[0:09] Uh, we've got the minutes.

[0:13] I'll accept a motion to approve the minutes. Hey,

[0:15] that'll work. Great job. Second. Oh, any discussion?

[0:24] Um, all approved say I. All the pals the same sign minutes are approved. Yay. Wow. Nice. Uh you're

[0:38] doing great. Okay. Thanks. You're doing great. Uh okay. So uh as you guys have uh uh heard as

[0:46] we're chatting as everybody's coming in um we did uh receive a healthy number of applicants for the

[0:54] operational grants for this year. To remind Uh those who have been here before, we have

[1:01] um about no not about exactly 13 organizations already under contract for this year. So the

[1:09] number is lower than usual. Um uh I gave uh one organization an extension based on their request

[1:18] because they had a crisis. Um and so hopefully next Monday I'll have that from them. Uh, if I do

[1:24] receive that one, we will be at 21 applicants. Um, I think Naen, you might be the only person that's

[1:32] been here as long as me. You, maybe longer than me at this point. Um, we have not had Last time

[1:38] we had this few was in 2023. We had 23 operational grant applicants. So, this is even below that. So,

[1:46] which is great. This is on purpose. This is on purpose. A good sign. It's working. Um I mean if

[1:52] we give if we award um if we award 21 uh grants will still be at our usual number of recipients

[2:03] which sits in the low30s at this point usually. Um so by by your own discussions you helped lower

[2:11] the amount. Is that how how it happened? I don't you may recall that we discussed a few meetings

[2:19] ago that we changed the structure of the the the grant opportunity. We added those tiers,

[2:25] right? So the the highest tier, they never their contract never ends as long as they keep meeting

[2:31] their performance measures, right? So they never have to reapply. The middle tier, our anchors,

[2:37] they apply uh they they get three-year contracts. And so next year will be year two of their

[2:44] contract. So they do not have to apply for another couple years yet. That's 13 of our most common

[2:50] applicants. That's the reason they're in the tiers that they're in. So pulling those 13 out,

[2:57] uh we have what hopefully will be 21 applications remaining. So, we've we've pulled out a solid

[3:06] third of what you guys would be reading normally. Um, and they're on just continue they're on other

[3:13] contracts. Now, obviously, when the anchors come up for renewal, that number will be higher because

[3:19] the anchors will need to be renewed. Um, but as you'll see this year, we've got a couple who

[3:24] could be considered for anchor status. And so it it might start ending up being very uh staggered

[3:32] to where it's more of a consistent number as we go from year to year. Uh so hopefully that

[3:38] makes sense. Um so uh this year we did have a few new applicants. Um we had two who uh one who has

[3:50] told me they've chosen not to reapply. That's the Metropolitan Ballet. they they're not in a place

[3:55] right now where they felt like doing it. I did tell them about the activation grant, so hopefully

[4:01] we'll see them in a couple months. Um, and then the other one, I have not heard from the Witchah

[4:07] Community Children's Choir. Um, I don't know why. Um, I was talking with them a few months ago,

[4:15] uh, but I haven't heard from them in a while. So, I those two we not have not gotten applications

[4:21] from. to go over this really really quickly with you. We got a new application from Ponder this,

[4:27] they're a poetry spoken word organization here in town. The cultural association of India from

[4:34] Witchah is uh new to us. Uh Envision and Forum are repeats. Friends of the Witchita pioneers,

[4:42] they do a lot of century clean uh cemetery cleanup. Century cemetery, here we go. Cemetery

[4:48] cleanup specifically in one one uh organization. And there are a couple of these where I don't

[4:52] know if they're going to end up being funded, but I'm just letting you know where they are.

[4:58] Great Plains Transportation Museum, this is their second application with us. Juniper Arts is back.

[5:03] Kansas Bluegrass is back. Um, and they're doing not to not to uh talk up too many people, but we

[5:10] had a site visit with them recently and they're doing very well. Um, KW is back as a applying

[5:16] for partner. McCormick School uh is applying. They're getting pretty close to anchor. Um,

[5:22] Music Youth Partnership is back. Oreium is back. Orefume, I would love for you guys to consider for

[5:28] anchor status for next year. PBS can and this will all be in an email, so don't worry. PBS Kansas is

[5:35] back. Sense Community Band uh is new to us. Um, and they're one of the two uh they're one of the

[5:43] smallest organizations currently that has ever applied for our uh funding. Storytime Village is

[5:50] back, the Witchaw Agent Association is back after a year away. Uh, Chamber Corral is back, Grand

[5:56] Opera is back, Jazz Festival is back, and then, uh, ICT Rep is usually how we refer to them. Uh,

[6:03] which Repatory Theater is back as well. So, um, Waw Grand Opera and Oreium Performing Arts Center,

[6:12] uh, I will request that you guys consider them for anchor. Uh, and I will write this all out

[6:17] in an email so that you have it. You don't have to remember this, but um, they were held back for one

[6:23] reason or another last year at this time and we'd like to reconsider them this year. Uh, let's see.

