COCA October 21st, 2010 Minutes

MEETING 10/21/10

IN ATTENDENCE Kalei, Emily, Cyree, Sarah, Sam, Jessica, Josh, Eliana, Kristina, Brit, Nina

Josh motions to approve minutes. Jessica seconds. No blocks. Motion passes. Minutes from October 19th, 2010, approved.

Nina asks how old her contemporaries were at the end of 7th grade. Kalei offers 12. Brit mentions she was 14 when high school started. Nina is trying to determine when she went on various family vacations.

Emily, new financial director, shares: we got $24,000, spent $21,696.

Nina: Why are they cutting us off?

Emily: We can get more.

Kalei spoke to FiCom, cleared up that there was indeed more money for the rest of the semester.

Nina: Where did that rumor come from?

Kalei: Pam told me FiCom was running low; and they are running low, which they should be, as the semester is ending in a few weeks, but it’s not a crisis.

Brit: Do we know how much they have?

Kalei: No.

Sarah asks if we can go back and fund people.

Emily says we have $2k, should only spend around $1k.

Brit asks about December events, is given calendar.

No events in pending, 2 events in submitted.

JSU request not submitted within 14 days.

Brit asks what the last day we fund until is.

Kalei: Until college closes. Nina: Winter break?

Kalei: No, we fund everything as long as the campus is open.

Discussion of who will be here during Jan term. Brit, Nina, others.

The JSU event was requested 4 days before it was supposed to happen.

Eliana motions to deny- not within 14 day rule. Sam seconds. No blocks. Motion passes. JSU denied.

Josh maintains that he is allowed to make Jewish jokes because he is Jewish.

Nina boasts that she finally brought her computer to a meeting and is congratulated.

BART’S ARM request- Beehive Collective. Art Activist Collective, National. Housed and fed by artists. Event date was the 20th, yesterday, submitted on the 19th. Nu-uh.

Eliana motions to deny- happed already. Kristina seconds. No blocks. Motion passes. Bart’s Arm denied.

Kalei: Real talk. Not a fun thing that we have to talk about. Very important. It’s mostly my fault, and I apologize. There are a lot of people that are working on this, and it has been a stressor to many. With Afrika Bambatta: because of an e-mail offer, we are obligated to pay him. His agent has threatened to sue, which is legal because in MA an e-mail offer is legally binding. My name was on it, which means that I tied COCA to officially contracting him to perform. He responded with a written contract that required a written signature, which I thought was the official one- I didn’t sign it. When pam asked if we’d signed him, I said no, because I didn’t sign it. Colin, his agent, called and e-mailed me and sam a lot- his last e-mail threatened to find our supervisor, which he did, and contacted the business office- Marie and Pam (10 minute voice mail). Pam met with the five college risk manager, and Sam and I are responsible to pay the performer because our names are on it. She spoke to Dawn Carmichael and Beth, and then Colin again. She said the college knew what had happened, but not about the e-mail, which made it binding. Our options: pay Alliance talent ½, or they could sue us; which Colin was not receptive to because he’d rather have the performer come. Pam suggested we bring him for spring jam and have it be a conference and have AB collaborate with faculty and students.

Cyree: That’s pretty cool as an option.

Nina: It ties us to an artist who’s messed with us.

Cyree: SJ is a huge event, we should plan it this far ahead. We’re in a horrible situation due to a ridiculous legal precedent, and this is the best out possible.

Sarah: possible for Halloween still?

Kalei: Not IMPOSSIBLE, but we have a schedule, budget, and the event is in a matter of days. If we bring him for Halloween, we go into the mid $50,000 area, and if FiCom wasn’t already short on money they will be then. We’d not be proud of Halloween costing that much. I apologize; had I known about the e-mail legality, this would not have happened.

Brit: Don’t feel too bad, I’m a law student and I didn’t know that. I don’t want him for SJ, he’s messing with us and though I respect him this is ugly.

Nora and Faustino enter.

Brit: People might submit someone for SJ and we’ll have to ignore them because of this.

Nina: He was our third choice for Halloween, and now he’s going to take up the SJ budget. I understand that you’re saying it’s too expensive, but if we worked so hard to bring him for Halloween, why don’t we just have him for Halloween?

