Creative Portland Corporation

P.O. Box 4675 | Portland, ME | 04112 | 207-370-4784 Board of Directors Meeting Wednesday, November 6, 2024 3:30 PM Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85602234265 For Public Comment: To submit written public comment on an Agenda item, email programassistant@creativeportland.com. Submissions must be received by 12:00 p.m. the day before the Creative Portland Board meeting to guarantee their inclusion in the Agenda packet. All submissions must include the commenter's name and legal address. To help ensure your comment is submitted for the correct item, please include the name of the Agenda item (see below) AGENDA 1. Welcome and President's Comments (Herb Ivy presiding) A. Consent Agenda: i. October Meeting Minutes (attached) ii. October Financials (attached) Action: Vote to accept Consent Agenda 2. Executive Director Update A. Arts & Culture Summit Recap/Update/Survey B. Monday Morning Drop By on November 4 C. Annual Report 2024 D. Form 990 to be prepared by The Swanson Group E. App & Community Outreach part-time - interviews in process F. Fundraising Drive - Mailer and Giving Tuesday e-blast G. Grant pursuit H. 2/24 City Council Workshop prep Page 1 3. Board Business A. EXCOM slate proposal for 2024-2025 (attached) Action: Vote to approve Executive Committee (EXCOM) slate B. Board Vacancy - Thanks & Farewell to Maile Buker (appointed by the Corporator) C. Board volunteer spots: (PD utility - Lindsay Hancock), PPAC, FFAW Matt Schwach, MMDB, 2/24 Workshop prep D. Board Share 4. FY25 Board Meetings: January 8, Feburary 5, April 2, May 7 & June 4, 2025 Page 2  Creative Portland Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, October 2, 2024 Actual: 3:32pm - 4:51 via ZOOM Attendance: Board Members: Kate Anker (Immediate Past President), Kirstie Archambault, David Brenerman (Secretary), Tae Chong, Lucy Comaskey, Gib Foltz, Eliza Ginn (Co-President), Lindsay Hancock, Clare E. Hannan, Herb Ivy (Co-President), Dinah Minot (Assistant Secretary), Daniel Minter, Councilor Regina Phillips, Dawn Reshen-Doty (Treasurer), Matt Schwach, and Greg Watson (ex officio) Staff: Dinah Minot; Walks Tall Keith Absent: Daniel Minter, Lucy Comaskey, Eliza Ginn 1. Welcome & President’s Comments (Herb Ivy presiding) (3:32pm - 3:33pm) Herb welcomed everyone and reinforced his belief that the Arts & Culture Summit was a success. 2. Consent Agenda at 3:33pm (September Minutes and August Financials) Unanimously approved. Motioned by Kirstie and Dawn 3. Executive Director Report (3:34pm -3:39pm) ● Dinah thanked everyone for Summit involvement. ● Dinah is working on a recap video with PMC. ● Dinah thanked Kate for meeting at First Parish Church re: the possible venue switch (which didn't happen. Post Arts & Culture Summit Discussion (3:39pm - 4:12pm) ● We had responsive feedback from the mayor and city staff. ● The mayor has already granted us a city council workshop on January 22. We have been trying to get this for 3 years. ● We will discuss who from the Creative Portland team should attend this workshop. We don't want to overload them so Herb, Kate, Tae, David and Dinah will have a separate discussion about this workshop. ● Establish new Executive Committee. Will vote on new slate in November. ● Summary Report for the Arts & Culture Summit is on the Creative Portland website now. ● The Summary contains breakdowns of what was discussed in each panel. ● Dinah attempted using chatGPT to help summarize the text. ● Portland Press Herald article said Maine is 35th in the nation and Bob Keyes said Maine is 47th. Dinah explained that the difference was due to funding recorded as total dollars per capita. ● Our video recap segment will be 4-5 minutes which will have sound bites/ testimonies with people and photos. Page 3 ● The video edit is courtesy of Portland Media Center. ● The $7,500 grant from the Onion Foundation supported the ACS budget. ● We were at capacity 9 days before the event took place. Dinah was going to do a news blast at Fox News, 207 and e-blast to our normal constituents. But we didn't do any of that because we were already at capacity. Ultimately we decided to keep the venue at Mechanics’ Hall because of its location in the Arts District and because they were offering it in-kind . ● The morning session turned out to be fine in terms of capacity. We were able to fit everyone inside without any issue. ● Tae thought the venue was great. He personally made lots of connections. ● Dinah was hoping that the Maine Office of Tourism, or Lynn from Visit Portland, would discuss the impact of cultural tourism and the new tourism TIF. ● Dinah talked about the Art Banners and places along the drive to the airport. Dinah toured the inside of the airport and said there is more room for art. The tourism kiosk could have more information about our app. Dinah thinks there was a disconnect between the Summit and MOT and Visit Portland. ● Kirstie thinks for the future we should have a panel devoted to tourism. ● Dinah and Kirstie talked about another tourism opportunity, Wednesday November 6th at 9am at the Regency. ● Regarding the Summit, Kirstie thought the different venues were beneficial for getting together with