THIS SITE IS MEANT TO SERVE AS AN ARCHIVE FOR LADYFEST 2000. THAT FESTIVAL IS OVER - BUT OTHER LADIES ARE PLANNING THEIR OWN! FOR INFO ON ANY OTHER LADYFEST (PAST OR FUTURE) GO HERE.
** Information about the upcoming Olympia ladyfest in 2005 will be posted on a new website, as soon as it is available.   **
All of the information on these pages was current in August, 2000 and has not been updated since.We would like to encourage ladies to take what they can from our experience and create their own events in their own communities. Please keep us updated.

This page is an archive of our progress in planning ladyfest 2000. The purpose of this archive is to inform anyone who may be interested in organizing a similar event of decisions, problems, and fun we are having organizing this event. Also, it's for people who are just curious. Warning: it's loooooooong.

BE ADVISED:
The contents of this page are issues being discussed among ladyfest organizers, and none of it is definite. Absolutely concrete info will be posted on the NEWS page and you should always refer to that page!

AFTER HOURS
BANDS BOOKING
BUDGET REVENUE FUNDRAISING
CHILDRENS ACTIVITIES
DOCUMENTATION
FACILITIES AND ACCESSIBILITY
HOSPITALITY
MERCHANDISE/BOOTHS/ZINES
PERFORMANCE ART AND SPOKEN WORD
PR/ADVERTISING/PRESS
PROGRAM
VISUAL ARTS AND FILM
VOLUNTEER COORDINATION
WEBSITE
WOMEN AND GUITARS
WORKSHOPS AND PANELS

MEETING MINUTES ARCHIVE
Skip to: 12/30/99 1/11 1/24 2/1 2/6 2/10 2/24 3/6 3/19 4/5 4/17 4/18 5/6 5/14 5/27|| 6/11 || 6/18 || 6/25 || 7/8 || 7/22 || 7/29

July 19
notes by Erin

everyone and their aunt was at this meeting for four fun-filled hours.
Committee stuff:
**Leah/Workshops: we're doing a zine of how to stuff for all the things that just didnt fit into the ladyfest schedule/budget/etc. anyone with a kinkos scam is a friend of ours. Also, there will be a rad workshop about making skateboards AT the skatepark Friday of the fest. But if any Federal Agents or whoever ask it is NOT a part of ladyfest because we don't have insurance to have people skating or something. But we're all glad it is happening because it sounds cool.
**Tina is great
**Scheduling/S. Dougher: asked people to sign up to work a few hours at the HQ during the fest. You know, just in case you had some free time or got bored?
**Tricia: Documentation met the people who will be videotaping during the fest and they seemed nice. She is still kind of short-handed for photographers.
**Neva: has 30 KAOS radio spots that are "generic" they can be modified to include special info with 24 hours notice to Neva.
**Rebecca: designed pink/black stickers. they will be done on Friday from Tumwater Printing. In case anyone was wondering, the BAZAAAR is Saturday of the fest from 12-5 at Praxis. email queenbee@olywa.net to sell your stuff.
**Maggie/Publicity: hella busy with scheduling all these bloody "chats". Northwest Cable news will be coming to LF on Tuesday to do a piece that will air Friday or Thursday and that should be cool.
**Natalie/Bands: filling out facilities needs list is time-consuming, yet fun!
**Faith/After Hours: awesome
**Sasa/Website/Passes: bummed that Ladies we Like isnt getting updated as much as she like but just a tad busy with the Pass situation. Sasa wants to up the number of passes we are allowed to sell, I think that is going to happen. We've sold a little over 600 passes.
**Julie/Merch: awesome
**Susan/Documentation: trying to find cheap film, she is researching. Susan says the audio recording people are nice and wore a shirt that really freaked Erin out.
**Bridget/Film/P. Art: feisty damn performance artists demand to have "their own room" to crash in. Busy dealing with their drama/needs. **Audrey/Art: hanging up art shows on Friday, woowoo. STILL LOOKING FOR MANNEQUINS AND WIGS! wants 2 tv's + vcr's. Is making their own program
**Teresa/Budget: explained wiley ways that money pick up and drop off will work out. The first person to be "hosting" (THE COMMITTE PERSON) an event at a venue needs to go pick up the moneybox before the event starts. this is to take the money for people who are not passholders but want to go to the event (workshop, day show, performance artists thing... I believe the art shows are free)
**Kanako/Misc.: picking up a few hundred programs on Friday. Massive ones on Monday.
**Jennifer/Volunteer: there are still tech job opens for lights, stage managers, sound, staffing the ticket booth @ The Capital Theater.

agenda stuff:

1. we made the decision to go forth with producing a cd of Ladyfest. we will have to ask each preson involved (artist, speaker, robot) if they are willing to donate their royalties. Pat Maley will be compensated for the time we spend in the Yoyo Studios working on this beast. Chainsaw records will get some money (projected 2 year turnaround). Everything after that goes to Safeplace & Pat Shively in what I assume will be the same percentages as the proceeds of ladyfest. There is much ado over what will be on the cd. Enhanced? Just audio? Just rock music? Just Erin reading her haikus? Thus there has been another committee formed "the seedy committee" to decide what the hell is going to happen with that. Whoever has teh list of who signed up to be on it should post that.

2. men @ ladyfest: the issue of the three kings of Olympia being involved with ladyfest was discussed and discussed and then discusssed some more. why are they everywhere? Basically: pat is nice for offering but let's all get vicious with each other until a woman agrees to do it! and that woman was MOLLY ZUCKERMAN who agreed to do it with help from Kelly C., Julie B, and possibly Becca & Michelle and whoever wants to! Most people want the store to happen because convenience is important, money that would be raised is important, lots of stuff is important, being in a room that is 150 degrees is important, all the Ladyfest organizers are really cool. The discussion was really awesome, I'm glad it took place. And for volunteer stuff, the people who get first pick are people who have a financial need to be volunteering for the pass. then comes the "general pool" and jennifer is going to thoughtfully suggest that boys allow girls to sign up for stuff first. Visibility does not necessarily equal empowerment. A woman tearing a ticket at the door isnt going to inspire someone to go put on their own Ladyfest. 53 LADIES spending 7 months putting together a festival is! blahlblahblah

MEETING NOTES 7/22/2000 @ ABC HOUSE 3-5 PM ladies present: lisa, beth s., leah, jen, julie, electra, eirn, faith, summer, jennifer s., tisha, stacey hurd, morgan, jen combe, tricia, jen, rebecca, sasa (facilitator), neva, bridget, kanako, teresa.
**announcments: program party cancelled
**next meeting is @ 7pm wed, july 26th at the arrowspace BE THERE!!
**NEXT MEETING FACILITATOR: LEAH**let her know of any agenda items ahead of time notetaker: erin
committee reports:
*morgan*portland queen committee: she found a place to make a ladyfest display window on 3rd and burnside (highly trafficked!) go morgan! there is no pdx benefit show happening, the gal that was the contact for it flaked
*merchandise*rebecca and julie: we're having buttons made, and mirrored compacts, punk patches, and hopefully stickers. nikki mcclure designed a new design for another tshirt, and wants it to be 2 color on a white tshirt, but the 2 girls in garage can't do the 2 color thing, so i guess we're stuck, unfortunately. plans for the bazaar are coming along; many girls/women have signed up, so that's exciting. both people from oly and from out of town. i'll be making individual flyers for that so people who aren't attending ladyfest can find out about it too.
*lisa on behalf of molly/program committe: the program will be ready on friday. there will be large schedules to go in the windows of the theater (and, as we decided later in the meeting, at all the ladyfest venues)
*documentation: video training has begun. those people who are putting on events for ladyfest and definitely need them to be documented, need to contact the committee asap.
**budget*teresa, kanako: EMP will not be taping, as it turns out. it's too spendy for them GURL.COM sent a list of bands they wanna chat with kanako made the posters and they look really great.
*sasa*website, passes, and everything else: she's made a bunch of passes (susan designed them and they look really great, too!!) SHE NEEDS PHOTOS OF ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE A.S.A.P.!! now. performers passes will be in envelopes with their payment checks at the ladyfest headquarters, above oly world news, hopefully starting on the 31st ( if i remember correctly)
*beth s.*facilities: beth still needs to know everything everyone possibly needs, as of yesterday, including things like vocal mics, all instruments, etc music 6000 is donating tons of equipment for the whole week, so they rock. she needs to know if theres any preference to how the stage will be set up.
*allison: needs dj's for between bands on wednesday, both day and night shows. if you know of any gals who do this, let her know!
*jennifer s.*volunteer committee: made up schedule for all volunteer shifts there will be 2 trainings for volunteers to attend: sunday and monday, july 30 and 31 from 4-6 at oly world news boys can volunteer but women have first pick; guys will most likely be doing the behind the scenes stuff; women should be in the visible roles
*neva*women and guitars: she has set up 11 workshops so far and a bunch of shows. One show at traditions (sounds from venus, i think it's called) is free and open to ladyfest pass holders; all other shows are reduced price for ladyfest pass holders. women and guitars pass holders get to attend ladyfest workshops with their passes.

**THEKLA AND ALCOHOL: although there will be absolutely no alcohol allowed in any of the ladyfest venues, pit at thekla has asked that he be allowed to make the upstairs at thekla a 21+ hangout spot where alcohol can be served and consumed. we said ok to this, as he is being generous with this, and it is part of his business, after all, to sell liquor. we are going to check with the insurance policy we have to make sure we won't be breaking any big important rules. i think that's it. then we had some drinks and snacks and a guy from the olympian came and took some pictures and we took pictures of each other for our passes and we talked and hung out. see you at the next meeting. xo, rebecca

Ladyfest Meeting Minutes July 8, 2000 Only 24 days to Ladyfest!
Action Items:
1. All committees need to e-mail Sarah D. the list performers/presenters who are getting paid, along with the amount and who the check should be written out to. Please cc this to Kanako. E-mail addresses sarahdougher@olywa.net and dumpstervalues@netscape.net.
2. Each committee needs to decide which of their events cost what - $8, $5, or free. E-mail this to Sarah D, Teresa, and Molly (?) ASAP.
3. Volunteer Needs ­ see notes
4. Upcoming schedule changes ­ see notes for protocol

Committee Reports:
Performance Art/Spoken Word/Film & Video The schedule is complete, and there was another donation for film. More of the film/video makers are coming than expected. Bridget asked about discounted full passes for performers. Clarification: Performers do not receive a partial pass. They receive 4 tickets. Two tickets are worth entrance to a $8 event. One ticket is worth entrance to a $5 event. Performers can purchase a full pass for a discounted price of $40. If you have performers interested in doing so, e-mail their names to Sasa, and they will need to contact her directly.
Website / Pass Sales The schedule is up on the website. Within minutes, tons of people looked at it. This is called good metrics in the web world. Susan e-mailed the pass-design to Sasa. It looks great. The pass will have the phone number, PO box, web address, and dates on it. Organizer passes will be a different color to distinguish them. Organizers need to start getting their photos to Sasa. Sasa will need help getting the passes together. We’ve sold 442 passes so far!
Budget Carrie is on tour, and Kanako is in The Transfused so all questions should go to Teresa for now. We don’t have our latest numbers yet, but will have them for the next meeting. Teresa is currently working on the sponsorship contracts for gURL, emp, and sonicnet, and trying to arrange for interviews/tapings. Morgan is setting up a benefit show in Portland at Meow Meow. Go Morgan. She’s also gotten some ads from Portland businesses.
Childcare The Antioch interns called around to all the day care places in town and put together a list of day cares that will take same day drop-offs. This will be printed in the program.
Band Committee Everything is fine. Workshops The yard sale raised $211.50! Great Job, Ladies! Thanks to all who helped. The Oly food co-op donated ingredients for the yard sale/bake sale. They are also interested in supporting Ladyfest. Sarah D. will pass the contact info. on to the hospitality committee for a possible donation. TESC is also sponsoring a couple workshops. They will do some publicity for these events.
Program Molly wants catchy names for the rock shows. Bridget will get names for events to Molly.
Schedule The schedule is complete. The program will print this schedule. There will probably be changes, first on the insert, and then on announcements and flyers at the Capitol Theatre. If changes occur, be sure to let Sarah or Maggie know ASAP so they can announce it/arrange for publicity. Sarah will drop off hard copies of the schedules at Dumpster Values. Pick them up there.
Volunteers Jennifer handed out a flyer for recruiting volunteers. Please ask your friends/acquaintances if they are interested. The first day alone has 30 volunteer spots. Jennifer needs to know exactly how each committee plans to have volunteers at their events. E-mail this to her within the next week. She also needs to know which events need to have specific technical stuff, as well as plans for arranging that. We also discussed money flow during the festival. Teresa will write this up and distribute at a meeting.
Documentation There was an article in the Olympian about Ladyfest, crediting Paul Allen for the idea. Yuck. We discussed articles and representation of Ladyfest. Sarah will call Maggie about sending some different photos to the Olympian. If you have photos, e-mail these to Maggie. Thanks, Maggie. We know you weren’t here to take this on.
Women and Guitars Women and Guitars will have workshops every afternoon at Applebaums, and night shows with the following schedule. Tues, Thurs. Friday ­ Traditions. Sat, Sun ­ Capitol Playhouse. Neva also mentioned that Women and Guitars passes will be available soon. She realized that when she conceived of these passes, she thought of them as allowing access to all Ladyfest events except for music. The steering committee will discuss this, but it hasn’t been mentioned before, and hasn’t been planned for in the budget. Neva also encouraged people to send story ideas to her, and she will try to print them in Sound Waves.

