NACTV sets fundraising goal of $25,000 for next year
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- Published on Tuesday, November 17, 2015
By Kira Paterson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
NACTV held a general meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12 at the Neepawa Library. They had two items to discuss that were postponed from the annual general meeting in October.
The two items on the agenda were approving an auditor and approving the budget for the coming year. Darlene Gillies had offered her services as an auditor for free. After a short discussion of her auditing experience, the motion was passed and her offer was accepted.
The budget didn鈥檛 take too long to approve either. The budget was very similar to the previous year鈥檚 numbers, with the exception of the move and the new equipment added to their expenses. To compensate for that, they set a goal of fundraising $25,000 and plan to apply for $15,000 in grants as opposed to the $10,000 they received last year. The motion was quickly passed and the general meeting was adjourned after about 10 minutes.
After the general meeting, a board meeting was held. There were only a few people at the meeting who weren鈥檛 on the board, so the board invited those people to stay and listen in. Much of the discussion during the board meeting was to do with how they would meet their fundraising goal for the year and when they plan to move over to the Press building.
Ivan Traill, the president and CEO, said that NACTV will officially take over their new space on Nov. 15. However, NACTV still has some work to do to get the building ready for MTS to run the cable from their antenna to the new location. The scheduled date to have everything moved to the Press building by is Dec. 9. Traill said that the station might be down for a day or two to make the transition, but if everything goes smoothly, they might be up and running again the same day they move.
With the discussion of the move, comes the question of the cost. The cost of the move is estimated at $4,000 and the new equipment that they will need soon is projected to cost about $20,000.
Much time was spent brainstorming ideas about how to raise that money. One big topic of that conversation was whether they keep Bigger Bingo or not. Traill said that the last two weeks they鈥檝e only sold between 35 and 40 tickets, when normally they sell about 50. He said that if they stay at that number of sales, it wouldn鈥檛 be practical to keep bingo going. Don Walmsley and Val Wilson, two other board members, insisted that they be persistent with it. They said that with it being cancelled for a week, people were unsure of what was going on. But if they got the word out, put it out in as many ways as possible that bingo is back, that they鈥檇 be able to get the sales back up. They hope that with enough publicity, they can double the regular sales to 100 tickets.
There was also the question of their other income generator, Access 2 Books. The book store is no longer making them money, and they have to move out of the building they鈥檙e in soon. Their plan to make some money before they clear out is to do a big 鈥淏ring Your Own Bag鈥� sale. Customers can come and pick out as many books as they want and pay what they think they鈥檙e worth. They plan to have the sale from Nov. 25 to 28 from 10 am to 4 pm. They hope to sell as much as they can on those days and then clear out the building right after that.
They also decided on a date for their annual Showcase fundraiser. The Showcase is essentially a local talent show at the Roxy that they air live on NACTV. During the show, they have people manning phones to take donations from people watching. The act that gets the most donations gets a prize of $50, the runner up gets $30, and the third place act gets $20. The hope is that with the move and the new equipment needed, viewers will recognize that the station really needs donations so they will give more. They hope to have it in the first or second week of February.
There will also be a performance by Calvin Vollrath on May 1 at the Roxy. Calvin Vollrath is a composer and fiddler from Alberta who has written and performed music that is known across North America and Europe. The money made from that concert will go to support NACTV.
During November, Jean Borchardt, secretary-treasurer of NACTV, will be at the Neepawa-Gladstone Co-op grocery store on Tuesdays and Fridays collecting donations and raising awareness for the station. She didn鈥檛 get much on her first day, but the weather was bad and the roads were being worked on that day. She hopes that once the roads are done, she鈥檒l be a lot busier at her table there because she really enjoys getting to talk to the people who come in. She had originally planned to be there from 10 am til 2 pm, but the mornings aren鈥檛 very busy. So starting on Nov. 20, and then on Nov. 24 and 27, she will not be at Co-op at 10, but she鈥檒l be there from 1-5 pm.
The board has some more fundraising ideas in the works, but at the moment, they鈥檙e just ideas. Keep an eye out for the upcoming different ways to support the local TV station.
