 Okay. And Matt, do you want to do the script or do you want me to do it? Oh yeah, I'm happy to. Yeah, you can go right ahead. Okay. Well, pursuant, let me just pull it up. Yeah, pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting is being conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via zoom. No in-person meeting attendance will be permitted, but every effort is being made to ensure the public has adequate access to the proceedings in real time. And the event that we're unable to do so the meeting may be viewed on the town's YouTube channel after the fact. Thanks. Do you want me to do the roll call. Yep. I think we've heard everybody actually. We should do it officially. So, okay. You can hear me. Eleanor, you good? Yes. Sylvie. Yep. And Cody. Yeah. Thank you. Great. And then just heard from Rachel looks like she's trying to join. She's still having trouble. Okay. All right. So I think to jump a little bit ahead of the agenda, apologies that again, I don't know if everybody got my email today, but I did not follow through with sending out the review sheets to be able to kind of score what was in the panel book. And we also did not get the pages numbered. It's just there, there are 103 grant applications and it just, you know, it's a chunk of time to do that. And by the time I got sick earlier this week. I just couldn't couldn't put the time together to take care of all of that. So apologies. And I will, I will try to address that before we meet next. So, I guess, Matt, do you want to move to, I don't think we, I don't think we get approved the minutes because I don't think we had minutes. Did we know we haven't had minutes in a bit, which is, which is back to that in just a sec, right. So, we have the agenda with the deliberation for the 2024 grants should perhaps we should, we should do that after the officers discussion, because then we might have a secretary to take notes. You want to swap that. Yeah. Okay. So, and Rachel's so glad you're able to join us. Rachel, can you hear us? You're on mute. I can hear you. I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Great. Okay. If I drop out, I'll join back in. Okay, thanks. Okay. Sorry about that. You have quorum though, right? We have a quorum recording. So just since you maybe can't see, you know, it's Matt, Eleanor, Sylvie, Cody, myself and you. Right. Great. Hello, everyone. Hi, Rachel. Okay, so we have two officer positions open. We have our treasurer position that's been open. That, that I stepped into kind of to stabilize things. Robin was our treasurer and then she had some illness and it was a pretty heavy lift as far as switching between the two different granting models from reimbursement to direct granting. And so I started off by helping her and then she's rotated off. So I've kind of had had that responsibility. So that position is open along with secretary. So Rachel and I have talked and Rachel, you let me know that you might be interested in picking up the, the treasurer position, which would be wonderful. And it's, it's not the kind of thing where we flip a switch and I kind of go hands off, okay, your treasurer because there, there really is some like Matt was saying to you Eleanor, there's a lot of responsibility with it and detail. We really have improved it a great deal. We're going to make some changes further this year to digitally sign some documents that's really going to reduce the workload there. But that's something that I would gladly partner with you or whoever to transition that kind of as a way that we're, you know, handing off and training as well. So, and then the secretary position, really it comes down to just, we need someone officially who's the person of record who will come to the meetings and take notes. Now, at any given moment is really not possible, you know, for anyone of us to confirm that we're going to be at every single meeting. And she was our treasurer last year and she's rotated off and her position is open for a council member because she is away at college but there are a couple of ways to do this as far as if you're not attending. If something comes up, then we, the rest of us try to generally, you know, keep some basic notes but also because these are all recorded the notes can be done from the, from the recording after the fact is another option and the notes are not incredibly detailed. And that tends to just really come down to some, some bullet points of key things and something came up just recently, where I actually did have to go back through the minutes and find out what we said when and what was the dollar value that we voted on so the key points of the secretary are noting, you know, which, which motions you know who was here, who made the motion and that it passed and what the final decision was things like that as well as keeping a running list of, of all the major themes and topics that we get to. But it's not like a transcription. Does anyone have any questions about either of those. I'm just going to say, I'd be happy to try doing the secretary position to volunteer myself. Thank you. Very much. And, and Rachel, are you still willing to consider treasurer. You might be muted. Yes, yes, I would. Yeah, I think I put my hand up to say, well, you know, I can help out with that step in if, if, you know, that would be useful. That would be wonderful and I think, especially as we're going to put, you know, kind of more digital sign offs in place that would be great to start collaborating on that as just possible. Now, here's the thing we can't just have a discussion about it and say it's done. So, we will officially need to vote on it but I do want to open the floor to everyone for discussion questions any thoughts or comments. Yeah, I just wanted to say to Eleanor that what we usually do is create the agenda in a Google doc. And then what I would do is I'd share it over into a different folder or make I'm sorry make a copy of it into a different folder, and literally the you know the secretary role just types notes and underneath the items. And as Julianne said, I mean, the bare minimum the minimum expectation is just that we have any action items like vote or substantive decisions that get recorded. You know, so I mean because I think some folks, it's nice to have a lengthy narrative record but that's not the expectation and really sort of you as Julianne said, they're recorded so anybody who really wants the nuance would probably go back and watch and actually from an accountability point of view, it's probably safer to keep it pretty top level, as far as somebody wants to go through the whole thing it is recorded but, you know, I know if I was doing something very detailed, I'd probably start putting in, you know, things I was thinking, you know, so it's it's better to just keep it super clean. Right. Okay, yeah, makes total sense and got nice to know that there's like an agenda to work off of. I'll share it to you right now. Yes, Cody, are you raising your hand for. Oh, okay. And Rachel, do you have anything you want to say or ask about treasure. Oh, I was just wondering for either of these positions for both of these positions is there a presumably there needs to be a vote doesn't need to be a nomination recorded or something or is it just, oh no and I have self nominated. How does that work. I don't know. We're, we're okay to do a self nomination volunteer and then just a vote for the I think, given that we don't have a competitive rate, you know, race. Oh, I nominate Rachel and Eleanor to take on. And I second, we don't mean to make light of it this is really appreciated and, and you know I found in my life that