Other News Ladyfest Headquarters will be at Oly World News, open 11a-6p. This will be a questions/directions/first aid/lost and found place. It will need to be staffed, and Sarah will be getting a schedule together.

meeting july 2 at the ABC house
Present were: Faith, Erin, Carrie, Sasa, Jennifer, Leah, Tricia, Lisa, Stacey, Olivia, Sarah, Audrey, Julie, Neva, Beth g., Molly, Teresa, Bridget, Electra, the 2 women from Antioch, and two other women who's names i don't know (sorry)
Facilitator-Sarah Dougher Notes-Lisa Darms
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Volunteer - Jennifer reported that there will be 2 volunteer trainings july 30 and 31 from 4-6 at olympia world news. She is writing up a clearer volunteer policy to clarify the different roles men and women can take as volunteers. In addition, she said she has arranged a meeting between the recorded audio engineers and Pat Maley for July 17th.
Website/Passes- sasa received shirts Ladyfest shirts made by Kanako which will be for sale thru buyolympia.com. 380 passes have been sold.
Budget- Carrie- the budget committee is distributing flyers in other parts of the country in an attempt to accelerate pass sales. Budget reports submitted by committees last week indicate that we are doing a good job of keeping to our projected budgets, and in some cases are coming in below projected numbers. The adwork deadline is now july 7th, although there will still be an insert for those who submit ads after the 7th. In regards to Neva's proposal for prining the program as a part of Sound Waves, Carrie said there are too many specifics related to corporate logos etc. to change the format of the program at this late date. The budget committee will be posting a list of all sponsors and individuals who have submitted ads. If you know of someone missing from this list, let the budget committee know.
Bands- Erin announced 3 new confirmed bands - The softies, Fake, and Rainbow Sugar.
Neva- an edition of sound waves will be going to the printer july11. Neva will accept anyone's contribution in the form of articles about ladyfest events, etc. and will be printing the schedule.
Facilities- Beth is soliticing water donations. Will be working with Scheduling to find a space for a performer's 'green room'
Merchandise- Julie - 2girlsinagarage are beginning production of ladyfest shirts this week. there will be a Ladyfest Bazaar in praxis on july 5th. Ladyfest performers/artists will be able to sell their products in the cap. theatre mezzanine (?), bands will be able to sell product only on the day and in the venue that they play, other artists can have their stuff for sale all week. Art- Audrey reported the shows are coming along nicely.
Documentation- Lisa reported that Donna Dresch has committed to putting the Ladyfest CD out on Chainsaw, and has been in discussion with Tina H. about this. Also- all committees that want to assure that a specific event will be covered (photographically/by video) shouls let the documentation committee know.
Facilities - A form was handed out for Facilities needs. This information needs to be to Beth (beatrice@bust.com) by July 3. Sarah- the almost final scedule is available for viewing on the onelist. Everyone should double and triple check the information and spelling. All additions to the schedule need to be to sarah by the 6th but hopefully earlier. Program- Molly handed out a guideline for the program, which follows:
It has been confirmed that the workshops committee is making an additional zine for the descriptions of various workshops. this is also true of the art and performance art and film committees. with that in mind, the following information will be included in the program please contact me immediately if you believe i have forgotten something of importance, even if it seems obvious, like how could i miss it. program will include:
1. introduction of ladyfest. this includes mission statement. (if you have something you wish to write for this intro, please submit to me at orca books by july 6th.)
2. writings by YOU on the subjects uotlined below. (SEE BELOW)
3.map of olympia, suggested restaurants, hotels, etc.
4. EMERGENCY and other numbers. (crisis clinic, safeplace)
5. page dedicated to Pat Shively's memory.
6. ADS (lots) thank you's to sponsors
7.where the proceeds are going (SAfepalce/Pat Shively Foundation)
8. Last but not least the schedules for each individual day, in graphic and verbal layout...
DUE DATES: alternate introductions (i will accept and print all intros.) written by you and into my hands (or emailed) by july 6 (thurs) FINALIZED SCHEDULE TO ME 9nat sarah or anyone else) by july 7
LADYFEST PROGRAM PRINTED JULY 11 (tuesday) tuesday is also the night i cry myself to sleep or pat myself on the back right before drinking ALL the alcohol
wednesday morning i awaken and begin program to become better person and improve my ability to work with others.

The paragraph in which i use "OPINION" 4 times *****Due to drastically different OPINIONS of women on various subjects, and my sincere desire to include at least a few of those OPINIONS in the program, i have compiled a list of 6 hot topics (in my OPINION) on which i would like to invite your OPINIONS. Ideally each topic would have 3 paragraphs voicing dissenting, intriguing, discussion-worthy ideas. this section of the program would take up 6 pages. I don't mind if you use quotes by authors you like, in fact i think it's a dandy idea. topics are as follows: MEDIA* ECONOMICS* FEMINISM* ART* FAME?CELEBRITY* OBJECTIFICATION OF WOMEN? representation of women broad topics, but see what you can do. the way i see it, this program is the "IMAGE" the media will see. if we can make it intelligent, sincere and complex, it can help to fuck up their plan of simplifying and mocking us.

agenda: potential profits- at the last meeting it was proposed that any profits that MAY result from ladyfest be donated 70% to Safeplace and 30% to the Pat Shively fund. After discussion and clarification that this means ONLY money over and above budgets, debts, etc. the propsal was approved by consensus. NEXT MEETING sat july 8th at molly's house - corner of eastside and legion. 4-6pm (following the ladyfest garage sale)

6/25 Meeting Minutes
Present: Maggie (Scheduling, Publicity), Bridget (Performance Art/Spoken Word, Film), Lisa (Visual Art, Documentation), Jennifer (Volunteer, Childcare list), Tisha (Volunteer, Childcare list), Susan (Documentation), Kanako (Budget), Sasa (Web, Passes), Neva (Women and Guitars), Julie (Merchandise, Bands), Jennifer (Volunteers), Tricia (Documentation)
Facilitator: Kanako Notes: Sasa
Comittee Updates:
Web: Performance Art/Spoken Word added to donation list on the website. Bridget requested film to be added as well. Sasa is collecting items for the ebay auction, which Lisa has volunteered to photograph.
Women & Guitars: Neva found out the Capitol Playhouse is willing/excited about having Women & Guitars use their space on Saturday night, and maybe Friday. Their space has higher capacity than traditions, so neva will be selling more passes. Neva has confirmed a some of her performers, including Mimi Fox, and will finalize her workshops in the coming week.
Merchandise : Julie is trying to get the T-shirts done in the next week or two (checks in the mail!). She cannot take on the Bazaar thing by herself, and will wait for Rebecca to get back to work on it with her. Rebecca will be back in the second week of July.
Bands: Band committee is working out their committee's volunteering schedule (during the festival). They have been working on finalizing the schedule and ensuring that people with multiple performances (music as well as workshops, for instance) don't have conflicting schedules.
Publicity: They just got $2,000 for ads, which will run primarily in weeklies as it's too late for most monthly magazines that will be out before ladyfest happens. They will try to exchange ads as much as possible instead of buying them. The committee will also work on an "official" ladyfest poster to advertise tickets on sale, etc. They also made fliers and handbills, which natalie will be mailing to record stores nationwide.
Film: Met with Sarah about scheduling on saturday (6/24). She has A LOT of film submissions and is trying to get through them before the scheduling/program deadline. She is working on an outdoor space to have a late night outside film event during the festival. Bridget also wants to have an organizers/volunteers movie night before the festival, because she got so many submissions and doesn't have room for all of them and we should check them out! Bridget is also thinking about/planning a video compilation of ladyfest movies.
Volunteer: Jennifer put up fliers for volunteers locally, is still working on the details of how they will meet up/hold training sessions. She may do a PSA on KAOS this week. It was re-established that ladies have priority in volunteer positions.
Visual Art: Audrey is working on the Art budget...Lisa is photographing auction items get in touch with her by phone or email to arrange a time to drop stuff by her house. Flat/small items that can just be scanned can go straight to me (sasa), you can either call to plan to meet, or just drop them off at KRS. It would be helpful if people could suggest starting bids for items they donate.
Childcare List: Tisha and Jennifer have been working on a list of childcare providers... Maggie suggested they contact her mom.
Documentation: One of the sound engineers documentation had lined up has cancelled, so they are looking for another engineer. Documentation has to add about $1,000 to their budget for tapes, which they had originally planned to have donated. They have provided the band committee with release forms to give performers. The committee would like other committees to let them know of specific events they would like to have documented. Tricia is waiting to hear about an editing system on tuesday, which will have streaming video capabilities to broadcast ladyfest over the internet.
Budget: Kanako handed out handbills, fliers, donation forms, etc. for people to post and use to solicit donations. She has not received completed budget packets back (she handed these out at the last meeting) from all committees and needs those ASAP. We will still sell ads past the deadline, but later ads will be on an insert that gets stapled into the program.
Steering: Steering committee met on wednesday, and went over each committee and tried to fill in gaps. They talked about how tickets/door stuff would work at the festival, women and guitars budget issues, documentation's need for engineers and the release form issue, and how we need to work on more local publicity about tickets on sale and volunteer opportunities. Also we talked about the program, and how several committees were working on zines related to their events, and perhaps the program doesn't need to be as details as was originally planned...

There wasn't really an agenda for this meeting, but there were several announcements, which i emailed earlier, but will paste in here anyway:

**NEXT week at the 7/2 (!!) meeting we will decide where the proceeds from the festival will go. The current proposal is that it be divided between Safeplace (70%) and the Pat Shively Foundation (30%). PLEASE let someone who is going to the meeting know your opinion on this issue if you can't make it, as we will make a decision at the next meeting (provided we have a quorum of 10 ladies representing 10 committees). You can also make alternate proposals through someone else who plans to be there.
**BECAUSE the program deadline is so soon, and more ads are needed, we will continue to sell ads and any that don't make it into the program will be put into an insert, which can get stapled into the program later on.
**LISA has volunteered to photograph auction items. You can call her or email her to arrange a time to drop stuff by her house. If the item(s) are small and flat, sasa will scan them. You can call or email her to drop them off, or leave them at KRS. If you can, include a starting bid amount for your item. Maybe we can make these tax-deductible?
**NEVA will be publishing her monthly (?) paper "Appaloosa Papers" on July 10, with a deadline of July 8. She would like as many people as possible to contribute stuff related to ladyfest, this includes event listings, solicitations for volunteers, yardsale announcements, articles, interviews, etc. etc. etc. She plans to print 5,000
**JENNIFER is having an early evening cocktail party for ladyfest organizers, which will happen saturday, july 22 and will be combined with the meeting happening that day. It will be at ABC house from meeting end-about7. Bridget also wants to have a movie night before the festival. next meeting: sunday, july 2nd facilitator: susan note taker: lisa vw: jennifer !!! email agenda items (your vote on the proceeds issue!!) to jennifer before thursday. she should post the agenda thursday.

