Uh, we've got the minutes.
I'll accept a motion to approve the minutes. Hey,
that'll work. Great job. Second. Oh, any discussion?
Um, all approved say I. All the pals the same sign minutes are approved. Yay. Wow. Nice. Uh you're
doing great. Okay. Thanks. You're doing great. Uh okay. So uh as you guys have uh uh heard as
we're chatting as everybody's coming in um we did uh receive a healthy number of applicants for the
operational grants for this year. To remind Uh those who have been here before, we have
um about no not about exactly 13 organizations already under contract for this year. So the
number is lower than usual. Um uh I gave uh one organization an extension based on their request
because they had a crisis. Um and so hopefully next Monday I'll have that from them. Uh, if I do
receive that one, we will be at 21 applicants. Um, I think Naen, you might be the only person that's
been here as long as me. You, maybe longer than me at this point. Um, we have not had Last time
we had this few was in 2023. We had 23 operational grant applicants. So, this is even below that. So,
which is great. This is on purpose. This is on purpose. A good sign. It's working. Um I mean if
we give if we award um if we award 21 uh grants will still be at our usual number of recipients
which sits in the low30s at this point usually. Um so by by your own discussions you helped lower
the amount. Is that how how it happened? I don't you may recall that we discussed a few meetings
ago that we changed the structure of the the the grant opportunity. We added those tiers,
right? So the the highest tier, they never their contract never ends as long as they keep meeting
their performance measures, right? So they never have to reapply. The middle tier, our anchors,
they apply uh they they get three-year contracts. And so next year will be year two of their
contract. So they do not have to apply for another couple years yet. That's 13 of our most common
applicants. That's the reason they're in the tiers that they're in. So pulling those 13 out,
uh we have what hopefully will be 21 applications remaining. So, we've we've pulled out a solid
third of what you guys would be reading normally. Um, and they're on just continue they're on other
contracts. Now, obviously, when the anchors come up for renewal, that number will be higher because
the anchors will need to be renewed. Um, but as you'll see this year, we've got a couple who
could be considered for anchor status. And so it it might start ending up being very uh staggered
to where it's more of a consistent number as we go from year to year. Uh so hopefully that
makes sense. Um so uh this year we did have a few new applicants. Um we had two who uh one who has
told me they've chosen not to reapply. That's the Metropolitan Ballet. they they're not in a place
right now where they felt like doing it. I did tell them about the activation grant, so hopefully
we'll see them in a couple months. Um, and then the other one, I have not heard from the Witchah
Community Children's Choir. Um, I don't know why. Um, I was talking with them a few months ago,
uh, but I haven't heard from them in a while. So, I those two we not have not gotten applications
from. to go over this really really quickly with you. We got a new application from Ponder this,
they're a poetry spoken word organization here in town. The cultural association of India from
Witchah is uh new to us. Uh Envision and Forum are repeats. Friends of the Witchita pioneers,
they do a lot of century clean uh cemetery cleanup. Century cemetery, here we go. Cemetery
cleanup specifically in one one uh organization. And there are a couple of these where I don't
know if they're going to end up being funded, but I'm just letting you know where they are.
Great Plains Transportation Museum, this is their second application with us. Juniper Arts is back.
Kansas Bluegrass is back. Um, and they're doing not to not to uh talk up too many people, but we
had a site visit with them recently and they're doing very well. Um, KW is back as a applying
for partner. McCormick School uh is applying. They're getting pretty close to anchor. Um,
Music Youth Partnership is back. Oreium is back. Orefume, I would love for you guys to consider for
anchor status for next year. PBS can and this will all be in an email, so don't worry. PBS Kansas is
back. Sense Community Band uh is new to us. Um, and they're one of the two uh they're one of the
smallest organizations currently that has ever applied for our uh funding. Storytime Village is
back, the Witchaw Agent Association is back after a year away. Uh, Chamber Corral is back, Grand
Opera is back, Jazz Festival is back, and then, uh, ICT Rep is usually how we refer to them. Uh,
which Repatory Theater is back as well. So, um, Waw Grand Opera and Oreium Performing Arts Center,
uh, I will request that you guys consider them for anchor. Uh, and I will write this all out
in an email so that you have it. You don't have to remember this, but um, they were held back for one
reason or another last year at this time and we'd like to reconsider them this year. Uh, let's see.