[6:30] So, yeah. So, that's our currently our 20. Um, uh, our 21st is Malberry Arts. Hopefully, we will get

[6:36] an an application from them very soon. Uh so it's it's very exciting to have all of these and this

[6:43] is a very zoomed in look look at submittable those of you who are new to the program I'll go over

[6:48] that in a little bit but um to talk very briefly to our newer members who haven't gone through this

[6:59] process um the a lot of these are going to be the organizations where you you say to yourself wow

[7:05] this application might not be that strong or it could be Um, and unfortunately the ones that would

[7:12] be the best are the ones who are on contract already, right? The easy ones to understand,

[7:17] the numbers that are super clear, right? These are going to be the ones that where you've got to dig

[7:22] a little bit to maybe get answers that you want. But if you don't, if there is a question that you

[7:27] don't have an answer to, that is an opportunity for the Q&A that's coming up on September 3rd.

[7:32] Okay? and I'll be scheduling that tomorrow and Friday. And I'll send you guys a a list of how

[7:38] that will look when I've got that schedule ready to go. Um, but yeah, I don't want you to just see

[7:47] these and think like, oh wow, this is such a like what's up with all these applicants. It's

[7:51] these are our ones who are new or are smaller and they don't have the capacity, right? So,

[7:57] um, but al also there's K&W and PBS in there and they're going to look just fine. So, it's going to

[8:03] be a very fascinating range for you guys to jump in on. Um, yes. Uh, talking very a little bit more

[8:13] about the operational grants, just to give you some previews. Um uh uh before we do our Q&A,

[8:20] usually we'll talk very briefly about um how much funding we have to give. Um and whether

[8:28] or not we want to hold any funding back for our other grant program, which now is just

[8:35] the activation grant. Last year, we gave about 56 what on about $56,650 in activation grant funding.

[8:43] Um, this is not an official number, so sorry anybody watching this back on YouTube later. Um,

[8:52] based on what I can see in the in the proposed budget book, we're looking at a 7.41% increase

[9:00] from last year. Um, so it's always possible that I'm reading that wrong, but I don't think that I

[9:10] am. Uh, yes. So, uh, I mentioned that we have some organizations already under contract. The

[9:17] five cultural institutions, which is our top level, they got $35,000 last year. They will

[9:25] get that plus the 7.41% increase next year, which comes out to, I believe, about 37500.

[9:35] So, they'll get that increase. The anchors are locked in at their amount for three years.

[9:41] they don't get the increase. So that that amount does not change. That's currently $176,000. The

[9:49] institutions it's 187950. Um which leaves you between these partners and potential anchors and

[10:01] the activation grants. uh around $230,000 left to uh allocate. Thank you. Um last year we gave out

[10:16] $146,000 to this tier of applicant that I assume will go up a bit this year. But as you think about

[10:26] that, don't forget that we want to hold back X amount of money for the activation grants.

[10:32] Does that make some sense? So, if everything slight slid upward by that 7.41% increase,

[10:39] these guys would get about 157,000. The activation grants would get about 61,000

[10:45] and but you'd still have 13,000 to figure out where it would go. Okay? So, there's a there's

[10:51] money to play with here because the anchors didn't shift up. Does that make some sense

[10:57] to everybody? I know that I'm getting into math and I'm sorry about that. I'll stop now. Um but

[11:05] uh so so overall our our pot if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly will be $595,000.

[11:14] So 500 sorry how much? 595 and 237 if you really want you really want all of it. And we'll still

[11:25] have the budget office come in before Q&A to I don't know that it's necessary anymore. like I

[11:29] can confirm my numbers with them, but I get it now. You know, I literally wrote the appendix

[11:35] on how the mil levy works. So, if you ever want to learn how your property tax is calculated,

[11:42] let me know. I'd be happy to tell you all about cereal bowls. Send you a lot

[11:47] of people. Yes. Yeah. Uh uh Okay. So, do we So, hope I have some uh you can't see it from here,

[11:58] but in my spreadsheet that's just for Jesse, um I have a few organizations that I'm still working

[12:05] on curing some applications. So, there's like confusing financial documents or they gave me

[12:11] two years instead of three years. Like, I'm trying to fix those as quickly as possible.

[12:15] But I'll still be getting you at least I would say maybe 15 applications to read at

[12:22] the at minimum today or tomorrow starting today or tomorrow. So we do have a shorter time period by

[12:29] just like a week or two than we usually do to do this. So um you will get an email. It will

[12:36] come from submittable. We'll say you've been assigned these things and you'll just click on

[12:41] them and they can take you right there. But I'll show you all that here in a few minutes. Okay.

[12:47] It's very easy hopefully. Uh yes. So that's operational grants. I think it, you know,

[12:54] I it it's always happens Sunday afternoon. I'm like, why are there only six of them? Oh god, what

[13:00] did I do wrong? And then there's 20 and I feel better, right? Um so uh yeah, it it it went well.

[13:09] Um, and I'm excited to see people that I didn't even reach out to apply for the grant,

[13:15] which is fabulous because I've had a crazy year and haven't didn't do as much cloaking of

[13:19] organizations as I wanted. And to randomly have some of them show up is fabulous. Um, okay. Uh,

[13:28] if are there any questions about that briefly? That was a lot that I just threw at you, but I

[13:33] really like talking about it, so my apologies. Okay. So, the activation grant to switch your

[13:40] brain to the other track for a minute. That's our project and professional development grant, right?

