San Diego Songwriters Guild Meeting Minutes

MEETING INFORMATION

PURPOSE
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the direction and activities of the San Diego Songwriters Guild.
MEETING DATE	MINUTES PREPARED BY:			DOCUMENT LOCATION:
June 7, 2005	Janet Snare		Distributed to SDSG Board Members
NEXT Meeting date	START TIME	END TIME	LOCATION
July 12 @ 7 pm Doubletree Hotel	7:00 p.m.	8:30 p.m.	Doubletree Hotel Lobby, Hazard Center

ATTENDEES

Member	Present
Bree Buckner Correspondence Secretary & Board Member	yes
Cristina Sanchez Industry Liaison & Board Member	yes
Janet Snare Recording Secretary & Board Member	yes
John Pape Web Master	yes
Richard Widney President & Board Member	yes
Rick Munoz Financial Officer & Board Member	yes

(Blue font indicates votes that were taken at the meeting.)

Bree Leaving

Bree will be leaving the San Diego area by mid-July.

Minutes from April 19^th Meeting

Bree brought hard copy of minutes from the April 19^th meeting. No one in the group received these minutes. Bree read the minutes; the highlights were:

• Regarding Kye Fleming’s pitch session, the board thought the turnout was fairly good for a Friday night. Kye is interested in coming back with Mark. In future, try to move sessions to Monday nights for improved turnout.
• There was no treasurer’s report. Had paperwork but needed signatures.
• John Pape added a Songjourney link.

Ashe Street Music Pitch Session

The board agreed that it was a very good pitch session: great comments, great guest who listened to the entire song. There was a fairly small turnout, however, the pitch session didn’t go too long as it might have if there’d been more people.

Bree mentioned that she’d heard people at various places around town talking about the pitch session.

Future Pitch Sessions

To gauge how many members may come to a pitch session, Cristina suggested there might be some sort of non-paying, preregistration process.

To improve turnout, we can post notice of an upcoming pitch session to Reader, Guitar Center, etc. Cristina did this for the Kye Fleming session.

Perhaps we should target the pop/rock audience next time. Pitch session guests might therefore be A&R people, and we may get a lot of performers vs. songwriters. In the past, it’s seemed that pop/rock has drawn a larger crowd than country.

Cristina is getting unsolicited ads from Hilltop Records and American Records in Hollywood. Both seem like good leads that she will pursue regarding pitch sessions.

Paperwork

• Richard said that the membership applications need to be updated. John has the pdf of the file, so will redo, then let Richard know when it’s updated.
• Richard will make copies of the sign-in sheet.
• Cristina will make 50 copies of the FAQ sheet.

Financial Issues

• Richard says SDSG has old and new bank accounts, and talked with John about closing the old account.
• There is a debit/credit card for the new account. Richard, Rick, and Janet are co-signers, however, there is just one card. There is $155 in the new account. Richard gave Rick the checkbook for the new account. The account name is "San Diego Songwriters Guild".
• There was some discussion about what the total account value was.
• Richard had bills that he needs to be reimbursed for, including a quarterly website fee of $70. Richard gave Rick the bills.
• It was decided, for simplicity’s sake, that the new account statements and invoices should be mailed directly to Rick. Per Richard, these statements have been getting lost and not getting picked up at the SDSG mailbox or somehow lost in the ether.

Corporation Status

Apparently, SDSG status as a non-profit organization had been suspended since 2001 because the correct papers had not been filed. Richard has taken care of this issue. Richard will remain the State of California’s contact.

July Newsletter and Upcoming Newsletters

Bree will take care of mailing the next newsletter, if she’s still in town. Otherwise, Janet said she’d take care of it.

The Board decided we needed to get a newsletter out for July, regardless of whether there is a pitch session lined up or not. Furthermore, we should distribute a newsletter every other month, at a minimum.

Cristina mentioned that Mark is looking for content for the newsletter. For the July newsletter:

• We need a new Correspondence Secretary to replace Bree and help with Marketing.
• We should recap the 2 pitch sessions we’ve had this year (Cristina will write something up)
• Have a blurb asking if members have renewed their status.
• Janet will write article about setting a schedule and discipline with regards to songwriting.
• Everyone should search for interesting articles to include in the newsletter. Will need to contact original author for permission to use the article.
• We could send the newsletter to radio stations, etc., for marketing purposes.

In the past, organizations that have contributed to song contests have received free advertising in the newsletter.

Annual Song Contest

We decided to have a song contest with submissions due by October 1, and final award ceremony November 7. Details to be worked out later.

The judging will take place in 2 rounds:

• The board will judge the first round
• Guests could judge the second round

Mark has all the materials, contacts, list of judges (local DJs, store owners).

Future Meetings

Next meeting is scheduled for July 12, 7 pm at the Doubletree Hotel lobby.

Action Items

Topic	Action Items	Assigned to:
Membership Application Form	Update membership application form, then advise Richard.	John
July Newsletter	Mail.	Bree/Janet
FAQ sheet	Make 50 copies.	Cristina
Sign-in sheet	Make copies.	Richard
July Newsletter – recap past sessions	Write a summary of the 2 pitch sessions we’ve had so far this year.	Cristina
July Newsletter – article	Write an article about discipline and songwriting.	Janet
July Newsletter – other articles	Look for articles to include in newsletter. Be sure to get permission from author to use in newsletter.	Everyone

Completed Action Items

Topic	Action Items	Assigned to:
Letter to bank	Janet will draw up letter for Richard and Rick to present to Commercial Capital One bank so that they can have signature cards on file with the bank. DONE	Janet
Banking	All members at the meeting voted to have Richard Widney look into both changing the Guild’s bank account provider, and acquiring a credit card for the Guild. 3/22: Richard looked into account with Commercial Capital One. Paperwork needs to be completed. Richard will work with Rick and John Pape to complete the paperwork. DONE	Richard W., John Pape, Rick Munoz
Membership Roster	Richard W. will hook up with Bob Duffy to get membership roster. 3/22 Per Richard, Bob will continues to maintain roster. However, we need to obtain roster for the April 8 pitch session registration. DONE	Richard W.
Registration Workers	Janet will contact Bob Duffy or Mark Hattersley for Eva Frye’s and Tamara Westgate’s phone numbers, then ask Eva and Tamara if they are able to take care of registration at the pitch session. DONE	Janet
Newsletter	Richard will follow up with Mark H. regarding newsletter. DONE	Richard
Equipment for pitch session	Richard will follow up with Mark H. regarding equipment for pitch session. DONE	Richard
Equipment for Kye	Cristina will bring equipment for Kye’s critique sessions on Saturday, April 9. DONE	Cristina
Pitch session	Get a guest for a pitch session ASAP. Rick Munoz forwarded motion. Other members at meeting voted yes. DONE. Cristina booked Kye Fleming for April 8 pitch session and April 9 individual critiques.	Cristina
Banking	All members at the meeting voted to have Richard Widney look into both changing the Guild’s bank account provider, and acquiring a credit card for the Guild. DONE. Richard got account with Commercial Capital One.	Richard W.
Samples of letters	Janet will send Cristina samples of letters she has used to contact prospective guests for pitch sessions. DONE.	Janet
Meeting minutes	Janet will compile and distribute meeting minutes to Board members/officers. DONE.	Janet