 Good evening everyone and welcome. My name is Angela Mills. I work for the town manager here in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts. This is a recording of an informational session that will detail the process that residents and interested parties should use to apply for a cultural council grant. At this time, I would like to recognize the co-chair, Julian Applegate, and I will make for the host have a great information session. Thank you so much, Angela. Appreciate it. Have a great evening. And Rachel Wang, I'm so glad to have you here with me tonight. You've been serving on the council almost as long as me, right? Just about how long now? Three years. Great. And what do you appreciate most about serving on the council? I see we have Pat with us. Pat, feel free to raise your hand as we go or I'm not sure if the chat's available. So we have one person with us right now. Yeah, welcome, Pat. Yeah, welcome. So what do I appreciate about serving on the council? Is that your question? Well, you do so much. And I really appreciate how generous you are with your time and insights. Yeah. Well, first of all, I have to thank you for stepping up to co-chair and to provide leadership to all of us. And I think when I first joined, it was right before we went into meeting remotely. So I think I might have attended one in-person meeting before. I think so. I think that's what it was. Yeah. Before everything went virtual. And I guess as a result of that, most of my experience has really been working digitally and remotely. And so I think that I miss not being able to really meet more people in person to find out about their grants and applications, I should say, right, and their projects. But what I do appreciate is, I guess, the efficiency with which we have been working. And we need that, right? We service almost 100 grant applications a year. I guess that's how many it was last year, nearly that, yeah. Yeah. And I think one of the things that's rewarding is, over time, being able to see like a more, first of all, more grant applications coming in and then also a increasingly diverse set of projects that are requesting funding. And then also being able to work with a group of other volunteers with very different backgrounds. So, for example, we have diversity in age, in experience and origins, as opposed as well. And, you know, our respective fields of interest are quite different, too, between, you know, like what you do as a designer and what I do as an educator of visual arts and promoting cross-cultural understanding and communications. Yeah. So Pat and whomever might be catching this on the replay later can understand who we are and what our mission is. We are appointed by the town government as the cultural council, but we're also part of the Massachusetts, the MCC, right? And the MCC has LCCs and over 350 cities and towns in Massachusetts, where our main purpose is not just to promote culture, but we receive a portion of the state lottery funds. And our nine member council, that's the largest it can be. I think we're one shy at the moment, reviews the grant applications annually and allocates those funds throughout the community. So it's an exciting and busy time for us coming up, because the grant site application portal is open to everyone through October 17th. And when that closes, then we have a pretty fast paced review process that ends up with us deciding and voting in time to get the word out early in the new year to all the grantees for those that are approved for the awards. So we will know if somebody has a question, right? Yeah, I'm looking to see if any hands are raised. So I guess I'm going to attempt to share my screen. I'm not a daily Zoom user. So I'm going to just kind of start with where you can find information about us and the MCC. So I'm over here at AmherstMA.gov. And I navigated basically from your government into boards and committees A through M. And here I was able to even come here and then select the cultural council for folks applying for grants. There's really some fantastic information here. It's so let me just kind of take take you through that. One of the things you can see is our prior grant cycle. So if you're wondering what kinds of events and groups we funded last year or what's an appropriate amount to request, it's really good to kind of come through here and look at maybe events that you attended to to understand what kinds of opportunities are generally possible. And there's also here you can see who our council members are. We most of us serve an initial three year term, and then we have the opportunity to extend for an additional three years. I'd have to look at the chart to say where I am, but yeah, I started in 2019. So it's been just fantastic. We would love for everyone to please complete our community survey. One of our responsibilities to the community in Amherst is to ensure that we're providing meaningful arts and culture events. And but we also want to do that with an eye to what's important to the community. What are they asking for? And this is, you know, a direct way for yourself. And please spread the word about this to others that you know, so that they can directly inform us as to what's important. You can see it's just five questions here, and there's a link to share it. I believe at the end of that too. So there's this video here. It's a little bit of an overview about our process. And then really exciting. You can click here to be able to go and actually apply. So I'm also going to show you how to get here just in general. So if you were to just search for the mass. Cultural in a long day. And the