicate this to them so they know for next year also because they're a great partner thanks for seeing what they say and I would really you know prefer to to not have to even bring this up or talk about it so yeah let's let's see what they say and maybe there's another option okay so moving down to let's see 98 valley arts mentors so what happened here julien we can't hear you thank you with this one um there was uh some question as far as you know really kind of the the scheduled dates of it right so it's listed um january through november taking place virtually um and it really wasn't clear to me at least as to how that worked if everyone else has read it i'd be happy to hear you know if somebody else has a better understanding of how this virtual event works aside from that they're they're bringing it to amherst but we had um no no letter of support from any amherst organization and I think it was supposed to be benefiting the the schools directly no help me out here no this is I mean so I think I would start by saying that this one I don't think we can say it doesn't meet our criteria for logistics type stuff um it's but it's I mean it's a fairly established program um that so I mean so I mean I'll read the little the little blurb essentially it says uh where'd it go um okay they shared promotional materials for last year's program where did it go if anybody oh here it is okay summarize the proposed project collaborative project with pt theater company holiope media and big brothers big sisters uh a six-month early career artist mentoring program we match emerging artists with an experienced mentor in their discipline who guides their journey the pair meets every two weeks with support along the way through meetings with vam staff and a curriculum um second program is a webinar series designed to support arts and arts organizations topics include business planning for artists latinx arts membership indigenous arts membership um so you know it's not a it's not an event it's not a concert that you go to but I think it's it's certainly an arts aligned program um so no it seems great in many ways um kody does it mention amherst at at all but kody has his hand up oh i'm so sorry it wasn't um why is so stuff over long durations and i always wonder if they plan to pay a participant throughout the project or just a overall state and you know especially these throughout the new projects as soon as we more helpful to know because without that it looks like well they are not or are they so when i don't see our our application that might help us down the road is this a long-term project and i would indicate maybe this regular is giving out i think that's the that's the that's the main question is how are they going to use the money and it looks to me like you know we would be contributing to the stipend program for their mentors um and it's you know so to me that's that's and i don't see it actually there's no cost to to be mentored is there let me see projected income yeah there's no reference to there's no cost to participate yeah so i mean we can certainly discuss this one further on its merits but um i don't i'm not i'm not open to disqualifying it based on not meeting our criteria i think this is for me anyway this is this is kind of it's a really innovative thing it's it's definitely outside of our normal sort of you know concert play repertoire but i think it's incredibly valuable you know program rachel please yeah i love the concept i gave it um a quite a high score in my own ratings but i think i just want to raise for our consideration out of in principle um does this fall under the professional development category of of grants you know and and then the the other part of the the the webinar series or the resources that sounds great because that sounds like a lot more people have access to that um whereas the 101 mentoring i you know like i said i love i love the concept but should we be using our grant money for to to underwrite those expenses and costs i guess that's the question i have that's a good question i mean again it's right on the edge of our of our normal sort of scope i think the things that that make me sort of want to advocate for funding it um number one you know they are explicitly seeking out artists and helping those artists so just looking at the flyers from previous programs um you know they they help they're they help artists seek out funding through cultural councils so you know it's it's promotional for us and for the mcc the ins and outs of running an art gallery i mean the fact you know amherst has lost some great art galleries in the past you know i think you know so so to me you know it sort of supports that creative ecosystem like an economic ecosystem that that is so vital to you know the economy and the cultural life of the valley um and and you're right rachel i mean it's it's a professional develop it's a it's a learning experience for the artists who are getting mentored and the difference to me is that between this and the the um chamber proposal is that this is a targeted group of of early career and young artists being mentored who will you know explicitly turn around and contribute to the cultural fabric um and not to say that you know many of our chamber of commerce members are also artists and such but i think that's not their primary that that wouldn't be what i would like primarily call their demographic okay it sounds like as far as it not meeting criteria strictly based on it you know hard and fast date and schedule is off the table so we will move on with this one yeah come back to it yeah it's it's certainly interesting and so then i'm on number 99 whoa that means we're almost to the end of our list and this is um live music making history live date was tbd in 24 location is tbd and amherst and then um it's a an incredibly beautiful proposal a journey through the roots of american popular music so one of these heartbreaking ones that you know unfortunately we are we are you know um bound by certain rules and we have to stick to them and and we gave everybody a second chance with that email so i don't see any note from them i know we don't have anything i just want to add that you know especially with the direct granting it's really important that we fund events that actually bring public benefit and for that to happen they have to happen and if they can't communicate you know any additional details when we're asking for as you were quite clear that you were likely to not be funded at all if you don't communicate this to us so um i think a lot of people apply and it's like yeah it'll be great if they all come through yeah i'm gonna do that um but that uh that doesn't secure cultural events necessarily that will come to fruition and be a benefit yeah and i have to say i mean we had a we