I've served on a bunch of committees and different capacities and until you're an officer it really and it's not about being in charge it's really about just taking on some of that ownership and, you know, going from a member to an officer is a big step in the secretary role as well I mean it's all. It's all very, very important to keep things moving. So thank you both very, very much and I'm, it's my honor, my honor to nominate you both. I seconded it. So I guess we need to take a roll call vote I'll let you run with that Matt. Julian. I vote yes for Eleanor as secretary and yes for Rachel as treasurer. Cody. Yes. Sylvie. Sylvie we can't hear you. Oh, sorry. I vote yes for both. Thank you. Rachel. Sure. I can't vote for myself. Yes for for Eleanor. Thanks Eleanor. And Eleanor. Yes for Rachel. And I have an eye for them both as for you both as well. Excellent. Thank you both. I look forward to working with you. I look forward to working with you both as well. I look forward to working with you both as well. Even more. Is there an agenda for today in the folder Matt. There is, but I'm going to share that directly to you. So you don't have to look for it. It's, it's pretty brief anyway. So the remaining agenda items are to start on our review and deliberation of the 2024 grants. And then the other two are new business not reasonably anticipated for you hours in advance and adjournment. So we're going to start with the general questions. So first of all, we just, we just need to get into. Going through. The grants. Does anybody have any questions. To start with as far as the, the, the grants that you reviewed. Just general questions. We don't need to do anything specific. Yeah. I was wondering if there is a place that I can refer to the rules. Yeah, it's on the town website. It's also on the, on the MCC website for us. But if you go to Amherst. And you go to the alphabetic listings of the committees and you go to the cultural council. I'm not looking at it, but somewhere around there, it should have our guidelines. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I guess as far as a general thing as well, I thank you Rachel so much for putting the report together. About the surveys. I don't think there was anything that was like really kind of huge or different from what we reviewed in the last meeting. Unless I miss something Rachel's or anything you want to call out about that. You mean in terms of the survey results. I think most of the content was pretty much there and discussed in general the last meeting, or did you see anything to note that we didn't discuss. No, I think just generally speaking I did pull the survey I closed it over the weekend on whatever deadline we had said I think was a 20 seconds. So I closed the survey and we had 72 responses all together and then the other thing I was just going to say is that the way I sorted the data hopefully will help everyone kind of assess the grants but you know if there's if anyone wants to sort of another way. And you have the time and interest to do that I'm happy to forward whatever information you need. But yeah so there's nothing really and I think questions one and two will probably be most relevant to our initial review of the applications. Okay, yeah. Let's put in one that same note that I made earlier Julian which is, we you know we don't need to come to a final decision on programmatic stuff in terms of any potential local council activity. But as we get into the grant review cycle, we should pick a point to decide how much we're going to set aside if any for local activities. And that really doesn't have to happen until we're at least, you know, once we're like three quarters of the way through the full 100 grants, we need a solid decision so we can start playing with numbers. But yeah, you can be you know it doesn't have to be rushed, which I know I said more but yeah thinking. So I've been in contact with Jay Wong over at the MCC as far as what best practice is with the local funds that we've had and one of the things that's really interesting that we found when we went from the reimbursement model to direct granting model, we used to end up with a pretty nice pool of interest that was seen as if we'd raised it locally, because it didn't come from the MCC and we're able to have that and use that differently and we've been relying on it for years specifically for a lot, whatever admin cost we'd had. But with a direct granting model. Now we're functioning more as a pass through the funds come in they go out into the grantee's hands as soon as possible. So what was a source of funds for us to have a little bit of a cushion. Because, you know, we're working differently it's not there the same way. So, we're working with the MCC to make sure that we are retaining the right amount of funds to be stable, because, but ideally, you know, we'd like to really continue to put everything into grantee's hands. And yet we do have some fiscal responsibility to be able to act as the entity that we are should should things come up. And it's one would say oh what's going to come up I don't know we just went through coven and you know everything changed so I'm at this point willing to understand that I just don't know what will come up. So I definitely want to work with everyone to make sure we're doing the right thing. Well, let me just pause. So that is a good context for folks who are especially Rachel she gets into it. But really what what we need to know in the deliberations is the bottom line amount that we have available for granting. And that's a number that, as Julianne just said, we held back 5% for administrative costs out of out of our allocation and out of money that was remaining from last year. So our bottom line number, it's going to take me a second to pull it up. Well, I would say whatever our bottom line numbers it's a back and forth with Jay Wong and then I'll circle back to Holly as well it may it may change you know I know what I've put in the report. It's still open to amending depending on what they advise. Well. Okay, she responded I think what we saw was her was a pretty much her response but okay, we don't need to get I didn't I didn't read it is that no. She asked because she asked me a question I replied to her with the answer and I haven't heard back. Yeah I don't think she had any other comment that I think it was her. But we don't need to get into it. I'll have to circle back to her because I'm not clear. But anyway for for the for the group what's going to happen is we will have a bottom line number that we have available to grant. And of that number, we can set aside up to a certain amount for local activities so that's that that'll be the decision not not the administrative fund question that's. Yeah, and we do have the 5000 that did not get spent on the spring celebration of the arts that's still been held for 2024 for an event. That'll be part of the bottom line right bottom line number one include funds that are rolling over. I guess, I'm not clear what you mean by the bottom line number but yeah so those those are are not able to be granted otherwise they're they're kind of sequestered those funds. They are sequestered. Okay. Anybody have any questions. Yes. So, just for the purpose of our minutes and the records. One of my kind of officially starting. I know, unofficially any time like that you know but like, is there is there a particular timeframe you have in mind. You are officially treasurer as of now it happened and we will have to work on on the transition to to collaborate first and foremost right and get you up to speed and then transition it over to you as entirely