I apologize for the delay of our first meeting of the consortium. This was needed owing to some folk’s personal and business schedules as well as soon to be ironed – out city legal issues.  It appears that Thursday, Feb 12th at 6:30 p.m. fit most of your schedules. The location would be Missouri Street Theatre. IT IS ESSENTIAL TO HAVE ALL OF US (MEANING AT LEAST POC’S) IN ATTENDANCE FOR THIS FIRST MEETING.

The Plan is to have a tightly structured decision oriented meeting.  All you need to do is listen, think, speak up and vote. The business model and such is strong but YOU NEED maximal attendance for this first meeting. Most other meetings will be of smaller groups with information sent through blogs and email. I NEED RSVPS PLEASE- BOTH WITH THE NAME OF YOUR POC, THEIR EMAIL AND A PHONE NUMBER.  My number is (707) 317-2052.

If you have not yet decided to join in, please remember

• the state of finances for the City of Fairfield,
• the obvious strength in numbers,
• the lack of dedicated FCCA web site now and almost certainly in the future,
• The very real possibility of FCCA dwindling away — that is a major performance venue for many
• the great power of a comprehensive ticketing solution to include on line as well as outlets and on the phone,
• the savings in advertising costs that a central web will provide,
• the probability of getting larger grants as well as advertising dollars that a larger heavily traveled site affords
• and YES, it is free to all of you. Gala funds are paying for three years of web maintenance and such and the Etix is at no cost to you.
• You lose nothing by showing up

This meeting should take no more than two hours. A conceptual thumbnail agenda is attached. Your job is to show up, engage, vote when asked and be ready to identity a POC for your venue who is the principle person I interact with regarding your calendar of events, audition, posting of print, audio or visual material etc.  That is the person who passes on your wants, I do the work.

I know each of us has a busy schedule, but it is vital that we rally as many people together for the first meeting to get the consortium rolling.  I know it can be done; remember the success of the Arts Gone Wild event?  It’s time to once again show the public that the arts can rally together during tough times and help each other become less dependent and more interdependent.

Summarized below are a few reasons you should ban together during this economic downturn.  Use this for your boards if need be, but please show up.
1. In addition to a comprehensive ticketing solution (online, over the phone, and outlets), there is a revenue avoidance and generation piece  that might lead to more financial independence.

2. Advertising costs go down when you have an advertising and informational platform (the website) associated with ticketing.  Events, programs, archived reviews, newsletter’s, and sample audio and video, all viewable from the website (no need to print it out).
3. Revenues are generated with the same platform and a self identified large population, you
a. Can sell web space
b. Have premium benefits for levels of donations
c. Have continuous arts online auctions
d. Sell audio (CD’s), video (DVD’s) and other promotional items
e. Sell ad space on every ticket printed
f. Garner state and federal grants owing to a county wide scope, outreach to youth, youth at risk, seniors, and the disabled

4. Grantors find you attractive when you have
a. Good governance and stability
b. Big numbers (a dominant presence with a clear focus)
c. Track record in business and mission
d. Relevant reach to grantor
e. Target populations with excellent data and information pieces (metrics and accountability)

So what are you going to do? Are you going to sit back and do nothing or are you going to pull together with other artist and local businesses and find other ways to generate revenue for future events. The ball is in your hands.  Make a difference. Get involved.  I know I am.

Here is a thumbnail of the agenda:

• Introductions
• State of Arts
• Where are we politically with cities and FCCA and county e the arts and it is not good
• California Arts Council (CAC)
• Review of website —not nit picking –an executive summary brief only
• Presentation of business Model and Marketing Plan
• Revenue sparing
• Revenue Generation (five types): gifts, grants, ads, coupons, auction, on ticket ads, premiums for donation
• Overview of Etix and Power of Data and numbers
• Typical ticket
• Questions at Point of Sale (gather more potential data) Overview only
• Action items

1. Governance Lead Agent
2. Solano arts council revisit
3. Holding of funds – disbursements – account- co signatories-transparent- on web
4. Hire advertising director and plan
5. POC’s for Etix training and submission of materiel to Paul  calendar  AV and special- auditions promo, archives, programs, published reviews over the Phone Scripts
6. Outlets
7. Consolidate emails  and sponsors
8. PAL outreach POC
9. Youth outreach POC
10. Senior outreach POC
11. Recovery outreach POC
12. Disadvantaged outreach POC
13. City by City POC
14. School Boards POC
15. Realty and Chamber  POC
16. Plan launch-press release
17. Contact city councils and city managers

Thank you and look forward to seeing all of you again,

Paul Fondersmith