[13:46] It's a smaller one, smaller pot of money. Really up to you guys how much we toss in there. Um,

[13:53] I did make the changes that we discussed from last time. So, to uh go over that briefly with you,

[14:01] and I'm so sorry that there aren't page numbers. I never remember page numbers. Um you will see if

[14:10] you if you start on the very first page it says 2027 activation grant opportunity the page after

[14:16] that toward the bottom there's funding request limits I did add for 2026 the first year for the

[14:26] opportunity 17 grants were awarded they average $3,300 and range from 900 to 6700 to just give

[14:34] people an idea of what might happen from this. Um, so added that so that because we wanted to start

[14:44] tossing some history in there. Um, the calendar is updated uh for your needs. There will only be one

[14:51] information session. No one here is required to attend that, but you're always welcome.

[14:56] Um, very very occasionally there will be a question that's more directed at the committee,

[15:02] but it's I've maybe happened once in my four years of doing this. Um, see, uh, everything else in

[15:11] the rubric I believe was pretty much the same. Um, it was really just the, uh, the application

[15:21] itself. Um, I'll come back to this thing that was highlighted in two different places. It's just

[15:26] because it's also in the terms and conditions. [clears throat] Um, so the application is the

[15:31] final few pages of your of your document. I moved it to the back. Um, let's see. Uh

[15:41] so for number nine uh which should be number nine no matter which app version of the application

[15:47] you're looking at capacity building or project select from the options below that will show

[15:54] them all at once which I believe was where we ended. You still can only select one for now,

[16:05] but it will show them all at once. So that so um the question now says how does your project best

[16:13] connect? Question 10, please explain how how it aligns. Then question 11, does your project

[16:21] connect in other ways? So they do have question nine there to be able to see all those at once

[16:26] like you guys wanted. So they could reference them but maybe not select every single one which was a

[16:33] fear that came up. Um so uh that should hopefully be pretty uh straightforward for the applicant. Um

[16:46] scribe those uh 12 and 13 are straightforward. Uh, no real changes for 14. I just added in again that

[16:55] history so that people can remember truly remember how much they're asking for. Um, 15 describe

[17:04] how you plan to use it. The next question is is added. Can it move forward if you receive partial

[17:10] funding? And these so either yes or no. there will be a text box um that pops up with with a bit of

[17:18] text that says like please explain how you would move forward if you receive partial funding or is

[17:23] it possible to do a smaller version of this? Um just to get them thinking about how to continue

[17:30] doing their project and then that question 17 why do you feel it should be selected is the

[17:34] same. Um and then 18 on project funding under the project funding one is that optional video upload.

[17:43] Um and I've said no more than uh keep it to no more than 3 minutes of length. Can use uh you

[17:49] can talk about any aspect of the project that you wish. Um and then you know please don't use this

[17:54] space to upload your work samples and then work samples websites and everything. Um, and then the

[17:59] relevant versions of those questions were placed into the capacity building uh option as well.

[18:09] Yes. I cannot remember if you offer examples to folks, but I'm wondering specifically around the

[18:16] budget. I just really struggled last time and I I mean I think your language here and everything

[18:20] is clear, but can we offer like an example budget that like has categories and provides

[18:24] the appropriate amount of detail that we hope they can provide us just so they can like put eyes on

[18:29] something as an example. I think that could be helpful. I should be able to add uh links and

[18:35] u well I can definitely add links. I just to do it in a clean way that I want to I

[18:40] should be able to. Okay. Um, and to uh just going to write really quick

[18:46] add sample budget. I'm going to do the whole parenthesis s things. Um, yes. Uh,

[18:59] even if it's a fake one, I can do that. But hopefully I can grab a couple successful

[19:03] older ones and use them as examples. Um, you reminded me uh that first bullet point under

[19:10] please describe how you plan to use the funds for the project. It does say please provide

[19:15] the project's entire budget if the activation grant will only fund a portion of the project.

[19:19] Please make sure that's clear. Okay. So, that was another request that the committee had was to to

[19:24] know like are we just funding a certain section of it? Is the whole thing what's the whole thing

[19:29] look like? So hopefully get more information for you. Yes, I can absolutely add sample budgets.

[19:44] Any other thoughts about the guidelines? I know that it's a lot of text. My apologies. Um,

[19:51] it will present much cleaner to the applicant. Um, and I don't think that

[20:00] many of our applicants last year had feedback about it being confusing or anything like that.

[20:18] What I could use from the committee is just a

[20:20] vote on this being the guidelines and application with the suggested changes

[20:29] if you feel comfortable doing so today. You don't have to.