but I mean of course I'm always still going to be here to support. Okay, great and just that little comment on what you said about the interest since they're high right now it's a shame that we're not getting that income. I know I know but you know it's also not the right thing. You know that the most public benefit comes from the funds actually being out there and being spent on arts and culture and exactly our account that's yeah, then that's not happening so it was just kind of a nuanced thing that you know when you're looking at it you're going back through you're like oh there's been all this money and you know it kept coming but it simply can't you know with a direct granting model it's just not. Not to the same extent that it did. So, so it's just helpful. Yeah, that's just helpful background that you mentioned as to why you know the the the available monies will be different going forward so that's that's very helpful thank you. Okay, should we get into the actual grants. Yes. Right. So, the way we have been doing this is we set a time limit for for each grant we have 103 grants. I think there are three that are duplicate, where one grantees applied for two or something like that so it's maybe more like 100. But when you look at that, we're getting into if we were to review each for five minutes, then that's 500 minutes or if it's in six minutes that's, you know, 1010 hours, right, my right worth of deliberation, right. We're almost at the half hour into this meeting. So, I think what I'd like to do is is to start at five minutes per per grant. So what we'll do is we'll do just kind of a quick intro, and then we'll ask if there's anybody who supports fully funding the grant or if there's anybody who has concerns about meeting the guidelines where they wouldn't want where we wouldn't be able to do it all and start the conversation from that point of view. Matt, do you have anything to add? No. Okay. And last year it was great that Rachel, I guess Rachel, you kind of did the timekeeping. How many minutes did we do last year? I think it was seven. Yeah, I don't think we're going to be able to do that. Seven was tight at times as well. So, all right, are you in a position to be able to do the timeboxing today? Yeah, I'm actually, yeah, I can, I can, because I'll just stay on this connection. So I will do five minutes. Okay. Do you want me to raise my hand or just say something when the time? Yeah, just cut in, yeah. Okay. It's hard to actually keep an eye. Okay, great. Okay. And Matt, you and I didn't talk about this, but I guess we're going to do it just like we did last year. I'm going to just run the intro and keep it moving. Cool. All right. So go ahead and start, Rachel, with the first one, which is the Common Valley Pro Musica season at the 1794 Meeting House. It's a nonprofit group that is doing this. This is a classical music, which is vocal strings percussion, and is highlighting Purcell's work and some other Baroque masterpieces. And they are also including songs and celebration from Trinidad, Trinidad, Kenya, and South Africa by an Austrian composer, well, Michael Heiden. And this will be presented in Orange, Massachusetts, February 3rd, and then there's also a June 2024 concert being developed to be presented. They do kind of a winter piece and then another one in the summer. They have applied with us previously. The performances are open to musicians just, you know, any age, any gender, any ethnicity, they're very open and welcoming. And as far as our criteria for the guidelines, they do have the first date. So I think that satisfies our having a date and a location now the location is going to be in outside of Amherst. But I think it's a pretty well respected community and that, you know, there probably are people for that caliber of music that are in Amherst who are traveling to either see it as the audience or also to participate. And they are asking 500 out of their $12,500 budget. And they do have, having gone through, there's a fee to participate. I think it was in the neighborhood about 80 and then there's a ticket sales price of about maybe 15 that are additional funds that are being used to support this. So, from there, I will ask if there's anyone who feels strongly about fully funding, this war has any concerns that would prevent them from supporting funding at all. Is there anyone that wants to champion this one? I think for me, this is a strong two. You know, I think it'll be a strong partial, you know, more than half. I think it's great project, great regional benefit. But obviously, you know, it's certainly it's not an Amherst specific item. So I don't think we would be able to justify a full funding but close. I'd say it's a high part, a high partial. I appreciate that it's not a huge ask. And, you know, especially considering the quality of it. Yeah. I'm sorry, could you go ahead. Um, yeah. How do you muted. Yeah, your audio cut. I'm not sure if we're able to do this, but I have a 2.6 on my end. I guess it was just a, not an Amherst and they should have both dates set in my hands. Yeah. Three. Yeah. And this 1794. Meeting hall meeting space that they have from what I'm recalling is a is a pretty special location that that they have to have these events so I think in this case, yes, it makes sense that it's not in Amherst given, you know, how they're organized and yet the total ask from us this year by the way was $186,000 and we were allocated 53,800. So, you know, there, there are definitely some decisions that we will have to make to get from times up. Yes. Okay. I think we're all pretty much on the same page. It's quality work and yet, you know, that we'd like to fund it, but we'll have to look at everything. Okay. Okay, so moving to the next, this is a artistic messages wearable expressions of social change. It's listed with the date of December 3. And, but, and then the, but the location is online and pop up events. They have a $3,000 budget they're asking $1,500 from us. And the project is about raising awareness of social social issues by making visually captivating t-shirt designs they want to collaborate with artists. That would create impactful designs regarding specific issues and make some high quality teas and then market them with social media. And use an online platform that's out there and exists now both to develop and purchase the shirts and sell them. And then they'd like to around this have some community events and workshops and have some dialogue and partnerships with nonprofits to support the initiative. And then they want to measure the impact through sales and social media feedback and engagement. Is, is there anyone who would like to champion fully funding this or, or does anyone have concerns you want to share? And how well concerned I just don't think it's, it's that event. I mean, who knows when pop up events will be and where they will be. So I just had concern that there's too many unknowns to find this. Yeah, so your concern is that doesn't even meet our guidelines as far as, yeah, I, so I'm seeing Christie nod. Does it meet our guidelines. I also questioned if it if it meets our guidelines appropriately. Is there anyone else who I might check for Christie real quick. Yeah. Hi, Christie. I am late. Oh, glad to have you got back. I mean, I agree. My question was just sort of how, how is this different than somebody selling t shirts, I guess, with a message, but I'm just pulling up the guidelines to see if we can remember it. And this is for the new members especially but you know, we ultimately do need to provide denial reasons for for grants that are outright denied. And that can be tricky