Loading...
Minutes 02-22-01MINUTES OF THE BLACK AWARENESS 2001 COMMITTEE MEETING EZELL HESTER CENTER FEBRUARY 22, 2001, 6:30 P.M. BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA PRESENT ALSO PRESENT Stephanie Mingo-McKoy, Chairperson Pearl Norfus Eddie Mitchell Mr. & Mrs. Ods Walker Brandy Girtman Bobby Jenkins Patti Credit Melissa Vlaun, Special Events Mgr. Teresa Zabik, Special Events The meeting was called to order at 6:40 p.m. There being no changes, additions, or deletions to the Agenda, the agenda was accepted as written by motion of Chair McKoy, seconded by Bobby Jenkins and passed unanimously. II. Current Business Security/Police checkpoints, Check-in times, Hospitality areas, and Face Painters Chair McKoy stated that extra security had been arranged between Mr. Majors and the Chief of Police and that there would be three police officers at the event. Also, Ezell Hester Center has security officers and they have also brought on extra staff to handle the event. Some of the sororities and fraternities were asked to help as volunteers in security and at the beer sales tent. The check-in time was discussed. The group decided that the artists should come one hour in advance and if they were headliners and came late, a spot would be found for them in the program. If they were not headliners and came too late, their performance time would be forfeited and they would not be allowed to perform. Only the headliners were being paid. Mr. Mitchell commented that in the past, he had been a critic of the Black Awareness event but now, he thought it was great and that they had really come a long way in the last couple of years. He was proud to see the carnival go up and he commended the Committee for their production. Chair McKoy said that they should do everything in their power to start on time. Mr. Mitchell asked Chair McKoy if Dr. Gadsen's stepping group was performing at the Black Awareness Day event or in the parade only and Chair McKoy confirmed they Meeting Minutes Black Awareness Committee Boynton Beach, Florida February 22, 2001 would be performing in the parade only. She said that all of the musical artists had been confirmed. The time for the end of the event was discussed and Chair McKoy stated that the music would stop at 8 p.m. but the event would actually end at 9 p.m. When the music stopped, it would remind people to start winding down and get ready to leave. The carnival will go on until 10:00 p.m. unless the crowd has thinned down too much, in which case they will close at the same time, 9 p.m. Chair McKoy stated the Black Awareness Committee would be getting 25% of the draw on the carnival. Also, the carnival took three food vendor booths at $50.00 per booth. Chair McKoy mentioned a vendor status report from Steve Lulkin and that so far the Committee had gotten over $1K in vendor booth sales. The hospitality tents were discussed and the fact that the Committee would have to purchase food. There would be one in the meeting room and two tents behind the stage for the artists with cold drinks. The hospitality area in the meeting room was for Mary's staff who would be there for over twelve hours and for the basketball players. The outside area would have Gatorade and water and fruit. Chair McKoy wanted a sandwich platter for the meeting room area. Chairman McKoy thought that $400 would be adequate for the purpose. Chair McKoy wanted to discuss the budget. Ms. Vlaun said she did not have it with her. Chair McKoy said she thought the luncheon had possibly lost money but that it had been recouped by the vendor booth sales and so forth. Also, the Corporate Challenge money was still available since this event was cancelled. Chair McKoy solicited over $6500. $5500 went to the artists and d-jays for the event. Motion Chair McKoy made a motion to purchase food for the hospitality areas for the Black Awareness Festival for the employees who are working overtime and the basketball players. The hospitality areas will be in the meeting room and in tents behind the artist's stage. Mr. Mitchell seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Mr. Mitchell asked who would be manning the hospitality areas? Chair McKoy said that the room would be locked from the outside but that there would be someone there to let people in. Bobby Jenkins said he would handle that job. As for face painters, Frank had allocated money for face painters from his Corporate Challenge money. The face painters will be on this side of the grassy knoll. Chair McKoy thought there could be six clusters of balloons at the gate to identify and draw attention to the site. Chair McKoy showed the banners that came out of the Sign Shop. She did not get them sewn because it was late in the game and they were one-sided. She felt it needed to have printing on both sides of the sign. She mentioned getting grommets for the Meeting Minutes Black Aware ness Committee Boynton Beach, Florida February 22, 2001 banners so they could be hung. She then showed the signs that Budweiser had made for the Committee, saying that the signs and banners would be put out on the fence. Chair McKoy said the Omegas, Sigmas and Kappas would be there to help. Chair McKoy said if Mr. Mitchell could find some Alphas that would be fine. She asked that they all wear their fraternity shirts so they could identify their security forces. B. Volunteer Assignments Chair McKoy went to an interdepartmental meeting at the City on Wednesday. At the meeting she spoke to the Risk Manager, Chuck Magazine, who suggested that they have a special training session for the beer volunteers. Chair McKoy had some books that were given to her by Sharon Golden that had the pertinent information about how to identify people by driver's licenses. They are not going to sell to people who appear to be intoxicated. They wil have a five-cup maximum. They can identify the person's amount of consumption by a bracelet. Ms. Girtman said she had met with Ms. Vlaun about the bracelets and they had thought they could use some left over from a previous event but they were not found. Ms. DeGraffenreidt said she had a box of bracelets left and they could be used. The