Viola da Gamba Society of America

Hi - time to get started on this. But first, what is our current amount to be distributed? According to our guidelines it is listed at the top of the applications page, but you need to get a password from Marie to get in there and I thought I would check with you guys before asking Marie for that. Thanks, Jack

10 days ago Marie sent me a note saying there is $2500 budgeted for this granting period, so we don't have to make that decision ourselves. All we have to do is figure out how to compress 3 reasonable requests for $1500 into $2500. It's going to be interesting. I look forward to seeing your thoughts on these applications and offering my own. I've thought of several scenarios, none of them ideal.
Lucy

Right - the same old problem, but with fewer candidates.

So, lay some of those scenarios on us! I'm ready!

- Jack

Anne is a friend and colleague and I know this project is very dear to her. She's putting a lot of in-kind contribution into it as well as some money of her own.
(She doesn't know that I am on the committee...or at least I think she doesn't) Her sister is Eva Legene who plays frequently with Wieland, so she's quite friendly with him and has taken some lessons. This seems to me to be a very interesting project....however it is a big one.....a projected $28,000 for the whole thing. 14 musicians to be hired, recording people etc. My concern is that it is too big to actually happen with the resources she has. Yesterday I got an email about using a crowd-funding source, Indiegogo. The aim is to raise $10,000 with this method. Today I see that she has raised in the neighborhood of $2700. This gives you some background. The other two people certainly seem deserving of some help to get new viols. One scenario I thought of was to give Anne $1000, since hers is a much larger project, and the other two $750.
Or we might consider splitting the $2500 three ways. Not very creative but somehow I think it would be hard to leave one out .
Lucy

Thanks for that info, Lucy. This is really a hard call. Instruments and recording projects are always so expensive, and our resources really are pretty small.

A three-way split would be about $833 each, which is a bit more than half of what each has requested. I can't see turning any of them down, and none of the three projects (or individuals) strikes me as more worthy than the others.

Truly, recordings do cost more than viols... but then again, there are more individuals involved in this recording project, and thus more points-of-contact for other sources of funding.

So I suppose I'm up for a three-way split unless there's any new info.

-David

P.S. I recall telling the Board (at Conclave) about scenarios like this... let us make sure that they know what decision we end up making and why. $833 (if that's what we end up giving each) is not chump-change, but it is considerably less than what they've requested, and all seem deserving.

I'm OK with this solution. Taking everything into consideration, I think it's the best we can do.
Lucy

Refresh my memory: if we give money to someone but they can't make the remainder and so can't accept our grant, can we reassign their grant to one or more of the other applicants? And/or would it make a difference if we knew before the next funding cycle began?

I'm just wondering if Anne's project is really gonna do it - that's a huge amount of money to raise - and if it doesn't, we could take that and give it to the two instrument wishers-to-havers.

Or does she keep VdGSA money in escrow, as it were, and hope to make up the remainder in, say, the next two years?

Which leads to this: do our grants have to be spent by a certain deadline? I don't remember this ever coming up before.

Ever more questions...

Jack

It's my recollection that the money has to be returned if it can't be spent. But I'm not sure what happens after that. I would guess that it would go back into the GIA fund for the next granting period. Marie, are you there?
Lucy

Jack, can you give an opinion on this. I assume you got the forwarded email from Marie. I'd like to get this granting period wrapped up sooner rather than later. Many thanks
Lucy

Hi - I've been going back and forth in my mind. Normally I would automatically go to the three-way split, but Anne's project is so much more ambitious (not to mention expensive) that I'm tilting in the direction of giving her a little more - making it, say, $1000 + 750 + 750. That gives each of the instrument seekers exactly half of what they asked for - so they, too, might be unable to make their goal. On the other hand, they might not with only 833.33, either.

David and I will be together tomorrow with a chance to talk. Could we wait until we've had that chance before finishing up? - Jack

Sure! Talk soon.
L