sometimes. And so we tend to list them as just not not meeting adequate public benefit compared to the rest of the grants that tends to be our standard denial which, you know, is kind of that that allows us to use our discretion which, which MCC supports it's not like we're just doing that. So if we're going to say something doesn't does not meet our guidelines it's important to definitely, you know, check it out and have a specific, you know, item in mind. Yes, Christie. I just, I don't see a cultural. I mean, I don't even think we need to compare it to other ones that do it better. It doesn't. I don't see where the cultural benefit is. Yeah, I don't see any cultural benefit in in creating t shirts that have a message on them. And frankly they don't know at this point what messages they'd, they'd, you know, that would be around or which causes or it just it's, it's not really something where there's an active plan, or even a truly focused group that it would benefit. It was very general. I just think we're in the business, you know, we're not in the business of fast fashion. I don't think that's where we're what we're really trying to get into. So at this point is there is there anyone who feels that there isn't a public benefit, and that it definitely meets our guidelines that wants to fund it. Otherwise we can just move along. Okay. To the next. Okay. The next one is gallery a three. And they are asking 7,000 for 7,377 dollars out of their 7,377 dollar and 27 cent budget. This is for for different programs that they're they're planning throughout the year. There's a month's exhibition. About a wide range of topics. And a gallery conversation there's a juried show. That's for members of the wider community to exhibit a three. And then they're doing a collaboration with art this old gallery in Springfield. In January that will have these artists who I believe in this group that they're from Springfield actually exhibit here. So I thought that's super nice. And that's going to be curated by Rosemary Tracy Woods and Bill Myers. And then there is also a Black Lives Matter Invitational with an homage to jazz. I'm sorry this isn't the past tense. So there's a whole lot of art sorry to kind of just wrap it up. And this is a group that is here in Amherst that really never shut down during the pandemic. And kept the community engaged. So, is there anyone who wants to champion this particular grant. I would champion but I'm keeping my mouth quiet because I'm connected to the person who have the grant. Yeah. Anyone who wants to champion or has concerns. I would say, you know, I have thought because a three and Amherst cinema or two of our first two of the first that came up in the panel book and, you know, both of them a three is a little bit more specific about the use of the funds but both of them are ultimately sort of, you know, we are one of many programs that they use and, you know, these are programs that they would run through the year, you know, they're going to run these programs regardless and, and I think it's very important that we continue to support them as you know some of the major institutions in town. But I think it might be worth thinking about trying to, you know, be equitable in the amount that we award to these different institutions whether like by proportion or just by amount. So I certainly, I mean, I don't think we would do a, you know, $7000 grant on this proposal but I would just be mindful of, you know, other grants that are coming in for sort of overall operating budgets. I would have to agree that, you know, over $7000 is, you know, an enormous fraction, you know, portion of the $53,000 that we were allocated and one of the things we do ask grantees to do is to look at the amount that gets awarded. You know, to other grantees from prior years and it's a little bit of a struggle for me to see that large of a number and that it's all being asked of us now in prior years with a three being right here in Amherst and it really truly does benefit the town of Amherst tremendously. But I guess with a group from, I think it was from Springfield also participating, gosh, I would have liked to have seen them apply to another, you know, LCC, because those communities are benefiting also. So I don't see any way we could even begin to fund that amount. And it is a little challenging that it's being asked for all from just Amherst with. That's the point of fact, they did apply to a ton of other places. Well, it's not listed in the application. Did they? Yeah, it says Belcher Town, East Hampton, Hadley, Laverne North Hampton Springfield. Thank you for correcting me. Yeah. Which, all right, then there's someone else I'm going to pick on later. Sorry. That said, I think. Rachel. No, just going to say partial funding seems reasonable to me as well for the reasons that all of you have already stated. And then I just, yeah, it just, you know, like, in principle, do we support things like website hosting, you know, and stuff like that. Is that, is that part of what we want to support? Not that, you know, we will question how they're spending money. Sorry, time is, time is up too. Is there a website hosting aspect of this? Yeah, $642. Yeah. Yeah, I guess my, my thought was that why wasn't some of the money coming in from some of the other councils that they applied to why are we being asked, you know, for the full budget. So I think we're all in agreement that it's the cost has to come down. I personally can't imagine us being able to come up with more than 3000, which I think if we look back would be in line with the amounts granted previously. Or perhaps it was less than that. But there's a lot of that they're offering. So we'll have to look at it. Anyone else have anything final I know we're over time. Okay, thank you all. So the next one is the Amherst Cambodian exhibit committee, which will be at with the Amherst Historical Society and occurring spring of 2024. And it's got a history of the camera community, please tell me if I'm saying that wrong. Opening festival. So, there will be performances, including traditional camera dancer talking and presentations by local leaders in the community and displays of crafts and handy work. The museum will be open during the event to allow for attendees to have a preview of the planned exhibit. And it's going to explore the experience of refugees from Cambodia from their journeys from camps in Thailand to their settlement and establishment here in Amherst. So in addition to the festival and the exhibit, there's an ongoing project collecting and digitizing stories of the community in collaboration with the community and Amherst Historical Society and Amherst media. So is there anyone who would like to champion this or has any concerns. Yes, Matt. I think this is probably among the most sort of worthy meritorious things that we'll see this year so I would strongly support full funding. I'm right there with you I mean advanced diversity, history, culture, preserving oral tradition stories. It's got everything, and it's right here in Amherst, wow. And a great team. The list of people who are working on it is just fabulous. Fantastic and it's not a huge ask either I mean it's it's really quite quite reasonable. It also reflects well on the historical society in terms of. Do you know what I mean they're it's really they're branching out to to broaden the scope of what maybe the perception has been that you know what they've been doing more traditionally so that's that's good to see too so I think to go along with the whatever the collaborative you know multi multi party. Co-operations, that's I think that is, you