So, yeah. So, that's our currently our 20. Um, uh, our 21st is Malberry Arts. Hopefully, we will get
an an application from them very soon. Uh so it's it's very exciting to have all of these and this
is a very zoomed in look look at submittable those of you who are new to the program I'll go over
that in a little bit but um to talk very briefly to our newer members who haven't gone through this
process um the a lot of these are going to be the organizations where you you say to yourself wow
this application might not be that strong or it could be Um, and unfortunately the ones that would
be the best are the ones who are on contract already, right? The easy ones to understand,
the numbers that are super clear, right? These are going to be the ones that where you've got to dig
a little bit to maybe get answers that you want. But if you don't, if there is a question that you
don't have an answer to, that is an opportunity for the Q&A that's coming up on September 3rd.
Okay? and I'll be scheduling that tomorrow and Friday. And I'll send you guys a a list of how
that will look when I've got that schedule ready to go. Um, but yeah, I don't want you to just see
these and think like, oh wow, this is such a like what's up with all these applicants. It's
these are our ones who are new or are smaller and they don't have the capacity, right? So,
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
be a very fascinating range for you guys to jump in on. Um, yes. Uh, talking very a little bit more
about the operational grants, just to give you some previews. Um uh uh before we do our Q&A,
usually we'll talk very briefly about um how much funding we have to give. Um and whether
or not we want to hold any funding back for our other grant program, which now is just
the activation grant. Last year, we gave about 56 what on about $56,650 in activation grant funding.
Um, this is not an official number, so sorry anybody watching this back on YouTube later. Um,
based on what I can see in the in the proposed budget book, we're looking at a 7.41% increase
from last year. Um, so it's always possible that I'm reading that wrong, but I don't think that I
am. Uh, yes. So, uh, I mentioned that we have some organizations already under contract. The
five cultural institutions, which is our top level, they got $35,000 last year. They will
get that plus the 7.41% increase next year, which comes out to, I believe, about 37500.
So, they'll get that increase. The anchors are locked in at their amount for three years.
they don't get the increase. So that that amount does not change. That's currently $176,000. The
institutions it's 187950. Um which leaves you between these partners and potential anchors and
the activation grants. uh around $230,000 left to uh allocate. Thank you. Um last year we gave out
$146,000 to this tier of applicant that I assume will go up a bit this year. But as you think about
that, don't forget that we want to hold back X amount of money for the activation grants.
Does that make some sense? So, if everything slight slid upward by that 7.41% increase,
these guys would get about 157,000. The activation grants would get about 61,000
and but you'd still have 13,000 to figure out where it would go. Okay? So, there's a there's
money to play with here because the anchors didn't shift up. Does that make some sense
to everybody? I know that I'm getting into math and I'm sorry about that. I'll stop now. Um but
uh so so overall our our pot if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly will be $595,000.
So 500 sorry how much? 595 and 237 if you really want you really want all of it. And we'll still
have the budget office come in before Q&A to I don't know that it's necessary anymore. like I
can confirm my numbers with them, but I get it now. You know, I literally wrote the appendix
on how the mil levy works. So, if you ever want to learn how your property tax is calculated,
let me know. I'd be happy to tell you all about cereal bowls. Send you a lot
of people. Yes. Yeah. Uh uh Okay. So, do we So, hope I have some uh you can't see it from here,
but in my spreadsheet that's just for Jesse, um I have a few organizations that I'm still working
on curing some applications. So, there's like confusing financial documents or they gave me
two years instead of three years. Like, I'm trying to fix those as quickly as possible.
But I'll still be getting you at least I would say maybe 15 applications to read at
the at minimum today or tomorrow starting today or tomorrow. So we do have a shorter time period by
just like a week or two than we usually do to do this. So um you will get an email. It will
come from submittable. We'll say you've been assigned these things and you'll just click on
them and they can take you right there. But I'll show you all that here in a few minutes. Okay.
It's very easy hopefully. Uh yes. So that's operational grants. I think it, you know,
I it it's always happens Sunday afternoon. I'm like, why are there only six of them? Oh god, what
did I do wrong? And then there's 20 and I feel better, right? Um so uh yeah, it it it went well.