[20:35] I know it's a Oh, I didn't even talk about the highlighted thing. So, sorry. Let's have

[20:40] a discussion. Um, so one thing that our older grants that this replaced did, I'm speaking more

[20:52] specifically right now of like the artist access grant. You could only get the artist access grant,

[20:56] I believe, two years in a row before you had to take a break. then you can do it again. Um,

[21:02] and this is a little confusing the way that I've worded it. I can't come up with a better

[21:08] way to word it right now, but essentially I'd like it's it's a it's a goal of mine to spread

[21:15] this out to as many people as possible. So, if they have a successful application,

[21:18] I would like them to take at least a year off before reapplying. So, for capacity building,

[21:26] I um it's it's one year that you have to take off. Uh and then uh I may have done this wrong. I'll

[21:35] make sure that it's one year. Yeah. Fall 2027. Yep. I did this. I got I had I might have fixed

[21:41] it and then I refixed it if that makes sense. It's like uh so uh for 2020. Yeah. So if you want to if

[21:53] you get a capacity building grant this year for 2027 funding I have right. So you can't apply in

[22:01] apply27. You can't apply until 2028. Until 2029. Yeah. Well or before 2029. Yes. So if you get

[22:10] programmatic funding so I had um uh you can't apply. And this is why our our program gets so

[22:18] confusing because like I'm living in three years at once all the time. Um if you get if you get

[22:24] programmatic funding, you cannot get more funding until 2030. So you get 2027, you have to skip 2829

[22:31] and then you can get it again in 2030. Does that make sense? Does that work for everybody? Yes.

[22:38] Okay. So it's the the idea is that you know because we apply early it gets confusing but

[22:43] essentially if you get 2027 money your capacity you have to skip 28 but you can get 29. If you're

[22:50] programmatic and you get 2027 you have to skip 28 and 29 but you can get 30. And this is just

[22:58] an attempt to again spread it out and not have the same Witchaw Public Library Foundation,

[23:07] right? Getting a large chunk of our money every single year. And nothing against the library is

[23:13] my what came to mind. We love the library. Stay right to the camera. Love the library.

[23:23] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We love a lot of people and but our pot is limited.

[23:33] So are are there any thoughts about that about other aspects of the application

[23:39] about the guidelines? I've tried to it's all in my head and it all makes sense to me

[23:46] but you know everybody's got a plan so they can punch in the mouth that sort of thing.

[23:56] like the budget. I'm wondering if our question on describe your project. I just feel like sometimes

[24:02] last year they just went off real specific about things. So if something like include

[24:06] as much detail as possible, just a little bit of prompting like you have sample questions

[24:10] for them to consider. Yep. But I still felt like last year some of them were just like

[24:19] [clears throat] I would have felt better supporting if I understood more. I don't

[24:22] know if that will make would like to see describe your project in detail. Okay. In

[24:28] detail. Yeah. Yep. I can just write in detail. Thank you. Um with that said,

[24:35] yeah, I I'm 95% sure that these questions do not have character limits, which is something

[24:42] that is a holdover from the Arts Thrive grant. If you want I can't look at it right now. If

[24:51] you want as much detail as possible, do you also want a character limit? Yeah. I mean,

[24:59] we could be generous. Yeah. Character or word? I prefer word. Well, sure. This makes more sense.

[25:06] Okay. Uh I mean, even if I just said like a thousand words, like I was 2,000. Wow. We're

[25:14] all over the place. A page. 250 is a page. It's considered a page words. Yeah. Oh, not characters.

[25:27] 600, right? Two pages. 250, doesn't I know for my text message. Did you say

[25:32] I'm not saying 250? I'm saying 250 is a p. I said a thousand and I meant words.

[25:41] I'm not the one reading. Oh, I have to read them, but I'm not. You're not wrong. Like, I think

[25:46] caution them against writing. We we accidentally left we accidentally left one box without a

[25:52] character limit one time and it was a novel a novel. It was a book unstructured novel. It

[25:58] was like what's the mission of your organization? And it was 10 pages and it was like I definitely

[26:05] missed putting a limit on that one. So we've we've learned the power of the limit. Yes.

[26:18] Yeah, like this if you can see it. So, this isn't it's not this is two. They told me this

[26:24] is 208. That's not really very much. No, I would say 600. Okay. It's a it's a limit. You know,

[26:34] these people are not going to write this much. Some of them will, but not all of

[26:39] them would. Like the videos, we thought they long and sometimes they were 15 minutes long.

[26:45] Did I misremember that? I don't think that we only had like three or four videos. So,

[26:49] I mean this this the the the sample is not great. But the recall is Yeah,

[26:56] I Yeah, the long ones were long. I will agree. It's why we said no more than three minutes.

[27:06] We We happy with 600 words? Generally that's like

[27:11] 2500 characters. So that that's great. Great. The good writer is happy. Okay.

[27:22] All right.

[27:26] Any other uh questions? Are we happy with the change to

[27:30] the cultural the how does it connect? Um,

[27:39] I know we've talked in the past about wanting to give like examples of good

[27:42] of good applications. I'll try to reach out to our successful ones and see who would be

[27:47] willing to let me upload them. Um, a really good idea. I mean, I think I have a full

[27:53] application with the budget people. Yes, I'll just send an I'll try to send an email today.

[28:02] I mean it's just obviously the ones that have a professional grant writer

[28:07] working on their application they look very different than the ones that are you know do

[28:13] yeah something we can say this is ideal try to get like this right based on the

[28:19] details I think that's helpful like whenever I have an example that I can look at it's a

[28:25] game well and try to pick out some too that are from some of these smaller organizations

[28:31] Oh yeah, sure. I'm going to reach out to all 17 and I'll see who I can get. You know,

[28:36] we've got individuals, we've got big orgs, we got small or try to get a good sample, right?

