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Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Spring MEIEA Board meeting
Radisson, Austin, TX

Present: Sylvester, O’Hara, Garfrerik, Fowler, Elton, Kemmerer, Ford, Simson, Smith, Rolston, Rothchild, Shaomian, Strasser, Gaber, Meere, Kosar, Redmond, Maddox, Daus, Baskerville, Waller, Quinzi, Brabec, Zager, Herrera, Sinkovich, Channell, Ronkin, Saintilan, Wandjo, Schwartz, Christensen, Windgradsky, Bulla, Kemmerer, Blankenship, Butter, Alhadeff, Manghise, Saulman, Bjâessô, Lindstrõm, Brandisi, Willey, Preston, Miglio, Philp, Ashdown, Wangler, Nelson, Donham, Kane, Wald, Ball, Hatschek, Armstrong

Elton called the meeting to order at 1:10 pm.

Election Report (Elton)

Elton reviewed the newly elected board of directors for 2015-16

Key Performance Indicators
•    Elton reviewed the percentage of members who vote…this went up this past year, reversing a downward trend in recent years.
•    Summit attendance is down this year to 73 members vs. 94 last year in Nashville.  Nothing to be alarmed with, usual attendance is in the 70s.
•    First European summit in 2014 was an outstanding success organized our European Liaison Ray Syslvester


Treasurer’s Report (Fowler)

Fowler reviewed revenue and expenditures for YTD 2013.  Our current financial state is positive with $108,854.66 in the bank.

Fowler set-up a money market account to create less exposure of our dollars. 

Fowler reviewed the profit and loss for the 2014, 2015 and European educators summit.  2014 and 2015 shows a modest profit while the European summit showed a modest loss. Elton reiterated that this was intentional to begin establishing ourselves internationally.

Kemmerer reviewed her current recruitment efforts.







Current Membership:

Individual Member

Spring 2011 - 187
Spring 2012 - 198
Spring 2013 - 210
Spring 2014 – 222
Spring 2015 - 252

Institutional Membership Numbers

Spring 2011 - 57
Spring 2012 - 66
Spring 2013 - 73
Spring 2014 – 68
Spring 2015 - 65

Kemmerer reviewed the membership numbers and the reasons why some have chosen not to renew.  Many of her efforts in recent years have really paid off, although institutional membership is down a bit.  Many of the institutional memberships continue to take full advantage of the available memberships to them, which have increased our overall member numbers.  She also reviewed our current international membership that continues to grow.

Kemmerer reviewed the ‘value added’ for membership including monthly email blasts, with discounts, research grants and the annual educator’s summit.

Journal Editor Report (Ronkin)

Elton played the video promoting the MEIEA journal that was done by USA Today through Gloor’s research on brands.

Acceptance rate for the 2015 journal is 29.4%

Ronkin reiterated the types of articles the journal publishes.  He also reviewed a few of the papers that were published this past year.

Call for papers went out last week, deadline is June 26th for the 2015 journal.

Ronkin followed up with his charge regarding the creation of two associate editor positions.  He drafted two job descriptions to share with the board and the membership.  He will be taking volunteers and their applications with the intention of their placement by May 15th.  A designated e-blast will be sent to the general membership.  After applications are received, Bruce will review and bring forth recommendations to the board for appointment creating the ‘journal committee’ as it was approved last fall.


Research Stipends (Linden)

Linden reviewed the grants that are available for MEIEA members. 

There were five submissions for MEIEA grants this past year. Three of the submissions were awarded:

•    Dr. Dave Kopplin (Cal Poly Pomona) – Current Practices in Music Industry Education

•    Dr. Stan Renard (Colby College) – Music Brand Marketing Strategies:  A reviw and Analysis of Current Practices

•    Dr. Clyde Rolston and Dr. Sarita Steward (Belmont University) – The Effect of Ticket Prices on How Much Concert Goers are willing to pay for Merch.


Webmaster Report (Bulla)

Bulla reviewed the website and the changes he has made – nice job on the new drop downs and fresh redesign.  He continues to update the journal article access.  He also reviewed website traffic. 

Social Media Update (Elton)

LinkedIn:  Total members in main group = 115 (up from 91 in Fall 2014).  Elton reports that conversations remain difficult to sustain but hasn’t tracked it as diligently as in the past

Facebook: Group Members:  82 (up from 45 Fall 2014)

YouTube:   Subscribers:  38 – (up from 19 in Spring 2014)

Elton also reviewed the eMessenger with the membership.  Schreiber sends out monthly with current announcements, member news and ongoing discounts.  There is a consistent open rate of about 50% month.

Discounts (Armstrong)

Armstrong reviewed the recent history and evolution of the e-messenger in the past years.  She also reported on the statistics of click-through rates from the announcements going out.  Current discounts including the RIAA, ACO, Music Business Association and many others.  If the board knows of any interesting discounts that could benefit the membership, pass them on to Armstrong.

Student Activities Grants (Armstrong)

Armstrong reported on the MEISA grant activities from last year.  A total of five grants were awarded last year. 

•    Appalachian State University
•    University of Miami
•    Indiana University
•    Butler University
•    American University

There is a rolling deadline from October to October for the MEISA grant fund. Awards can amount up to:

Institutional Member: $1000
Individual Max: $500

With a maximum of $5000 in grants per year to be awarded.

Service Awards

Elton recognized Paul Linden, Kristel Kemmerer and John Kellogg for their service on the board for the past few years. 

Elton shared some parting words for the ending of her tenure as president of the organization.  She reviewed some of the activities in recent years.
•    Board took over the Summit
•    Closed MEISA and redirected support of student activities to the local level
•    Established a social media presence
•    Began our discount program
•    Adopted an online member management tool
•    Held our first-ever international summit

Elton introduced our new President John Simson.  Simson awarded a recognition plaque to Elton for her service with the organization for the past four years. 

Simson shared a few words with the organization.  He went through some ideas about where he wants to take the organization.  He discussed a potential partnership and writing contest with the New Music Seminar.  He also wants to go back to Europe in 2016. 

Elton announced our summit for 2016 will be in Washington D.C.

***Meeting Adjourned – 2:17 pm***




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