THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA CHAPTER OF NATS, INC.

ESTABLISHED 1970 - WWW.DFWNATS.ORG F

2023 DFW NATS CHAPTER MEETING MINUTES

October 15, 2023

Saltgrass Steakhouse, Arlington

PRESENT: Corey Trahan, Brock Johnson, Phil Wolcott, Casey Carter, Twyla Robinson, Susan Hanlon Ferrer,
Natalie Arduino, Robert Best

EXCUSED: James Rodriguez, Darla Diltz

CALL TO ORDER: 5:00PM by Corey Trahan

ORDER OF BUSINESS

INTRODUCTIONS
-New officers introduction - Brock Johnson and Twyla Robinson
-New board members – Darla Diltz

ANNOUNCEMENTS
-Due to a new job opportunity, Laura Stevenson has resigned as an auditions co-chair/board
member but will stay active in NATS.

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES, SPRING

-Minutes unavailable, reconstruction of events underway

OFFICER REPORTS
-President –
-Concerns over website
-Ferrer has issued a wishlist
-President priced new design
-Cosmetic changes able to be done in-house by Trahan and Kristen Martin.
-Tabs will include: social media links, auditions information, condense auditions into
one tab, prior winners, student resource page, member resource page
-More pictures and videos needed for website from chapter members
-Suggestion from Carter: crowdsourced cloud folder for these items
-Current website cost: 324/yearly for website, domain 90/yearly
-The idea of switching to a Google domain was presented by Carter

MOTION: Raise Chapter student audition fee by $5 to $25

MOTIONED: Best
SECONDED: Carter
AYES: Unanimous
SO MOVED

MOTION: Implement a teacher registration fee for Chapter Conference of $20.00

 MOTIONED: Ferrer
SECONDED: Turner
AYES: Unanimous
SO MOVED

Member report: 136 Member attendance: 8

Treasurer:
8771.00 – Current balance Needs confirmation from Treasurer report
Last conference was unusually expensive
Unexpected expenses arose
Need a cap implemented on individual, supply, and guest expenses
Small committee meeting needed to discuss various rates
Budget needed for the entire conference to minimize a “free-for-all”
Need for small committee done away with, presence of one ex-officio makes quorum
Budget proposals:
-Guest artist fee capped at 1,000
-Travel and lodging capped at 500
-9 rooms capped at 1500 for board members
-Hospitality capped at 700
-Volunteer crew hospitality capped at 500
-Office supplies capped at 400
-Guest judges fees capped at 100 plus 50 travel/per
(there is some question here about the continuance of guest judges for
the finals, will visit in new business)
-Prize money capped at 1500
-Facility fees – we need Heather’s input on what is going to be charged
-Susan will follow up on that
-Piano tuning – minimum 1000
-Auxiliary cleaning staff – previous service has cost 300
-QUESTION FLOATED: do we create an award for CCM, item moved to new
business
-Sent $75 to UNT for hospitality for the upcoming regional conference, as did all
chapters

Auditions Coordinators:
-Auditionware is the devil
-All is well with organization and logistics
-Many successes from the previous year:
-Being able to have multiple people inputting scores while simultaneously filling
out certificates
-Therefore, more people are needed to replicate that system: the entire board
and importantly, their computers, need to be available
-Hopefully, audition room participants will be able to attend spring meeting due
to this streamlined process
-Kudos to Dan Hunter-Holly!

UNFINISHED BUSINESS
 None

NEW BUSINESS (!!!!! Everyone was very happy to discuss new business)

-AuditionNow is a problem due to AuditionWare dropping NATS as a client. AuditionNow had no

time to be tested in beta and is very buggy.
-2023 Regional Conference is being done manually to avoid this
-All chapters have been asked to fundraise for the scholarship program
-Proposal by Carter: we do an “All Fached Up” cabaret after the guest artist recital in Denton
-proposed locations by Brock
-Spring chapter conference: Tarleton March 15-16
-New category: Children ages 11 and under
-New category will also be opened to musical theatre
-Winners of this new category will advance to the National level
-A rubric for children is already extant
-Tarleton will see a changed format that is much more streamlined
-Friday auditions will begin at noon.
-There will only be 2 rounds (prelims and finals)
-Guest artist possibilities: Christina Driskill (performs in all genres), Lyndsi Maus (collaborative
pianist)
-Brock is serving as guest artist liaison
-An up and down vote is requested:
MOTION: all students must participate in the classical category at the chapter
conference level in order be eligible for the Jennifer Glidden Award
MOTIONED: Trahan
SECONDED: Wolcott
AYES: Unanimous
SO MOVED

MOTION: to create an actual prize for the CCM category equivalent to classical prizes
MOTIONED: Trahan
SECONDED: Arduino
AYES: Unanimous
SO MOVED

MOVE TO ADJOURN: Carter

SECONDED: Hanlon
AYES: Unanimous
MEETING ADJOUNED 6:27PM

Minutes prepared by Twyla Robinson, DFW NATS Chapter Secretary