Meeting June 18th, Arrowspace. Present: Ricky, Amber, Kelly, Natalie, Tobi, Leah, Faith, Lisa, Beth, Jennifer,Neva, Kanako. There was some confusion as to who had volunteered to be facilitator. Leah took it on. notetaker-Lisa
Agenda Items: Performer Passes Budget Volunteer Issues

COMMITTEE UPDATES:
Workshops: Leah handed out a tentative schedule. She stressed that it is still in the tentative stage. If anyone expresses a desire to see this, i will type it up and mail it to the onelist.
Bands: Natalie and Tobi said the are not asking more bands until the money issue has been resolved. The committee has been discussing who will be stage managers during the festival. they want to make contracts for the performers to sign, and wanted to speak to someone on doumentation about their contracts. Jennifer brought up her concern that as Volunteer co-ordinator she wants to be in on any decision the band committee makes about choosing stage managers. Band committee clarified that they were just thinking about who was willing/able. Beth asked if the band committee needs a female sound person for the Thekla venue. Kelly is contacting Pitt at Thekla about this.
Budget: Kanako handed out a packet that shows how much money we have, and how it has been divided proportionally between committees based on thier original budget requests. This clarifies how much money each committee actually has to spend at this time. We are only half-way to our goal of 65,000$. Kanako requested that each committee supply her with a summation of dollars committed, and projected costs. It is crucial that all committee co-ordinators get a copy of this packet, fill it out and return it to Kanako by next weekend. Co-ordinators not at the meeting should arrange to get this from Kanako. She said there were varying degrees of optimism within the budget committee as to whether committees will end up getting their full requested budget amounts.
Steering Committee: Kanako reported on the SC, which met one hour before the big meeting. Members who showed were Jennifer, Beth, Lisa and Kanako on behalf of Budget. We discussed the need for all Lf organiazers to commit to 12 hours of work during the festival. While we realize that most of us will be working non-stop during the fest anyway, it's important for us to commit to and schedule this time so that we can limit our need for outside volunteers. It's hard to go too far with this without a schedule, but if people could at least tell us if they know they will not be able to committ this time, that will help. This came out of our concern that too many full and partial passes are being given away (from a financial standpoint) Organizers will be receiving 52 full passes. In addition hundreds of partial passes for performers/volunteers/artists will be comped. Several people noted that many artists will not be using their passes. The SC also recommended upping the present pass sale cut-off from 450 to 600.
Volunteer: Jennifer said there will be two types of volunteer positions- one with open training, and one that will solicit volunteers who will be screened for more 'skilled' and resonsibility-laden positions (like stage manager, for example). If anyone knows of people wanting to volunteer, have them call the LF phone # rather than emailing. Facilities: Beth reminded everyone that the deadline for facilities requests is July 1.
Documentation: Lisa reported that the documentation com. had met with Tina at KRS to discuss putting out a Ladyfest CD. It was decided that a music cd should be accompanied by one or two CDroms with interviews, video footage, still art, etc. Tina said it was much cheaper to provide visuals on CD than thru printing. Tina is going to help the Doc. com. put this out, probably on chainsaw with Donna's help. The money for this project is not budgeted and will be acquired through fund-raising.
Art: Lisa had nothing new to report. But I remembered afterwards that at out meeting the art com discussed putting out a visual art program in zine form to provide extra info about the shows and artists. We moved on to Agenda items.
Passes - it was felt that this had already been covered in committee reports. we did discuss trying to the word out better about passes being on sale. Various people will be making flyers to bring to Seattle. We came to a consensus that pass sales should be upped to 600. We decided further discussion was difficult without Sasa present.
Budget- Kanako felt she covered this in Com report. a discussion did arise about money that is being donated thru the website specifically for under-funded committees. it was decided that this money should definitely go to the intended committee rather than in the common pool.
Volunteerism - was discussed in committee reoprts. NEXT MEETING: is SATURDAY june 24 at 3pm in arrowspace. Facilitator=Kanako Notetaker=Faith

LADYFEST MEETING: JUNE 11 FACILITATOR: Jenn Shafer NOTETAKER: Kathryn Lewis PRESENT: Erin, Teresa, Sarah D, Lisa, Molly, Faith, Elliot, Natalie, Sasa, Trish, Neva
AGENDA: Committee Reports, Steering Committee, Women in Guitars
VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE: Jenn Posted update on web, Jenn can't answer individual inquires about volunteering. She is currently referring people to the web site. There will be two volunteer trainings, the first on June 25th, and the second on Sun. July 30 from 2-5. The location of these trainings has not been determined.
WORKSHOPS COMMITTEE: Erin Workshops are moving along, people are flaking out.
MERCHANDISE: Co-coordinator, Rebecca P. is in Italy, the committe is working primarily through e-mail.
AFTER HOURS: Faith Faith raised the question of compensation for people who are doing a single project.
BUDGET: Teresa Ladyfest currently has 30,000 in the bank, which includes the revenue from 90 pass sales. Stella Maars has donated thank you notes to the group. People will not get paid without filling out a reimbursement or request form. There was a discussion of the free pass situation/volunteers, organizers.
BANDS: Natalie The band committee is scrambling to get all of the bands confirmed. There was a brief discussion of purchasing plane tickets.
PROGRAM: Molly The deadline for the program is June 30th. Molly displayed a draft of the program's cover. She is currently writing the introduction for the program. Molly determined that the maximum amount of space to describe a workshop or panel is two lines.
PARADE: Lisa Lisa does not want to do the parade anymore - if anyone is interested in taking it on talk to Lisa. Someone should contact the Downtown Association.
SCHEDULING: Sarah The scheduling date was today - the scheduling committee will be working on the schedule in the next week or so. Sarah is making a list of requests from chick click.
FACILITIES: Deadline is July 1.
WEBSITE: Sasa needs the names and number of people on each committee.

AGENDA ITEMS: Women in Guitars: Neva will make 85 passes available for the women in guitars music events. Iris will not be performing, so passes are 35 dollars. Neva wants to sell passes on the Ladyfest website, and Ladyfest will be given 5 dollars for each pass she sells to cover cost. Everyone agreed to Neva's proposal, and the logistics of selling Women in Guitars on the LF website is being explored.
STEERING COMMITTEE A steering committee was created. There was a discussion of what the role of the steering committee should be. It was decided that the steering committee will be a body of people who work out some logistical questions -refer to steering committee e-mail of last month. The group decided that there should be a Ladyfest office, someone suggested renting Pat's office, or Harry's. There was a discussion about free passes for volunteers/organizers. The steering committee is comprised of: Lisa Darms, Sarah D., Sasa, Teresa, Jennifer Shafer, Neva, Trish, and Kathryn. I think that I'm leaving someone off the list... The steering committee will meet an hour before big meetings.

Committee Reports:
Jenn--volunteer committee *full pass awarded to those who volunteer for 12 hours *partial pass for 8 hrs of work *introducing the new girls on the committee, Tisha and Jen, who are here from Ohio (woohoo!) Antioch college, here to help us and get credit for school.
Natalie-band committee *things are going fine, as planned, still working on the schedule, almost done confirming everyone
Leah-workshops *still working on scheduling, they posted the list of the workshops that will be held (amazing!)
Bridget--performance and spoken word *confirmed:penny arcade, stacy ann chin, inga muscio *there will be spoken word performances between bands *film and video getting lots of submissions
Beth G.--hospitality *wants bottled water and coolers for all performers *trying to figure out accomodations; hotels, camping, etc
Neva--women and guitars *concerned that there won't be an audience for her shows during ladyfest; she's looking for feedback on this. Neva was disappointed that not more ladyfest organizers attended her blues show which brought up this concern of lack of audience.
Susan--documentation *working out audio situation--which has been challenging, as Susan doesn't know much about how audio works... *donna d. is still interested in putting out the ladyfest cd, more to come on that later in the game *legal release form is almost done
Rebecca--merchandise *still squaring away the t-shirt printing...production of pre-sale shirts will begin this week. *still looking to confirm the lady bazaar that we hope will happen on saturday, all day, at praxis (maybe, hopefully)
Sasa--website and so much more *everyone need to tell sasa of people who need passes, if they are not already on her list. She needs this info at the next meeting *working on the message board to be posted on the website, also for rides and accomodations *is trying to figure out when to begin giving out passes at the beginning of the festival
Beth S--facilities *needs to know what we need for equipment by June 1 *needs more help!!! anyone????????? Kanako--budget *not much new *tacoma considered "local" for donations, seattle and portland, not
Tricia Abel--ladyfest video *wanted to ok soliciting/receiving large donations from large corporations--Avid and Sony (i believe) *we voted 'yes' because we'd be getting a lot, and we felt it was worth it!!! a great video editing system and cameras. and we don't have to hang a stupid banner or anything like that.

Agenda
Childcare *what is up with this? nobody is really working on it, but many feel strongly that it is important to address, especially since it was one of the original ideas about how the festival would work.... *we brainstormed ideas, deciding that we would put together a resource list that parents could refer to while they're here. *also, we talked about trying to provide activites that kids in attendance could go to; arts activities, workshops, etc
Committee boundaries *Erin asks that everyone take care when talking to people about their potential involvment in the festival; don't casually assure someone that they will be able to perform/participate without knowing that this is true!! will lead to misunderstandings and akwardness, no doubt
Passes for performers and guests *we decided (after much discussion) that each individual artist/musician will receive 2 tickets good for 2 big shows OR 4 "small" shows. For example: 2 capitol theater shows, OR 1 theater show and 2 workshops, OR 4 workshops, OR 1 theater show, a workshop, and a midnite sun show, etc........they can use these however they would like-horde them to themselves, share them with family, friends, whatever. NEXT MEETING: LEAH--VIBES QUEEN JEN--FACILITATOR KATHRYN--NOTES

5/14/00

Present: Teresa, Rebecca, Molly, Beth, Tracy, Faith, Susan, Julie, Leah, Erin, Kanako, Sasa Facilitator: Susan --- Note taker: Sasa --- Vibe watcher: Erin

Committee Updates:
Program/Molly: Ready to start collecting sponsor/ad info. People should give info on in-kind donations to budget and program committees for them to get a mention in the program. They can have a business-size ad in the program. Deadline for all submissions to program is July 1st.
Merch/Rebecca: Merch has three shirt designs - black ink on pink shirt, red on white, and silver on black. they also want to make a tank top. All shirts have "hands" logo on them, Nikki McClure will make another design in July. Merch is also working on the bazaar, which should be a one-day, indoor event.
Budget/Teresa + Kanako: Teresa will be out of town intermittently for a while, so budget concerns and questions should be addressed to Kanako (dumpstervalues@netscape.net or call dumpster values (360) 705-3772). Budget committee has been getting lots of local sponsorships lately. Only local/independent businesses may sponsor a specific event, corporate sponsors are festival underwriters. Ladyfest has approximately $30,000 before ticket and merch sales, and we may be at the point where we can stop taking corporate cash! At this point there was some talk about wanting to pay people well VS. wanting to limit corporate sponsorship - this discussion continues after committee updates....
Web/Sasa: We will start selling passes monday, may 22. To cover credit card processing fees, full passes will be $52.50 and partial passes will be $31.25. They are $50/$30 through the mail. The full conditions of the passes are posted at www.ladyfest.org/buy/ - i passed out a printed copy of those pages, some minor revisions were made. Things to note: Admission to all events is first come, first serve. We will not hold spaces for pass holders. No individual performer is guaranteed, and refunds will not be issued for any cancellation except for the festival itself. People buying full passes need to send a photo in, partial passes do not need a photo. Passes will be picked up at the festival, and there will be a $1 charge for getting a photo taken, and a $1 charge for getting a pass made at the festival. Kids 10 and under are free. There will also be donation passes, which cost more than regular passes and the difference goes to ladyfest. Workshop committee and Performance art committee are encouraged to submit a list of under-funded events so folks buying donation passes can specify where their donation is spent, if they choose.
Workshops/Erin + Leah: Pat Graney (sp?), a prison rights activist, has been confirmed. Workshop guests are getting an average of $30 compensation. Most of us at the meeting were (or seemed to be) pretty shocked at this news, and we talked about $$/value placed on performers/class issues/etc. - longer discussion follows after committee updates.
Bands/Julie: Band committee is within their budget - cool! They have several new confirmations (posted on the website) and they are finalizing their list.
Documentation/Susan: Working on getting some in-kind donations from Tacoma businesses. Engineers for ladyfest will be Donna, Radio, Laura from Evergreen, and another girl whose name i forgot.... (help?)

