NEC CONCERT MEETING Sunday, December 07, 2014

PRESENT:  Mike Arenson (later Jan Arenson), Cathay Keough, Tami Ring-Kuchenbeiser, Lois & Mike Hoffman, Jan Owens, Thanks to everyone for being there, and Anne for ticketproduction, and Tami for our first two ticket sales;-):  Conkey, Owens.  Please advise if I’ve forgotten anything.  Thanks to all, great whizbang meeting, we got a lot done!  Jan

AGENDA:  establish musical context so that Mike can hire 3 musicians (at $150 @) =$450.00 (ticket sales of 30 is our BE) to make a quartet, probably including percussion and guitar

Cathay had e-mailed the following links for song possibilities.

1.       Billboard Top Dance Songs Chart:  http://www.billboard.com/charts/dance-club-play-songs

2.       Top 40 (100) Party Songs on About.com:  http://top40.about.com/od/top10lists/tp/top-100-party-songs.htm

3.       MTV Dance Playlist:  http://www.mtv.co.uk/music/playlists/mtv-dance-playlist#!/play/calvin-harris/videos/outside-ft-ellie-goulding

4.      And Wikipedia's list of billboard top dance songs:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_number-one_dance_hits

TAMI suggested (to loud acclaim) the EAGLES

OTHER ITEMS THAT WERE DISCUSSED: BILLING:  We will bill the event as ‘AN EVENING OF MUSIC AND DANCING’

                 FAMILIES ARE WELCOME BUT CHILDREN NOT SUBSIDIZED (I.E. tickets are $15@) in 6pt font!

                 A range of food and beverages (alcoholic and non- )will be available for nominal charge/donation

                 Child care available upon request for a small charge.

RECORD-KEEPING:  We will keep records of ticketholders e-mails & phone numbers, in the event of cancellations due to winter storms.  Additionally, in the event of cancellation, we will have to start from scratch, as it is impossible to hold musicians to a ‘rain-date’

EVENT-BRITE:  as a way to sell tickets online was discussed.  Lois and Jan will work with Anne on this (We are assuming that Anne is an expert at Eventbrite, as everyone knows she is 100% digitalized.  I found these on YouTube  very good:

     EVENT BRITE TUTORIAL Setting up   9:24

     EVENT BRITE TUTORIAL Tickets  9:25

(Actually, I went ahead and created the event here   or go to Eventbrite.com and

   EVENTBRIGHT CHARGES:( 2.5% + .99 )+ creditcard fee(3.5% )  = $1.89/ticket   for our $15 ticket price

   NOTO BENE:  we can either ‘absorb the fees’ or ‘pass the fees on to the buyer’

TICKET SALES:  Jan will hold the $; tickets and record-keeping sheets will be kept in the UUFN OFFICE in Code Purple MailBox (look for the purple tape). 

    In-house:  Tami and Maia will sell (with help/support from others) at coffee hour from Fellowship Committee Table

    Out-house:  Anne Green will work social media, and Tami and Jan and Cathay will deliver tickets as needed, Jan and Tami will go to other institutions coffee hours to promote sales (work the crowds);  An attempt will be made to identify an ACTIVE TICKET PROMOTION PERSON at each institution

   NEC PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS/NEWARK FAITH COMMUNITY:
     Newark United Methodist Church

     Newark UCC

     Cavalry Baptist

     St. Thomas Episcopal

     St. Paul Lutheran

     1^st Pres

     Holy Family

     UUFN

Other:

    MillCreek Society (Polly Drummond Road)

    ISD (Islamic Society of Delaware) (Salem Church Road)

    Temple Beth El (Possum Park Road)

    Turkish Student Society (Possum Park Road)

BARTENDER:  Mike Hoffman (bless his <3!) VOLUNTEERED to be bartender, and even to juggle if requested.  Cathay will arrange for the liquor permission.