Kalei: Everything went up in cost- security, EMTs, lighting, ticket costs, wristbands- small things added up more than we expected. What seemed feasible then looking at last year’s budget proved to not be realistic. If he had come it would be about $53k, right now it’s looking like $46k.

Nina: We did raise ticket prices on the principle that we had a big artist, and that will make a dent.

Kristina: Is he really being handed to us for Halloween, it seems like the SJ thing is what’s happening. In regards to SJ being messed up, this is a good out for a messy legal situation, and if we’re going to explain this to campus taking that route might be the way to go.

Nina: Is he willing to play Halloween or not?

Kalei: Basically no.

Eliana: Pam doesn’t want him to play.

Kalei: Pam doesn’t want the college to be sued. I don’t think she cares when he plays. She researched him pretty thoroughly and is enthused about planning for the spring. I don’t know what to do. In terms of handling the situation, I think Cyree said it- people plan these events far in advance, and seeing as Pam would have signed his rider off TODAY, it was already playing it too close.

Nina: No point in discussing it then.

Brit: So no other big artists for SJ?

Kalei: $5500 to $6500 is what we offered, so that is what we would pay him for SJ. Colin is from the agency, Afrika has an agent, and then there’s Afrika himself.

Nina: How much did we spend on Gang Gang Dance?

Kalei: $6k.

Brit: I don’t want him for Spring Jam. Halloween yes, not SJ.

Sam: Why not?

Brit: SJ should be more contemporary.

Nina: GGD was pushed onto us. It would be cool if we could get a bigger name.

Sarah: Let’s not freak about SJ now. If we really wanna bring someone else we can fundraise for it.

Kalei: OMG COCA CARWASH.

Cyree: Talked to Pam today- I feel like the Spring mini-conference is the way to go, make it into a full event. I won’t even be there for it, but it’s an opportunity to make a real event of it and the chance to pair up up-and-coming groups with a big name and plan something far in advance.

Kalei: Response to Brit- if this forces us where we have to do lots of planning ahead of time for SJ ’11, we can also plan ahead for HH ’11. Pam is putting us on probation, basically- no more e-mailing artists or what have you. If we have to do this for SJ, we can start doing HH ’11 in February because SJ will be mostly done. Then we can bring in a big artist for HH, as opposed to two weeks before the show.

Kristina: I feel like a lot of us have a sour taste, it’s upsetting, but regardless we need to remember how excited we were about the prospect of Afrika Bombata and how good it would be for the campus- and now we’re obligated to pay him, so this might be the best out possible.

Nina: SJ headliner issue- he could be awesome for SJ. If I remember correctly, we had GGD and up-and-comers that equaled about as much as GGD, so in SJ ’11 we could do all campus/local bands we could really rally excitement for the event.

Emily: Also believe he should come this spring. The idea of him keeping us from getting a bigger name, well, he’s a huge name, and we would probably not spend more than that anyways.

Nina: How much was KRS-1? People loved that!

Cyree: Not so. Even some of his fans were not happy about that.

Kalei: He cost $9,000.

Discussion of Josh needing to pee, his consumption of water, the fact that he has bronchitis, and the fact that Nina’s dog had bronchitis its entire life.

Brit talks about UMass’s Blackout weekend- Ludacris played. Big concert Saturday surrounded by smaller events before and after- model SJ on this, charge for it and make it a three-day event. When Dead Prez came, many people were outside. When KRS-1 came, even MORE people were outside, from all over WMass. We can profit off that. Other 5 colleges like MoHo charge $25 for parties, we can charge $20 for a concert.

Eliana: All the other colleges charge for their spring concerts, we could charge at least $15.

Cyree: There are a lot of local bands who would be excited to play SJ for cheap- lets keep our eyes open for talent.

Faustino is mouthing something to me that I can’t make out.

Sarah forgot what she had to say.

Nina: SJ will be fine, let’s scout out bands, should we not e-mail at all about costs?

Brit: make it clear that nothing is legally binding.

Nina: Why do we not charge for SJ?

Sam: Usually it’s on Accepted Students day.

Nina: That’s stupid.

Brit. Never again.

