- Good afternoon, everyone. And yes, I'm back. Welcome to Bloomington Rotary's Tuesday celebration of
- service. My name is Tracy Yovanovich, and I'm filling in for Steve, who's on a well-deserved vacation.
- It was supposed to be Sam Uduck. He came down with a sinus infection. So we have lots of people to volunteer
- and fill in at the last minute.
- So please silence your electronic devices. And on this day in history, September 16th, 1940, President
- Franklin Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act, the first peacetime conscription in U.S.
- history. Men between the ages of 21 and 36 were required to register for military service. And on that
- note, I'd like to invite Tim Jessen up for a reflection.
- Thank you all. It's been said that a Methodist minister ought to be able to do three things whenever
- necessary. They are, do I need the phone? Okay. They are to be able to preach, pray or die. Now I'm
- not a Methodist minister, but I've had plenty of experience dealing with the unexpected. So I didn't
- even know until I got here who was going to introduce me. So I had this,
- a planned introduction to my connections to Ivy Tech, but I have to scrap those and Sam isn't here.
- But that was also my community service for my eight years there. Steve asked me to talk about some of
- my community service work and I told him that once I helped start a support network for men surviving
- prostate cancer,
- And so I volunteered to coordinate our involvement in the Hoosiers Out Run cancer, but a new member
- beat me to the volunteer for that. That support network eventually failed in part because men don't
- like to talk about that part of their lives. And it's just not as popular as the pink ribbons for breast
- cancer. I found one on the sidewalk coming over here that someone had discarded.
- I also have been involved in Shalom Center before it was Beacon. You should know that our oldest Rotarian,
- Wendell St. John, who celebrated his birthday last Friday, his wife Shirley helped found Shalom. Now
- if I'd known Tracy was going to be in charge, I might have worn a Beacon shirt as I was on that board
- for years and enabled Diana Hoffman
- to serve there, and she's done marvelously well. Yes, homelessness is something that I am very concerned
- about, and especially at the First Christian Church, where a breakfast attracts more than 100 unhoused
- men and women every Sunday morning. I've done other things. I've been very involved in musical groups,
- Bloomington Chamber Singers, now Quarryland Men's Chorus,
- postcard on your table about that, and I've been in three church choirs. But I've done other things
- like personal involvement with those who have come out of prisons and confinement to start a new life.
- And I've been active in several interfaith organizations to try to help improvement of conditions for
- all. But today, today, I'm getting to my
- present involvement with the Bloomington Refugee Support Network. Thanks to Sylvia McNair, another good
- friend of the club, I have this, I can even read it, Immigrants Make America Great t-shirt. And I also
- want to bring to your attention our parallel organization Exodus, which was publicized in an
- unflattering way this past Thursday. That, by the way, was the day of 9-11 anniversary, and this was
- the picture on the HT. Okay, that's our attorney general. And I know all of you will say, I don't get
- the HT anymore, or I only read it online, but there are sometimes things that you actually should read
- and pay attention to. So I'm not gonna go into the details except
- that the attorney general of our state has focused his attention on Exodus, which helps refugees as
- the Bloomington Refugee Network does. And David Meyer and Cindy are active in that group, and many others
- of you are concerned about it. Bob Salzferk, another Rotarian who gave me a job for five years as a
- religion columnist until, what was the name of that?
- Gannett decided that they didn't want any more local columnists. So there we go. But he said that journalists
- should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. So here goes. Watch out. Sunday night, there
- was a service remembering the college speaker who was assassinated last Wednesday. And the meeting was
- held here in this building, including the solarium, where
- we sometimes meet. Kirk was scheduled to come here to IU in October, and some former Ivy Tech students
- were urging me to attend. It won't happen. But our nation is broken right now. That's the same part
- of the building, where guns from the roof were focused on students
- protesting in Dunmeadow, my friend Wendell, at age 94, he calls it gun meadow. We have to face these
- things. That's the point of this reflection. And the best way we can do it is to continue our service
- that we're already involved in, to beacon and the unhoused, to refugee
- Networks under attack to trans people and former prisoners to international students and wherever the
- war is being waged. But please no violence. Extend love, not hate. And always service above self. Amen and amen.
- Thank you, Tim. And just as a side note, since you brought up Exodus, Mayor Thompson had a meeting last
- week for nonprofit groups to attend, and it was a lot of interesting topics we covered. One of them,
- Exodus, got up and spoke, and I don't know if you all are aware, but they are losing all the SNAP, the
- food funding shortly. They will be losing Medicaid within the next year.
- It's pretty significant. Shelly Salih, a fellow Rotarian, talked about all the implications with Health
- Net and why this is all as a result of the big beautiful bill. So there will be Medicare, Medicaid rather
- long lasting impacts that are coming in smaller doses that you don't see in the news. And so just be
- aware that there is a lot of further challenges coming. Okay.