( note from Susan: I wanted to make it really clear to Donna & everyone involved that Donna had expressed an interest in putting out the ladyfest CD--someone had spoken with her about putting it out on chainsaw and she said it sounded like a good idea. At the meeting, everyone agreed that Chainsaw would be a great label to have it on & I said I would contact Donna. I haven't contacted her yet!!!!! So i don't want to surprise Donna with this info that we've decided to put it out on her label, because the details of this haven't been discussed. Also, we haven't decided (i thought) anything about the proceeds from it that were above pressing costs and royalties; suggestions were charity, future ladyfests, or back to the record label. Another thing--if Bands get automatic royalties from compilation CDs, wouldn't the people whose interviews we excerpt be entitled to the same royalties unless they signed an agreement? xoSusan)

After Hours/Faith + Tracy: Schedule is almost ready, should be final within a couple of weeks. New ideas include an informal slumber-party type movie night with tons of popcorn, and a metal karaoke night.
Performance Art/Beth: New confirmations include Penny Arcade, Inga Muscio, and Stacyann Chin.

There was a big discussion about money and related issues going on during the committee updates and after. I didn't really take notes, what I have is "long discussion of values/class...lack of early planning...reconciling corporate $$ w/ paying performers" So I'm trying to reconstruct this from memory, and it's obviously an issue that affects a lot of people emotionally and is really affected by our own experience. So I apologize if I forget anything, or misunderstood anything people said, please correct!!

This discussion sort-of started with the budget committee's report about being almost ready to stop taking corporate sponsorships, which is really cool because ladyfest is more about community efforts and (i think) we're trying to do things that are not really consistent with the way a lot of corporations do business. The budget committee has had no problem getting corporate sponsors, because, as Teresa pointed out, this is a really lucrative thing to be associated with. While we did have our first non-profit org. back out because they thought we were anti-male or whatever, a lot of companies are really excited to be associated with ladyfest. Teresa said (correct me, teresa!) this pisses her off because she does so much other fundraising with Safe Place, and domestic violence prevention and care for victims is not an attractive thing for companies to put $$ into.

This is tied to the issues that came up when the workshop committee explained that the average compensation for their guests is $30. We talked about what this means, in terms of the value we are placing on their contributions, vs. bands who are performing. There seemed to be a general feeling that this discrepancy is NOT consistent with how much we value their contributions. Workshops and a really important part of ladyfest, and people seemed really saddened to find out what people were getting paid. Susan noted that we (as a group) bought into, or accepted, the rationalization that bands bring in more money, therefore should be paid more, and the unspoken conclusion (up to this point) is that they are worth more to ladyfest. (To me it seems that we are sort of doing the same thing as the sponsors mentioned above, putting our $ into the same things they are - a big rock band vs. a domestic violence workshop, for instance). Teresa said that part of the problem was lack of planning early on, as many of us have not done this kind of work before and didn't really know what to expect in terms of budget. She also mentioned class issues, that some of the organizers feel more comfortable asking for money than others do. Another thing worth mentioning is that the band committee has more experience booking bands than some of the other committees, and perhaps they were more realistic about what their budget needs would be than ladies who are new to this (this is a side comment by me, was not brought up at the meeting). There was some discussion about the value we were placing on ourselves, as the organizers. People mentioned that money is a uncomfortable issue and is hard to talk about openly for many people, particularly women, particularly women with less of it!

Although this discussion is, and should be an ongoing one, there were a few outcomes: Teresa will revisit the budget (try to make more realistic estimates - I'm not sure what she was going to do exactly) Workshop committee will get a list of under-funded (all!) events and give it to me to put on the ordering pages, so people can see which events need funding the most and may be inspired to sponsor them. Their names will go in the program.

Agenda Items:
1. Transportation/Safety escorts
2. Hospitality/Hotel blocks?
3. Ladyfest Cd?
4. Steering Committee
5. Ladyfest vs. ladyfest2000
6. Is tacoma local?

Safety escorts: There will be a table (at the capitol theatre? aren't after hours events gonna be elsewhere???) where people needing an escort can meet up with volunteers. A ladyfest person will be there to facilitate? Erin will contact the oly Free Bus to see if they can help out. kanako volunteered her car to be used for this purpose. We want to stress that this is a safety precaution, we are NOT giving people rides home! (we should stick to downtown maybe?)
Hospitality/Hotel Blocks: It seems like someone volunteered Courtney Bennett to deal with this issue? Has she been told this? Ladyfest will reserve a block of hotel rooms for workshop/performance art people (they must tell us ahead of time that they want one - if they don't use it and we can't find someone else, they need to pay for it so ladyfest isn't stuck w/ the bill!)
Ladyfest CD: The ladyfest Cd will (tentatively) come out on Chainsaw. Proceeds will go to charity or ladyfest org. if it continues, Bands need to be consulted, we need to figure out mechanical royalties, etc. All of this stuff is on the back burner for now....
Steering Committee: We outlined duties of the steering committee at the last meeting. Sarah, Jennifer, Neva volunteered for this at that meeting or before. Susan volunteered at this meeting. We had agreed that 6 people should be on it, so those four can find more if they want....?
Ladyfest /2000: Molly noticed that although we voted on "ladyfest" in the beginning of the year, the 2000 has been added here and there. Rebecca commented that the name is ladyfest, and it will only say ladyfest on t-shirts and passes, and the 2000 is only added here and there because it is taking place in 2000. there wasn't really any decision made, no one seemed to care.
Tacoma local?: this item was tabled for a future meeting.

Next meeting 5/27 will be facilitated by Erin, and i can't remember the other two... Beth and Julie maybe?

Also, it's very important the the agenda for the next meeting be posted before! (we said thursday before the meeting) This is so that out of town and weekend-working people can have some input! Sorry I was late, please correct any omissions or mistakes! sasa

5/6/00

Announcements:
Sarah Dougher and Maggie Vail will be gone for a month - scheduling questions can be directed to Beth (beatrice@bust.com).
Erin handed out a phone/email list of all known Ladyfest organizers - this was in response to previous concerns that few people were attending meetings and fears that organizers were not getting information.

Committee Reports:
Facilities- Beth reported that we will probably be able to get the superior sound system discussed at an earlier meeting.
Parade- Lisa will be meeting with Linda Oestreich of the Olympia Arts Program to discuss the Parade, and also to make contact between Ladyfest and the Arts Program.
Art- Committee members are working on their shows.
Band- Kelly announced that the band committee has secured Thekla for daytime rock shows at a cost of 150$ a day. Natalie reported that the committee has cut evening line-ups from 6 to 5 bands in order to accomodate other types of performance.
Performance Art- Bridget reported that she is in discussion with the Washington Center about the possibility of forming a partnership to bring Diamanda Galas to Olympia during Ladyfest. The cost of 10,000$ would be shared.
Merchandise- Julie had nothing new to report.
Women and Guitars- Neva is also in discussion with the Washington Center as a possible venue. Questions arose as to how pass holders would have access to these Washngton Center shows.
Workshops- Leah announced the creation of a how-to fanzine being created by the workshops committee to provide space for anyone who wants to contribute. Call for submissions was handed out, dealine is June1. Leah handed out a tentative schedule for workshops and panels, which follows:
Tuesday: Activity space-sewing circle with rebecca pearcy and kanako. ROCK BLOCK (12-1) guitar basics (12-1) Bass basics (12-1) drum Basics (1-2) how to use a PA system 2-5 The Domestic Violence Movement: 2-5 Fat Oppression 2-5 Orgy-nizing with River
Wednesday: Activity Space- knitting with Ariel (1-4) 12-2 Basic Auto Mechanics : Shilo Sparks (praxis) 12-2 History and Action of women's health and Reproductive rights 2-5 Censoring women's voices and bodies -hannah hussey 2-5 sex work
Thursday: Activity Space- creating alternative menstrual products- Bloodsisters (1-4) 12-2 Basic bicycle repair 12-2 Gender socialization in H/MS 2-5 How to start a grass-roots revolution/creating community resources jamie Ehrke, Marie 9from Media Land), Sonya (cascadia) 2-5 printmaking and silk-screening-nikki chapman
Friday: Activity Space: Swing-Dancing-Oly Swing, rhythm and jump collective 12-2 self defense (community center) 12-2 accessing legal tools 2-5 starting a busines-caral DeSantis, Katherine 2-5 Trans Identities - Zanna Gibbs, Jo Hartman, T Dunn 2-5 Gardening- Sam Weis (applebaums)
Saturday: Activity Space- songs of protest- portland union chorus (1-4)praxis 12-2 anti welfare reform movement 12-2 women in the prison system-Pat Graney 2-5 Dismantling racism-Britta & youth action council(bread and roses) *coping with substance abuse *naturopathic/holistic healing *private radio Applebaum's, Midnight Sun, PRAXIS, Bread and Roses, Oly Community Center, Big Room @K, Nikki's space.
Website- Sasa requested that people give her photos from Ladyfest benefits so she can put them on the website.
Afterhours/drag show/fashion show- Faith announced that as no one else is organizing a fashion show, she will take it on.
Volunteer- Jennifer needs complete lists from Committee co-ordinators of the people who will be needing passes - deadline may15.
Budget- Carrie reported that a lot of the big money contributors have come through with checks recently (EMP, Girl.com, Addicted to Noise).She is hoping that we can start selling passes by may 15 so that we can have more money coming in. She said Urban Decay wants to sponsor the fashion/drag shows. She needs a synopsis from each committee of how much money has actually been spent/promised. Carrie is leaving for a month and Teresa will be the budget contact person in her absence.
Hospitality- Beth is researching lodging info for out-of-towners. She would like committees to let her know what performers/artists/panelists needs will be (water, etc)
Documentation- Susan would like to know from committee facilitators which performers will not want to be documented.

Agenda Item- creation of a Steering Committee
In response to Jennifer's proposal of last meeting, Sarah Dougher submitted an outline of her vision of the steering committee, which follows:

Things i think the steering Committee should do.
1. devise a statement for Ladyfest which better reflects what is happening there, and bring it to the next meeting to get a consensus decision from the big group.
2. establish a diversity statement/policy for Ladyfest. Get input from committees about their efforts in this, and come up with something that is actually achievable and reflects what we can and want to do.
3. make sure the city knows what is going on.
4. be responsible for the big managing things like, for example, if the fire marshall comes to lf, who will he/she talk to? what if a performer doesn't know where to go? what if drunk hooligans hang off the marquee at the theatre? etc. This would mean making a schedule to share the responsibilities - kind of a catch-all knowledgeable person. there has to be someone like this on call all the time things are happening, esp. night shows. this burden would be lighter if there were more people available to do it.
5. As Jennifer wrote, the SC will also create lines of communication with each committee coordinator and offer support and facilitation of a particular committee's needs, ie. facilitating conflicts, channeling volunteers from one committee to another, etc. The Sc will not have absolute power. SC will develop and present proposals to the larger group. It will also act as a guiding team that can raise questions as to LF's direction, what holes are being overlooked and what is the bigger picture. ALTHOUGH I WOULD LIKE TO ADD that when LF is actually happening, the SC should be empowered in some way to make decisions that come up, or have a way of consulting with people in an efficient way to help them make the decision. like in the scenario i put forward above, if the fire marshal comes, i want the person in charge to be able to make a decsion without consulting 40 other people.
6. I think there should be 6 people on the committee.

We took Sarah's proposal as a starting point. We came to a consensus that the committee should consist of at least, but not be limited to, 6 people. We felt it was important to have a designated decision-maker each day of the festival (give her a beeper or cell phone), but that it didn't necessarily have to be a steering committee member. We felt the SC should not DEVISE a mission statement but should amalgamate the ideas of the larger group. Ditto on the diversity statement. Support was voiced for making better contact with the city, having a group to see where the holes are, and to oversee the 'big picture'. Members will volunteer or be nominated. Names mentioned so far - Jennifer, Neva, Sarah, teresa, Tricia. We will decide on membership in the next meeting.

Agenda Item-Mission statement/diversity:
The Mission statement as stated on the website was read: "Ladyfest is an event designed by and for women to showcase, celebrate and encourage the artistic, organizational and political work and talents of women. It will feature performances by bands, spoken word artists, authors, visual artists and more!! It will include workshops, panels, and dance parties. This is a woman-run event but all are welcome to attend." We discussed the fact that we see ourselves as in opposition to something like Lillith Fair. Ideas of what we are about included- focus on youth, political, DIY, independent, community based, non-profit. A consensus was met on the idea of adding the terms 'non-profit' and 'community-based' to the beginning sentence of the mission statement. We felt this would help to show that, while we are trying to encompase as many diverse voices as possible, we are limited by what we can do as a community-based non-profit organization. This discussion is not over.