reason I'm going through here so you can see all of this is there are lots of opportunities throughout the year that, you know, beyond our own grant cycle and folks should just be educated and know that that's that's this entire site is here. But specifically, we're part of the local cultural councils. Right. And like, for instance, Hadley has their own cultural council. Shootsbury does Shelburne fall does, you know, all of these different towns have their their own local groups that receive their own funding. And with this, you can find your specific need find your LCC. Right. And all of these different towns. This is really important because if you're having a larger regional event and you're going to provide public benefit to many different communities, then it's appropriate to apply to all of those communities in that case. Right. And the process should be fairly similar, although there are differences. I'm going to point some of these out. So one thing that's really important to read, and this is what would be different from cultural council to cultural council. I'm sorry. Just a moment. I need to mute just a moment. It's asked or averted for the moment. So I was saying that when you go to each different cultural council, their local priorities, which are the guidelines by which these councils are determining public benefit and whether it meets all of the requirements would be different. So you want to pay special attention to everything here. And specifically for our local priorities, we are definitely prioritizing grants so that they'll be diverse and serve our diverse community. Every event must be ADA compliant and accessible, and it must be open to the public. And you can read through in more detail. We also try to ensure that they're all different kinds of art, that there's music, but not just one kind of music, just different varieties that people like. And we try to make sure that's happening throughout the year. So and I think I said, everything has to be accessible to the public. I guess one big thing that comes up year in, year out is that there are a few things that we simply cannot fund. We cannot fund any travel, transportation or lodging expenses. And we cannot fund any kind of food, beverage and refreshment. That is something that you may very well have at your event, but you'll just have to consider that that's something that the funds that we provide can't go towards that. I'm going to stop because I can't see while I'm sharing to see if anybody has questions. So I'm just familiarizing myself here with Zoom. Rachel, do you have anything to add just yet? Not at this moment. So, Julian, we are at two participants right now. Is that you and I? Yeah. Oh, yeah. OK. OK. So I guess just kind of. Breezing through then we can move on to where grantees would click apply now. And you'll have to create an account. So you have to go in and register as an individual or an organization. So we're registering here. I don't know if I'm already in here. I hope I'm not this one. Any any thoughts as I'm as I'm just typing here? Yeah, I think what I was going to say is related to the applications themselves. I think that obviously the more detailed information we have with regard to the project, not only the description, but also the implementation would help us, you know, decide or determine whether the feasibility and, you know, the scales just give us a better understanding as we're making our deliberations. And the other thing I was going to say is that I feel like for the applicants who can demonstrate they've done a fair bit of the background research preparation already. They tend to, you know, help us understand what it is that they like to do. And it's easier to make a decision based on the more, I guess, evidence or examples of tangible framework that might already exist. That's a great point. I mean, just to add on with that, like I said, it was almost 100 grant applications last year. So really, we pretty much just have to take the grant application as it comes to us. And either the information is there that it meets our requirements or not, because there just isn't much time for the volume of applications that we're going through to to clarify details. So it is really important to be sure that truly the spirit of the event that you're trying to share is comes through as well as the details. So some, you know, we have to have a date when the event is happening. There has to be a location and that location needs to be accessible. The location, if it's being hosted at a site that you're securing, we need a letter of support with the date and the time from the host location that everything is set up. And, you know, why is that? Well, there's there's no point in having events that don't happen. And for events to happen and be open to the public and accessible, then they have to happen somewhere. So having all of those pieces together in your application is really, really crucial to our review process, along with understanding, you know, who are the artists that will be participating, what their credentials are, lots of... Just to give the council members a very clear idea of why this has meaning and benefit in the community. Yeah. Yes, thank you. And right. And I think by saying that we're not asking people to submit reams and reams of, I guess... Oh, no, they're not allowed to do that, actually. Right, digitally anyway, there is no reams of anything because I know we have like maximum 10 pages of supporting documentation. I guess the point that, you know, you've already made is to make sure that we know there's already, you know, certain pieces of it in place. So