Members Present: President Ric Burris, V-P Bob Covemaker, Treasurer Kevin Duncalf, Secretary Karen McFarland, Lonnie Britt, Ellen Clow, Glenn Cotabish, Stan Furlong, Steve Heston, Bob Kieser, Mike Livermore, Tom Morgan, Steve Pedigo, Dick Vallandingham

President’s Report: Ric welcomes the new members to the board.

Vice-President’s Report: We sent condolences to the CEO of National Resophonic guitars on his wife’s passing. Bob reminds the PR committee that we should send a letter of congratulations to the new Davenport Mayor, Bill Gluba.

Treasurer’s Report: We reviewed accounts receivable for October 7, 9, and 23. Stan moves and Pedigo seconds that we approve accounts payable for 10/15/07—passes unanimously. Stan moves and Tom seconds that we approve accounts payable for 10/31/07—passes unanimously. Heston moves and Kieser seconds that we approve accounts payable for 11/15/07—passes unanimously.

Secretary’s Report: There was discussion about when the contract with IH will be approved—deadline is Dec. 1. PR needs this information in order to begin placing Fest ads.

Fundraising Committee (Dave Baker): Lonnie and Tom are joining the committee. The current focus is working on getting money for operational support. Dave suggests that we should have a calendar of committee meetings on the website.

Membership Committee (Ellen Clow): Lonnie has joined the committee. MVBS had a table at the Volunteer Expo at the Figge. They’ve been discussing incentives for getting new members. The current membership list is out-of-date; everyone on the list will be called to get updated information and e-mail addresses. Board discussion: raising the fee for membership and having alternatives to lifetime memberships, which constitute 43% of total memberships. Membership committee can make a recommendation to the board to raise fees. Blues Central at the Fest will be run by Membership committee, not PR; in 2008, there will not be CD sales at Blues Central.

Administration Committee (Randy Nunez): Everything we own has been moved out of storage in Rock Island to the Davenport Printing building. The committee will meet later this month to elect a chair. Rebekah self-initiated making a MySpace page for MVBS. There’s no heat in the back room—Randy will call the city about this. Archives committee needs to go through the boxes in the back room before the rug can be cleaned.

Education Committee (Ann Ring): Ann was elected chair of the committee; Dick has joined the committee. The committee voted to delete the June residency. The Blues in the Schools residency with Rich Del Grosso was a success; Fruteland Jackson will be the artist-in-residence the first full week of February. Jimmie reports on Hal Reed’s idea of an award for excellence in blues education and the great reception by the first awardee, Mary Hyslop (after whom the award is named) Nov. 9 at Madison Elementary in Davenport.

Nate reports on the symposium about the state of the blues that the committee voted to hold. The date will be April 12 to coincide with Guy Davis’s residency. The symposium will be open to the public and is tentatively entitled Blues as a Bridge to Diversity; it will address some of the issues brought up in a widely-circulated letter to the Blues Foundation about African American blues artists and their place in the business. The symposium will present four forums with content-specific speakers (panels limited to ten people) and moderators. The symposium sub-committee has been in touch with Billy Branch, Super Chikan, Donald Kinsey, Sterling Plumpp, Barry Dolins and others and is in the process of contacting Cornel West and Morgan Freeman. Besides the MVBS, PolyRhythms will be a sponsor, and Nate reports that the goal is to have the symposium 100% grant-funded. There are plans to document the symposium in film.

Discussion followed Nate’s report. Covemaker thought that the idea should have been presented to the board first. Kieser asked if the symposium would address specific solutions to the problems brought up in the original letter. Dick mentioned that Black Hawk College could host the symposium, and that it will be a nationally-recognized event. Glenn suggested the even be publicized at the national level.

Entertainment Committee (Bob Covemaker): Bob and Karen were elected co-chairs of the committee. The committee decided to let performers sell their own CDs in 2008 because Co-Op was not interested in being the vendor. We will set up a 12 x 12 tent at each stage for CD sales. The committee voted down the idea of having the first night be an American Blues Challenge. The tax ID numbers were wrong for 19 performers for Fest 2007—Bob is taking care of this. The Fest hotel for 2008 will be The Lodge. A timeline and list of committee responsibilities has been included in the packet for today’s meeting.