FOOD:  we will research possibilities, including youth group

UPDATE on Feb 7th NEC BENEFIT

Great progress;  Thanks everybody, going backwards and forwards for all your energy:
1) Mike Arenson is on board, has asked for a meeting so that people can contribute ideas/expectations for music for the concert.  I've submitted a request for a meeting room this Sunday, December 7th, at 11:45 pm. 
2)Event will be billed as 'HEART OF NEWARK CONCERT' music by Mike Arenson and friends, $15, 7-10 pm Sat Feb 7th. 

3) TICKET PRODUCTION:  Anne Green and I go into high gear tomorrow (Th),  print out 160 sequentially-numbered tickets (32 pages on cardstock) tomorrow, cut them and punch/bling/beribbon the first batch to sell for holiday giving.  Great gifts for neighbors, friends, community-minded folk, and a great way to spread the word on NEC/CodePurple and give a meaningful gift at the same time.  We will also print out record-keeping sheets so we know who sold what tickets. 

3) UUFN TICKET SALES:  Maia and Tami have agreed to sell tickets at the Fellowship Table at coffee hour this Sunday, and hopefully on an ongoing basis.

4) COMMUNITY TICKET SALES.  We have acquired a contact list with e-mails for all the 8 members of the Newark Faith Community that comprise NEC/CP.  Anne has agreed to be the point person to do outreach/ticket sales for these organizations.  We hope to involve also: Temple Beth El, ISD (Islamic Society of Delaware) and 

American Turkish Friendship

American Turkish Friendship Association,

201 Possum Park Road Newark, DE 19711 - View Map

Phone: (302) 533-5847

 

Here is the list from Richard Waibel:

Mary Hudson – Newark United Methodist – maryhud@msn.com

Bob Pasteris – NewArk United Church of Christ – pasteris@comcast.net

Tom Parkins or Melanie Daul – Calvary Baptist – mrfizzix@aol.com or mdaul@aol.com

Jan Owens - Unitarian Universalist Fellowship – janowens@gmail.com

Kelley Bielewicz – Holy Family – kmsb42@hotmail.com 

David Coker or Jerry Schultz - St. Thomas Episcopal – dcoker@udel.edu or Schultz@udel.edu

Bob Black or Margaret Catts– First Presbyterian – blackre2@comcast.net or mcatts2336@aol.com

Barbara Rhodes – St. Paul’s Lutheran – brhodes841@aol.com

Ann Herman - Temple Beth El - anniehrm@icloud.com

Betty Kackley - Head of Christiana Presbyterian - bettykackley@yahoo.com

Wilma Jones - Zion - wilmaj1220@gmail.com

Linda Heller - Ebenezer Methodist - lsheller@comcast.net

Marianne Hardesty - St. Andrews Presbyterian - cymri96@verizon.net

Marie Ruszkay - Holy Angels - marie_rus@yahoo.com

Alice Edgell - St. Nicholas Episcopal - alice.edgell@comcast.net

The following are a few other churches, not a complete list, who one way or another are supportive of the EC; however, I do not have a specific contact.  

The Journey (financial)

Thomas More Oratory (financial and go-bags)

East Point Church (pizza and bagels)

White Clay Presbyterian (financial and Code Purple)  

 

 

 

USING WEEBLY FOR E-commerce

WEEBLY:  GAVIN K. <support@weebly.zendesk.com>   (415) 375-3268

I talked to Gavin today, and he was most helpful in outlining all the options for the possibility of selling tickets online through a weebly e-commerce module, and even offered a 20% coupon off any package we might adopt; this 20% coupon would be good up until December 15^th.

Here’s what I learned:

1)      Any e-commerce module will export info to a CSV file.  Buyers would get a confirmation e-mail.  With the Business Plan, they could have the option of a) picking up at door(basically relying on the CSV file we would get) or getting the ticket as a digital-download pdf which they could print out.

2)      The first of two plans:  STARTER PACKAGE allows weebly customer to sell up to 10 products.  Payment must be through credit cards (for this you have to have an account with STRIPE).  Paypal is not an option.  

