Recap of 2024 February Member Meeting
Larry Deniston | Published on 2/27/2024
Biannual Member Meeting Recap
On Monday February 12th we had our first Audiophile Foundation Biannual Member Meeting. The turnout was excellent with 31 in attendance.
During the event, we provided the following updates:
Treasurers report with a summary of 2023:
- Annual operating costs: $5,085
- Membership and events income: $7,269
- Profit from sales of items: $7,980
- Transfer of funds from SFAS: $16,430
- Foundation cash at year end: $33,979
- Net 2023 increase in cash: $26,528
2024 goals:
- Hire admin for website and communications at approximate cost of $4,800 per year.
- Hire accountant at approximate cost of $4,800 per year.
Recap of 2023 accomplishments:
- It was a year of transition and new beginnings.
- Retired SFAS and got approval to transfer funds to Foundation.
- Moved SFAS members to Foundation.
- Registered Audiophile Foundation DBA
- Designed new logo and started rebranding efforts (John D spearheading)
- With the help of Larry Gee, formalized Muse presentation standards
- Took in major gear donation and resold big ticket items for large approximate $8,000 profit.
- Built out Instagram and Facebook presence.
- Expanded board positions, including Treasurer (Manrique Zuniga), Events (Jim Bird) and Marketing (Jeff Kalina) positions.
- Started doing more educational events thanks to Ori Mizrahi-Shalom and Jim Hunton.
2024 initiatives:
- Build up school curriculum and commence classes and events at California Historic Radio Society (CHRS).
- Audiophile hotline (looking for volunteers).
- Formalize board succession plan so members can rotate on and off of board.
- Website version 2 including rebranding.
- Improve video quality.
- Focus on creating video record of industry luminaries.
- Debut of Foundation and AXPONA partnership.
- Expand membership and participation outside of Bay Area.
- Expand membership demographics.
- Roll out of new logo and branding initiative to include a refresh of the website.
Reasons for expansion beyond the Bay Area:
- Save money and time running a club (we all benefit pooling the labor and ideas)
- Increase number and type of events.
- We are the group that isn’t trying to sell you anything.
- Community building.
- Provide non-biased feedback.
- Enhance member experience.
- Networking outside of Bay Area.
- Improved purchasing power with larger membership.
- Enable smaller pockets of audiophiles to be part of a larger formalized support group.
- Provide support network to assist in buying, fixing, setting up, selling, listening, sharing music.
2024 events in the works:
Jim Bird has taken the reigns in planning our in person and virtual events. There are many in the works so watch your inboxes for upcoming announcements. We are kicking it off with the first ever record sale at CHRS planned for March 16th.
There was a free and open discussion throughout. Below are the takeaways.
Member Feedback:
- More in-person/listening events.
- Work with CHRS to explore synergies and savings for both organizations.
- More in-store events.
- Zoom session on how to navigate the website.
- General agreement that people like the new logo.
- How does growing the org benefit the SF bay area group - answered
- How do you find members on the website - can address during the Website navigation call
- How to find where people are - as above
- Send an email highlighting blogs and forums and how to receive notifications.
- Build a music listening list for the membership, consider copyright issues - consider a playlist on Qobuz and/or Spotify. Contact Isaac Adams.
- Have these Members meetings every 6 months.
- Get some Zoom meetings going on Wednesdays.
- DIY - reach out to others for DIY - Brian to reach out to Gregory with some contacts
In summary, this was a terrific first Member Meeting. Thank you to everyone who participated. We will be sending out an annoucement soon for our next meeting in 6 months. Until then... Happy Listening!