Agenda Item- Press Passes:
There seemed to be a leaning towards the idea of having press (at least "major' press) pay for passes. We decided press should not have any access privileges, although official LF documentors will. A general concern about the balance between no big press= equals no publicity and too much big press=misrepresentation ensued. This is an on-going conversation. Notes by Lisa Darms.

NEXT MEETING: Sunday May 14th 3-5 Arrowspace.
FACILITATOR- Bridget NOTETAKER-Sasa VIBESWATCHER-Erin
Agenda Items so far:
-Press
-Creating the Steering Committee
-Discussing where our profits will go.

new agenda items should be e mailed to bridget at bridget_irish@hotmail.com

4/18/00

Meeting Minutes, 4/17/00 The meeting took place at Arrowspace. Sarah Dougher facilitated. The agenda was for each committee to report (all but three were represented), and to discuss our reactions to Jennifer Shafer's proposal addressing issues around communication, vision and leadership, which was posted on the coordinator's one-list on 4/6/00.

Julie/Merchandising Committee: They are still in the process of figuring out the logistics of the store: what will be sold there, taxes, space, and the possibility of hosting a bazaar/flea market-type event that could be solicited on the web site. Praxis is a possible location.
Maggie/Publicity Committee: Maggie requested more information (confirmed artists/performers, press releases re descriptions of art shows/performances, etc.) from every committee besides the band committee. She is going to create a flyer to take on tour with the Bangs that will also be distributed through Kill Rock Stars mailorder. She would like to know who from each committee is willing to be interviewed. Please contact her with this information.
Molly Zuckerman/Program Committee: Molly reported that she and Erin made a Ladyfest ad, which appeared in Soundwaves and featured all aspects of Ladyfest.
Sasa/Web Design: A band from New York called Bionic Finger played a benefit show and raised over $400. They will send us the money with some photos from the show that will be posted on the web site. The donation form is now up, though Sasa is still working out a few of its details. Sasa needs to receive the same information as is provided to the Publicity Committee for the web site. She would like to put interviews up on the web site and create a web version of the Ladyfest schedule. She reminded us that the web site is an unlimited avenue for publicity.
Electra/Workshop Committee: They have been confirming workshop facilitators.
Beth/Facilities Committee: Had nothing to report.
Jennifer/Volunteer Committee: They're having a meeting on Tuesday. Jennifer's been responding to numerous requests/inquiries. She would like to focus on filling the majority of volunteer positions with locals since out-of-towners will have less time for training/preparation.
Lisa, Audrey/Visual Art Committee: Lisa reported that she spoke to a woman at Olympia World News who okayed her use of the space upstairs for her photo shows. She is also organizing a Ladyfest parade and determined that she needs to notify the Olympia Downtown Association about this. The parade will take place on Saturday, August 5 from 11am-12pm. She would like everyone's parade ideas. Audrey reported that at the last art committee meeting, they came up with a schedule of events/openings for the week. There will be an opening each day from 5-6:30pm. The members of the art committee have been working independently to curate their shows.
She inquired about the hospitality committee which brought to the attention of the group that some committees may be non-existant at this point.
Sarah Dougher offered to explore what committees were inactive and required new members.
Carrie, Teresa, Kanako/Budget Committee: The members of the budget committee have been dividing tasks and working somewhat independently. They sent out their first mailing of solicitation forms; Carrie out of state and Kanako to local businesses. Several .coms that focus on women's issues have expressed interest, as well as Addicted to Noise. We have been offered free ad space, web space, make up, etc. Since these companies have mainly sponsored bigger festivals in the past such as Lilith Fair, Olympia being the size that it is somewhat of an issue for the amount of money we are seeking. This isn't an obstacle, just a little tricky to get around. They would still like suggestions for possible donors. Teresa and a bookkeeper met. Soon the budget committee will be able to give each committee budget reports. They also would like to have a report from each committee by Thursday the 20th detailing how much they have actually and hypothetically spent so far. Kanako mentioned that the Chamber of Commerce, the Olympia Downtown Association and the Festival Parade Organization would like to know more about Ladyfest (dates, events, etc.).
Sarah/Scheduling: Sarah passed around a tentative schedule of all Ladyfest events. The absolute deadline for space reservation is June 11.
Julie/Band Committee: They want to confirm the bands that they have already invited to play before ask any more. They have been getting and overwhelming amount of submissions. There will also be some Ladyfest fringe-type events comparable to Rock `n Roll Pee My Pants which took place during Yo-Yo that anyone/any bands may perform at. Julie also mentioned the idea of having MCs during Ladyfest; possibly a different one every night?
Bridget/Performance Art and Film Committees: They've confirmed the art cheerleaders. Bridget has created a flier to post locally seeking performers. She mentioned the possibility of hosting benefits shows for Ladyfest. Sylvester Park might be a location for outdoor film screenings.

After the committee reports, Jennifer Shafer passed around copies of a proposal that she posted on the coordinator one-list on April 6. She said that the reason that she decided to create this proposal is that she felt the meetings had been somewhat unorganized thus far and that maybe our strategy needed to be revamped. Meeting participants discussed issues such as better communication and the fact that certain issues don't fall under any committee's "jurisdiction." Her proposal reads as follows. The group's reactions and subsequent descision-making has been detailed in Sasa's previous e-mail (she sent it yesterday).

From: Jennifer Shafer to: the Ladyfest Coordinators April 6th, 2000 Ladyfest: Vision and Communication I am presenting this basic proposal to address some of the issues around communication, vision and leadership that have arisen in the planning of Ladyfest. This is only a proposal, open to discussion, edit, re-invention, adoption or dismissal. This not meant to offend anyone or criticize. We all know everyone is doing a great job. These are just some ideas to make things flow a little more smoothly. Proposal for Possible Steps and Guidelines:

1. Create a steering committee. The Steering Committee (SC) will implement the mission statement of Ladyfest. SC will also create lines of communication with each committee coordinator(s) and offer support and facilitation of a particular committee's needs, i.e. facilitating conflicts, channeling volunteers from one committee to another, etc. The SC will not have absolute power. SC will develop and present proposals to the larger group. It will act as a guiding team that can raise questions as to Ladyfest's direction, what holes are being overlooked and what is the bigger picture.

2. Nominate and vote for 4-6 women to serve on Steering Committee at a weekend meeting. At least one SC member must always be present at weekend meetings.

3. Adopt a method for decision making at meetings: For example:
1. Democracy- eveyone votes, majority decides
2. Consensus- each member present has a vote. members can support, block or stand aside ( not voting yes but not feeling strong enough to block the group's adoption of a particular decision).

4. Before the end of each meeting, choose a facilitator, a time/agenda keeper and a secretary. Items not discussed on agenda will be tabled to the next meeting's agenda. The agenda can be created and/or amended at the beginning of each meeting. Agenda will always include: agenda review, announcements and a quick meeting evaluation at the end of the meeting.

5. If we so choose to use consensus, hire a consultant to assist us in creating meeting structure, train us in using consensus and to facilitate and clarify any conflicts we may have about the vision of Ladyfest. Offer her a full pass to Ladyfest as possible compensation. ( I have already spoken with Grace Cox about this possibility, and she is interested. Grace is a feminist and labor activist, on the staff of the Olympia Food Co-op and a professional mediator and trainer in group communication and the use of consensus.)

6. Create and adopt a diversity policy for representation of women across race, class, sexual identity, disability, age, etc. Steering Committee or coordinators can create this and SC will implement through discussion with committee coordinators. Or create a separate committee to address diversity issues. For the next meeting, ladies planning to attend should consider how they would like to define the steering committee's purpose as well as the diversity mission statement, which some feel is somewhat vague at this point. I think Sasa covered everything else.
-Audrey

*by the way, we decided not to hire an outside consultant (#5) and not be trained in consensus, but instead have ladyfest organizers with experience using consensus help us out. (sasa)

4/17/00

This is the new process for meetings, decision-making, and communicating info to committees, made at the 4/16 ladyfest meeting. Bridget, Maggie, Molly, Sasa, Kanako, Elektra, Beth, Jennifer, Lisa, Carrie, Theresa, Audrey, Faith, Rebecca, Sarah, Julie were present. Committees represented: Performance Art, Film/Video, Publicity, Scheduling, Program, Web, Budget, Facilities, Volunteer, Visual Art, Parade, After Hours, Merchandise, Bands.

Here is what we decided:

1. We will use consensus to make decisions in the meetings. We agreed to the simplified definition in Jennifer's proposal, #3: "Consensus- each member present has a vote. Members can support, block or stand aside (not voting yes but not feeling strong enough to block the group's adoption of a particular decision)." We added that a "block" is not a simple NO. If a member wants to block something, they must give reasons, and offer an alternative or a compromise that would satisfy them, and the group will discuss/decide on the revised proposal.

2. Some decisions will be more suited to a democratic process (deciding on the name or logo are examples). We may choose (using consensus) to use democratic voting rather than consensus to make a particular decision.

3. No decisions will be made without a quorum of 10 people present, who collectively represent 10 different committees (out of 17 currently).

4. Agendas will be made prior to meetings from now on, so that people who are out of town or cannot make the meetings for whatever reason will know what is going on, and can make a statement or offer their opinion through another member (either someone in their committee, or the facilitator). Proposed agenda items should be submitted to the facilitator of the next meeting by the Wednesday before the next meeting. The facilitator will post the agenda on the main / 'big' onelist on the Thursday before the meeting, and committee co-ordinators are responsible for communicating the upcoming agenda to their committee, and to make sure one member will be present at the next meeting. A calendar of upcoming meetings is included below, with agenda/minutes deadlines). Last minute items can be added to an agenda the day of the meeting, but people should try to only do this if the item is urgent, and is not something all/most organizers should have a say in. Please try to get agenda items in early.

5. We will use a basic agenda from now on to be more efficient, and to stay organized and on-track.
Here it is:
a. Choose facilitator, note-taker, and "vibe-watcher" for NEXT meeting. The facilitator will collect agenda items for the next meeting and post them over email list, will hold the meeting to the agenda as much as possible, and will keep time, or find someone else to, throughout the meeting. Note-taker should take notes (which should be posted the following Monday). Vibe watcher should try to keep an eye on moods, make sure no one is being ignored, and air things out.
b. Facilitator will review agenda items, and those present may add last minute items to the agenda.
c. Committee reports. These are just updates! If committees want the group to make a decision, they should add that to the agenda. If they just want general feedback, this is the time for it. If they need info from a specific committee, they should ask before or after the meeting.
d. Someone (Jennifer, Rebecca, Facilitator?) will review our consensus method, so that we are all clear on the decision-making process. Everyone should understand what it means to support, block, and stand aside.
e. Discuss and decide on agenda items. After discussion, we do a round robin and everyone says whether they support, stand aside, or block and offer an alternative. If everyone supports or stands aside, the decision passes (provided there is a quorum). If someone blocks, they must offer an alternative solution and discussion continues until a decision is made, or the agenda item is tabled for a future meeting.

This process seems long and complicated, but we all felt that it would solve some of the problems we have been having and will not feel as complicated once we've done it a few times. By the way, we had a quorum at this meeting! ________________________________________________

Next meeting is Saturday, April 29th at Arrowspace 3-5 pm. Facilitator: Beth Note-taker: Lisa Vibe-watcher: Molly Agenda items are due Wednesday, April 26 to Beth - email beatrice@bust.com. Beth will post agenda items Thursday, April 27 - a member of each committee needs to be responsible for getting this info to members of their committee, using the phone tree Erin is working on. Any individual who wants to share a reaction to the agenda needs to go to the meeting or contact someone who IS going, and have them communicate it for them.

**CALENDAR** Subject to change - coordinators are responsible for notifying their committees.

monday, april 17: notes from 4/16 meeting posted by audrey (ammarrs@aol.com)
wednesday, april 26: agenda items for 4/29 meeting due to beth (beatrice@bust.com)
thursday, april 27: agenda for 4/29 meeting posted by beth.
saturday, april 29: MEETING, 3-5 pm @ Arrowspace. F=beth, N=lisa, V=molly.
monday, may 1: minutes from 4/29 meeting posted by Lisa.
wednesday, may 24: agenda items for 5/27 meeting due to facilitator
thursday, may 25: agenda for 5/27 meeting posted by facilitator
saturday, may 27: MEETING, 3-5 pm @ Arrowspace.
monday, may 29: minutes from 5/27 meeting posted by note taker.
wednesday, june 7: agenda items for 6/14 meeting due to facilitator
thursday, june 8: agenda for 6/12 meeting posted by facilitator
sunday, june 12 : MEETING, 3-5 pm @ Arrowspace.
monday, june 13 : minutes from 6/14 meeting posted by note taker.
wednesday, june 21: agenda items for 6/24 meeting due to facilitator
thursday, june 22: agenda for 6/24meeting posted by facilitator
saturday, june 24: MEETING, 3-5 pm @ Arrowspace.
monday, june 26: minutes from 6/27 meeting posted by note taker.