training will be at the beer garden at 9:45 a.m. If they were born before February 24, 1980, they will be able to purchase beer. Motion Chair McKoy said the Committee would be taking $100 out of the budget to purchase bracelets for the beer garden if they cannot be obtained from Mary DeGraffenreidt and Wally Majors. Bobby Jenkins seconded the motion that carried unanimously. C. VIP Passes Chair McKoy asked if she had the VIP passes yet? Ms. Vlaun said she had been asked to get name tags for the volunteers. Chair McKoy said she wanted to get packs from Office Depot with the generic string and in the sample that was being shown, it was laminated. Chair McKoy stated that laminating had been discussed but the Committee was told the City could not laminate them. They said what they could do was get plastic pockets with the generic string. Ms. Vlaun said she was planning on getting them tomorrow. Chair McKoy would pick.them up from Ms. Vlaun the next day at 4 p.m. Chair McKoy stated she wanted them to say Black Awareness 2001 VIP on fifty passes, black and white, no color, simple, generic. They were for the volunteers, back stage, and the entire volunteer staff. Roping off of individual parking spaces for staff was brought up and Chair McKoy was to discuss it with Ms. Degraffenreidt the next day. Chair McKoy gave a check for Drums of Unity to Ms. Angela Girtman, stating that they would not be paid until after the performance. 3 Meeting Minutes Black Awareness Committee Boynton Beach, Florida February 22, 2001 D. Disseminate Artists' List & Directions Completed earlier. E. Financial Reports and Ticket Information Chair McKoy asked Ms, Vlaun to send her a financial report via e-mail and Ms. Vlaun agreed. The manager for Deaf Struck, Brandi Girtman, was there and had a CD for the Committee to preview of Deaf Struck's work to determine if it was suitable for the performance. The Committee liked the CD. The Committee also listened to a G-Squad CD and liked it. Chair McKoy thought they had been very creative and would be good for Black Awareness. Chair McKoy stated that such things as Iow hanging pants, disparaging of men or women, suggestive movements, profanity, and vulgarity were off-limits for this performance and the Committee agreed. She mentioned that Mr. Horne had an agreement to this effect that the groups had to sign before performing. F. Reception for Volunteers This will be held at a later date. Mr: Mitchell said that he and Steve Waldman had been talking about including, if possible, the judges who judged the exhibits at the mall. Chairman McKoy agreed. Mr, Mitchell said he would get the names to Chair McKoy. Ms. Girtman said that a big sign could be made to hang in the meeting room hospitality area saying '% Big Thank You to all the Volunteers". II1. Comments/Questions/Ideas Chair McKoy said that if Wally Majors and Mary DeGraffenreidt could not get the bracelets for her she would contact Ms. Vlaun and she would have to get them as well as the badges. Chair McKoy said she thought it would be a good idea to ask Lillian Artis to be the Grand Marshall for the parade and the group agreed it would be appropriate. Ms. Artis said she would do it if necessary. Ms. Zabik said she would call Ms. Artis the next day to confirm it with her. The Committee decided to meet at the Hester Center at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Another discussion came up about the VIP badges and the Committee decided to get the type of badges that could be laminated, since further discussion indicated the City's laminating machine had been fixed. Ms. Vlaun was to get them at Office Depot. 4 Meeting Minutes Black Awareness Committee Boynton Beach, Florida February 22, 2001 Ms. Sara Williams came in just before the meeting adjourned. Ms. Williams thanked everyone for their help and support during the spelling bee and the oratorical contest. Chair McKoy said it had been a huge success and the Committee agreed. She said there were more participants this year than ever before. Ms. Farace had been the caller for the spelling bee and said she would try to get a write-up in the local paper and information about the winners. Ms. Vlaun offered to get the information to Ms. Farace. Chair McKoy said she had been listening to the advertisements on 99JAMS and that they were great and that the station had given them a lot of promotional time in addition to the paid time. The cable channels had advertisements from the City and Chair McKoy thanked the City for its efforts on that. Chair McKoy had spoken to the news room editor at Channel 5 news and she faxed some information to them and hoped to have coverage at the event. They also advertised on Sofla.com, which is a sister website to GoPbi. Chair McKoy mentioned that Mr. Yeager would be selling Black Awareness t-shirts during the event. Ms. Williams commended the group for their administration of the event and said they were doing a great job. Chair McKoy said that everyone had assisted and supported each other and that this was the only way they would see growth so they can move forward in later years. Mr. Mitchell said that the displays at the Mall met with great success. He said thousands of people went through the mall and looked at their exhibits and thought they were great. Chair McKoy agreed that they were great. Mr. Mitchell said they had a couple of exhibits from F.A.U.'s Black Student Union also. They also had some exhibits from Wayne Bodden's Center and Boca Raton High School. Mr. Mitchell said they would be at the Black Awareness Day on Saturday. Someone said how good Bertice Berry had been and how she had added a touch of class to the event. Ms. Williams invited everyone to the Boynton Community Forum being held at the Bible Church of God where there would be a Candidates Forum. She thought it would be nice to have someone from the Black Awareness Committee go to give special thanks to the community for their participation in Black Awareness. The meeting was to be Tuesday, February 27 at 7:15 p.m. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the meeting was duly adjourned. Respectfully submitted Recording Secretary (one tape)