A)  $39/6 mo   $49/year

B) If the church/organization I’m working with has a paypal account and lets me use the password, I can use their STRIPE account.  Charges are the standard 2.9% + 30c/transaction + 3% to weebly.  (Any non-profit may have negotiated lower charges)

C) I could setup another STRIPE account (free?) and negotiate lower charges.

3)      The second of two plans:  BUSINESS PACKAGE

  a) $29/mo (no 3% transaction fee for Weebly)
  b) Paypal OR Credit Card(  20% discount for 1^st month) although Gavin gave us a better discount for either plan

IMPACT ON OUR TICKET SALES:

charge for this Weebly e-commerce module: $29/mo -20%  = $23.20/mo

PROFIT FROM ONLINE TICKET SALES 
        $15@-{$.335 (2.9%*$15) +30centstransactionfee} 
                 =$15-$.635= $14.365
NOTO BENE:  This is FYI, I'm neither promoting nor demoting.  Consensus.

NEC FINANCIAL STATUS

From Minutes of the Sept 9, 2014 meeting of NEC (Newark Empowerment Center):

FINANCIAL STATUS - Whereas initially the Empowerment Center was financially self-supporting from the community, in most recent years some additional funding has been required from Friendship House, Inc.  General Operating Funds.  In 2013, the total expenses, including the client financial assistance was $77,870, which required $11,550 additional funding from Friendship House, Inc.  Year-to-date 2014, the expenses, $53,495 have exceeded income, $35,340 by $18,155.  Some anticipated income between now and the balance of the year may make it possible to end up with less deficit.  The budget for 2014 is $87,100.  some additional Newark community funding will be needed to avoid a growing deficit. 

Please share this financial information with appropriate people and organizations.  Contributions may be made to Friendship House, Inc., P.O.Box 1517, Wilmington, DE   19899 and memo "Newark Center."

Delaware United Way contributions may be designated to Friendship House, Inc. using code 9033.

....

Fund Raisers - Cafe Gelato will sponsor the 6th Annual 10 Mile Run and this year also a 3 Mile Walk on October 19 organized and managed by Races2Run.  For more information and registration see races2run.com.  Ryan German, ryan@cafegelato.net, would like some committee support to help with race organization.  Please contact Ryan directly to volunteer your support.  
  St. Andrews Presbyterian is hosting an October 7 Golf Outing at Back Creek Golf Course.

1st PLANNING MEETING

1st Planning Meeting for this event will be held on Sunday, Nov 16th at the UUFN at 11:15.  
CO-CHAIRS:  Cathay Keough and Mike Keough (also SJ Chairs)
PUBLICITY/SALES:  Maia Kaiser and Tami Ring-Kuchenbeser (FC)
                        Anne Green (Communications)
WEBSITE and MISC:  Jan Owens (Code Purple)
MUSIC:  Mike Arenson and friends
DECORATIONS:  Rachael Coffey and Nancy Plummer 
RICHARD WAIBEL:  Liaison with NEC

AGENDA:  
1.  DECIDE on NAME, THEME, PRICE, TICKET COLOR,  
2.  ASSIGN responsibility for designing/producing tickets and flyer
3.  CREATE a plan for ticket sales for Holiday gift-giving season 
          (decorated envelopes/boxes/hanging_ornament?)
4.  PUBLICITY PLAN:  
       UUFN (update/Connections/announcement/flyer/other)
       Newark Faith Community
       Other
4.  ACTION ITEMS:

PURPOSE OF UUFNFEB7.blogspot.com

The UUFN SJ (Social Justice) and FH (Fellowship Committee are sponsoring an  'evening of jazz' event on Feb 7th in MacKinnon Hall, UUFN, 420 Willa Road, Newark Delaware 19711 to benefit the NEC (Newark Empowerment Center).  The purpose of this blog is for the organizers of this event to communicate with each other in the background.  It is not a public blog. If I am correct, you may post comments but please make comments relevant to the post.  If you wish to start a new topic, please contact me.