4/5/00

The meeting took place Sat.April 1 at the Arrowspace. It was a big meeting, but the majority of those present were coordinators or committee members. A discussion concerning communication arose. From now on meetings will be held every other week alternating Saturdays and Sundays. Sasa's e-mail covered this. Basically, we are trying to establish a better system for meeting attendance and communication about meeting times. Erin volunteered to create an updated list of coordinator/committee contacts with the intention of finding out how people need to be contacted about meetings: phone or e-mail. Please contact Erin to help her with this list. Also meetings are now open to committees and coordinators, and anyone else who wants to come (?).

Committee updates took up the bulk of the meeting.
Budget- Money came in from Gent's Fest, Experience Music Project and Girl.com. Kanako is working on local sponsors. Carrie is working on monies through letter writing. Barbara, our bookkeeper, works at Oly. Outfitters and has volunteered this precious service. Teresa reports that she is "awesome". Yay! There is a reimbursement form for expenses. Remember to keep your receipts. For phone calls, keep your phone bill and highlight calls for Ladyfest. **Please give the budget comm. and update budget.
Workshops- the committee is forming a list of and are finalizing workshop topics. more info. next meeting.
Web- there is an auction to help Ladyfest. Anyone can contribute anything of value. Sasa encourages all Ladyfest organizers to add to the Ladies we like list. Also to help offset the band focus of the web page, other committees need to submit info. for Sasa to post.
Facilities- there are two sound options: one is a local option through music 6000, David Soderburgh, who will coordinate a team of women sound tech volunteers. It is @ $3,000, and is good but not superior quality. The second option is a Seattle company which can guarantee women engineers and a man or two to do lights. The quality would be superior and would cost @ $7,000. The advantage to the Seattle option is the quality but also the presence of women running the sound completely. People felt the Seattle option was preferable if the budget allows. This committee still needs more volunteers. Please contact Beth if you can help or if your committee's work is at a standstill or over-populated.
Performance (art) - is having a hard time confirming larger names because of costs, will rely on some "smaller" or local women. Is concerned about having space. Do not want artists squeezed in between bands. The committee has been under the impression that June 1st is the deadline for confirming performers and do not want to lose scheduling priority for following this deadline. The coordinators of the performance committee and the band committee are going to set up a meeting to discuss scheduling needs/conflicts.
Film- will need the capitol theater during the days to project 16 and 35 mm films.
Band- waiting for confirmations. Have 30 bands confirmed already. Schedule will be TWTFS nights and all days including Sundays. Thekla will be available for day shows. They hope to have acts or local DJs in between bands. Times yet to be confirmed.
Art- Audrey has been unable to attend meetings. Lisa offered to be a contact since Audrey has mant obligations. They need help finding space. Lisa wants to have a parade and is forming a parade committee. Her e-mail is L.Darms@hotmail.com. The art comm. will talk with workshops about sharing spaces.
Publicity- are going to start an ad campaign soon. Also brought up the issue of Oxygen wanting to do a piece on Ladyfest. The show is called "Trackers". Oxygen is a cable network for/run by women, owned by Oprah Winfrey. Sleater-Kinney had worked with them and thought they were professional and decent. We all decided the press was good and that ultimately the press will do what they want. It was a quick but thoughtful discussion which is too much to re-cap.

Last but not least was a discussion on communication. We could have used more time as we had 15 minutes to do it. People discussed the sense of negativity surrounding meetings. Feelings were aired and making a commitment to positive thinking/process was discussed. Natalie said she wanted to have a Ladyfest barbecue so we can have fun together. The above mentioned meeting changes were talked about and created. Neva made a good comment that the process is what we can give to others, a model that works, so that other women can plan something similar. Ladyfest is just the bonus or outcome of the process. We are in this together! Items on the agenda tabled: creating a newsletter that record labels can distribute.

3/19/00

About 6 or 7 women were present at the meeting. This seems to be the trend. We discussed why this is happening. Is it the new bus route? Do people need a different day? Should we meet less? The women present decided to change meetings to every other week until there is a need for more(i.e.closer to the festival time). The next meeting will be an open or "big" meeting on Saturday, April Ist, 3-5pm at the Arrowspace. It would be great if people could dialogue about meetings either now or at the upcoming meeting.
Budget Comm.- we got umbrella status with Out of the Woods (OW). Checks will be signed by Sarah Dougher and Kanako Wynoop. Please see them only for check requests. Teresa re-worked donation sheet; will be posted on the list.
Volunteer- had their first meeting on Thurs, March 16th. We want estimated lists of needed volunteers from each committee as soon as possible. Originally we wanted to have lists by May 1st, but we need to figure out pass availability sooner. If anyone is interested in being on this committee our next meeting is Tuesday April 18th at 7pm.
Facilities is gathering quotes for sound during the festival. Have some leads on women who do sound. This committee needs more people!!!!! Contact Beth if interested.
Performance - seems to be bigger name artists are requesting fees larger than our budget can support, Searching out other options.
Web- Sasa will post donation form. Also she is available to help people with publicity, posting, etc. She will also post info./pics from Gentlemen's Fest from Mar.17th.
Merchandise - Julie received samples of t-shirts and buttons; they look good. Want to have ladyfest merch. table, band/performers' table and possibly another table of consignment 70/30 split with bands,etc. selling other stuff(art)etc. (I hope I have this right). Also have been asked to create a flea market type setting for women who attend fest. to sell their wares, in a space other than the theater.
Documentation - documented Gents Fest. Kathryn is working on getting a crew to record festival. Pat Maley wants to be able to confirm who uses the studio and knows four women who are proficient and want to do it. Otherwise, the comm. seems pretty set until week of festival.
Childcare have not had a meeting in a few weeks, a lot of folks out of town. Will have info. for next meeting. This committee also needs more people. Contact Kelly.
(Jennifer)

3/6/00

Coordinator meeting notes 3/4/2000 As always, make additions and changes to these notes if necessary. xoSusan
1. Transgender inclusion The coordinators at this meeting were under the impression that it had already been decided that Ladyfest will be COMPLETELY transgender inclusive. We considered this question: if a workshop/panel leader has a problem with inclusion or if the workshop/panel itself necessarily precludes the inclusion of transgendered persons, does Ladyfest2000 really want that leader, panel,or workshop to be part of the festival? The answer was unanimously "no"--Ladyfest has made a conscious, deliberate decision to be transgender inclusive. If a workshop or panel presently requires the exclusion of trans. people, the leader will have the opportunity to rework the workshop. This ambiguity pertains only to workshops designated as "women only" and we felt that it was not up to Ladyfest or individual workshop/panel leaders to determine who can and cannot consider herself a "woman." There was also an agreement to include this policy of inclusion in printed materials such as press releases and the program. For individual women only events, we liked the policy of "If you [women & transgendered individuals] think you are welcome here, then yo! u are."
2. Limiting other workshops There was concern over workshops that would be open to categories such as "survivors of abuse ONLY" or "parents ONLY." While the reservation of space is a legitimate argument for limitation, the confidentiality of participants was a greater concern. We felt that workshops are "educational forums, not support groups" and that by categorizing people into "parents," "survivors," people of a certain economic class, or other designations would serve to breach confidentiality, defeat the educational purpose of panels and workshops for people who may not fit a certain category but are interested in learning about pertinent issues, and stigmatize or isolate certain groups of people. Thus, we feel that the only distinction made in events can be "transgender inclusive women-only." We also feel that guidelines for appropriate behavior and respect should be posted in all venues for all events and in the program.
3. Ladyfest Fact Sheet/Sponsor list Teresa Carmody put together a fact sheet about Ladyfest for an international women's day display. This can also be sent out with promotional or sponsorship request materials. Also, she had a list of businesses and potential sponsors for in-kind or cash donations. Please add to this list with possible contributors that you know.
4. 501 (c) 3 Status Ladyfest now has 501c3 status with a nonprofit organization called Out of the Woods. This group was founded by a Pillar in the Unitarian Church and its mission is to start a women's/family shelter in Thurston County. The budget committee and Barbara Le Forge, the official & professional Ladyfest bookkeeper, will meet with Out of the Woods next Monday to work out details such as who to make checks to, tax numbers, and sponsorship duties. So finally we will be able to collect money for Ladyfest! The Unitarian church has also offered their space for an art show.
5. Committee Updates
PUBLICITY: they are writing a press release. Publicity feels that it is important to publicize all facets of ladyfest instead of emphasizing the rock shows. After the press release is prepared, major publicizing will occur.
MERCHANDISE: plans to pre-sell t-shirts to generate revenue for Ladyfest. These will be sold on the Kill Rock Stars website and buyolympia.com. The committee is still determining what company will make the shirts. ART: the committee will meet on Monday about publicizing art events.
PROGRAM: the committee has revised its budget and hopes to receive in-kind sponsorships from printing companies or to negotiate with printers. One way of revising the budget is to make covers by hand on a printing press.
SCHEDULING: a space in Olympia World News will probably be used as both a general information center and a media resource center for the documentation committee. Thekla is considering hosting ladyfest day shows, and will consult with the band committee about what kinds of shows could take place there. FACILITIES: this committee is still talking to venues about hosting ladyfest events. There are several issues with sound at the Capitol theater. The options are, a) put together a "hodge-podge" sound system similar to that used at Yo Yo a Go Go which might be a problem for bigger-name acts with equipment specifications; b) rent a full professional sound system, which poses a budget problem because that is $800/night; c) find in-kind sponsorships from a PA company. The facilities committee will get info from the band committee about specifications from bigger acts.
DOCUMENTATION:Coordinator Kathryn Lewis will be conducting interviews with ladyfest coordinators and committees before she leaves for her out-of-state internship(congratulations!).
AFTER HOURS: the committee is looking for a space to hold after hours parties. They have contacted DJs. The committee considered having 21+ after hours parties, but has decided to keep all after hours events All Ages. **It is very important to keep these events alcohol/drug free** because minors will be present, and if ladyfest is unsafe/illegal, there is likely to be additional backlash because it is a feminist festival.
WORKSHOPS: The committee has decided upon 30 workshops and panels and is currently working on scheduling/venues. They are trying to create an activity area" where people could make art or practice techniques they learned in a workshop, or may want to learn but missed the workshop. They also want a theme of race/class/gender to run through all of the workshops, so that each one will be pertinent to those areas.
BAND COMMITTEE: is working through e-mail on budget, and will have a major meeting on Tuesday. They will re-evaulate the bands that have not yet confirmed, and the extra space in the schedule will be filled with performers of more diverse genres. They are looking for suggestions of performers in different areas of music.
WOMEN AND GUITARS: is organizing a show on May 20 at the Capitol theater. Neva plans to incorporate local women blues musicians into Women and Guitars events. There will also be an event on April 20 featuring Judy (? I didn't catch her name). She will present a tradition/history of women's music and also perform music. Women and guitars is contacting a diverse group of women guitarrists for events.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SAFE PLACE CHOIR--"livin large, talkin loud, takin it back!" will carol at Ladyfest and possibly perform before/during rock shows. They are looking for musical accompaniment.
(Susan)

2/24/00

Six Ladyfest coordinators met on Sunday, February 19. Here are the meeting minutes.
The group discussed current dialogue concerning scheduling, budget, and rock and roll. The group agreed with the current dialogue - Ladyfest is more than a rock festival. The group also agreed that offering rock shows during the day gives attendees another event option. We discussed if those shows can fit into the scheduled, block times. The group also agreed that some other performers could easily fill the Capital Theatre, and liked the idea of coupling a big performance artist with two bands for an evening show. Coordinators asked for a schedule template to be brought to the next meeting. The group discussed current fundraising strategies: We reviewed the solicitation letter. Erin gave an update on confirmed bands, and susan offered to edit the letter. Molly Zuckerman will be working on a rad cabernet fundraiser for ladyfest. She wants this event to happen at thekla on a monthly basis. The cabernet will give a glimpse of what ladyfest will be like. Please contact her for more information. Erin said that the band committee came up with a bunch of exciting fundraiser ideas that they will be working on. Go Band Ladies! Erin is looking for female comedians to perform in between bands. Kanako and Teresa gave a budget update. The budget committee is still brainstorming legal logistics, especially because ladyfest was denied our initial try at fiscal sponsorship because the content of Ladyfest is considered a liablity. GO Ladies... The budget committee will keep working on this. The group discussed communication. All were disappointed that only six coordinators were at the meeting, though we know there are a bunch of folks out of town and that there was general confusion about where the meeting was actually held. We discussed the need to think ahead about job duties and descriptions during the festival, trying to avoid confusion and a lot of responsibility for a few people. Action Items: Scheduling committee bring schedule template to next meeting. Each committee should bring a budget projecting low figures (last time we said, shoot high. Now we want to know what is the least amount you can work with). NEXT MEETING: SUNDAY, FEB. 27 at ARROWSPACE from 3-5
(Teresa)

2/16/00

Just wanted to give an update on fiscal sponsorship. The Community Foundation declined our request for sponsorship. I asked for a written response, which is coming. Over the phone, they said that we looked organized and together. Their concern actually centered on any inherent endorsement (real or perceived) that may come from attaching their name to Ladyfest. We are considered too much of a liablity with the use of their name. They said that because they are unaware of the bands or performers, they have no idea what the content of the festival may look like. They said they can't have their name attached to any "male bashing." So.... remember, this makes sense from their perspective as they are a more conservative organization. And remember, their response is symptomatic of prevailing mainstream cultural notions of women. Personally, while it's makes me angry that they won't go out on a limb, I also don't think they are "bad" and hope that each of us can be diplomatic and clear in how we discuss this with others. Just blaming the Community Foundation misses the mark.