Kalei: I don’t know what the deal is yet, but Pam says that SJ is tentatively April 30th. If AB can’t do that day, we’ll have to change it. But it’s not on ASD this year. The e-mail thing: in the e-mails, don’t say offer, contract, commitment, just NEGOTIATION, nothing binding, nothing definite. Don’t use names, even.

Nina: Stick to COCA?

Kalei: E.g.: Nina Glasov, on the part of a committee. I don’t think the agent even knew I was a student.

Kalei notes she brought a prop- a lollipop- to garner sympathy if COCA was more angry. We all love her. “Lesson learned.” – Pam Tinto.

Nina: So SJ is April 30th?

Kalei: Tentatively.

Nina: So if he agrees, we can already start talking to bands?

Kalei: Yes.

General: This is a good thing.

Kalei motions to cap the meeting at 8:15 at max, will stay at 9. Cyree seconds. No blocks. Motion passes: minute to end at 8:15.

Kalei: Sarah has booked flights for Shunda K, Yo Majesty.

Nina and Cyree are excited about Yo Majesty; Emily explains Shunda K is part of Yo Majesty.

Kalei: Jeremy and Martin are defensive drivers; they will be doing a lot of chauffeuring early in the morning. But they’re not here, so phew, don’t have to tell them. Sarah, despite your work, Pam is sending us to Costco, not Candy Warehouse, for candy.

Everyone: Lots of conversations about cars and travel for Shunda K.

Nina: Jeremy may have lost his voting priv. Poor Paul, he may have too and quit.

Kalei: I’m going to quickly go over thing about HH. In terms of cleaning up Phys. Plant is bringing trashbags and gloves (which we never had)…

Nina: We had gloves…

Kalei: Well we did have safer sex gloves but these are actual gloves.

Cyree: Wants to donate condoms to HH.

Kalei: Disburse them through the candy bowls. Gin in Tonics + Pitches both performing at Hamp Halloween in the gallery

Nina: Ughhhh. Oh wait I thought they were that band from SJ I hate

Nora: Insert Band Name here

Kalei: Ooooo yeah!

Everyone: Lots of noise

Kalei: Jeremy dropped off tickets @ Umass today. Now Smith, MoHo, and Umass have tickets. Amherst thinks we were too late, so now we have to sell tickets. 12-4, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Nina: Monday 12-4. Josh, 2-4 Monday.

Emily/Nora: Tuesday 12-4.

Cyree: Wednesday 12-4.

Kalei: Nina will probably sell all of them, only 150 tickets. They look very cool this year, bright orange. Woo. Great. Zombie walk talk! I’d still like to do it!

Jessica: When was that supposed to be?

Kalei: Tuesday.

Sarah: We need Martin for facepaint…

Kalei: I’ll get white facepaint!

Cyree: It’ll look like a MIME walk!

Kalei: I’ll get multi-colors!

Kalei catches Nina up to speed on Circus developments. Max Pearl not playing Halloween.

Zombie walk list, 530pm – 630pm Tuesday:

Emily, Kalei, Josh, Nina, Faustino, Kristina, Eliana, Cyree, Nora, Sarah, Sam

Kalei admits she is scared of Zombies. Faustino comforts her. Discussion of attire (truly absurd).

Nina: Bread and Puppets?

Kalei: Def happening.

Sarah: Daily Digest for Zombie walk?

Kalei: Good idea. Who wants to do it?

Nina: Doesn’t that kill the surprise?

Cyree: “Come see our zombie walk!” It’s fun!

Nina: I thought we wanted to SCARE people!

Cyree: You sounded like Veruca Salt.

Kalei: Next week- I am going to be in here every night. We won’t have much to do, but we’re going to need to run many random chores throughout the week. Wristbands duty on Friday- stuffing boxes, morning, very important. No programs this year- too expensive. Posters and internet for schedule. Tues and Thurs, regular meetings, regular duties. Usually people don’t really come in, because they know/can sense our anxiety. Tuesday, work schedule: a million different jobs to do. Signing up for stuff. There will be “free” time, but there’s always a lot to do. First years need to have fun.

Cyree: This is your last! What about you?

Kalei: I hated it first year, this is more fun. Everyone HAS to come back at 1am.

Kalei motions to adjourn meeting at 8:10pm. Josh seconds. No blocks. Meeting adjourned.