Um, and I'm excited to see people that I didn't even reach out to apply for the grant,
which is fabulous because I've had a crazy year and haven't didn't do as much cloaking of
organizations as I wanted. And to randomly have some of them show up is fabulous. Um, okay. Uh,
if are there any questions about that briefly? That was a lot that I just threw at you, but I
really like talking about it, so my apologies. Okay. So, the activation grant to switch your
brain to the other track for a minute. That's our project and professional development grant, right?
It's a smaller one, smaller pot of money. Really up to you guys how much we toss in there. Um,
I did make the changes that we discussed from last time. So, to uh go over that briefly with you,
and I'm so sorry that there aren't page numbers. I never remember page numbers. Um you will see if
you if you start on the very first page it says 2027 activation grant opportunity the page after
that toward the bottom there's funding request limits I did add for 2026 the first year for the
opportunity 17 grants were awarded they average $3,300 and range from 900 to 6700 to just give
people an idea of what might happen from this. Um, so added that so that because we wanted to start
tossing some history in there. Um, the calendar is updated uh for your needs. There will only be one
information session. No one here is required to attend that, but you're always welcome.
Um, very very occasionally there will be a question that's more directed at the committee,
but it's I've maybe happened once in my four years of doing this. Um, see, uh, everything else in
the rubric I believe was pretty much the same. Um, it was really just the, uh, the application
itself. Um, I'll come back to this thing that was highlighted in two different places. It's just
because it's also in the terms and conditions. [clears throat] Um, so the application is the
final few pages of your of your document. I moved it to the back. Um, let's see. Uh
so for number nine uh which should be number nine no matter which app version of the application
you're looking at capacity building or project select from the options below that will show
them all at once which I believe was where we ended. You still can only select one for now,
but it will show them all at once. So that so um the question now says how does your project best
connect? Question 10, please explain how how it aligns. Then question 11, does your project
connect in other ways? So they do have question nine there to be able to see all those at once
like you guys wanted. So they could reference them but maybe not select every single one which was a
fear that came up. Um so uh that should hopefully be pretty uh straightforward for the applicant. Um
scribe those uh 12 and 13 are straightforward. Uh, no real changes for 14. I just added in again that
history so that people can remember truly remember how much they're asking for. Um, 15 describe
how you plan to use it. The next question is is added. Can it move forward if you receive partial
funding? And these so either yes or no. there will be a text box um that pops up with with a bit of
text that says like please explain how you would move forward if you receive partial funding or is
it possible to do a smaller version of this? Um just to get them thinking about how to continue
doing their project and then that question 17 why do you feel it should be selected is the
same. Um and then 18 on project funding under the project funding one is that optional video upload.
Um and I've said no more than uh keep it to no more than 3 minutes of length. Can use uh you
can talk about any aspect of the project that you wish. Um and then you know please don't use this
space to upload your work samples and then work samples websites and everything. Um, and then the
relevant versions of those questions were placed into the capacity building uh option as well.
Yes. I cannot remember if you offer examples to folks, but I'm wondering specifically around the
budget. I just really struggled last time and I I mean I think your language here and everything
is clear, but can we offer like an example budget that like has categories and provides
the appropriate amount of detail that we hope they can provide us just so they can like put eyes on
something as an example. I think that could be helpful. I should be able to add uh links and
u well I can definitely add links. I just to do it in a clean way that I want to I
should be able to. Okay. Um, and to uh just going to write really quick
add sample budget. I'm going to do the whole parenthesis s things. Um, yes. Uh,
even if it's a fake one, I can do that. But hopefully I can grab a couple successful
older ones and use them as examples. Um, you reminded me uh that first bullet point under
please describe how you plan to use the funds for the project. It does say please provide
the project's entire budget if the activation grant will only fund a portion of the project.
Please make sure that's clear. Okay. So, that was another request that the committee had was to to
know like are we just funding a certain section of it? Is the whole thing what's the whole thing
look like? So hopefully get more information for you. Yes, I can absolutely add sample budgets.
Any other thoughts about the guidelines? I know that it's a lot of text. My apologies. Um,
it will present much cleaner to the applicant. Um, and I don't think that
many of our applicants last year had feedback about it being confusing or anything like that.
What I could use from the committee is just a
vote on this being the guidelines and application with the suggested changes
if you feel comfortable doing so today. You don't have to.