[28:45] Yeah. Otherwise, I think it looks good. Should we vote or do people

[28:53] vote? Okay. All in favor of approving the

[28:57] application as amended. our discussion just now. Say I

[29:07] I'll second. There's Oops. Did I skip discussion? I'll second. I skipped that part. I just wanted

[29:13] you to get to it. Okay. Okay. All right. And then there was an I. All oppose. Same sign. Okay.

[29:20] Motion. Great. Somewhere in there. Yes. I'll put it on the back of your Jean. I'll put it on the

[29:27] back of my name. Sorry. Yeah. Oh [ __ ] Second. Yeah. Get you a little dungeon master screen. I

[29:41] great.

[29:44] Uh, okay. Great. We have uh uh a little over 20 minutes. I don't know that I'll need that

[29:51] much time to go through submittables. So, maybe we'll get you guys out of here a little sooner

[29:55] than usual. Um, those of you who are used to this, if you want to go or need to go, that's fine. Um,

[30:02] Art, I am not sharing my screen. Give me just a second. That's very rude of me. There's nothing

[30:07] there right now, right? Because I checked it this morning. I Yes, you have not been assigned

[30:11] anything. All right. Yes, there's nothing this morning. You'll get an email notifying you. You

[30:17] have a work. Yeah, I mean, but it won't say you've got 75 things to look at, right? So,

[30:27] there's there's that. My god. So, Art, hopefully you can see this screen. It says clear filters

[30:34] and such. I can. Um, so this is uh so zooming out. This is my test account. This is John Dudeman. Um,

[30:42] who's been assigned all of the applications. Uh so when you sign in you will uh basically see this

[30:50] um it'll say assigned like uh multiple people over here on to the right. Um but basically to

[30:58] get into it into an any application if the email that you receive lists them individually which I

[31:04] believe most of the time it does and it may just say like dot dot dot for more underneath. Um,

[31:10] you can click on a name to get directly into it or you can come to your your homepage essentially

[31:17] uh here under submissions and and get into it. So, um, just pick like Juniper is usually pretty

[31:24] solid. So, we'll click Juniper and of course it says Artbeat. That doesn't that's wrong. Uh, all

[31:32] right. Here it comes. So, you see the application and I'm sorry it feels like it's a little out of

[31:39] focus. It feels like I can never get this thing fully into focus. Anyway, um the application

[31:48] over here and it's a bit of scrolling organization staff list, right? Trustees, board of directors,

[31:56] mission statement, what what it does and then they go into the proposal narrative and their answers

[32:01] are all here. Okay. And then as you scroll, and I'm sorry, yes, it is it is plenty of reading,

[32:07] but hopefully it's all very interesting and you're learning about big organizations that you didn't

[32:11] know about. See, I've got to get the I've got to get Juniper to update their attendance data

[32:16] because sometimes Submittable just doesn't hold on to it. Well, there should be numbers there. Um,

[32:23] but you'll get toward the bottom, you'll start to see their financial documents. uh uh if uh

[32:29] Hannah's not here, but if you're a sicko like Hannah and you want to dive into them very deeply,

[32:35] um you know uh you'll just click and you can it'll take you right in, right? Uh and you can uh look

[32:43] at them. You can go back and forth between the documents up here. And this window doesn't show

[32:47] it great uh extremely well. This is what it should look like. So you've always got this to the right.

[32:54] you can exit out, right? You got taxes, you've got their current budget, an inind donation list. Um,

[33:03] so I usually have it. So, I have the complete review going while I'm reading it. You are you

[33:10] are hitting what I was just about to say. Okay. Cuz I'm like I never got a submittable overview,

[33:15] but if that's how we were supposed to be doing. No, no, no, no. I'm just showing I just wanted to

[33:19] talk about [laughter] whatever. So, on the right, you'll see this little thing here. Sometimes

[33:27] when you come in, it'll be on the activity tab, right? So, there's three tabs: activity, review,

[33:32] and messages. You don't really have to worry about messages. Um, every once in a while, I will have

[33:39] to put a document into the activity thing here, and I will tell you via email if I have to do

[33:45] that. This was a couple years ago when we tried to do just the taxes instead of the financial all of

[33:52] the financial things and it did not go well. So we switched back. So you'll mostly be in review and

[33:58] you'll just click complete review and then we'll open up right here on the right side so that you

[34:04] can scroll you can get to you know staff list and you can score how you feel about the staff

[34:10] list. There is a rubric to help you if you want. Um, we hope hope that you tack pretty closely to

[34:18] the some of the thoughts on the rubric and I will send that to you. I believe I've sent that to most

[34:22] of you already, but just in case I'll resend it. But, uh, essentially, you've got, I believe, 21

[34:28] questions per organization. Every single question has an opportunity for you to write notes. Those

[34:37] are useful for when you come back to the Q&A and you want to remember something that you thought

[34:43] uh a question you had, you can open this up when we're in the Q&A and you can scroll along and see

[34:48] your question. Or if you've got feedback that you want to give the organization, you can write it

[34:53] there and then I can pull that out when it's time to work on the feedback document. I think that's

[34:58] an important note, Jesse. The notes that we type are not viewable by the organization. Yes. None

[35:05] of this is viewable by the organization. Yeah, you'll see this little eyeball. It says it can be

[35:11] shared. I don't do that. It can be shared. This is helpful to your point, Jesse, when we do the Q&A

[35:17] sessions after you've read all these applications. And then weeks later when we sit down with the

[35:21] organizations to have them sitting in front of you, you want to have them there for Q&A. It's

[35:28] nice to have the questions already kind of teed up because you won't necessarily remember them.