like you said, the venue and the date. And then the other thing, too, is that if the applicant is planning to collaborate with other organizations or individuals or, you know, to have all of that information available to. And that type of, I think, supporting details would be valuable for us, too. Absolutely. Right. And that brings up a question that happens all the time. So when you're talking about someone who's applying and they'll have others participating with them, or maybe it's more than one organization, that's that they're doing a joint event. And we love all of that. But the kind of the the rule is basically that, you know, each organization can only apply once and each individual can only apply once. But it's it's fine. So let's say who should we talk about here? Let's say we have. I don't know, Gallery A3, right? And this is all just theoretical, right, just making this step up. And they're going to collaborate with to have an art show at the Drake. And they're going to be musicians and, I don't know, poetry reading. So the key thing here is somebody out of all of those groups has to take the lead and own this particular grant. And then that person and organization would not be able to apply for another grant. But you can have supporting members from all of these groups come in and work together, but only one group can own and administer the grant. Or another example might be, I know a lot of you catch different kinds of events and performances at the Jones Library. So if if we have someone who's coming in maybe and doing children's songs and stories, if they're doing five events at the Jones and then another three spread out at the schools, that person when they're applying needs to apply for like their whole grant season collectively in their one application because they can't apply, you know, for each different one. We kind of have to take the whole opportunity for the grant season for that particular person. So I'm just at the moment going through and just putting some things in here so we can go through. And of course, we want the newsletter. I know nobody wants newsletters, but really the number of different kind of grant programs that come out. This is how the MCC keeps all of us up to date. And, you know, if you don't know, you can't apply. So there could be something that's applicable for you, that's applicable for for someone you know. So it's always good to to stay in the loop with that. Now that I've made this account, I need to go and actually verify just. Just I will I've stopped sharing, right? Let me go get my email. Yes, you're not sharing anymore. So we have two participants with us. And so if they have questions, we they can just raise their hand. Is that how it works or type it into? So yes. Yeah. OK. And I am going to be coming back over. OK. So please feel free to raise your hand or ask a question if there is one at this point. We're looking forward to receiving. The applications within the coming. Two weeks, right? Two or three weeks, yeah, the grants application portal closes on October 17th. And I would certainly recommend that everybody, you know, if you're a procrastinator and I know I am. Just to be honest, don't don't wait till, you know, eleven thirty five p.m., you know, it's it's important to just because sometimes a technical glitch or something comes up. So you're able to start your grants right now and partially complete them so you can have a draft version of your grant. And I would really encourage people to to do that and to work through the process because you don't know what you don't know until you don't you know, right, as you're going through. So, you know, inevitably questions are going to come up and you certainly can reach out to us at the council and we will get back to you and clarify. But but for you to have those questions, you really have to start kind of putting the details in and and then we can help you. So welcome. Welcome. Sophie, glad you're here and we have Pat. So all right, I am still kind of fumbling my way through as I'll come back and share. And one of one of the reasons I'm taking the time to, frankly, do the slightly boring thing to kind of like look at the application is. It is just so important to be able to see exactly the information that's needed. And I'm going to try to just go through and explain why that would be needed. So if I go to the I guess this is the home. So so. See, I'm lost already as I'm winging it. Because I've started, let me make sure I'm in the. This is the new one that I just made. OK. So this is something quite different. Yeah, I wonder if you clicked on the link to say, well, once you have an account, you should be able to apply to. Yeah, I thought I thought it was in progress with that one. You know, because I started filling it in. Apply. OK. Applied to a local cultural council. I wonder if I go back here. My co-chair, Matt, is so much better at this. He has a session that's recorded as well, where I'm sure he was able to go right into that. Have you gone gone through to try to do this before? Rachel, not as an applicant, but there you are. Right. OK. You've done the MRS. Yes. So you have the issue. Should I go back and point out what I needed to do? Because it wasn't obvious to me, I was just clicking around. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. So what I needed to do was click on apply to a local cultural council. And this is what I was saying earlier, where if you have an event that's going to have regional benefit, you really should go and apply for all the communities that will benefit from your event. So then we are applying to Amherst. OK. So this eligibility page is really important as far as, you know, you just need to kind of go through here and and answer these honestly. But it's it's going to kind of do a self check as to whether your particular event based on this criteria meets is, you know, can be considered for one of our our local cultural council grant awards. So. Just honestly going through all of this. So again, must be open to the public and accessible to folks with disabilities. There's some great information at the MCC and also on our Amherst M.A.gov page about our work to assure people with disabilities can attend the events. I'll point out again, we cannot have any of the grant funds from our LCC be used to purchase food or refreshment. So and and so now I can go ahead here and say save draft. And if I had selected something here where there was an issue, it would it would raise a red flag. OK, so the eligibility piece is there. And then it's going to point you back to the guidelines. So this is very important to read through the Amherst guidelines, which are here, but also at Amherst M.A.gov and reach out if you have any questions at all about that before you get into the application. OK. So now we can go ahead and they want you to verify. And this is this is really, truly important that we have the right information as far as emails, a contact phone number and your location. Your location is important because when you get your grant, we have a direct grant award process. But, you know, the grant will be mailed to you. There's some more paperwork that happens just before the grant goes out. But, you know, certainly if if you're getting an award, you wanted to get get to you. And if we have any questions about it, please keep your information up to date with us. So now you can see that we have these these sections here, which is really where you're going to start putting in all the information about your your grant. So there's the amount that you're requesting. There are several categories here to give us an idea of what the focus of this event is. You have to pick one. Sometimes events are are multiple different disciplines, and that's wonderful. But you have to kind of lead with one and your project title. And again, we need to have a date and a time. I can't. I don't usually have to like type as performance art. The date that it takes place. OK, this this is kind of a fun and interesting thing. So the twenty twenty four grant cycle, right? The awards will go out in early January, but they run. They're able to apply to events from July one, twenty twenty three through to December thirty first twenty twenty four. So if anyone is in the situation that you want to apply for a twenty twenty four grant for something that's happening in the second half of twenty twenty three, you you can do that as well as apply for events happening from January one to December thirty first twenty twenty four. OK, so what you're saying is that in theory, someone could apply for funding for something that they have already done or are in the process of doing exactly. Yes. Right. Yeah. So because it's a really great opportunity if someone wasn't able to come in and do the grant during twenty twenty three, then you you can apply for that now. This isn't a right or wrong answer. This is just information for for us as far as if it if it primarily serves schoolchildren or not. We do fund any number of of grants annually that that benefit the schoolchildren because, you know, they're the future of our arts and culture in the community. So there were the investment always. Yeah. So just a couple of sorry, can I just jump in one second? Because when you were talking about the estimated number served and whether or not the project primarily serves kids, twelve children, is that I think whatever information is available in the applications that would help us actually see the public benefit or the potential public benefit. Because I think that's a piece that's always an important factor. Right. And then how that is presented or justified, you know, that explanation or projection would be would be really helpful for us as well. Yes, absolutely. And I'm glad you brought that up because, you know, you and I were so used to this after going through and reading so many of these grants, but this is all kind of strange and new to so many people, especially the first time they they apply. And, you know, there's a lot that's kind of left up to to interpretation. So the number of people served generally means kind of like what the audience size will be if that's appropriate. But it also can can include the artists that are participating. So I kind of think of it as larger because the the folks that are producing the event are benefiting from that that culture and the the the folks that are attending for performance or, you know, in whatever capacity there also. So this can be, in some cases, a small number, a large number. But think of all of the people who who mutually benefit from from the event together. OK. So. This summarize the proposed project or program. This is definitely one of the most important areas I would say in the entire application as well as who is the target audience, you know, so we we want to know who you believe will be benefiting from this, because we really do look at this very much from a public benefit point of view and cost of participation. So that that would be for for an event if there's a ticket cost to come in and we have events that are totally free. But, you know, art and culture. It's that's it's not always possible to do that. You know, there's a certain level of quality of event that certainly