Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Update and Needs

Update :spoke to person for Hub Pub(and we heard from Bull Finch as well) last night and they are interested in massmouth coming and trying it out. Hub Pub is located in midtown , on Province St. Concerns for him
1)never charged cover charge(we could charge drink minimum, seemed to like that)
2) if the red sox get into playoffs need to start in Novemeber

pros and cons for us
1) pro great location, right near the T , 2 colleges around and con noisy
2) great space upstairs ,has food, con has food, and will it be too noisy?

We have one more place to get in touch with then we need to decide what date,and who
we were thinking the 26th to capitalize on Ghost Stories (as everyone(storytellers) know we are most popular at this time of year people are actually looking for us.)Hoping for 26th of October need to move quick just enough time for publicity

We try it out with whoever once ,if successful , we are on. ,Andrea

GREAT NEWS Norah will post I am sure but Kennedys is interested as well which would be my pic. !! Thanks Norah for following up and walkin the walk n talkin the talk.
so we need a date we were tossing around the 26th , lots of works ahead for publicity if this works out.

We Need

We'll need to do a lot of work:

  1. write and send out GOOD pr!
  2. call 50 people 9 storytellers ( we will get 1/2) to come
  3. we need judges, calculators - big # s on cards ( a la Olympics)
  4. write story slam rules
  5. write story tips
  6. write faq
  7. decide - pass the hat or cover/
  8. decide how the drinks work - a ticket at the door - buy for $ 5 and get whatever drink for that amount ? Just have waitresess enforce?

2 comments:

  1. Okay, I am posting the notes from our meeting here as a comment, 'cause I'm not sure how or where else to do it, and I want you guys to have access, so here goes:

    Massmouth Meeting 10-2-09 (notes by Doria)
    - Compile record of expenses + volunteer hours put in, by the 6th, estimate up for grant! (send to Norah)

    - Norah: registering as business in Cambridge/get an Accountant, would it make us more attractive as business w/tax ID number?

    “Mouth Story Slam: Because You Have A Mouth!”
    - Mouth/Moth Pub Story-Slam, we have a couple bars interested, waiting on Kennedy’s. We need to decide rules, location, 10-26-09, 7pm to 9pm. Ten or twelve 5 minute stories (in two sets), scary stories. Who will we invite to participate? The Moth will be here from NYC that week. “The Moth: Because You Have A Mouth!” Stick with Moth rules: re-write Story-Slam rules so we don’t steal Moth’s format! Find a good MC! Young theater-type?
    Other states have storyslams. Our own “American Idol”? What to do in case of a tie? we need a format for a “story-off” in that case. Bag of story-starters, pull out a sentence, and tell a 1-minute story -> audience chooses, contestants can opt out. We need to have contingency plans in place, for what if situations!
    MouthOff open-mic afterwards for people who attend but don’t want to compete?
    Give out story-seeds/sparks, given out by audience!
    Moth format: you need judges, MC (entertains while judges deliberate after each story), 10 Tellers/Stories, winner brought up on stage. Other folks get to come and tell 1st sentence. Pro-Level Massmouth Members get priority. T-shirts: “Winner, massmouth logo, because you have a mouth”. How to choose judges, determine who gets Pro-Level status.
    We need to recruit at least 25 people to absolutely be there. We need 9 judges and a video-person and an MC and a ticket person. We need a buzzer to make sure people respect the Time Limit! Story Improv Games in between to warm people up (Laura to run?) Invite 4 Pro-Levels storytellers to fill out set but NOT compete, unless we don’t have enough competitors, and then they can compete.
    Dream Team:
    Bob Reiser
    Kevin
    Laura
    Bruce
    Michael
    Us?
    Leeney
    Elsa
    Lauretta
    Judith Black
    Angela Klingler
    Elisa Pearmain
    Vernon

    - go on professional Storyteller Ning and invite people to join Massmouth!

    - MouthOff at Haley House on 10-29-09.

    - Video contest/project connected to Grant

    - Story Slam

    - First night called Andrea! They want a kids group - Gardner school (current 1st and 3rd graders) Talk to the “Bigfoot” place, 828 Studio, Eggleston - they have kids we could teach/train into a troup for First Night.

    - Grants: Three Apples Corp (I can be point person w/Susan) - ask them to be an umbrella non-profit organization for us as a granting agency. Our grants are due on October 15th. Could they administer for us? They would get a percentage of the grant. We will join them and form the committee to administer the grant, we just need the signatures from their officers. We could also propose this to LANES?

    - Bob Reiser and John Porcino in Western Mass?

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  2. Thanks Doria !
    Report from Sally Penta CPA:
    • there is no tax advantage to registering as a company with a dba
    • each of us can and should deduct expenses and payments from our massmouth work as we go
    • this year continue as we are
    • we should incorporate and be nonprofit unless it IS our intention to turn a profit ( on storytelling ? for real? – I do not think so - I am not worried )

    my thoughts-
    it costs $75 to join VLA – volunteer lawyers from the arts and they can help us ?
    and proceed to incorporate
    or
    we could ask Three Apples if they want to morph into massmouth, or somehow call us an outreach committee of their organization and incorporate us into them ?Seeing as Three Apples is reorganizing and we are realizing their mission statement this might fly? Something I know that we could run a festival – right ? Our OUT OF THE BOX festival?

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