had a very large grant given given back to us this past grant cycle and that really stings because that's you know that was several thousand dollars that we could have given this to another artist who is ready to you know roll with their with our project and and we like this one on its merits but you know so i think it's better to as you said something that's fully formed and is actually likely to happen yeah it was more than okay these these next couple are tough these uh all all three of these last three are all pretty tough so 101 number 101 is the reclamation project honoring the voices of people of color and folk music um date was spring summer location was ideally Amherst public library uh you know and basically it says we would work with you to find an accessible venue um but then there's there's no response to our to our outreach and you know i i do think like again you know we have a fairly informal application process but it is a process and some folks come into things thinking that we you know we are going to be their promoter we're going to be their their organizer we're going to we're going to help them and we just can't with 104 applications we can't do that so i don't know it's tough but i think we gave them their fair chance to to come back with quite i mean even if you email us with questions like hey i can't tell many times people said are there any good venues in Amherst and i'll say yeah you know you should you know go to town hall or you should call the drake you know there's many places around you call the university the colleges um but if they if they don't make that effort we we really can't help them um okay 102 who are you productions this was harvest and rust a nearly young experience again this is exactly what i said um somebody who who reached out to us and said hey we you know i've got this great nearly young cover band if you guys want us to come play and we said sure you know put in an application and and you got to fill it out and they filled out an incomplete application so we can't we can't fund them i mean in my in my book you know unless uh and and then this last one this is shocking matt york who's been a perennial um partner julian this is a note below do you remember what his note was um please see note below let's let me um it's it's just that we've asked for a date in a location um and i think he's thinking he'd like to be part of the the summer concert series he said i understand the cultural council hosts the summer concert series and i'd love to be a part of that again there was zero communication back so um well we don't host the summer concert series yeah and so that's that's the fundamental flaw in that in that course yeah exactly and we have no no controller yeah yeah i mean he got a grant from us last year and and i've i've seen i mean you know it's very popular around town and he wound up being one of the headliners at the um block party you know so it's but but and look i mean we'll we'll send it in a denial letter and we oftentimes have quite a bit of correspondence after that and i'm happy to chat with him or email with him or julian can and we can explain no we we mean it when we say you need a venue you you got a book your venue yeah and everyone can certainly you know keep in mind that uh you know everyone has the right to appeal this so um no matter what our decision whether it's you know fund or not fund uh this our word is not the final word they want to have another word no well thank you all this was not the cheeriest um you don't want to end on an up note and make everyone push through to seven and try to timestamp a few more i've got a task master here too to end on a positive note and and you know keep us moving because we still have the volume to go through on thursday night a lot on their merits um the good stuff all right what yeah what number what number did we leave off on all right so we started at 41 tonight for the discussion um uh i mean the only other thing i guess we could do in this vein is just to to go back through that there were a few that um before 41 that we had marked as to you know we need more information but we'd like to fund it so um let's let's take take care of that did we hear anything more for number 40 from uh andrew grant i think this this is one that um we'd like to do right um no yeah we didn't get any kind of confirmation in and essentially what they said was we will be seeking program time in local venues libraries bookstores etc but then never followed up with anything in response to our email so that's a no okay that's disappointing yeah although that's you might remember that's one of the ones that several folks i think yourself included had concerns that you know the book is kind of a book tour basically um so okay uh i'm just kind of going back up through the list so number 34 we had all agreed didn't meet criteria before that was the yarn bombing um and um any comment there if we closed that one sorry folks i didn't move to anything positive moving back this is the 28 was dear dear Ella which was a concert but um again they they sent no information um for an actual date or location um yeah um dates and locations um we requested for uh number 24 the underrepresented genres of music residency and showcase uh and we we have nothing back from them unfortunately any comment there sorry i'm not able to see people's faces if people are giving her this was i'm sorry number 24 number 24 yeah i have chin gibbons for 24 yes correct but we didn't receive any right sorry yes yeah that's right and then we'd also just number 25 below club o we had said that didn't meet criteria when we met previously i'm more trying to capture just the ones where we um asked for dates and location and they're they're not meeting that um and number two that one just didn't meet our criteria previously we didn't hear anything further from them okay so if we can time box we can do a few more here so starting with um number 42 um this is the Hampshire Young People's Chorus it's their 25th anniversary concert to be held May 11th 2024 at the Wesley Methodist Church in Hadley they are asking um Amherst for 750 out of their $1,900 budget and they expect this to serve 200 folks um their audience is one part of the public benefit but also the children who are performing with the chorus receive benefit as well so the choir is made up of singers ages eight to 18 um and they're able to experience the joy of choral singing in a welcoming atmosphere um and this year they'd like to hold the concert at the spacious and lovely Wesley Methodist Church sanctuary in Hadley um they needed a larger space for their 25th anniversary um they've also given several other performances um including one at the Hampshire Choral Society Chapel uh at uh at Abbey Chapel at Mount Holyoke and um there