different groups and that the networking hour was really helpful as well. ● Regina talked about Black Tourism and connecting with Lisa Jones. ● We are sending out a post summit survey by the end of the year. One of the questions will be if people prefer to have the summit every other year or every year. ● We are going to count on the 200 attendees to let us know what their preference is. ● We sent the survey to the board so everyone could look at the link and make suggestions on what we should add or amend. We will send it out to all the registrants. We had approximately 250 attendants. ● Clare thought the event went really well. She thanked everyone. Turnout and coverage went really well with the Press Herald. ● Dinah: With a staff of two, Creative Portland doesn’t have the ability to do full time arts advocacy. But we can facilitate groups. ● Regarding the Summit, Kate said more people showed interest than were actually able to show up in person, and that’s okay. Hopefully we’ll be able to follow up with them. Arts advocacy is a big issue. It’s hard to find consensus. She thinks the whole Summit was a starting off point, reminder, conversation starter, and connector. An opportunity to come together and talk through ideas is always a good thing. ● Matt agreed with Kate. In terms of the overall conference, it was very positive. Matt thinks the 3:30 meeting on Arts Advocacy was a wonderful step in that direction. Advocacy for the arts with thoughts for next steps is a giant dragon to slay. While we had opinions, perhaps time management would have been a helpful element. ● Dinah thinks we should send an email to everyone who attended the Arts Advocacy discussion (and the 30 others who signed up for Arts Advocacy) and say that Creative Portland is willing to give space for meetings. Arts advocacy interests must come from Page 4  the community. It’s not something Dinah feels we at Creative Portland can do, unless the board says forget about all the programs; lets just focus on advocacy. But as of now, we're working with the Work Plan that we’ve approved for next June. Perhaps board members would be willing to chair an arts advocacy group. But for now, let's find out what people want to discuss and what kind of advocacy they are trying to tackle. People are meeting for other initiatives like reinvigorating the arts district on Congress St. ● Dinah thinks our capacity with 2.5 people is a limiting issue for Creative Portland. ● Dinah thinks that if we can show how Creative Portland is a valuable resource to the city at our City Council Workshop, then perhaps they'd be willing to increase funding for future programs. ● David liked the space for the Summit. The ballroom was good. David said this was the best Summit we’ve ever had. The quality of the panels and the participation couldn't have been better. ● David met with Melissa Hue and she invited him to come and see what they do at the Natural Helpers Program. ● Dinah invited the director of Justice, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (JDEI) for the city but she doesn't know if that department is still alive. ● Regina said there is an interim director and his name is Masi Ngidi-Brown. They are in the process of hiring a permanent DEI person. ● The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) is looking at the economy of the city and reaching out to more diverse individuals. JDEI department is looking at the recommendations that came out of a steering committee to focus on JDEI across the city. ● Tae said to think of OEO as outside City Hall and JDEI as is inside City hall. JDEI works with HR and Administrators to ensure that policies and everything are looked at through a DEI lens. ● Greg views OEO as operationalizing what goes out to the community where JDEI has a role in the human resources department to make JDEI practices a part of the hiring process and policies. JDEI sits within the city managers department. ● Greg thought ACS was helpful and being able to hear from people on what the City could do for the Arts District and what kind of programming they could implement for creative jobs was really useful. There were a number of different ideas on what they could do from a programming and policy perspective.Greg thought Mechanics' provided connection with the audience and connecting and collaborating after the sessions at SPACE was fantastic. ● Dinah said we used to host similar events called 2 Degrees which were welcome wagon social hours. They had no agenda but had the intention of bringing arts people together to connect and collaborate. Funding Discussion (4:12pm - 4:25pm) ● Dinah talked about Wooly Hildreth’s funding for the Sarah Sze sculpture and the Congress Square redesign. She’ll meet with Wooly on Nov 7th. ● Greg recommends more discussion with the planning department for clarification. ● Lindsay thinks there is a disconnect and some communication issues. Page 5  ● Dinah says we need solidarity and an accurate voice representing the community’s wishes. ● Clare thinks the responsibilities (re: The ARTS) it's convoluted and clouded. A diagram of how all the groups/departments interact would be helpful. Creative Portland Business / Wrap Up