know, can fix that criteria. That's fantastic. Okay, so I think we're all in agreement that we would very much like to fully fund this break. No other comments. Okay, moving to the next. Half of the five minutes. Well, let's keep going. Amherst. Amherst Cinema has their Juneteenth and $5 family films. So this would be at Amherst Cinema June 2024 and then on 10 Saturdays throughout 2024. They have $20,000 budget they're asking us for 3000 of it. And what they will be doing so they're two different projects. And they will be doing programming again for Juneteenth. It's part of the town's commemoration. And they don't know which film they're doing yet this year but last year their screening of August Wilson's Fences was nearly sold out. Additionally they have a $5 family series and it allows families to come in and enjoy the movie theater at an affordable price. And in the past they've shown Coco Moana frozen to sing along and more, and there are plenty to attend films like this this year. Is there anyone. Again, this is in Amherst and certainly in a fully benefits, you know, our community and it's nice that they're, they're making the arts accessible. Is there anyone who'd like to champion this or I will be willing to champion. This thing is a great way to include the community and especially if they have those dates or vacations in the summer, they could have really great numbers. Yeah, thank you. I mean, most I certainly support doing all that we can this Excellent. Any other comments. Hi Lars, how are you. This, this by the way for folks who weren't here last year is is how I ended up running these sessions because Lars was a year younger last year. And Lars needs his time with daddy, and it's a little hard for Matt to juggle. All right, so the next is Julian, sorry, I just so for this we're going to, in theory, apply the principle that Matt had referenced earlier about equity in terms of what we're giving, you know, vis-a-vis like equity for example whether it's in dollar amounts or are we looking at sorry I didn't catch what the consensus was on. I think the consensus here is a little different in that I think generally we would like to fund all of it and it's a much smaller ask whether we will be able to fully fund it I don't know. I mean, this is what I was thinking of, like Rachel said is that, you know, the cinema is going to do this. Anyway, they've done probably a, they've done a nice job of really articulating one of their programs that fits our priorities nicely. But I think, you know, just we did. Sorry, we just know that's part of their, we are part of the overall operating budget, you know, for this program or any program. And they do a good job to raise additional funds certainly, you know, considering it's a $20,000 budget and we're, they're being asked to provide 3,000 of it. And it's local, you know, we will see. Like I said, we've got it, we've got a lot to cut down because we don't have 186,000 by a long stretch to get handout. Okay. All right, so are we good to move to the next. Rachel, you ready for timing? Okay, great. So the next one is Amherst Community Theater. And this is to provide theater access tickets for the Amherst Community Theater show Susie. That will be occurring January of 2024 at Balfour Auditorium over at UMass. They have a $91,000 budget. They are asking the Cultural Council for $1,000. And they're planning that it will benefit about 200 folks. However, they make a point of saying that the overall audience is something more like 5,000 theater goers. They'll be offering nine performances over two weeks. And this specifically provides tickets for elementary and middle school students and their families whose financial constraints make attending this condition prohibitive. And that they have provided free tickets to the Amherst Senior Center. Stavros, Big Brother and Big Sister, the Survival Center and reduced tickets for girls, for the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and the United Way. So I think that they're already doing those free tickets and then this is another underlook tickets if I'm reading it correctly. So that is $1,000 they're asking for from the Cultural Council. Is there anyone who would like to champion this or has concerns? Yes, Matt. I just, I think it's, you know, again, worthy of full funding definitely should be, you know, one of our, one of our tops for that. I agree and, you know, you're looking at, they're saying it benefits 200. I think it benefits the 5,200 folks, you know, along with the people who are making the theater, you know, they do a quality job. Anyone else? And it sounds fun, susical. Sorry. I was just going to second that and I was going to say fully funded anyway but what do you, what is the number, the 200 is people they're giving tickets directly to and what is the 5,000 number. So, they have nine performances over two weeks and drawing an audience of over 5,000 theater goers and, you know, they've, they're pretty long standing group in the community who, you know, have been doing this for a long time know what they're doing and yeah they do draw a crowd. Yeah, so. Okay, so yeah, that's just that's the whole so we're just supporting them and that's like the total of that total sense and I agree I would love to fully fund it. Any other comments. Great. All right, so the next one is strings of the strong and this is the Amherst historical society applying for this. This is for chamber concerts in the garden outside the museum that a current Saturday afternoons over the summer, and they have a variety of local classical musicians ranging from soloist to quartets to quintets. And they select their pieces and introduce them providing historical context of the music. And it gives the historical society museum an opportunity to kind of introduce themselves that they're here and connect with the community and probably, you know, do some fundraising for the work that they do as well. And generally last year the concerts. And they're saying 2023 which I don't know Saturdays and 2023 were pretty wet. But they had 55 to 105 audience members for each performance and this is over four performances and having kind of looked into the budget and the stipends I mean it's all pretty pretty reasonable so they have a $3,100 budget and they're asking for it so I will open it up to anyone who would like to champion it or has concerns anyone championing this one. Yes, Matt. It's just a great series it contributes a lot to the downtown culture, you know, a good venue for a lot of local artists to to perform. I mean, you know, obviously we can't believe on everything but this is certainly one that I think is. Yeah, I think it's a lot of value and it brings the community together, you know, so much of so many of us joined the cultural council is we'd like to see people, you know, doing things together, and they've got a great track record with this. Right, but in terms of the dollar amounts I don't know if it's reasonable to fully fund this I would say, you know, one, maybe two concerts that's my personal vote and times up sorry. Yeah, I think that's something that you know we'll have to come come back to, because we don't have $186,000. I'll keep saying that. All right, next one. And I don't know about you guys but I know that there are some coming that you know, I'll question whether we're going to fund them but we're on a kind of a roll here right so the next one is the linguistic heritage. No, I jumped ahead one the youth voice through hip hop arts. That is will be occurring at Amherst High School, and it is Amherst High School that is applying for this. And it happens starting in