is an Advent service um at the South Congregational Church in Amherst uh and also outreached in March to several schools so they do tend to work in in and around Amherst and they do have choral members and audience members that are from Amherst and they cycle in and out as to when they perform here so um I I'd like to support um fully funding this and I would open it up to anyone with comments as to whether I'd like to do that or not do that so you gotta get the excitement back in the room here yeah same yeah looks awesome yeah all right thank you one and congrats on 25 years so I support fully funding this thank you and and yeah since you've seen um their performances that's great and I mean this is participatory culture and you know it's it's wonderful and it's uh something that is not available you know of this caliber in the school and it helps kids know people throughout the region I think it's great okay so moving to the next we are on um the number 44 Susan Yard Harris dialogue with a collection it's a visual arts presentation um that you can still catch um at the University of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art it opened in December or September 22nd and it's closing December 10th uh they are asking $5,000 out of their $6,947 and 71 cent uh budget um the show is an exhibition of the drawings of Susan Yard Harris along with prints from the museum collection by uh Eda Ranouf is there anyone who would like to um champion this particular um or open the the discussion here meet my own recently clarified case is uh what do we do for events that have passed you know there's five more days of the zoom in by the time they get the check give me then we'll be familiar with the way well yeah this is worth reviewing so our um fiscal year 2024 grant cycle the uh yes the checks are cut in the spring but applicants can can apply for funding for events that happen starting in the second half of 2023 so from July 1st through the end of the year to December 31st and also for the entire calendar year of 2024 so the risk there to the artist is you know they're they have no guarantee of getting the funds and planning the event and knowing that they're within budget but there's nothing that um precludes anyone from um applying with us in October for events that have happened July through then or that will happen uh in 2023 second half now I support some kind of funding for this and certainly don't think we can fund five thousand dollars but yeah I I agree you know and I think you know as far as public benefits you know when I read through the application there wasn't you know a real outpouring of oh and this is the public benefit that the town has received so at this point the the most people here have received the benefit there they that's possible but I I think that it is important to have art in our community like this and um it's wonderful to have you must be able to host it to the public so I think a pretty small partial would be appropriate since everyone would agree you're having ideas around what would be appropriate there low partial agreed it is a very big ask um all things considered it could just be that you know everyone was exhausted by the time they did the show as far as the application was you know um well I think we're also looking at the amount requested versus what we have to give and how many people to give it to so it's gonna end up likely being a lower partial that yeah and close to what they're requesting right I mean just realistically speaking absolutely yeah um and when with the survey um that we did right there there really was perhaps a lesser amount of support from the community for visual art which we do plenty of but um it definitely wasn't one of our top ranked requests from the community to purchase oh we're also at time so um so I just want to make one last note before we move on I agree with the partial funding on this it's it's an interesting one though because she's actually looking for reimbursement for framing her paintings and that's it's just something that you know you don't think about much and it's worth asking the UMass folks like you know what is your I don't know I just I don't think we've ever seen a I've never seen that that come in well you know certainly framing as a cost for um you know it's it's interesting because cost of the framing is set at zero dollars in the budget but it's there no that's just a typo it's it's for framing and that the framing is listed as almost seven thousand dollars yeah yeah that's the typo she that's what she's saying is that she wants us to reimburse for her framing and that's you know okay well none of the numbers are final and we're at time but would getting it down to around 500 would that be meaningful or or not at this point yeah now I can rock with that so yeah yeah we'll have to come back to all the numbers um here we have time for one more I think we need to wrap it I I get run um but I I want to make a note to everybody though so so next week you know we have two more meetings on the books and we really we need to get to a balanced number by the 14th so I think for Thursday please do come and please really be thinking about you know the grants that you really believe in I want a champion you know we I mean we're going to continue our process um but we're getting to that point now and in fact what we did last year and it worked pretty well is we sent out a balanced slate of grants um because now we know which ones we're gonna we're not going to fund so we can start really looking at the big picture um so just I would just ask that if you haven't yet gone through at least quickly just get all the way through the list and just make quick notes to yourself just be somewhat familiar you know as you can tell none of us really scrutinized every single word as we go through it's more of a you know a feel and a quick note thing but I think if you can if you can um try to do that between now and then that'll really benefit the process on Thursday I think that'd be great hope um and we did get it wasn't uh the happiest most upbeat meeting we've got a lot done so that we can have some really great conversations on Thursday I feel I feel upbeat because believe me this makes the decisions much more fun to make on Thursday and next week because we're you know we really we just cut out a large amount of that what was the overall ask that came in like 180 yeah yeah I've got those numbers here so we've been asked uh the total ask was 186,570 dollars and I I have a running total um that again is not set in stone but uh we're we're still at allocating around 68,000 of which we don't have all of that so um yeah um we have had some some rich conversations to be had and um looking forward to it thank you thank you everybody see you Thursday bye Thursday bye