Discussion (4:25pm - 4:40pm) ● We need a new CRM (constant contact is limited) ● We are sending thank you letters to all the panelists. ● All non-profits are hard, but Creative Portland is showing results. ACS was a lot of work for a staff of 2 and volunteers and Dinah thanked Walks Tall for all the work they did on the Summit. ● First Friday Art Walk is happening this Friday. ● Monday Morning Drop By will be October 7, 8:30-9:30am. ● Justin Alfond asked to be a guest in January or February to talk about Food lab and getting artists involved. We’ll probably give him the Feb 3rd slot. ● For Monday Morning Drop By, Dinah likes that there is no pressure or agenda. She wants people to come, meet, talk, share and be heard. ● ACS was a big lift, but Dinah feels proud of us. We hope to share video in our November outreach with outreach cards in the new year or giving tuesday. ● Dinah thinks we should rely on sponsorships moving forward. It's too much to rely on $35 here or there. People think that since we have funding from the City, we are covered. But that only covers staff.. Dinah thinks we need to advocate for a % of the new cultural tourism TIF. Tae will be a big help. ● We are postponing a presentation of the AR experiences for ux purposes - until the tech text on the app explains how to use it. ● We’re still waiting for the October 1st payment from the city. We need to show an insurance subrogation clause first. Volunteer and Board Roles Discussion (4:40pm - 4:51pm) ● Dinah would like CP to approve a new ExCom slate at our Nov 6th. Board mtg. Dinah and Herb will have a meeting next week and create a slate before the next Board meeting meeting so we can vote on it. ● Dinah says we need a new PPAC rep. Lindsay did an incredible job for 3 years now. Dinah is going to call it a 2-year position. Who might want to do this? ● We need a volunteer for the next First Friday. ● Lindsay volunteered to be a judge for the Portland utility artwork. Betsy Boyd will be her contact at Portland Downtown. ● Matt and Clare are both interested in ExCom. ● David finished the first edit of the Annual Report. ● Annual Report to the City will be November 21th (tbd). ● Kate: Bell Flower Friday at 5-7pm / Saturday Maine Craft Weekend. Come have fun 12 - 5pm Motion to Adjourn at 4:51pm: First by David, Second by Kirstie. Meeting adjourned. Meeting minutes submitted by Walks Tall Keith. Page 6 Accrual Basis Creative Portland Statement of Activity Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual July through October 2024 Full FY25 $ Over % of Total Jul - Oct 24 Budget Budget Budget Ordinary Income/Expense Income 4100 · Operations (unrestricted) 1,060 242,300 -241,240 0.44% 4200 · Programs 7,500 45,000 -37,500 16.67% Total Income 8,560 287,300 -278,740 2.98% Cost of Goods Sold 5000 · Cost of Programs 11,121 47,500 -36,379 23.41% Total COGS 11,121 47,500 -36,379 23.41% Gross Profit -2,561 239,800 -242,361 -1.07% Expense 6000 · Marketing 576 7,250 -6,674 7.94% 6100 · Personnel 47,176 170,900 -123,724 27.6% 6200 · Occupancy Expenses 2,905 7,800 -4,895 37.25% 6300 · Travel 0 3,000 -3,000 0.0% 6500 · Professional Services 4,484 34,600 -30,116 12.96% 6600 · Operating Expenses 3,243 15,290 -12,047 21.21% Total Expense 58,383 238,840 -180,457 24.45% Net Ordinary Income (60,944) 960 -61,904 -6,348.65% Other Income/Expense Other Income 7000 · Other Income-Expense 30 50 -20 60.79% Total Other Income 30 50 -20 60.79% Net Other Income 30 50 -20 60.79% Net Income (60,914) 1,010 -61,924 -6,031.09% Page 1 of 2 Page 7 Accrual Basis Creative Portland Statement of Financial Position As of October 31, 2024 Oct 31, 24 Sep 30, 24 $ Change % Change ASSETS Current Assets Checking/Savings 1010 · Creative Portland Checking 22,568 39,698 (17,130) -43.2% 1011 · GSB Savings 5265 90,522 90,514 8 0.0% 1015 · Petty Cash 1,258 1,258 - 0.0% Total Checking/Savings 114,348 131,470 (17,122) -13.0% Accounts Receivable 1150 · Accrued Contribution Receivable Total Accounts Receivable Total Current Assets 114,348 131,470 (17,122) -13.0% Fixed Assets 1400 · Fixed Assets 36,698 36,998 (300) -0.8% Total Fixed Assets 36,698 36,998 (300) -0.8% TOTAL ASSETS 151,046 168,468 (17,422) -10.3% LIABILITIES & EQUITY Liabilities Current Liabilities Accounts Payable 2000 · Accounts Payable 939 939 - 0.0% Total Accounts Payable 939 939 - 0.0% Other Current Liabilities 2500 · Fiscal Sponsorship Liability 67,496 67,998 (502) -0.7% Total Other Current Liabilities 67,496 67,998 (502) -0.7% Total Current Liabilities 68,435 68,937 (502) -0.7% Total Liabilities 68,435 68,937 (502) -0.7% Equity 3100 · Unrest'd Net Assets 143,524 143,524 - 0.0% Net Income (60,914) (43,993) (16,921) -38.5% Total Equity 82,610 99,531 (16,921) -17.0% TOTAL LIABILITIES & EQUITY 151,046 168,468 (17,422) -10.3% Page 2 of 2 Page 8 Creative Portland Board of Directors Executive Committee Proposed Slate 2024-2025 Eliza Ginn and David Brenerman are currently on the EXCOM and are prepared to step off for at least a year. Proposed 2024-25 Executive Committee ● Herb Ivy, President ● Kate Anker, Immediate Past President ● Clare E. Hannan, Vice President ● Dawn Reshen-Doty, Treasurer ● Matt Schwach, Secretary ● Dinah Minot, Assistant Secretary Page 9