people are happy to pay for. There are some organizations who have paid events who might offset for for need or set aside so many tickets for for people to be able to attend if they can't pay the full price or reduced. You know, there are lots of ways to do it. I would encourage you to to think about that. But there's nothing wrong with getting paid for your your work and your passion. But it is something that's very important for us to understand as far as the public benefit as to who will be able to participate and how open it will be. And then you can then we asked very specifically to tell us about, you know, what the public benefit will be for groups that are applying to Amherst, where we're really looking specifically for how this will be beneficial to Amherst residents. So if this is something that's occurring in the larger regional area, you know, please make it clear to us as to how many folks from Amherst will be able to attend, you know, as far as what you would anticipate. And this is also where, again, you can apply to other cultural councils if you are going to provide public benefit to to those areas, too. And this question here about the qualifications of the artist, humanist, scientist, you know, this really helps us understand really the quality level and who's who's committed to participating with you. And, you know, project planners, partners, collaborators. This is is very key. So we know just how how big it is. But also, frankly, you know, we do want to get a sense for how logistically, how well organized it is, you know, these events often do take a lot of work. And, you know, you certainly would want to be crediting and recognizing the folks that are are planning it and are the muscle behind actually make making everything come together on that that actual day that it happens. There's a lot of long lead time, as we all know, for for most events. And how are you planning to promote the project? You know, this is an area where I would encourage people to be pretty, pretty detailed, because, again, to have public benefit, the public has to know. So what your marketing strategy is is going to be important to the council. Any any questions? Rachel, can you see if hands are raised the way you're viewing? I can raise my own hand, but I can't see if anybody else is raising. OK. So because I can't see who else is there. I think you can hear the host. OK. So again, if anybody would like to raise their hand, ask a question. You're welcome to do so. This is a public session. And really, as you were saying earlier, Rachel, normally we would do this for years ago before the pandemic. We would have done this in person. And I look forward to getting back to that. But it really should be a much more social type of chat here. So don't be shy. While we're waiting for some questions to come up, Julian, do you want to talk a little bit about kind of are the council's support of events or specific measures within events or activities that are targeted for just to enable accessibility? I think I think with that, because there's still quite a bit to get through here. OK. I think what I'm just going to go back to. Oh, sorry, I didn't know you're going to continue with the OK. Go ahead. Well, there there is a bit to kind of go through. But if you go back over to our page here. With the town, you can see that we had an accessibility webinar where we invited folks from the MCC for a round table to talk about how we can meaningfully make events accessible. So this is a great discussion that we had here. There are additional resources resources here, too. And what we're what we're looking for with this, I'd say, specific in the applications is for some forethought from grant applicants to to be able to express, you know, who their audience, who they anticipate, anticipate the participants and audience to be and that they've thought of me meaningfully, you know, making sure that everyone can can participate. And again, you know, we're happy to to talk with anyone. If you have any questions as you go, please, please reach out. Although, I guess one of the things with Charles Baldwin, when we did this round table that I remember saying him saying was, OK, it's great to have a sign language interpreter. But if if you end up with a very small event and there's there's no one with that disability, then, you know, you can't make something accessible for someone who's who, you know, that doesn't isn't receiving benefit, because this this isn't, you know, they weren't there. So it's there's there's a lot of unknown there, right? And I guess, you know, how how would one know whether it's needed or not? But I don't have all the answers, Rachel, I'd love for you to add some more there as far as, you know, what Charles had said and how we can. I think it's just being thoughtful, right? Yes, I think I think some some proposed projects will probably lend themselves more to the capability of incorporating that kind of planning into the is integrated into the planning to way we might approach how the project is set up in the first place. Some projects can work like that, but not all, obviously. So I think I think it was just I didn't mean to take you out of the flow of your presentation. Oh, it wasn't flowing. I'm pretty sure. So I think I think it's more like if people are because, you know, often events will request people who may require accommodation to be in contact with the organizers, how are in advance so that the appropriate accommodations can be made. But I think when we're talking about accessible, we're primarily talking about venues being accessible, right? For yeah, yeah. So