[35:33] Yes. And it looks like I need to fix the Looks like I need to fix the review form. So,

[35:38] I'll fix the review form. It's a little out of order. Um, but I'll get that done. Um,

[35:47] go backwards. No, sorry. I was a review for Yeah. Oh. Um, so the goals like uh Yeah. So, what are

[35:57] your organization's goals? So, you got this here. So, you can, you know, Okay. Well, that feels like

[36:01] a four, you know. So, you can see here a little bit. We're not very zoomed in. Now, we are we

[36:07] consider a three successful. Um, and so these organizations should know that they're not going

[36:15] to get a five out of five on everything. It's okay to have feelings about how they're doing.

[36:22] You all are thrown into the same pot. You're all average together. If you feel strongly that this

[36:27] organization isn't as good as you would like it to be, that can come out in your reviewing. Okay?

[36:37] And that your score alone is not what determines funding for these organizations,

[36:41] right? So we we do average the scores out when we're done so that you can see and our the amounts

[36:47] that they receive trend usually with the higher scoring gets higher amounts of their ask, right?

[36:55] Um but the discussion is equally as important that you all have about organizations. So don't panic.

[37:06] Just just do your best. Um but again uh you'll just go through there's it looks like a bunch.

[37:17] It is a bunch but it's also just very spread out. Um toward the end you'll see a question.

[37:22] should this organization be funded? And it's yes or no. Right? Um and I treat this a little bit

[37:29] like a vote in the room. So if six of you say an organization shouldn't be funded, I will come to

[37:36] the room and say the majority of you didn't think that this should be funded. And then we might

[37:41] have a you might have a discussion on whether or not it should be. Sometimes organizations that

[37:46] receive multiple do not fund votes, they get docked on how much they receive a little bit

[37:51] because the there's just not a consensus in the room, right? So, um it's okay to say no. There's

[37:57] going to be a couple in here who I think you may say they're not a good fit or they're not ready or

[38:04] just this isn't a good enough application. And so, you'll say, "No, my job is to just make sure the

[38:10] applications are complete. If they're complete, I give them to you. And if they're in a gray area,

[38:15] usually I give them to you. Um, it's got to be pretty obviously not us, you know,

[38:23] uh, for me to say, "No, I'm not going to do it." I mean, I'll make the argument that a baseball team

[38:28] is a cultural organization, right? So, I'm not the best person at throwing up a big old gate,

[38:40] right? You have to allocate a percentage but it's relative to the others the same time that you're

[38:45] deciding only on this one right yes it's hard how do you go about or you guys have already

[38:50] done that how do you do this [laughter] and you got to almost read all of them first and

[38:56] then come back or no so go ahead sorry not try to do it each on their own individual merit

[39:07] and then we have to then if we end up you're funding you're we're overfunding then in the

[39:12] it comes out in the wash of the meeting. We figure out what how it's going to but I I don't I try to

[39:18] um I don't know a lot of things a lot of things come out in the wash. Um I will say

[39:24] I do I will send to you all an Excel sheet that you can use as sort of your own little

[39:30] note takingaking thing that you can put your amounts in and it'll calculate like

[39:34] where you're at. Not everybody uses it. That's fine. I ignore that. I'll

[39:38] let Jess worry about that when he he does numbers. So, I'll probably use my dollars.

[39:50] I get easier. I like that approach. I get people who are like, I don't care that

[39:54] the pot's only that much. We should spend 1.5 million. I'm like, great. I I agree. You know,

[40:05] and then I just I just take that and I go right and I go, "This is what you meant." Well, and I

[40:13] think the discussion some some people I think are easier graders, some people are upper graders,

[40:19] you know, they all get blended together. So, if we weren't all looking at them all at the same time,

[40:24] there are things that I would to equalize, but since we're all looking at them, generally, it

[40:30] still figures itself out, right? Um, so yes, uh, my life would be a lot easier if everybody said,

[40:38] "I've only got this much. I'm only going to give this much." That's never what happens. Um,

[40:44] and then of course there are issues with like, uh, I'll have to ask you guys if you

[40:48] have conflicts of interest with any of these. And if anybody does, sometimes people forget to

[40:53] leave money for the group that they have an a conflict with. And so, you know, it it just I

[41:00] have to fix it. Do we abstain from voting if we have a conflict? Usually. Okay. So, we abstain

[41:06] just on that one. You abstain from discussion on that one organization and from voting. Well,

[41:11] from the final thing you you can vote. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. But the like as we're sort of figuring