I know it's a Oh, I didn't even talk about the highlighted thing. So, sorry. Let's have
a discussion. Um, so one thing that our older grants that this replaced did, I'm speaking more
specifically right now of like the artist access grant. You could only get the artist access grant,
I believe, two years in a row before you had to take a break. then you can do it again. Um,
and this is a little confusing the way that I've worded it. I can't come up with a better
way to word it right now, but essentially I'd like it's it's a it's a goal of mine to spread
this out to as many people as possible. So, if they have a successful application,
I would like them to take at least a year off before reapplying. So, for capacity building,
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
make sure that it's one year. Yeah. Fall 2027. Yep. I did this. I got I had I might have fixed
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
you get a capacity building grant this year for 2027 funding I have right. So you can't apply in
apply27. You can't apply until 2028. Until 2029. Yeah. Well or before 2029. Yes. So if you get
programmatic funding so I had um uh you can't apply. And this is why our our program gets so
confusing because like I'm living in three years at once all the time. Um if you get if you get
programmatic funding, you cannot get more funding until 2030. So you get 2027, you have to skip 2829
and then you can get it again in 2030. Does that make sense? Does that work for everybody? Yes.
Okay. So it's the the idea is that you know because we apply early it gets confusing but
essentially if you get 2027 money your capacity you have to skip 28 but you can get 29. If you're
programmatic and you get 2027 you have to skip 28 and 29 but you can get 30. And this is just
an attempt to again spread it out and not have the same Witchaw Public Library Foundation,
right? Getting a large chunk of our money every single year. And nothing against the library is
my what came to mind. We love the library. Stay right to the camera. Love the library.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We love a lot of people and but our pot is limited.
So are are there any thoughts about that about other aspects of the application
about the guidelines? I've tried to it's all in my head and it all makes sense to me
but you know everybody's got a plan so they can punch in the mouth that sort of thing.
like the budget. I'm wondering if our question on describe your project. I just feel like sometimes
last year they just went off real specific about things. So if something like include
as much detail as possible, just a little bit of prompting like you have sample questions
for them to consider. Yep. But I still felt like last year some of them were just like
[clears throat] I would have felt better supporting if I understood more. I don't
know if that will make would like to see describe your project in detail. Okay. In
detail. Yeah. Yep. I can just write in detail. Thank you. Um with that said,
yeah, I I'm 95% sure that these questions do not have character limits, which is something
that is a holdover from the Arts Thrive grant. If you want I can't look at it right now. If
you want as much detail as possible, do you also want a character limit? Yeah. I mean,
we could be generous. Yeah. Character or word? I prefer word. Well, sure. This makes more sense.
Okay. Uh I mean, even if I just said like a thousand words, like I was 2,000. Wow. We're
all over the place. A page. 250 is a page. It's considered a page words. Yeah. Oh, not characters.
600, right? Two pages. 250, doesn't I know for my text message. Did you say
I'm not saying 250? I'm saying 250 is a p. I said a thousand and I meant words.
I'm not the one reading. Oh, I have to read them, but I'm not. You're not wrong. Like, I think
caution them against writing. We we accidentally left we accidentally left one box without a
character limit one time and it was a novel a novel. It was a book unstructured novel. It
was like what's the mission of your organization? And it was 10 pages and it was like I definitely
missed putting a limit on that one. So we've we've learned the power of the limit. Yes.
Yeah, like this if you can see it. So, this isn't it's not this is two. They told me this
is 208. That's not really very much. No, I would say 600. Okay. It's a it's a limit. You know,
these people are not going to write this much. Some of them will, but not all of
them would. Like the videos, we thought they long and sometimes they were 15 minutes long.
Did I misremember that? I don't think that we only had like three or four videos. So,
I mean this this the the the sample is not great. But the recall is Yeah,
I Yeah, the long ones were long. I will agree. It's why we said no more than three minutes.
We We happy with 600 words? Generally that's like
2500 characters. So that that's great. Great. The good writer is happy. Okay.
All right.
Any other uh questions? Are we happy with the change to
the cultural the how does it connect? Um,
I know we've talked in the past about wanting to give like examples of good
of good applications. I'll try to reach out to our successful ones and see who would be
willing to let me upload them. Um, a really good idea. I mean, I think I have a full
application with the budget people. Yes, I'll just send an I'll try to send an email today.