the base level, which really, you know, your event either does or doesn't meet the guidelines is just ADA accessibility. Any any location that is not ADA accessible at pretty much disqualifies, we're not able to to make that grant. Right. And in some ways, one can argue that virtual events, if we're still going to be, you know, accepting those applications may lend themselves in some respects to be more like, you know, it's it's it's more straightforward to plan for accessibility when it's a virtual event as well. And yet one of the reasons that our council members became so invested and wanted and really kind of stepped up to make this a focus area was because of virtual events during the pandemic. And we just had all of these questions. Well, OK, now that it's not in the physical space, you know, how are people with disabilities, you know, maybe being excluded because it's online, you know, for for people who can't see or can't hear. And you know, there's just less less information all around for anybody as it goes virtual. But yeah, again, no no simple ways to to address these things, but we're looking for people to understand. How their their performances can be enjoyed by a broad audience and that everyone can be included. OK, I'm going to pop back over just make sure there are any any questions. Yes, we've got a hand raised from Sophie. I will unmute you. It's kind of funny to be so official. Hey, Sophie. Hi there. Can you hear me? Loud and clear. Great. It looks I don't know if I have video capacity or not, but it's nice to be here. Thank you so much for holding this. Absolutely. Glad you could hear it. Yes, you're welcome. So I have two two questions that are coming up so far. I have applied to grants in the past, but I'm new to the area. So I'm new. I have not applied to any Amherst or or surrounding grants. So the two questions that are coming up for me about this particular opportunity, the first is about basically if you have advice around scaling up versus down in the application. So for a little bit of context, I'm a I'm a musician. I have launched in in Portland, Oregon, where I lived before multiple concerts that sometimes they were standalone shows and then sometimes they were kind of like a full concert series. And when I applied to one, one of the grants I applied to and did receive was a bigger one, so it was about 10 K. And it was for a whole season of six different concerts. And I but I thought really hard about when applying to this grant, if I should just do it for, you know, one show or three shows or full, you know, and I had to go go all the way with with that one. But I feel like it with with a situation like this, I'm curious if you have advice versus about how how small versus how big. So if I have in my mind, right, that I'm going to be hosting something like six shows throughout the calendar year, would you advise that I wrote a grant application for one or two of the shows or three for all of them? You know, like, basically just to be I'm curious what you're thinking like how. So should I should I scale up versus scale down? And then in kind of in in combination with that, the question about applying to multiple grants comes up for me because you did say so, say I have a concert series. One of the shows will be, you know, I just played at Amherst College. So maybe one of the shows will be at Amherst College. One of them I work at UMass. So maybe one will be but maybe one will be in Northampton and one will be in Hadley. So, like, what would it make sense? I'm wondering, does it feel favorable or kind of hectic to have multiple grant applications in for one project? You know, does that muddy the waters or or would you say basically go for as many as you can? You know, is there or is there is a sweet spot in that? All right, let me let me see if I can there kind of take this from a couple of different angles. So, you know, the one one piece is the the more you add in then the having the dates fully lined up, the locations lined up, letters of supports for all those dates, you know. Yeah, that that part right there might be a little cumbersome. Well, and maybe even prohibitive, frankly, because getting all that lined up in the next two weeks probably will not happen. Exactly. So, you know, I would I would definitely look at, you know, what you can communicate as as something that's a real clear, yes, this is lined up opportunity. OK, now now with that, could you have five events with, you know, two of them being in Amherst and three of them being in the surrounding area, you know, Northampton and, you know, South Hadley, absolutely. But with that, you know, our council is going to look at, oh, OK, this artist. So is it reasonable that people from Amherst love you so much that they're going to see you here in Amherst and there? And generally, the answer is yes. Now, you know, where geography might come into it a little differently is, I don't know if we've got someone who's applying for, you know, something in the in the way, I don't know, in the middle of winter, way on the other side of a mountain, three hours away, right? Yes. Yes. You know, it's and it might be, you know, where we're going, I don't know, I don't know how many people are going to make a six o'clock show on, you know, you know, way out in the Berkshires, even though, right, so there are those kinds of considerations. Now, you you certainly can apply for several events together and have several different cultural councils on it. But in some cases, it might be stronger to apply within the particular council, you know, that has the most nexus for that occurring. Yes. We fund