January 24 till June 2024, and they are looking for 2500 from the Amherst cultural council and that is their total budget as well. They have a hip hop theater program and I don't know if anyone noticed but in the panel book there's there's a link to a YouTube video that you can go and review and see see their prior work. And what they're working on is is being effective at engaging adolescents with marginalized identities and offering all young people a space to develop their voices and step into positions of leadership. So they have the project 2050 through a class at Amherst High called hip hop arts ensemble, and the students have a wide range of ways to express themselves and they engage in scholarly discussion around hip hop. And then they also create performance work about a social issue of their choice. And the guest artist, who will be receiving the stipend and the stipend that she receives I think is for 18 sessions that she'll come in and do is Evelyn Makino and she worked with the project 2050 founder Roberto Uno, who's an experienced facilitator. I think it's not here in this summary but one of the points they make is it's very important that kids get to learn hip hop from someone who's authentically a member of that community and, you know, especially for people of color to have role models that look like like this. So, I, I'll start this off that I think this would be one that'd be very important to fully fund, if possible I'll champion it. And that the, I don't know if it's this exact group but Amherst High came to the showcase stage and performed with us and they were phenomenal. Right. This is this is Remy's correct. Is this Remy's application. Um, Hernandez. Yes. So, so they definitely won a place in my heart with that, because they had the entire street dancing at the end is amazing. Yeah, it was just just fantastic and when I went and really actually looked at the stipends and, you know, just a very reasonable and measured use of the funds, it seemed to me. So, again, we don't know to what extent we can do everything but I would support fully funding and, you know, to read that they used to have and kind of died. And now they want to bring it back is a huge benefit to young people. And something that I would be a great way to be engaged. Thank you. Yes. Any, any other comment. I am totally like, I think this seems like a great project. Um, I just like one. So are we kind of, are we funding a class and like it's that fine. Um, because it's like a closed off classic. I just want to be a little bit unclear on some of that stuff. I want to make a comment on the same lines because we're talking about 18 sessions with one person. So I think this is a wonderful application. I would be more comfortable. I mean, I would be more comfortable sort of saying in the high partial to full range than committing to full funding just because I think that number of sessions is sort of a, you know, an ambitious number but I don't want to be totally. I don't want us to feel like we're locked into that when we come to the end of our process. And the way it breaks down budget was 139 per session for 18 sessions, which is not an unreasonable stipend, but at the same time I don't think 100 per session, you know, procession would, would, would be, you know, something that wasn't welcome as well. Yes, Cody. Did you all hear the timer. Nope. Nope. Okay. Anyway. I would love to see them create a production at the end of the 18 sessions. I think that's a good, I think that's an excellent point. I also wanted to say one other reason that we always ask if it's a public school program. I know we're over time is that, you know, obviously school programs likely have additional sources of funding available to them. Just, you know, I'm not saying that that's that's no excuse for us to not fund we certainly can fund, but it's just something to bear in mind. I would also, you know, give them the benefit of the doubt that there's additional public benefit because they do take this to the performance level to the community. And even though that's not, you know, detailed in here. That that's something that they just collaborated with us on and that's, you know, one of their core intents is to do that. So, I noted about high partial and moving to the next, which is getting all the Amherst things in Amherst Pellum regional schools multilingual parent advisory council is applying for their linguistic heritage celebration on April 27. It would be on the town common. Otherwise, if it rains at Fort Riverers, Jim, it's a $2,220 budget. They're asking us for 1,620 of, and this is to celebrate linguistic heritage month. And with a great quantity of languages spoken in Amherst and the surrounding area. And they're delighted to be making this an annual event and to reinforce community awareness of the presence and importance of linguistic diversity. The event includes music dance spoken word performances and a variety of languages and language centered workshops games and activities. And there's also food and drink from different cultures, and that they will incorporate creative work and presentations by students and staff. And they're seeking funds, basically for stipends for their performance workshop leaders and staff members. And for publicity materials, and they continue to hold the event at the town common. And, you know, certainly it's accessible to the community to be clear the food and refreshment piece. They understand that, you know, that's not something that we can fund and having gone through the budget that's, you know, not at all and entangle the amount they're asking for would be completely separate and would meet our guidelines that way. So is there anyone who would like to speak to this one. Band, do we know, have they identified the performer. Um, I thought it was quite quite a large group of people and this is where it would be really great if the PDF was bookmarked. There's a list I'm sorry there is a list that we will invite participants from dance school artists. Okay, so. So the the aque band is in the budget. So that's a stipend so they want a $1,200 or they budgeted $1,200 for a stipend specifically for that band then there's 300 for supplies and materials for creative activities and decorations. They need 120 for the Amherst students to run sound and technology. And then there's another $100 in stipends for six performers and activity leaders so that brings us up to 2220 of which they're asking 1,620 from the cultural council. So that's a whole large numbers numbers numbers. It's nice to see that they're turning this into an annual event. Does anyone objectively funding it if we had all the money in the world. Excellent. Are we good to move on then. Okay. Rachel I'm moving on. The next is the applicant is ancestral bridges foundation, and this is for reclaiming our narrative blacks and indigenous in America since 1776. It's a disciplinary project. And it's listed as June 12 2024, and it will be downtown at black historic downtown Amherst at black historic sites. They have a budget of $17,760 and they're requesting the entire 17,760 from the cultural council. So, they are looking at 2026 will be the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, and the declaration of independence and the genocides of indigenous people and legalization and propagation of slavery and national celebrations will take place and however they feel black and indigenous folks nationwide is celebrating will be reclaiming their narrative and that telling their story which Frederick Douglass started with what is the 4th of July to a slave. Locally the ancestral bridges foundation will conduct