- Let's see introduction of guests Jim Sims ready and wait and no glasses look at you styling. Good afternoon
- all. I haven't got to the bifocal part yet so.
- My glasses are for driving and distance, and no glasses for reading. So thank you, and Tim, thank you
- so much for that reflection today. Okay, it's my pleasure to introduce today's guest, and we'll start
- with Houshee Wang, guest of Michael Shermis. Can you please, I'm sorry, before we, I'm sorry,
- stand up. And everyone, please stand up so we can acknowledge you, I'm so sorry. Welcome, Houshee. Ellen Strohman.
- visiting Rotary and a future member. Is she present? All right. Welcome. Randy Saunders, guest of Jim
- Bright. Member in process, thank you. And my friend, Yael Cassander, friend of, I'm sorry, guest of
- Alon Barker. Welcome. And last but not least, Anne Holman,
- a guest of Peyton Flynn. Standing in the back, back there. Thank you. Do we have any guests online?
- We are all Rotarians online today, Jim. All right. Thank you very much. And all of our guests, if you
- have any interest in being a part of this club, just talk to anyone at your table and we'll get you
- start steered in the right direction. Thank you all very much. You're welcome.
- All right, now for the birthdays. We have one birthday, Tim Thrasher, past president, on the 19th. And
- then two anniversaries, CM Morrison on 9-17, and then Cindy on the 22nd, Cindy Neithart. For announcements,
- I have quite a few announcements, so hold on to your seats. Andrea Murray, you're gonna come up and
- share about the holiday party. You guys have been feverishly at work.
- We've got the details worked out now and we're gonna have pretty much the same food as last year except
- upgraded desserts. No cookies and brownies this year. Well, they may be some brownies, but we're gonna
- have fruit cobbler and some other stuff. And we're still negotiating the ticket price, but it looks
- like it's gonna be very affordable this year. And we're gonna invite the North folks to come and join
- us again as we did. And we'll have music and maybe a little less loud.
- but we'll have music. So come along when you get your chance, buy your ticket. Yeah, good luck with
- a little SLL with this group. So for everyone to remember tomorrow, we are co-sponsoring the IU Law
- School's Constitution Day luncheon. It starts at 1130 and parking is available at the Henderson Street
- Garage. It's one block away.
- For those of you who need a driver to drop you off at the north end of the building, there is a ramp
- and there's elevators inside. Everyone try to make it. It should be very informative. It's going to
- be at a reader's digest level so that we can all understand the Constitution, etc. Some who are probably
- up here maybe need to take a few steps backwards, just saying. But it's going to be quite interesting
- and we did sign up. How many people do we have signed up?
- 34 people, so we need everyone to be there. The peace building committee is meeting here today at 1 p.m.
- So please join the group if you are interested.
- Next week, Beacon has invited all of our club members to join them as they celebrate a groundbreaking
- ceremony for the new Beacon Center. It's the 23rd from 3 to 4 at the new location, 1201 West 3rd Street,
- right by Crescent Donuts. It'd be great if everyone could show up. I know quite a few of us have been
- very involved in that.
- And lastly, the annual Rotary Toast is the event that funds our club and foundation's local charitable
- giving. Don't forget to buy your tickets. We're up to about 240 with about another 50 verbal commitments.
- So we're getting pretty darn close. It should be fantastic. We'll have Mayor Thompson speaking, Shelly
- Yoder is going to MC. We have the Bloomington High School North Band who is fantastic according to resident
- expert Alon Barker. They will be playing and we'll have a couple of singing guests as well. And the
- Bloomington High School North
- uh habitat club is actually facilitating everybody uh working their way through and the tickets etc
- so should be a great time and with that we need some happy dollars do we have any oh lynn is on it well
- michael come to you next
- Is that on? Yes. I have five happy dollars for two reasons. One is that I have my Rotary Toast ticket.
- How about you all? All right. Number two. And we will be reminding you later on the save the date for
- the and many of you know, I'm president of Monroe County NAACP and our Freedom Fund Bank will will be
- Saturday, November 1st out at Ivy Tech. So we'll talk more about that later. Just keep it on your calendar.
- Happy, five happy dollars for those two announcements. Thank you. I have three happy dollars because
- I have to report that a friend of the club and former sponsoree, Amina Mohammadi's husband, Jawed, has
- gotten a new job. He got his work permission back after being taken away by the Trump administration
- in the spring.
- is gotten it returned. And he starts on Friday at IU dining, a job that he had to leave because of the
- loss of his work permission back in May. So back to where he is now back to where he was. But I'm happy
- about that. I do want to put in a quick plug and say that he is an electrical engineer by education,
- having a BS in electrical engineering. And if anybody knows any
- contacts regarding electrical work or that kind of engineering work, please, jobs, please let me know.
- I really appreciate it. Thank you. I'll just be very brief. $10 because I just heard this morning that
- both of my daughters will be here for the Lotus Festival.