stuff in Northampton, South Hadley, Salburn Falls, you know, all of these places as well. I like that. So maybe the angle is, you know, as part of the two to this particular grant, I would apply and just say this this concert will be a part of a bigger concert series of shows. But looking and just for funding for one particular or two particular shows that would be that that that I might be able to line up more of the details for right now. And I want to point us towards the budget part here. Yes, yes, because this this is really central to what what you're asking about, too. So we have many, many of our grants that are partially funded. Like I said, we had almost 100 come in last year. You can see our allocation amount this year is fifty eight thousand. So we it is actually a strength in your budget to put the entire budget for everything you're doing, right? All of the expenses. Yes, if you are selling tickets that, you know, part of this is going to be paid for by tickets. If if you are anticipating grants from other LCCs or other other granting groups entirely, you know, the in kind contributions that people are making. So that's really, you know, with some of these events that are regional, a little larger, that's really going to help us understand, you know, how much support you're asking, you know, our LCC for even if if you're asking five LCCs, you know, you should have some concept of, you know, other LCCs, you know, anticipated X, Y, Z, whether you get it or not, who knows. But at least, you know, there's the effort and the intent there. Right. Yes. Because it's often unlikely that we would actually fully fund any particular grant, although we do at times. So we do like to see that there is kind of a larger plan to be to be sure that it's well funded and supported. That's very helpful. Thank you. OK, and just to circle back to another guideline that's that's I think maybe you weren't here when we talked about this to start is because an individual and organization can only apply for one grant with us a year. Yes. You do have to be organized if you're really looking for for multiple events. You know, we've it's it's been hard over over the past years. You know, you'll see someone who's doing, you know, great work. And if they had just put that they're doing two events in the one grant, they really don't have any money. This might just be a small stipend, but because of the way that they came in in two different grants, you know, yeah, we it has to be organized. Got it. So to clarify on that front, I do have I have two different concepts I'm dreaming about. And just just if I'm hearing you correctly, just one application can be made to to the Amherst LCC per year. So I need to choose one of those projects. Yes, and really flesh it out for you. And so and would wait till. But doesn't that be one project? I mean, it can be, I guess, if you're, I don't know, if you're saying that you're applying for one thing like a visual artist and another thing as a poet, they're going to have nothing to do with each other. I don't know, two different concepts, basically, a slightly different concept. So I have a collaborative concert series that could be based fully on kind of a concept of connection and community like so on a very strong community outreach programs. And then there's a different concept, which is a program completely dedicated to representing female composers. So those are just, you know, they're different. And again, they're both of these. Both of these would have multiple collaborators and probably more than one show, you know, small, but I would want to choose either, I think it sounds like, you know, either when I'm writing my grand application, really focus on a series of shows, even one or two shows, whatever, centered around female composers versus a few shows centered around this kind of community connection collaboration component. Yeah. So I also think it's important that people only take on as many events as they can actually take care of. But let's say, you know, some of the one of one of these where you would have a collaborator, yes, if you have someone that you're working with and collaborating with in a way where they are dedicating the time and have the expert expertise and experience to to be the lead on that application with you and support. Yes, that's allowed. Yes, got it. OK, great. Great question. Well, I appreciate you keep you reigning me in because I can sometimes my my eyes are are I have the capacity to put a lot together. But this is it is really a good reminder that it doesn't. It doesn't need to be overly ambitious. Well, and I'm glad we're talking about this as well, because, you know, for events to provide public benefit, they have to be feasible. They have to happen. They have to happen as intended. So, you know, this next entry here for the application, how will you adjust the project if we cannot fully fund you? You know, yes, yes, the thing. And that that's we need to understand, you know, what what could be scaled back or sometimes it's a matter of how it would be possible to change the budget so that someone's doing something in kind or change, you know, possibly change the venue, although that that's a little difficult. But just what are your thoughts? You know, is there another group that you can go to for funding? Yes, and things like that will help us understand. Great. All right. Really appreciate it. I'm going to mute myself again and thank you for the question and don't hesitate to ask another. OK, great. And then this this next question here, truly, if you are doing something with regional benefit to other other