(later) As far as posting the Community Foundation's response on the web... I asked for a written response from them. This is all they said in the letter. "We regret to inform you that your application was denied due to concerns regarding liability issues."
(Teresa)

2/10/00

Here are some basic fundraising guidelines.
1. If anyone contacts you about wanting to sponsor ladyfest/an event at ladyfest, pass their name,number,email on to either Carrie or Teresa and we will work out the sponsorship details. Remember, some events may already be sponsored, and we don't want to make empty promises to sponsors.
2. Before approaching a foundaiton or sponsor, contact either teresa or carrie to see if we have already contacted them. Check with us about sponsorship or funding appropriateness. Remember, casually mentioning a name to us does not equal talking to us about if/when/who will contact an organzation/sponsor.
3. Please feel free to solicit individuals for donations. We will have form letters you can use for this. Again, contact us.
4. If you are giving interviews and mentioning ladyfest, always remember to also say that we are accepting donations, and people can send a check to our po box. If we are granted fiscal sponsorships from the community foudnation, checks must be made out to them, and designated to us. We will have more information on this after feb. 17.
Thank you. xo t
(Teresa)

2/6/00

Here are the (way too many) notes for the coordinator meeting that happened on Feb. 6, 2000. If anything was omitted or inaccurate, please amend my minutes. xoSusan
FACILITIES There was a discussion on sound quality at the Capitol Theater for some of the bigger music acts. They were not sure if previous sound problems were because of the technician, the equipment, the acousics in the building, or a combination. But they are looking at finding a professional woman technician, possibly recommended by the Experience Music Project.
BUDGET The budget committee has sent in the state registration forms so Ladyfest will be a "charitable institution." This will enable Ladyfest to receive NON-tax-deductible donations legally. The committee has also applied for the Community Foundation to be its umbrella organization as a 501c3 non profit organization. Through that status, Ladyfest could receive tax-deductible donations (like the huge one from Experience Music Project) as well. WE ARE NOT LEGALLY NONPROFIT YET and there is a possibility that Community Foundation will not select us for sponsorship. The results of the application will be known on Feb. 17. The budget committee has had to cut the budgets proposed by the committees thus far. The proposed budgets' total far exceeded Ladyfest's estimated revenue, so this was necessary. Guidelines for fundraising were given to the coordinators. Ticket prices were decided upon. The full pass will be $50. A partial pass will be $25, and will include three $8 events (capitol theater) and four $5 events (probably smaller daytime events). Events will be priced individually as either $8 or $5. There will be no 1-day passes because that is too confusing and because of costs the budget committee wants to encourage people to buy full or partial passes. People will be able to pre-order full passes and partial passes, but not tickets for individual events. There will be a reimbursement form for costs to coordinators/commitees associated with ladyfest (phone bills, etc.) no one will be reimbursed w/o receipts.
VOLUNTEER The volunteer committee is still working with budget to figure out how long someone must volunteer before they get a pass. Some ideas were to work for a certain amount of hours, i.e. if someone works for three 3-hour shifts they get a pass. Others wanted to have a "credit" system in which someone works on a whole event, and longer events earn more credits toward the pass. They want to keep the clean up crew volunteering separate from working doors, etc. at a show.
PROGRAM The preliminary format of the program has been decided. It will be about 40 pages long. The program will include 1 page per day for the schedules, artist/performer bios, advertisements from sponsors, a brief explanation of ladyfest's mission and origins, and a list of sponsors. There were other ideas as far as the artistic side of the program, like having the bottom portion be a flip book. Several logos for Ladyfest were made by Molly Zuckerman. At the big meeting next week, we will vote between Molly's logos and other logos that people bring to the meeting. So if you want your ladyfest logo to be considered, bring it, because the vote will be closed after that meeting.
WEBSITE www.ladyfest.org is up, as is the general e-mail address, info@ladyfest.org Sasa is taking wishlists from the committees. These lists will go up on the web as soon as we get our official charitable institution registration from the state. Specifics on online/mail order passes will go up on the site. A general flyer will be made and posted on the site so people can print it and put up copies where they live. (If you make your own flyers, which is ok, make sure to include the website URL, www.ladyfest.org on them). She is still working on the page for contacting individual committees, but that will be working within a week.
PUBLICITY Publicity is considering putting together a CDR of promotional material for college radio stations. It would include bands that are up-and-coming or unsigned (the idea behind that is college stations would already have music from Kill Rock Stars, K, and other established musicians so a promo of their material would be redundant). They also want to make a flyer that record labels could send out with separate promotional materials of musicians that will play ladyfest. Other ideas were discussed, such as Ladyfest temporary tattoos that would go along with the ladyfest logo (this may sound weird over the web, but when you see the logo idea that gave us this idea, you'll see it's brilliant :)
VISUAL ARTS This committee stressed that when people are talking to the press, they need to mention that visual art is a huge part of ladyfest. Music has gotten most of the attention so far, and they want to make sure people know that art will be there too. Everyone in the committee is curating at least one show. Because of space, each artist may not get an individual show. Instead they will have a showcase area. The spaces for art could involve all of downtown Olympia by using business' storefronts. Visual Art committee plans to get press for ladyfest in non-music magazines like Artforum, Index and Bust. They want beauty tips from everyone as part of an art show they are doing.
DOCUMENTATION Documentation commitee will select 4 local photographers (2 or 3 have already been asked) to document the festival and receive reimbursement. Also, chickClick disposable cameras will be available for people to use. The Documentation committee will take photos, videos, audio recordings, and other items from people who took them at ladyfest and want to send them in (these people will be credited if their work is published or used, but will not be monetarily reimbursed). Kathryn Lewis will begin interviewing coordinators and committees for her audio documentary of Ladyfest shortly.
CHILDRENS' ACTIVITIES This committee will begin flyering for professional volunteers. They want licensed childcare providers only, because those people have already had extensive background checks and are trained in first aid/CPR. Committee representatives will meet with a legal consultant to figure out what the child/supervisor ratio is, and other specifics. They want to have a release form on the website so people can pre-register for child care, and also have a list of local child care providers for when room in ladyfest child care runs out. They are also considering resources like the Olympia Children's Museum and daycare centers at Evergreen and SPSCC. They estimate being able to care for about 30 children per day.
BANDS The band committee plans on having daytime shows every day except for August 1. Possible daytime venues include Metropolis, if they can get permission from surrounding businesses, and Thekla. The band committee is still in the preliminary stages of selecting bands. About 10 have been confirmed. They expect to accomodate a total of around 50 bands--36 in the capitol theater at 6 per night, and 16 bands playing daytime shows. They are also trying to set payment guidelines.
OPEN MIC This isn't a specific committee, but everyone wants to do it. It would probably be at the Midnight Sun, at several scheduled times during the week. The open mics would take place between workshops, performance art, and other things going on in that space. There will be an after-hours open mic as well.
PERFORMANCE ART committee is still contacting artists. They are especially interested in as-yet unknown performance artists.
WORKSHOPS/PANELS Possible large-draw speakers include Angela Davis and bell hooks. The commitee is still deciding how many panels & workshops they can have. They are interested in idea submissions and feedback.
MERCHANDISE Merch commitee wants to have at least 3 shirt designs. These would be (1) the Ladyfest logo we will vote on at the big meeting, (2) something that Nikki McClure is designing, (3) one other design (would this also be voted on at the big meeting, or would they ask someone specifically to make it? I'm not sure). The committee wants to make shirts in several ways. Two Girls & a Garage have offered to help make shirts. Koniko wants to go to clothing bins in Portland, Oregon and get clothes which would then be hand-silkscreened by volunteers before the festival. Posters and buttons will also be made. Merch will be restricted to Ladyfest items and merch from artists that are exhibiting/performing. Artists and musicians will have a table to sell their merch during performances, and they will be able to consign items for sale through ladyfest before and after they perform. Ladyfest will not solicit outside merchandise. AFTER HOURS After hours wants to schedule 1 karaoke, 2 dances, and 1 open mic. It was suggested that the after hours events be set up in different venues while the large rock shows are going on, so people can go directly to after-hours events without lag time.
WOMEN AND GUITARS Neva is trying to get in touch w/ Mimi Fox, a jazz guitar player, for either a benefit show or to play at Ladyfest. Also, she wants one of the Wilson (Heart) sisters to be involved either by playing music or being part of a panel/workshop on women in rock. They cannot play together because one of them just had twins and is taking a break from touring.
BENEFIT SHOWS Record labels & bands will be contacted, so benefit shows can happen in other cities. That will avoid show overlapping, so too many bands don't do a benefit locally and then play Ladyfest shortly thereafter. They want to have a "talent show" type benefit for lesser-known bands; this will showcase the bands and generate excitement for Ladyfest. Also, benefit shows would be a way for men to be involved & help Ladyfest. The first of these benefit shows will be Sleater Kinney in Olympia on April 29. {actually, Gentlemenfest 3/17 @ Praxis was first! - SF}

