Present: Jeremy Angier, Peter Belford, Sarah Bettencourt, Mara Brod, Aram Comjean, Suzanne Desrosiers, Ann Hirsch, September Isdell (taking notes), Lauren Leeman, Rachel Mello, Jonathan Rich, Paul Selkirk, Nicholas Shectman, Ursula Spont, Julia Tenney.
Purpose of meeting is to discuss any and all pre-event issues and figure out who needs what to make them happen. Lots of little details follow.
* Map stand restoration -- the map stands will need someone to check up on their permits before they're put out, and we should make sure whoever is putting them out has the locations and hardware.
* Bus stop sign restoration -- dates are set
* Nick is still waiting for a few parking answers
* The artist choice exhibit mail has gone out. Rachel will be sending out email to all the artists with volunteer info. In a week or so Nick will be sending out one more piece of email to all the artists with miscellaneous info; send him anything that needs to go into that.
* Website: Proofreading of site needs more eyes. Aram will be away until early next week, so this can wait a few days. Aram needs: list of sponsors, pictures from previous years events for the site, trolley route, map numbers, backport of data from map book generation into the database. Kelvy has information key for this. Paul Selkirk waves for doing the data input for this. Julia will look over website and provide a visitor's perspective and feedback.
* Map distribution (Jonathan Rich) needs more volunteers. Delegation of map distribution according to location, more this year and earlier. Last year we rebundled maps more than we needed to; 100 bundles of 10 would have been more than plenty, and we could skip doing even that by splitting bundles (they come in bundles of 25) as we handed them out. Maps will be available for distribution April 17th. Jonathan needs more details on distribution from Nick.
* Flyers (Ann and Tem) - work for listings of map distribution
* Museum show (Peter & Mara): Tuesday the 8th and Wednesday the 9th painting the walls white. 12th and 13th drops offs; 15th and 16th hanging begins. More volunteers needed for hanging. Rachel Mello will send out email looking for volunteers. Under Budget. Peter needs excel format of artists for label he needs to send email to aram with specifics. Food and music is under control. Budget needed: Not much; Restaurant dante is donating food and consumables; musicians are donating time; working on donated flowers. Need cleanup crew for after reception -- 4-5 bodies.
* Community space: Person at site who will be in charge of coordination between artist and facility. How, where, what and protocol. Meet at space beforehand to work out space and layout? Two Sarah’s coordinate the meeting for space layouts.
* Trolley: 4 trolleys this year. City of Somerville and Federal realty trust are each sponsoring two. Federal realty is not going through us; they are paying direct, using City View Trolleys. Trolley route has 14 stops including four "start" locations where trolleys should be at noon. Nick has documentation about routes. Poetry reading or story telling, needs someone to coordinate, Mara has ideas here and will get them to Lauren. Nick has last year's info. Survey drop boxes will be on the trolleys. Have writers also take care of the survey boxes? Need someone (groups again?) for babysitting trolley stop signs; need coordinator for this if multiple people doing it. Lauren to contact mayors office -- route approvals, checking on stops and corners, parking restrictions for stop at Nave and possibly one or two other stops. Lauren needs various other info from Nick.
* Traffic and parking needs to be contacted about the Hand Signs (IS this being done by Hillary Scott?) New permit needed if signs in new places.
* Who comes to SOS: Survey needs people willing to be responsible for collecting the surveys. Print more copies in paper free standing so artists can hand them out. PDF for artists pre-show. Need to do stuff with the data. UMASS Dartmouth as a source for data crunching? Make note: Brainstorm more survey questions for next year.
* Sponsorship. List donors and sponsors together on the web site. Make sure Restaurant Dante is on there.
* Appreciation. Do something for Evelyn at the museum.
* PR (represented tonight by Paul Selkirk): has feedback on seminar. Jo will have more notes on survey. Geared more towards site tourism. Mobility, getting around is a big topic. Co-brand with other metro Boston open studios. Promote each other and maybe urban art calendar. Work as a small business.
* An idea for next year: Cash machine locations on the maps
* Balloons will be a warm color, probably orange, and will be distributed alongside the maps. We expect fewer than half the artists to actually use our balloons rather than getting their own.
* Volunteers: How to reach people who would like to volunteer? Ways to communicate to volunteers and artists. How many one off volunteers? Some jobs (Artists Choice Exhibit drop-off, for instance) stay within community for security. Volunteer groups maybe watching trolley stops. United way, singles volunteer Boston. Have people write to volunteer@somervilleopenstudios.org.