[41:17] it out as we go down, usually that person will leave. Yeah. We don't vote one. Okay. We vote

[41:22] on the whole thing. Okay. Got it. Okay. Yeah. So, you guys are creating recommendations that

[41:27] we take to city council. And so you create a recommendation of you should receive what

[41:33] funding and then hopefully city council agrees. Usually they do. Yeah. Um I have not seen it go

[41:42] the other way. I've read a report of it happening but that was a while ago. Anyway, uh yes. So it's

[41:50] it's that 20 to 21 times. If you've got additional comments, you can toss them down there. Sangita,

[41:56] you'll be using specific amount probably a lot. You'll say, you know, exactly what you want to do,

[42:02] right? Okay. You know, some people it's just vibes based, right? They deserve they deserve half of

[42:08] what they ask for, you know. So, it it I it used to just be how much should they get and it really

[42:14] just was all over. And so, I gave the percentage options in there. Um [clears throat] uh yeah,

[42:22] so it's it's not so bad. again. This I'll fix this. Um, do you know in the 21 applications,

[42:30] Jesse, how much funding has been requested, what the total is? So, yes. Um, I'm going to because I

[42:36] use the word request, I shouldn't have. Nowadays, it's just what they qualify for. We no longer ask

[42:42] them what they want. We always consider them for their maximum according to our guidelines,

[42:48] which is 15% of last year's actual expenses. Um, which is why for like one organization that's

[42:55] $100 and so it's like so they minimum. We don't really we don't really have a minimum like you

[43:02] know and so we I in I pushed that organization to apply because they needed to start setting up the

[43:12] things that are required for our application. I said, "You're going to have a much better time in

[43:16] the activation grant, but you should do this one because two two shots at it is much better than

[43:22] one." Um, so again, I know that there's going to be one or two organizations where you're like,

[43:28] I don't think this is right and they should be in the other one. So, we'll get there. Um so

[43:34] qualifi uh in terms of qualified um it's about without our missing application it's $233,500

[43:47] and I have your funding right now at 231,287

[43:53] again though we want to pull out that activation grant funding so it's maybe 23 of what they're

[44:00] qualified for and not and very few organizations for everybody that's new in the room ever get

[44:06] close to what they qualified for. Now I do still for fun calculate what they qualified for in the

[44:11] old version that was $451,000 and we never got close to that with anybody and so that's why we

[44:20] we started adding maximums. Um so now it looks a little bit closer to us actually giving out

[44:26] what people qualify for. Um, so, uh, yes, it's it's there's a wide range because we've got two

[44:34] that I'd like you to consider for anchor. Those go up to 35,000. I don't know that you would

[44:40] give them 35, but they go up to 35. Um, and then we have a cup, we have two, three, four,

[44:48] five. So, about a quarter of them do hit the maximum of 15,000 beyond those two anchors.

[44:56] like a third overall they're going to hit the maximum and be that big one. Um so it's it's

[45:03] just kind of all over and you know so so to move the two up to anchor which has more more

[45:11] cash what does that do to the availability of money to those below? Well, just whatever you

[45:19] guys end up um averaging out to and then after your deliberations deciding to stick with so

[45:26] maybe maybe it's $20,000 each for three years, right? Um uh that would just mean that uh that

[45:34] $40,000 comes off the top and then you know if we pull 60 Yeah. So you've got $131,000 left

[45:43] for the rest which is still really close. Like comparing that to what those two got last year,

[45:49] it's actually still more money this year for these organizations than last year. I'm doing a lot of

[45:56] math in my head all at once. Please let me know if I skipped too many steps. You're going to send us

[45:59] all these numbers, too, right? All the details. No, I mean, you're It'll be in your calculator.

[46:06] It'll be in your little spreadsheet. I'll tell you what their maximum is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um

[46:12] you don't necessar Go ahead, Art. Sorry, a quick I have a quick question. You were ch treasing

[46:22] I mean the the limitations of how many years you can get it in a row. Was that inclusive of the top

[46:30] tier like music, theater and and and symphony? So do they only get paid? No. No. So what's

[46:40] happening Art? I think you're conflating the two grants. So, I skip I skip back to the to the um

[46:47] operational grants which don't have that feature. You're okay. You're okay. No, it's fine. The So,

[46:54] the activation grant is the one where I'd like us to skip some years. The operational grant,

[46:58] which is our other grant, that one doesn't require you to skip. In fact, we don't want you to skip

[47:02] years, right? Um Yes. So, no one will no one currently under contract is under any threat

[47:09] of losing their funding. Um, and we've got 20 to 21 organizations to consider for uh new contracts.

[47:21] Okay. Sorry. Yes. No, you're fine. This is all great. It's all very helpful. Um, yes. So,

[47:28] your your your Excel sheet that I will send you that you can use uh or not um will list all of

[47:37] the applicants. It will list what tier that I think they should be considered for. And again,

[47:43] if you look at it and you say, "I don't feel like placing this organization into anchor," you don't

[47:49] have to. Just because they meet the qualifications doesn't mean that they get into the queue. But if

[47:55] you want to give them a three-year contract, you can. Um, so there's only two of those. And then,

[48:02] uh, it will list what they've qualif what they qualify for. And I'll have

[48:06] a little thing at the bottom where you'll have a column where you can put how much you think

[48:10] they should get. It'll add it up. It'll tell you how much extra you've got. Okay. Um yeah,

[48:18] should be hopefully very simple. And fewer than 34 to try to keep track of all

[48:26] at once. We're getting, you know, trying to reduce burden on everyone but myself.