I mean it's just obviously the ones that have a professional grant writer
working on their application they look very different than the ones that are you know do
yeah something we can say this is ideal try to get like this right based on the
details I think that's helpful like whenever I have an example that I can look at it's a
game well and try to pick out some too that are from some of these smaller organizations
Oh yeah, sure. I'm going to reach out to all 17 and I'll see who I can get. You know,
we've got individuals, we've got big orgs, we got small or try to get a good sample, right?
Yeah. Otherwise, I think it looks good. Should we vote or do people
vote? Okay. All in favor of approving the
application as amended. our discussion just now. Say I
I'll second. There's Oops. Did I skip discussion? I'll second. I skipped that part. I just wanted
you to get to it. Okay. Okay. All right. And then there was an I. All oppose. Same sign. Okay.
Motion. Great. Somewhere in there. Yes. I'll put it on the back of your Jean. I'll put it on the
back of my name. Sorry. Yeah. Oh [ __ ] Second. Yeah. Get you a little dungeon master screen. I
great.
Uh, okay. Great. We have uh uh a little over 20 minutes. I don't know that I'll need that
much time to go through submittables. So, maybe we'll get you guys out of here a little sooner
than usual. Um, those of you who are used to this, if you want to go or need to go, that's fine. Um,
Art, I am not sharing my screen. Give me just a second. That's very rude of me. There's nothing
there right now, right? Because I checked it this morning. I Yes, you have not been assigned
anything. All right. Yes, there's nothing this morning. You'll get an email notifying you. You
have a work. Yeah, I mean, but it won't say you've got 75 things to look at, right? So,
there's there's that. My god. So, Art, hopefully you can see this screen. It says clear filters
and such. I can. Um, so this is uh so zooming out. This is my test account. This is John Dudeman. Um,
who's been assigned all of the applications. Uh so when you sign in you will uh basically see this
um it'll say assigned like uh multiple people over here on to the right. Um but basically to
get into it into an any application if the email that you receive lists them individually which I
believe most of the time it does and it may just say like dot dot dot for more underneath. Um,
you can click on a name to get directly into it or you can come to your your homepage essentially
uh here under submissions and and get into it. So, um, just pick like Juniper is usually pretty
solid. So, we'll click Juniper and of course it says Artbeat. That doesn't that's wrong. Uh, all
right. Here it comes. So, you see the application and I'm sorry it feels like it's a little out of
focus. It feels like I can never get this thing fully into focus. Anyway, um the application
over here and it's a bit of scrolling organization staff list, right? Trustees, board of directors,
mission statement, what what it does and then they go into the proposal narrative and their answers
are all here. Okay. And then as you scroll, and I'm sorry, yes, it is it is plenty of reading,
but hopefully it's all very interesting and you're learning about big organizations that you didn't
know about. See, I've got to get the I've got to get Juniper to update their attendance data
because sometimes Submittable just doesn't hold on to it. Well, there should be numbers there. Um,
but you'll get toward the bottom, you'll start to see their financial documents. uh uh if uh
Hannah's not here, but if you're a sicko like Hannah and you want to dive into them very deeply,
um you know uh you'll just click and you can it'll take you right in, right? Uh and you can uh look
at them. You can go back and forth between the documents up here. And this window doesn't show
it great uh extremely well. This is what it should look like. So you've always got this to the right.
you can exit out, right? You got taxes, you've got their current budget, an inind donation list. Um,
so I usually have it. So, I have the complete review going while I'm reading it. You are you
are hitting what I was just about to say. Okay. Cuz I'm like I never got a submittable overview,
but if that's how we were supposed to be doing. No, no, no, no. I'm just showing I just wanted to
talk about [laughter] whatever. So, on the right, you'll see this little thing here. Sometimes
when you come in, it'll be on the activity tab, right? So, there's three tabs: activity, review,
and messages. You don't really have to worry about messages. Um, every once in a while, I will have
to put a document into the activity thing here, and I will tell you via email if I have to do
that. This was a couple years ago when we tried to do just the taxes instead of the financial all of
the financial things and it did not go well. So we switched back. So you'll mostly be in review and
you'll just click complete review and then we'll open up right here on the right side so that you
can scroll you can get to you know staff list and you can score how you feel about the staff
list. There is a rubric to help you if you want. Um, we hope hope that you tack pretty closely to
the some of the thoughts on the rubric and I will send that to you. I believe I've sent that to most
of you already, but just in case I'll resend it. But, uh, essentially, you've got, I believe, 21
questions per organization. Every single question has an opportunity for you to write notes. Those
are useful for when you come back to the Q&A and you want to remember something that you thought
uh a question you had, you can open this up when we're in the Q&A and you can scroll along and see
your question. Or if you've got feedback that you want to give the organization, you can write it
there and then I can pull that out when it's time to work on the feedback document. I think that's
an important note, Jesse. The notes that we type are not viewable by the organization. Yes. None
of this is viewable by the organization. Yeah, you'll see this little eyeball. It says it can be
shared. I don't do that. It can be shared. This is helpful to your point, Jesse, when we do the Q&A
sessions after you've read all these applications. And then weeks later when we sit down with the
organizations to have them sitting in front of you, you want to have them there for Q&A. It's
nice to have the questions already kind of teed up because you won't necessarily remember them.
