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5/17/2023 - Meeting Minutes Salt Lake City Arts Council Board Meeting Minutes May 17, 2023 54 Finch Lane, Salt Lake City, Utah WebEx Online Present: Matthew Coles Kathy Davis Jeff Driggs Ebay Hamilton Thomas Kessinger Sarah Longoria Hannah Nielsen Torle Nenbee Cale Newhouse Katherine Potter Susan Rickman Marti Woolford Not present: Kate Jarman Gates Sonali Loomba Richard Taylor Staff: Felicia Baca, SLAC Director Susan Campbell, SLAC Staff Taylor Knuth, SLAC Staff Cyan Larson, SLAC Staff I. Call to Order and Welcome Ms. Susan Rickman, Chair of the Board, called the meeting to order at 5:31 pm. II. Arts Event Discussion A. Ms. Felicia Baca attended the Kilby Court Block Party at the Fairgrounds, presented by partners S&S presents. She said it was so fun and very well done. She also attended the Leonardo Awards Ceremony at The Leonardo Museum, and Spyhop's annual fundraiser. B. Ms. Susan Rickman attended an art auction at UMOCA, where there were surrealist paintings by local artists. It was a fun, young, hip crowd. C. Ms. Kathy Davis saw The Prom at Pioneer Theater and Othello at National Theater Live at Tanner Humanities. D. Mr. Jeff Driggs went to the Crossroads Storytelling Festival. Ms. Rickman said, "Thanks everybody! If you have any recommendations between now and the next meeting, shoot an email." III. Approval Board Meeting Minutes There were a couple of name misspellings in the April minutes, which were corrected. Ms. Davis moved to approve the corrected minutes. Ms. Torle Nenbee seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously. IV. Management A. Program/Administrative Updates & Presentations 1. Ms. Felicia Baca gave an update about the Living Traditions Festival. The weather is looking good. She is excited for the panel discussions, which are a new addition to the festival this year. She said Sundance screenings are really cool, and is excited about their accessibility efforts. They have a really good amount of volunteers helping out at the festival this year. 2. Ms. Baca mentioned that there are still volunteer opportunities for the AEP surveys. "We'll take anyone for that," she said. They need volunteers for the symphony on the 26th, and shows at the Eccles theater. They are working on the organizational survey, as well. 3. The weekend after next will be the Busker Fest, downtown behind the Eccles Theater. This is a free, family-friendly event. There are more acoustic music strolls along the Jordan River Parkway. There is one tomorrow by the Peace Gardens. 4. The week after that, we kick-off the Twilight Concert Series. The openers are a local band who were accepted to the NPR Tiny Desk concert series. They are called Little Moon. Ms. Baca said "We're at 3 sold-out concerts, and about 5,500-6,000 tickets sold for the other shows. 5. Ms. Baca talked about the painted bicycle racks that are one of the public art projects. 6. Their ZAP grant is due on the 31 st. "Susan [Campbell] is very busy with that and she's doing a great job," Ms. Baca said. 7. The Arts Council General Operating and Project Support grants are open until June 2nd. 8. The Mayor's Artist Awards are coming up in June. Each awardee, nominated by a committee, gets a $500 honoraria. 9. The Arts Council no longer holds a craft market, so they are replacing it with the Springboard for the Arts, coming up in June. 10. There are some staff transitions. They are replacing Kelsey's position with a part-time office assistant, and Ms. Baca and Mr. Knuth will be taking over more budgeting duties. Shawnee, their Special Projects Coordinator, got a job immediately after graduating from grad school, so her position is open, and will close on June 4th. Another full-time position is open, for the Public Art Project Coordinator position. They are both listed on the website. Ms. Baca told the board to "Spread the word." V. Budget/Financial A. Mr. Cale Newhouse gave a report on financials for this month, including the current cash balance. There were increases in corporate and private donations. There is a new policy to discuss which will impact our FY24 budget. The new policy is intended to establish a reserve fund, in case of interruptions in funding, unexpected expenses, etc. This reserve fund will be funded by Unrestricted Funds (an example of which is "earned income"). There will be two categories of uses for these funds: short term and long term. An example of"short term" use would be to use cash temporarily, while waiting for other funds to come through. Some examples of"long term" use would be a one-time, major unplanned expense, a severe disruption in funding, or a grant that didn't go through. The means to replenish the reserve fund are a budget amendment. The target reserve fund will be 30% of operating costs, which is a little under$500,000. There is no dedicated account for the reserve funds. The policy needs to be approved by the board. Authorization to use the funds will come from the Executive Director and the Treasurer of the Board. The board can review this policy over the next month and send suggestions or comments to Mr. Newhouse. We'll vote to approve it next month. B. Ms. Baca and Mr. Knuth presented a FY23 Budget Amendment. The primary reason for this amendment is increased revenue. They discussed the differences in the projected budget to actuals. There was a motion to adopt the amended budget by Ms. Katherine Potter. The motion was seconded by Mr. Jeff Driggs. It was approved unanimously. C. Mr. Knuth presented the FY24 proposed budget draft. This is the budget which will be approved by the City Council in June. Everyone has the ability to comment on this proposed budget over the next month or so. D. The Arts Council will have a new website, which is being created by Third Sun. "We are going to have so many great accessibility features in this new site," Mr. Knuth said. VI. Board A. Reappointments and Appointments Update a. Ms. Rickman let the board know that Mr. Newhouse has agreed to continue on the board virtually until someone can take over for him as the Treasurer. The Treasurer position description is up on the Arts Council website. There is no preference for which district this person lives in. b. Ms. Rickman let everyone know that board members are welcome to serve on more than one committee. We may have a conversation about combining some committees. At the moment we need more people on the Governance Committee. B. Grants Approval a. Ms. Nenbee, Chair of the Grants Committee, gave a presentation about the artists and organizations who were awarded grants by the Arts Council. Mr. Ebay Hamilton made a motion to approve the funding to the grantees. Mr. Driggs seconded the motion. It was approved unanimously. VI I. Public Comment A. Mr. Knuth gave a big shout-out to Torle and Cyan, who have been a wonderful help to the program, and wanted to thank Susan, who collected some really good data about the artists and organizations. B. Ms. Baca thanked Ms. Sarah Longoria for serving on the Community Recovery Committee. C. Mr. Coles made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Ms. Nenbee seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 6:57pm.