2/1/00

Here are the minutes from the last coordinator meeting-Saturday, January 29. My apologies for taking so long to post these-things have been busy between work and school.
Scheduling Committee. Neither Maggie or Sarah were present-Carrie B. read an e-mail from them. -The scheduling commitee would like to limit large shows to the evening to allow time for panels/workshops/spoken word/performance art/and other activities.
Documentation Committee. Kathryn Lewis. The doc. committee met Wednesday. We revisited the budget-it is 7,300 -which in contrast with other budgets remains relatively high. We came up with the purpose of documention at that meeting and a synopsis of activities. During the coordinator meeting we decided that recording the festival is a major priority for the doc. committee. We brainstormed idea's of women who are familiar with audio recording equiptment. The documentation committee is meeting Wed. Febuary, 9 at my house.
Facilites Committee. Beth Stinson. They are working with scheduling to find out what spaces are available. Some spaces have PA's and some do not. If your committee has special space needs please contact facilities.
Budget Committee. Carrie Brownstein. Ladyfest needs 64,000 to cover the budget. We are applying for sponsorship under the umbrella of the Olympia Community Foundation, a philonthropic agency thta offers fiscal support to events like ours. The Community Foundation will do our bookkeeping, and help with taxes. The administration cost is two percent. They will also make sure that we are in compliance with the law. We are up for approval Febuary 17, which means that the budget committee need all budgets and descriptions of events by next Friday at the latest. The budget committee will be writing an official fundraising from to people to make individual solicitation. There was a long conversation about the cost of passes. We decided that passes would not go any higher than $60, and no lower than $45. A few questions were raised surrounding this issue that I think are worth mentioning- -What events will cost and what events will be free? -Will bands play only at night, or will there be day shows, and if there are day shows should they be in small or large venues? -Which panel discussions/workshops will cost money? -How much will weekend and day passes cost? Someone suggested that large shows should cost $8, and small shows $5. Molly made a comment on the price of passes saying that if she knew where the surpluss money for the festival was going-informing people who come to the festival where the surpluss funds are going-she would be more comfortable spending more money on a pass. There was a dialogue about the pass being to expensive for people w/o the resources to pay $60. People will be able to volunteer for a pass. -There was a short dialogue about benefit shows -A discussion about performers getting a discount on the pass-which concluded with the decision that they will not get a discount, because most of them are getting paid.
Volunteer Committee. Jennifer Shafer. Jennifer does not have e-mail yet. The volunteer committee is meeting next week. There are three people on that committee. They will be talking about how much you work for a pass. Jennifer thought that the Yoyo model is a good idea to base the Ladyfest model on.
Program Committee. Molly Zucherman. The program committee is meeting tonight. Molly met with Tumwater Printing. She will be getting a quote Monday for the program cost. She has selected a paper. She thinks that the program will be twenty eight pages (seven sheets of paper) that fold on eight and a half by eleven paper. The program will be in full colour if it's not too expensive. Allison suggested that each day of the festival should have its own page.
Publicity Committee. Neither Maggie Vail or Melissa Brunell were present-so Erin gave the update. Publicity have asked three to four people to make mock-ads and are waiting to get them back. Visual Arts-Audrey Marrs was not at the meeting.
Performance Art/Spoken Word. Bridget Irish. The committee met last Sunday and established a budget of eight thousand dollars. This should cover the cost of travel, etc., to bring people to the festival. They came up with guildline/a synopsis of what their committee will be doing.
Hospitality Committee. Beth Grover. They have not met yet. Beth is confused about what hospitality entails. She wants a hospitality 'green room' backstage for bands. Beth want to make cakes. Workshops/Panels. Shilo Sparks. A list of workshops/panels was posted on the onelist last week. If you have suggestions for panels or workshops, or ideas about women to ask to facilitate or speak, e-mail the committee.
Merchandise Committee. Julie Lary and Donna Dresch. Have not met. Wants to make t-shirts and buttons. One with Ladyfest logo one without. Contacted the two ladies in thier garage to make shirts-it will cost $4.50 per shirt {Hey there-- I'm Krista from Two Girls & a Garage. I just wanted to correct that the price was $4 per shirt for black. Light colors would be cheaper. Krista}. If you have idea's on other women to ask to make shirts contact the merchandise committee. Women and Guitars. Neva Reece. Neva has a show comming up at the Washington Centre-so things are temperarily on hold. However, she has found a contact for benefit show idea, and has idea's of women she would like to ask to play.
After Hours. Faith Gundrun. Needs to know how many after hour parties she should be planning. How late are bands playing? She thought of organizing a rollerskating party, and an open-mic.
Band Committee. Allison Woolfe. The band committee met last week. The committee is large, and they came up with a long list of bands. The scheduling committee proposed that there be no large rock shows during the day. The band committee is working on show times. Someone suggested that the Capitol Theatre Backstage is used for day shows. The issue of large day shows was discussed-several people were concerned that large day shows would steal the panel/workshop audience. Bridget Irish suggested that NA and AA meetings be incorperated into the Ladyfest Program. If I left out anything in these minutes, please post additional information.
Thanks. xoxo-Kathryn Lewis

1/24/00

During the last meeting (1/22/00 - also took place at k) the coordinators discussed the benefits and drawbacks of becoming an official, federal non-profit organization. The benefits being that many larger organizations (Experience Music Project in particular) will only donate money to non-profit organizations, and that our donors would get a tax break. The disadvantage is that the application process takes months, and is a lot of work, and our committees are already swamped, particularly the budget committee, which would probably be the one doing the bulk of the work if we did decide to apply. The second option is to go under a non-proft umbrella - to exist under another non-profit, such as Safe Place which would allow us to receive donations through their non-profit status, although the group we go with would have to process that donation, and would take a percentage for administrative costs. The third option would be to exist as a business, take whatever donations people are willing to give without a tax break, and pay for ladyfest primarily through ticket sales. There were a lot of ideas about how to make each option work. One of the main issues was whether or not ladyfest would continue as an organization, or as a festival after this August. The general reaction to that idea was that it would not, as many of the committee co-ordinators were SO busy they couldn't possibly imagine doing this again, at least not at this stage in planning, and we agreed to not make that decision until after this years festival, at which point we could begin the application process with plenty of time to spare, if there was going to be another festival. There was a lot of discussion about whether ticket sales would cover all of our costs, Michelle gave us some info about how it works with Yo-Yo. The final consensus was that going under an umbrella seemed to be the best option, because although they would take a percentage of our donations, we would not lose any money because otherwise we wouldn't be able to get those donations in the first place, and we didn't want to operate as a business, because one person would have to be personally liable for debts and insurance reasons. Incorporation was brought up, but didn't seem like a popular option. Also we thought about offering whatever money is left over to the organization we work under, and Safe Place was preferred over national organizations because many of us would like to keep the money that is left inside the community. Teresa will look into percentages and other details involved with possible umbrella org's for ladyfest. The budget committee will look over budgets submitted by individual committees (not all are in yet) and donations we have confirmed and come up with pass and individual ticket prices. There is a lot of concern about making the festival as affordable as possible, and still being able to pay artists fairly, and reimburse organizers for costs incurred (though no one will be paid for time). A decision was made to choose a facilitator for the next meeting at the end of each meeting.

Please feel free to add anything i missed or correct mistakes! I suggest that in addition to choosing a facilitator, we choose a secretary for the next meeting. - sasa

1/11/00

hi all, here's a bit about what happened at the last meeting. if anyone has anything to add please do. it was at K. first we all introduced ourselves. there were around 35 people at the meeting. we went over the basic organizational structure of committees. we talked about other committees we wanted to add: children's activities, hospitality, program (making the program for the event), after hours, and food exploration (exploratory committee determining if/how we should provide food for people at the event.) we all signed up for committees (list forthcoming) (please note that not all committees have facilitators or many people signed up yet. please encourage yourself or your friends to take up these jobs!) we discussed a kind of mission statement/purpose statement which will read as follows:
Ladyfest 2000 is scheduled for Tuesday, August 1st through Sunday August 6th in Olympia Washington. It is an event designed by and for women to showcase, celebrate and encourage the artistic, organizational and political work and talents of women. It will feature performances by bands, spoken word artists, authors, visual artists and more!!! it will include workshops, panels, and dance parties. This is a woman-run event but all are welcome to attend.
we talked about ideas for a name. some names were suggested. eventually we concluded that we will vote on line for names by the end of this week (sasa agreed to set this up -- more info forthcoming from her). We decided the next meeting will be Saturday, january 15 at 5pm, probably at K again (more info forthcoming on this from Melissa and Sarah U?) So far the ideas I have for an agenda are as follows: (if you have ideas pls. send them to the list)
Contact issues: voice mail/mailbox
Coordinator one list: should we have one?
Coordinators: is two sufficient?
Scheduling deadlines
Bands: all girl/girl-fronted only?
Committee break-outs + action meetings. Hopefully most of the meeting will actually be planning with committees, not big-group style like last time. I think that covers it. if you have anything to add please do! xo sarah d.

Hello everyone interested in Ladyfest 2000,

Ladyfest 2000 is scheduled for Wednesday, August 2nd through Sunday, August 6th in Olympia, Washington. It is an event designed by and for women to showcase and celebrate the artistic, organizational and political talents of women. It will feature performances by bands, spoken word artists, authors, visual artists and more!!! It will include workshops, panels, and dance parties. This is a woman-run event but all are welcome to attend. (Contact information to follow)

**The next meeting is scheduled for 5 pm, Saturday January 8 @ The Big Room above K records. COME TO THE MEETING TO SIGN UP FOR A COMMITTEE!!!!

This note is an attempt to clarify the organizational situation of the festival and get everyone up to date. After the first and only meeting, it seemed like we were lacking a basic structure to get anything done. Some of the women who had first come up with the idea of the festival met a couple days later in order to try to get some basic organizational structures in place. We think that this structure is necessary so that each person involved can fulfill their artistic and creative goals.

The meeting was not to make any decisions about the content of the festival, but rather to streamline the process of organization. This is what we came up with:

1. COMMITTEE STRUCTURE Committees are made up of any woman who wants to get involved with them.The committees facilitate events. The committees will take proposals and ideas and will also be deciding on and asking people/bands to participate. Each committee will decide on its own meeting times, how the meetings will be run, and how decisions will be made. Remember, you donàt have to be on the committee to have input; committees will take proposals (see below) and you can bring a suggestion into a coordinator. This way you can be on one committee but still suggest your ideas to others. OR, you can not be on any committee and just perform, participate, or volunteer during the festival. This organizational system was devised to give the most people the most access to decision making about the festival. If you are interested in working on a committee, contact the coordinators.The committees are designed to provide organizational support for those who want it.

2. THE ROLE OF THE COORDINATOR Depending on the committee, there will be one or two coordinators. They will live in Olympia for the sake of convenience. There are already some people who have expressed an interest in being coordinators (their names are next to the committee names listed below). If there isnàt a coordinator yet, consider volunteering for the job yourself and come to the meeting on January 8th. The coordinator is responsible for being the contact person for the committee, organizing meetings for the committee, acting as a liaison to other committee coordinators and being the point person for artists/performers etc. For example, if you are an artist or know someone who is, and you want to hang up a show for the festival, you would contact the coordinator of the visual arts committee. The coordinators are responsible for sharing your ideas/art with their committee, who then will facilitate the role your show/art will have in the festival. Committees will take proposals and ideas for events/artists, as well as solicit them. Coordinators cannot make decisions about performers/artists without consulting their committee. They will not have more or less power than anyone else on the committee.The coordinator position is designed to make it easy for people to contact the committee and be involved.

3. PROPOSALS AND DEADLINES The reason there are going to be proposals and deadlines is that there is limited space and time for all the events of the festival. Each committee will be responsible for soliciting performers etc., and will work with the scheduling person to arrange available space for the events. The committee will decide how they will take proposals.

4.SCHEDULING Sarah Dougher and Maggie Vail have taken responsibility for making a time line for committees to follow in getting their acts together, and scheduling and booking the spaces. They will work with the committee coordinators to assure the most equitable distribution of space and time for all interested parties.

5. COMMITTEES So far, the ideas for the committees are as follows:

VISUAL ARTS/FILM - Audrey Marrs, Sarah Utter This committee will organize visual arts events and film showings.
WEB SITE - This committee will build and update the official web site.
BUDGET/REVENUE/FUNDRAISING - Teresa Carmody and Carrie Brownstein This committee will devise a budget, raise funds and organize the money associated with the festival.
VOLUNTEER COORDINATION - This committee will recruit and organize a large pool of volunteers to work prior to and during the festival (ie. ticket takers, door people, concession etc.) This is a committee that will be working during the actual festival. PR/ADVERTISING/PRESS - Maggie Vail and Melissa Brunell This committee will get the word out about the festival via print ads, setting up interviews, etc. They will place ads according to the budget and try to get news about the festival out to as wide an audience as possible.
BANDS/BOOKING - Allison Wolfe This committee will solicit and choose the bands that play at the festival. They will act as liaisons between performing bands and the festival in general.
MERCHANDISE/BOOTHS/ZINES - This committee will organize all the merchandise associated with the festival. They will organize people who want to sell stuff or display political information etc at booths.
PANELS/WORKSHOPS - This committee will solicit and facilitate panels and workshops on diverse subjects. They will act as liaisons between speakers and presenters and the festival.
PERFORMANCE ART/SPOKEN WORK/CABARET/OPEN MIC/TALENT SHOW - Bridget Irish This committee deals with performances that arenàt rock/music shows. They solicit and facilitate these types of performers.
FACILITIES - This committee will be in charge of staffing technical support ie. sound people, lighting technicians, security etc. People on this committee should have an interest or background in technical support for performances of all kinds. They will work closely with the committees that have solicited performers to get all the right equipment/people in the right place at the right time.
DOCUMENTATION OF FESTIVAL - This committee will facilitate audio and visual documentation of the festival. People with interest and/or experience with film, photography, video and audio recording are encouraged to join this committee.

This document was written collectively by Sarah Dougher, Allison Wolfe, and Carrie Brownstein, and reflects ideas and thoughts of the initial planners.