interviews with living elders document their story share photographs and narratives and tell what in the Amherst, what in Amherst the 4th of July means to blacks and indigenous people and they want to document the histories that have been appropriated at best or erased it worse and they would be a curated exhibit of photographs and artifacts and telling the history that will inspire descendants of today's biopic folks alike prideful ambitious and curious. Wow, it's a pretty ambitious. Anyone want to champion this or does anyone have any concerns. I'm sorry, I just wonder if they were to list a few of who they were including back. They could interview people from anywhere so will this be an Amherst based on this. So, I mean I love this project and it's the first time that they're trying to do such an ambitious archival component to it. I certainly think that we need to we should we should fund it some somewhere. However, they've kind of shot the moon in terms of their ask, and it's not a very specific list of who's going to do the work and exactly how is it going to work out. So, you know, I think we have to recognize that, you know, the ancestral bridges Juneteenth event is one of the highlights of the year and Amherst and find a way to celebrate it. However, this particular angle of sort of the archival and documentation of it. I think, you know, to get I mean this is just a very large sum of money and without more detail in terms of who's going to do the work and how I wouldn't be comfortable giving the full grant, or even really a high partial. Yeah, I share the concerns that there really wasn't documentation. And again I go back to we do ask grantees to please please take a look at, you know, the typical grant award amounts and and we let them know that we often give partial grants and unfortunately, you know, this is such a large portion of, you know, our allocation it's hard to kind of yes Rachel. Thanks. So just a couple of clarifying question one is that on the page six of their application. I think that this event costs over $15,000 this MCC grant so I guess they are thinking that by applying to Amherst cultural council is the same as applying to the mass cultural council because that's actually another layer of funding source for this type of endeavor right the mass cultural council has another type of grant that so I was just don't know if they are clear on those two different possibilities that's my my first question the other thing is that in kind support because if they have a whole bunch of partners listed, then, you know, whether it's Amherst College or sorry time is up but I was just wondering if they are able to provide provide in kind support in terms of helping to defray the costs where you know, duplicating images archival records and all of that because that's not clear in the application either so those are just the two questions I would have for them. I think there's a lot that's not clear in the application starting with when they say the Juneteenth event cost over 15,000 I don't know how that's related to this event. Because this isn't a. This is this is to document the ancestral bridges established Juneteenth event. I get but which Juneteenth event costs. I think we're at time and we definitely don't have $1718,000 to give to any single event. So, we'll have to revisit very, very amazing work though it's okay antenna cloud farm. There's a music festival and retreat that occurs starting now in November through October of 2024. And it is at the antenna cloud farm. And, and also in various spaces throughout Franklin County and their home base venue and guilt. After their 2023 season which they said was pivotal and impactful. They will foster community wellness accessibility and diversity who a musical presentation events so they have most of their audience is coming from Franklin and Hampshire counties comes out to them and they're expanding their operational team and producing a third season of educational program frowning through the experimental Institute, and it's curating its seventh season of world class concerts at their home venue. And they will produce a third antenna cloud farm music walk which is a free day long multi space event inters falls to connect local community with residents, artists and partner with organizations doing impactful programs of social racial and climate justice. So, I think that I say they have a almost $50,000 budget and they're asking for $250 from the Amherst cultural council. And I'll open this up saying that although it is not an Amherst I would support fully funding it. I think the community truly does go out there. And so I think there's $250 worth of benefits at a baseline is anyone else think Matt you might have actually attended. Yeah, sorry. I just want to say that this is one of the reasons I joined the cultural council is to discover things like this. All the all the programming is fabulous. Anyone else have any other comments or would feel strongly about not fully funding the $250 to this group. I think it looks great. I was confused because it's a retreat is like an ongoing retreat because there was no specific date like is it just kind of, you can go and do the programming there. I don't know the specifics. I think one of the things with everything they're mentioning is maybe, you know, because they can only apply for one grant annually they're mentioning everything. Sure. Okay. I don't know anyone have any more to add to that. Okay. All right, I am noting that it's 646 and we are capping these at an hour and a half so we're going to power through on on a few more here. But we will be doing a hard stop here at seven. So let's see how many more we can get to. Okay, the next is the Arcadia players it's their 34 season. They're musicians. They have a $66,000 budget, and they're asking 2500 from the cultural council. In the interest of time I'm not going to read all of the wonderful pieces that they will be performing the performances occur at the South church in Amherst, and then there are others that are happening in Hadley another in Northampton for all five performances. And I will open this. Sorry, that wasn't much of an intro, but they're fantastic organization again 34 years and there's some reason that they keep coming together to perform and have audiences so is there anyone who would like to champion fully funding this or has any concerns. I would, I would say that, you know, I think we'll probably end up at a partial with this as far as when we balance things out for all of the classical music and the classical music that's happening right here in Amherst like the strings at the strong There will be more classical music as we go through. But certainly this is something that is providing public benefit to the people of the Amherst and the larger community, but as to whether or not we can, you know, 2500 is is is a pretty good amount, given, you know, that we only were allocated 53,800. I would support a partial and just see that only one performance is in town. Yeah, and there is just one performance here in town and yet I do fully believe that people from Amherst travel to the other locations and enjoy those performances. You know, there's also if we were to get into the budget then you know we might be looking at the costs to attend and ticket prices and how all of that's offset. And, you know, it's definitely something we'd like to continue supporting but you know I think a partial funding is something that is what we will have to do any other comments. Okay. So, the next is actually we're going to review to it once from George Baker, he has, he can only, we can only fund