Yes. And it looks like I need to fix the Looks like I need to fix the review form. So,
I'll fix the review form. It's a little out of order. Um, but I'll get that done. Um,
go backwards. No, sorry. I was a review for Yeah. Oh. Um, so the goals like uh Yeah. So, what are
your organization's goals? So, you got this here. So, you can, you know, Okay. Well, that feels like
a four, you know. So, you can see here a little bit. We're not very zoomed in. Now, we are we
consider a three successful. Um, and so these organizations should know that they're not going
to get a five out of five on everything. It's okay to have feelings about how they're doing.
You all are thrown into the same pot. You're all average together. If you feel strongly that this
organization isn't as good as you would like it to be, that can come out in your reviewing. Okay?
And that your score alone is not what determines funding for these organizations,
right? So we we do average the scores out when we're done so that you can see and our the amounts
that they receive trend usually with the higher scoring gets higher amounts of their ask, right?
Um but the discussion is equally as important that you all have about organizations. So don't panic.
Just just do your best. Um but again uh you'll just go through there's it looks like a bunch.
It is a bunch but it's also just very spread out. Um toward the end you'll see a question.
should this organization be funded? And it's yes or no. Right? Um and I treat this a little bit
like a vote in the room. So if six of you say an organization shouldn't be funded, I will come to
the room and say the majority of you didn't think that this should be funded. And then we might
have a you might have a discussion on whether or not it should be. Sometimes organizations that
receive multiple do not fund votes, they get docked on how much they receive a little bit
because the there's just not a consensus in the room, right? So, um it's okay to say no. There's
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
just this isn't a good enough application. And so, you'll say, "No, my job is to just make sure the
applications are complete. If they're complete, I give them to you. And if they're in a gray area,
usually I give them to you. Um, it's got to be pretty obviously not us, you know,
uh, for me to say, "No, I'm not going to do it." I mean, I'll make the argument that a baseball team
is a cultural organization, right? So, I'm not the best person at throwing up a big old gate,
right? You have to allocate a percentage but it's relative to the others the same time that you're
deciding only on this one right yes it's hard how do you go about or you guys have already
done that how do you do this [laughter] and you got to almost read all of them first and
then come back or no so go ahead sorry not try to do it each on their own individual merit
and then we have to then if we end up you're funding you're we're overfunding then in the
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
um I don't know a lot of things a lot of things come out in the wash. Um I will say
I do I will send to you all an Excel sheet that you can use as sort of your own little
note takingaking thing that you can put your amounts in and it'll calculate like
where you're at. Not everybody uses it. That's fine. I ignore that. I'll
let Jess worry about that when he he does numbers. So, I'll probably use my dollars.