areas, it is good to see that you've asked them for support as well. But certainly, if it's truly an all Amherst event, then we love all Amherst events clearly, too. And now we are in the additional materials. This is where you can bring in items. And there is a limit to the total volume of paper. We have moved to a digital format, but even digitally, our PDFs I think run, I don't know, Rachel, is it six hundred or more pages? We used to the panel book. Yes, if you longer. Yeah, we used to actually have all these materials printed. We'd have to go to a special binder service because the books would be about this thick and the council members would would log those around. Thankfully, everybody's been willing to go digital with it, but it really is an enormous document. So you have the ability to add three additional pages with with multiple PDFs, and you have to combine those down. But this is where you can have CVs for the artists. There should be always a letter of confirmation from the venue and perhaps examples of what the community can can expect to enjoy with you. And so then we would get here to the final page with the acknowledgement. And you can read through all of that and agree. But the thing I'm going to point out here that I think is most important is saved draft. So again, as soon as everybody can start kind of working through this and start trying to plug in the information about your grant and having those questions pop up because you didn't know what that meant till you looked at it, right? Then you can then reach out and we are more than happy to help you. And our direct email. Hope it's here. Yeah, I think if you click here for email, nope, that's something for work. I don't know what I'm sharing at this point. You're on our website. My back on the website. It popped somewhere around the ACP web page. Yeah. OK. Let us see. Well, it should be there. I will check with Angela to make sure that we that that does link to to our email after all. OK. And I believe that is all that I have to share. So any any other questions, Rachel, do you have any anything to add? I think we've gone into quite a lot of it, certainly not all of it, but quite a lot. Well, I think you've covered everything that I can think of for now. Yeah, thank you for the great question, Sophie. Did you have another question or did you ask both of them already? I thought you said you had two questions, but obviously if you've answered. I kind of merged them both into one. Both it was about how to be to scale and then a question around if I should apply to multiple grants at once. OK. And now I have a crying baby. My apologies, baby. Oh, OK. So I want your mama back. I am going to. Just go back into the application and I've got a place there where I can put the email address on the screen. So let me. Are we seeing my screen? Yes, we are. I see the chair. OK, fair dot of dot Amherst dot cultural dot council at chief mail dot com gets to myself and my co-chair Matt Holloway. And we keep an eye out for especially during these next couple of weeks. There will be a flurry of questions coming in and we will do our best. We are an all volunteer organization. And at this point, yeah, all of us are, you know, have full time jobs, although a couple are full time students at the college is also with jobs in addition. So like I said, you know, we do process of a pretty large volume of grants each year. So please be patient with us if it's not an instantaneous response. We will get your message and we will connect with you and get back to you. It's just as soon as we can. So I believe that is all there is for now. And please reach out to us as you go. And we're really looking forward to to seeing what all of the artists and cultural groups have planned for the community this upcoming year. It's always exciting to be in the know ahead of time and really, really glad to be able to be part of this. And to get to serve with you, Rachel and all the other council members. Thank you. I look forward to receiving and reading all the applications as well. Julianne, I just looked at that website page again. Are the chair, the email address just mentioned it's not on there. So I think maybe we can add that somewhere. Yeah, I'll have to check with Angela. So I'm glad I got it in here at the end of the recording. But I know the email comes to me constant, right? So I'm just not and it's I think. Yeah, I was going to say it's is it linked in the survey? But the survey has the it is in the survey, too. Yeah, so we should go back to talking about, please fill in the survey. Absolutely. Please do. I'm going to I'm actually going to go and share the link. Well, you can't. We don't have to know I can't. But I can put it up on screen as to where people need to go and find it. So I'm just going to point you back to here at Amherstmass.gov when you go for your government, boards of committees, cultural council. This has quite a bit of information about us. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We usually try to have folks post upcoming events there. But yeah, there is our survey here that will help to guide us so that you can tell us what you want. And we can be sure to keep that in mind as we are planning the awards for the upcoming year. So OK, I really appreciate you making the time, Rachel. Thanks for the great questions, Sophie. I hope everyone on who catches this on the replay on the video will reach out as well as they go. And good luck. And look forward to sending out the approvals early in January. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you very much again. Thanks. Bye. Thanks again. Take care.