[48:34] It's not true. I get 10 less contracts is great. Um, so the the goal will be

[48:42] um so this is hopefully submittable a little less daunting. Yes, the task is a lot. You have a month

[48:49] to read them. Um, and I'm under no illusions that they will all be done before the week of Mine

[48:59] will be done. Yes, Allison's leaving so she's Yes, it's okay if you wait. You can do you can

[49:05] choose to do this project in them all at once. I think some of us do them a couple at a time,

[49:10] you know, just however it works best for you. I'll send you the Excel sheet. I'll send you the

[49:14] rubric and you'll get an email from Submittable that has the links to the applications. Um,

[49:21] and Submittable also has the guidelines if you want to double check those things. Uh

[49:29] so we estimate that we will we will we will you're

[49:33] estimating that we will receive it by uh I'm hopeful you'll get hopeful

[49:41] I'm hopeful you'll get the email to start reading these uh today so those applications

[49:49] that aren't due until October 12th those we'll just get whenever they come but

[49:55] I'm so sorry. I'm on the operational grants again. Oh lord, I can't keep track of it. I'm sorry.

[50:01] I know. I'm so sorry. It's so tough being on a Zoom meeting. I wish I I wish I was in the room,

[50:05] but I I can't be. So, it's okay, man. We get it. I This will all be clear in the email. I promise.

[50:12] Okay. Um Sep, that's our September meeting time. That's our Q&A. I'm still planning on starting

[50:19] that at 9:00 a.m. Um, depending on uh how many breaks you guys want to take, you should be out

[50:25] by like two. Is it possible to be on Zoom for that? I know it's not the best. It is possible

[50:31] to be on Zoom for that. Yes. Okay. So, I may be out. Okay. Have a zoom in. All right. Yes,

[50:36] we can make that work. Um, that will be at the the Mid-American Allendy Museum. Bring a jacket.

[50:44] Always very cold. It is. It's It's a one. It's wonderful. What's the date?

[50:50] Late temperature. It's great. I could be in there all day. Feel so fresh. Uh Thursday,

[50:58] September 3rd. And then the week after that, we will meet roughly the same time,

[51:05] 9:00 a.m. to do our deliberations. Those should be shorter than usual, but there are more of us,

[51:10] so maybe they will be heated. I don't know. They won't be heated. [laughter] uh to do our

[51:18] deliberations. I get then two weeksish to write the document that goes to city council. We'll meet

[51:25] uh October 3rd to finalize the document. So I'll try to write that over the course of a

[51:31] week to 10 days. You'll have a couple days to look over it, but it won't be hugely different

[51:35] than what you've already given to me. Did you say October 3rd? Yes. Did I screw that up? No,

[51:43] not Saturday. You mean October 1st? I do. That's a copy paste error. It's October one. Please don't

[51:49] show up on Saturday. I'll fix that. So, how do I I I'm not going to be able to be there. I mean,

[51:57] I depending on what time gets done, I could be some Zoom, but I fly to Hong Kong that day

[52:04] on the 3. On the first on the first uh that's okay. You'll have you'll have you'll have uh

[52:12] uh participated in the meat of it. And so that's this is just the final like okay this is good to

[52:17] go to council if there are any minor changes it's usually small things if we need to add

[52:25] sometimes we get the document done and we didn't say anything good about a particular organization

[52:30] we only complained about them the whole time and I go maybe we should find some positive [laughter]

[52:40] let's balance it and so we'll we'll we we may rush our way through that. Um and I'll come

[52:47] with suggestions if if that does happen, which it occasionally does. Um so yes, and then uh

[52:59] once that's done, we'll be in the thick of uh we'll be waiting on the activation grants to come

[53:04] in and we'll get through those. Those are much easier to read and to score, but there are more

[53:11] of them. So, right, your favorite one is fun. Your favorite one is likely not going to get funded.

[53:19] I'll tell you that right now. It happens to us all. I have a favorite and then it's in the middle

[53:25] of the pack in the scoring and I go, "How did that happen? It's the best one." [laughter] And

[53:30] everybody goes, "What are you talking about?" Every time. Yeah. Uh, so he's stole that part.

[53:36] He is. Uh, yes. Are there any questions? Okay, great. Chair, would you mind? Where where is the

[53:52] chamber? Uh, it will be at friends university. If you're interested in coming to that,

[53:57] I will send a I'll send an email about that. Yes,

[54:02] that's September. That is not tomorrow, but the Friday after.

[54:11] commonly known as next Friday. Okay. At what time? We'll take it. It's going to be at 1 PM or sorry,

[54:22] it didn't make it onto the document that I sent out. I'll send it I'll

[54:25] send a separate email about the site visit. Thanks. You're very welcomed.

Cultural Funding Committee Meeting August 6, 2026

Transcript