I get easier. I like that approach. I get people who are like, I don't care that
the pot's only that much. We should spend 1.5 million. I'm like, great. I I agree. You know,
and then I just I just take that and I go right and I go, "This is what you meant." Well, and I
think the discussion some some people I think are easier graders, some people are upper graders,
you know, they all get blended together. So, if we weren't all looking at them all at the same time,
there are things that I would to equalize, but since we're all looking at them, generally, it
still figures itself out, right? Um, so yes, uh, my life would be a lot easier if everybody said,
"I've only got this much. I'm only going to give this much." That's never what happens. Um,
and then of course there are issues with like, uh, I'll have to ask you guys if you
have conflicts of interest with any of these. And if anybody does, sometimes people forget to
leave money for the group that they have an a conflict with. And so, you know, it it just I
have to fix it. Do we abstain from voting if we have a conflict? Usually. Okay. So, we abstain
just on that one. You abstain from discussion on that one organization and from voting. Well,
from the final thing you you can vote. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. But the like as we're sort of figuring
it out as we go down, usually that person will leave. Yeah. We don't vote one. Okay. We vote
on the whole thing. Okay. Got it. Okay. Yeah. So, you guys are creating recommendations that
we take to city council. And so you create a recommendation of you should receive what
funding and then hopefully city council agrees. Usually they do. Yeah. Um I have not seen it go
the other way. I've read a report of it happening but that was a while ago. Anyway, uh yes. So it's
it's that 20 to 21 times. If you've got additional comments, you can toss them down there. Sangita,
you'll be using specific amount probably a lot. You'll say, you know, exactly what you want to do,
right? Okay. You know, some people it's just vibes based, right? They deserve they deserve half of
what they ask for, you know. So, it it I it used to just be how much should they get and it really
just was all over. And so, I gave the percentage options in there. Um [clears throat] uh yeah,
so it's it's not so bad. again. This I'll fix this. Um, do you know in the 21 applications,
Jesse, how much funding has been requested, what the total is? So, yes. Um, I'm going to because I
use the word request, I shouldn't have. Nowadays, it's just what they qualify for. We no longer ask
them what they want. We always consider them for their maximum according to our guidelines,
which is 15% of last year's actual expenses. Um, which is why for like one organization that's
$100 and so it's like so they minimum. We don't really we don't really have a minimum like you
know and so we I in I pushed that organization to apply because they needed to start setting up the
things that are required for our application. I said, "You're going to have a much better time in
the activation grant, but you should do this one because two two shots at it is much better than
one." Um, so again, I know that there's going to be one or two organizations where you're like,
I don't think this is right and they should be in the other one. So, we'll get there. Um so
qualifi uh in terms of qualified um it's about without our missing application it's $233,500
and I have your funding right now at 231,287
again though we want to pull out that activation grant funding so it's maybe 23 of what they're
qualified for and not and very few organizations for everybody that's new in the room ever get
close to what they qualified for. Now I do still for fun calculate what they qualified for in the
old version that was $451,000 and we never got close to that with anybody and so that's why we
we started adding maximums. Um so now it looks a little bit closer to us actually giving out
what people qualify for. Um, so, uh, yes, it's it's there's a wide range because we've got two
that I'd like you to consider for anchor. Those go up to 35,000. I don't know that you would
give them 35, but they go up to 35. Um, and then we have a cup, we have two, three, four,
five. So, about a quarter of them do hit the maximum of 15,000 beyond those two anchors.
like a third overall they're going to hit the maximum and be that big one. Um so it's it's
just kind of all over and you know so so to move the two up to anchor which has more more
cash what does that do to the availability of money to those below? Well, just whatever you
guys end up um averaging out to and then after your deliberations deciding to stick with so
maybe maybe it's $20,000 each for three years, right? Um uh that would just mean that uh that
$40,000 comes off the top and then you know if we pull 60 Yeah. So you've got $131,000 left
for the rest which is still really close. Like comparing that to what those two got last year,
it's actually still more money this year for these organizations than last year. I'm doing a lot of
math in my head all at once. Please let me know if I skipped too many steps. You're going to send us
all these numbers, too, right? All the details. No, I mean, you're It'll be in your calculator.
It'll be in your little spreadsheet. I'll tell you what their maximum is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um
you don't necessar Go ahead, Art. Sorry, a quick I have a quick question. You were ch treasing
I mean the the limitations of how many years you can get it in a row. Was that inclusive of the top
tier like music, theater and and and symphony? So do they only get paid? No. No. So what's
happening Art? I think you're conflating the two grants. So, I skip I skip back to the to the um
operational grants which don't have that feature. You're okay. You're okay. No, it's fine. The So,
the activation grant is the one where I'd like us to skip some years. The operational grant,
which is our other grant, that one doesn't require you to skip. In fact, we don't want you to skip
years, right? Um Yes. So, no one will no one currently under contract is under any threat
of losing their funding. Um, and we've got 20 to 21 organizations to consider for uh new contracts.