one of these two events there's a Dixieland Stomp concert and an LBG band concert. At the moment. It doesn't have neither of them have a date or a location. So, they're, I don't know if everyone's kind of read the summaries I guess one of the things that rather kind of stands out to me hello. What was that noise. One of the things that stood out just kind of going top line between the two events is the event which they're asking $400 for would possibly have 2500 audience members versus the more expensive event at 700 would only have 100 projected audience members. So, from my perspective. Well, at other times, you know, depending you know considering someone could have applied for both in the same grant we might have gone and looked at the more the higher dollar value I just don't see the value when there are significantly fewer people that would even attend according to this. And we still have the problem here as far as dates and locations. So this I mean obviously this is not the most polished grant we have. I will just say that the reason that I think we do, I would advocate for some funding for it is the benefit to the senior center. You know, I feel like he's you know he wrote this and he wrote it to several different cultural councils so he has like TBD at the senior center well. There's only one senior center so I think you know I think that's pretty clear he's proposing to do it here. I don't support from the senior center but you know I we know that they're going to have a lane that they always embrace any kind of cultural event so you know I certainly agree I wish there was a date I wish it was a little bit more clear that he had already reached out to the senior center and gotten it set up at the same time this is one that I might be comfortable going back and getting some clarification from the from the applicant applicant on just because public benefit of doing things at the senior center so strong. I want to check the number of audience members again though because the senior center can't hold 2500 people to the best of my knowledge. Maybe maybe there's a number in here that's. Yeah I always I always take that with a grain of salt whatever number they put in there. The data is incorrect as far as the actual application says 100 for each of these events. So I don't know where that 2500 came from. But it's all just I mean it's all kind of speculative anyway so. Okay, so the point that I'm making is null. So, I agree I don't see how, how we could, you know I think we would need to ask for some sort of letter of support and a date to be sure that it's a sure thing. Other than that I don't have a problem with potentially fully funny yes Rachel. Just a question about procedure. You know where you're thinking that it would be worthwhile asking for clarification or more documentation. Is this something we're prepared to do each time this. There's lack of clarity or is this supposed to be something they would have supported submitted as part of the application. I guess it's just, I have a question about just the process so. That leaves us where, you know, I guess we could end up just going back and say we're not supporting anything because they don't have a date and a location and yet, having read back some through some of the guidelines with with the MCC. But in general, you know, it's, it's our function to support and promote the arts here. And, you know, it's, it's one thing if, if you have something that's really not meeting any criteria at all. But if that's the only concern then. I think it's reasonable that we would at least say can can you come up with that. Matt. Okay, that's cool. And then I suppose given this particular applicant, then we'll we also take the opportunity to say, which one of these would you prioritize since he's got two applications. Yeah, I think we've done that in the past. Yeah. Yeah, and it's also ready. It's a little discretion. You know, on some of the something I think some of that is, is, you know, we asked somebody if we if we want to fund something at the senior center we can ask them and they can, you know, go get that letter of support. It's also something in our guidelines where we say you can apply for more than one it's a local guideline and every year I feel like we, we come to this and we don't really it's not it's not a mandatory guidelines, something we have locally and we've made people choose in the past but I think there's also an argument for letting them combine to so I would, I would be very cautious about yeah. Now within our right now than our current local guidelines though that's the issue. It's one thing to have someone combine at this level. I think, you know where it's a single performer or something that a low cost but it could just get really hairy. If we let people combine in general, especially with some of the larger organizations that come to us I would not open the door to that. Thanks. Time's up to. Okay, and then times up we don't really have time to get into another though and I think the other thing that I'm seeing there is some time it almost looks like two applications were put in because I just couldn't choose and considering that they're both at the same venue and both, you know, for pretty much the same community. You know, it seems okay considering that we don't have $186,000 to give to everyone that, you know, someone's going to have to choose. But I think it's, it's fair to ask for that then you and date and then also to ask, you know, which one would they choose. Which one would the senior center choose. I mean, our local guidelines say only one application from each group or individual be considered, please combine multi program project requests into one application. You could I mean you could argue that this is a scrivener's error, you know, to, to, because different different councils treated differently we've heard that before that some councils actually don't want you to combine things into multiple they want you to do, you know, one per. You can argue tonight. I don't think we have $1,100 for this grantee period. So I think it works out to some extent just fine that we can go back and better understand one if they have a date and a letter of support for that date and which one everybody wants more between the musicians and the host. So, our last agenda items, I don't believe there is any business that we hadn't anticipated 48 hours in advance. And I'm not hearing from anybody about that so I believe that we can adjourn. When is our next meeting. It's a good question it's scheduled. Isn't it. I think I said the list. I already know off the top I have to I actually have to look it up I meant to look it up earlier today because. Yeah, well, and there's a list that went out but it's Tuesday the fourth. No, sorry. It is. So, not next week. No, I sent it I attended to you Christie specifically. I think we have one on November the second which is a week from today. Is that correct. That's correct in time. Yeah, 537 a week from today. Yep. And then the next one is the seventh and then the ninth, the 16th. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, as you can see, we'll need to, you know, keep to time boxing these so we move through and get through all of them. So, thank you all. If you have any questions reach out to me or Matt. And again, thank you, Eleanor for stepping up as secretary and very excited to have you, Rachel as treasure. Congratulations to you both. Have a great night. Thank you so much. I put the minutes in the folder and so if someone looks at those and thinks they're two or not enough detailed, let me know, but they should be great. Take care. Bye.