As Nashville starts to dig out from last week’s snow and ice, IBMA staff have resumed their updates. See below:
The Executive Committee has been systematically working through a set of decisions related to the 2015 World of Bluegrass and, therefore, our 2015-16 budget. These will be submitted to the full Board for its ratification at our spring meeting, and include renewal of our contract with Susan Woelkers for work on sponsorships; approving a new, middle tier of Wide Open Festival ticket prices; the re-stablishment of separate business conference and festival exhibitor registrations (while maintaining a discounted full World of Bluegrass option) and approving a $5 increase in Awards Show ticket prices.
Speaking of the spring Board meeting, the dates have now been set as May 11 and May 12. We’ll have a draft agenda out within the next couple of weeks, but major issue areas to be addressed will include possible revisions to our Bylaws related to Board size and structure; the 2015-16 budget; recommendations from our Awards Task Force, chaired by Greg Cahill; and revision of our values statement and code of ethics. More details to come on all of these subjects, and as always, comments are welcome via our members Google group or directly via suggestions@ibma.org.
Our search for a new Executive Director is moving forward with the identification of several strong candidates. The Executive Committee will be starting interviews with them within the next week or so, with the goal of making a recommendation to the full Board as quickly as possible.
As with last fall, we have modest good news to report on the membership front, with January 2015’s numbers up over January 2014’s in Grassroots new memberships and renewals, as well as in Professional renewals, though we were slightly down in new Professional memberships. The Membership Recruitment Committee met recently to share some ideas that will be implemented in the near future – keep an eye out for more news on that front.
Don’t forget that the deadline for Oficial Showcase Applications is this Saturday (2/28/15).
Lastly, big congratulations to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, IBMA member Planet Bluegrass, and Craig Ferguson for winning Pollstar’s Music Festival of the Year award.
If you are not a member of IBMA and have an active interest in Bluegrass music you should take the opportunity to join.
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