Okay. Sorry. Yes. No, you're fine. This is all great. It's all very helpful. Um, yes. So,
your your your Excel sheet that I will send you that you can use uh or not um will list all of
the applicants. It will list what tier that I think they should be considered for. And again,
if you look at it and you say, "I don't feel like placing this organization into anchor," you don't
have to. Just because they meet the qualifications doesn't mean that they get into the queue. But if
you want to give them a three-year contract, you can. Um, so there's only two of those. And then,
uh, it will list what they've qualif what they qualify for. And I'll have
a little thing at the bottom where you'll have a column where you can put how much you think
they should get. It'll add it up. It'll tell you how much extra you've got. Okay. Um yeah,
should be hopefully very simple. And fewer than 34 to try to keep track of all
at once. We're getting, you know, trying to reduce burden on everyone but myself.
It's not true. I get 10 less contracts is great. Um, so the the goal will be
um so this is hopefully submittable a little less daunting. Yes, the task is a lot. You have a month
to read them. Um, and I'm under no illusions that they will all be done before the week of Mine
will be done. Yes, Allison's leaving so she's Yes, it's okay if you wait. You can do you can
choose to do this project in them all at once. I think some of us do them a couple at a time,
you know, just however it works best for you. I'll send you the Excel sheet. I'll send you the
rubric and you'll get an email from Submittable that has the links to the applications. Um,
and Submittable also has the guidelines if you want to double check those things. Uh
so we estimate that we will we will we will you're
estimating that we will receive it by uh I'm hopeful you'll get hopeful
I'm hopeful you'll get the email to start reading these uh today so those applications
that aren't due until October 12th those we'll just get whenever they come but
I'm so sorry. I'm on the operational grants again. Oh lord, I can't keep track of it. I'm sorry.
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,
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.
Okay. Um Sep, that's our September meeting time. That's our Q&A. I'm still planning on starting
that at 9:00 a.m. Um, depending on uh how many breaks you guys want to take, you should be out
by like two. Is it possible to be on Zoom for that? I know it's not the best. It is possible
to be on Zoom for that. Yes. Okay. So, I may be out. Okay. Have a zoom in. All right. Yes,
we can make that work. Um, that will be at the the Mid-American Allendy Museum. Bring a jacket.
Always very cold. It is. It's It's a one. It's wonderful. What's the date?
Late temperature. It's great. I could be in there all day. Feel so fresh. Uh Thursday,
September 3rd. And then the week after that, we will meet roughly the same time,
9:00 a.m. to do our deliberations. Those should be shorter than usual, but there are more of us,
so maybe they will be heated. I don't know. They won't be heated. [laughter] uh to do our
deliberations. I get then two weeksish to write the document that goes to city council. We'll meet
uh October 3rd to finalize the document. So I'll try to write that over the course of a
week to 10 days. You'll have a couple days to look over it, but it won't be hugely different
than what you've already given to me. Did you say October 3rd? Yes. Did I screw that up? No,
not Saturday. You mean October 1st? I do. That's a copy paste error. It's October one. Please don't
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,
I depending on what time gets done, I could be some Zoom, but I fly to Hong Kong that day
on the 3. On the first on the first uh that's okay. You'll have you'll have you'll have uh
uh participated in the meat of it. And so that's this is just the final like okay this is good to
go to council if there are any minor changes it's usually small things if we need to add
sometimes we get the document done and we didn't say anything good about a particular organization
we only complained about them the whole time and I go maybe we should find some positive [laughter]
let's balance it and so we'll we'll we we may rush our way through that. Um and I'll come
with suggestions if if that does happen, which it occasionally does. Um so yes, and then uh
once that's done, we'll be in the thick of uh we'll be waiting on the activation grants to come
in and we'll get through those. Those are much easier to read and to score, but there are more
of them. So, right, your favorite one is fun. Your favorite one is likely not going to get funded.
I'll tell you that right now. It happens to us all. I have a favorite and then it's in the middle
of the pack in the scoring and I go, "How did that happen? It's the best one." [laughter] And
everybody goes, "What are you talking about?" Every time. Yeah. Uh, so he's stole that part.
He is. Uh, yes. Are there any questions? Okay, great. Chair, would you mind? Where where is the
chamber? Uh, it will be at friends university. If you're interested in coming to that,
I will send a I'll send an email about that. Yes,
that's September. That is not tomorrow, but the Friday after.
commonly known as next Friday. Okay. At what time? We'll take it. It's going to be at 1 PM or sorry,
it didn't make it onto the document that I sent out. I'll send it I'll
send a separate email about the site visit. Thanks. You're very welcomed.