- Yes, I'm done. $20 for coming back to this. And being with all you good people. Thank you. And I just
- have happy dollars because my table mate is back. Any online? Not at the moment, Michael. We're happy
- Charlotte's back, though.
- I have 20 happy dollars because our youngest son is doing an internship up in Indy, Monday, Wednesdays
- and Fridays. And it feels like he's actually growing up and it's pretty exciting. And I didn't have
- to do anything to help him get it. I'm delighted as well that Charlotte's back and welcome. I also just
- want to underscore this Beacon event that was mentioned earlier.
- Please come, even if you're a donor or you're not even clear what your position is as far as being a
- donor, you'll learn a lot at this event. And it's going to be a great celebration event. And we need
- more joy in our lives. We need more things to celebrate. And this is truly an event to celebrate.
- Thank you. Yeah. I can do that. It's September 20.
- September 23rd from 3 to 4 at 1201 West 3rd Street. So it's the old Weddle Brothers location by Crescent
- Donut. That's what everybody knows is Crescent Donut. I have 10 happy dollars for the outstanding performance
- of our member John Armstrong in the constellations next to normal.
- I have some happy dollars here because my daughter is going to come visit us from Texas for the Lotus
- Festival. Well, that is the perfect segue. On that note, lots of happiness. It's good to hear. And we'll
- bring up Mr. Happiness, Alon Barker, to introduce our guest. Oh, my goodness, Mr. Happiness. I think
- we're all happy in so many ways, right?
- Well, before I introduce Katerina, I want to just mention a little bit about my time with Lotus because
- when I arrived as a South African in 86, we didn't have the Lotus Festival. The Lotus Festival started
- in 1994. And there are a few things in Bloomington that really made me feel welcome. WFIU, the Unitarian
- Church, the Lotus Festival when it came about really made me feel that I had a sense of home that I
- hadn't had
- prior to the Lotus Festival, and then obviously the Rotary Club is something else that makes me feel
- at home. So I think that the Lotus Festival is truly one of the gems in our community, especially today
- when the world seems to be closing in on itself, where we seem to becoming more and more focused on
- selfish needs and attitudes about diversity and communications and understanding seem to be
- evaporating before our eyes. And in so many ways, the Lotus Festival brightens our community and gives
- us all a sense of connection to the world that we truly belong to, rather than just the world that we
- obsess about in our own personal lives. So I think it's an incredible organization doing amazing things.
- And so with us today, we have Katarina Koch, who has been leading the Lotus Festival
- at the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation, which is about the Lotus Festival, as executive director
- since July 2023. So she's been here for a few years. Whether the focus is on world or musical health,
- Katarina is a community builder. For the seven years before she came back to Bloomington, Katarina
- transformed a small medical provider in Paoli
- into a federally qualified Southern Indiana community healthcare through grant writing, marketing, and
- most importantly, serving the community with heart and compassion while seeking out assets and leveraging
- their strengths to grow. What an amazing person to bring to this community and to the Lotus Festival.
- Katerina received her BS in biology.
- from Butler University in 2010 and a not-for-profit graduate certification from the IU Bloomington campus
- in 2017, the O'Neill School, I'm assuming. She was a recipient of an academic scholarship from the Crown
- Point Indiana Rotary Club
- and she has pursued leadership in community service roles throughout her career. Katharina believes
- that music and art are essential components of community life that impacts the health and vitality of
- individuals, the environment, and our built world. She lives in Bloomington with her husband and their
- two dogs and two cats. Please welcome Katharina. Thank you, I appreciate it.
- OK. My laptop up here. Can everyone hear me all right? I'm on a remote mic. So hello, everyone. It's
- lovely to see the faces here. Let me move that out of the way. Just kind of taking a scope of the room.
- My name is Katerina Kau. I have been living here in Bloomington for, I first came here in 2013.
- worked for the IU Health. I worked for Blooming Foods. I worked in elder care. I lived in an eco-village.
- I had a great Bloomington experience. And then I moved to Paoli, Indiana, where I supported a community
- health center there and did my bloomering, came back to Bloomington. Is the mic? It's okay. Yeah, great.
- Thank you. Well, I want to
- start with gratitude for the Rotary Club for being a part of my initial journey into leadership, into
- my career, and my academics. The last time that I was at a Rotary Club, I was 16, and I was representing
- our local Latin club. I was part of the Latin Indiana Junior Classical League at that time. So the leadership pursuits,
- I've been part of Student Conservation Association, National Outdoor Leadership School. I've been on
- countless steering committees and served on boards and problem solved with executive leaders in Southern
- Indiana. And so I'm really glad to be bringing these skills to Lotus Festival and the Lotus Education
- Arts Foundation and to Bloomington as well.
- As Alon mentioned, my personal objectives are to support health of the individual, the community, and
- the environment. And investing in art and culture is an essential component for thriving communities
- and building more resilient economies. I just want to say thank you to Tim for your reflection earlier
- about service.
- I think the festival can often come across as just entertainment, but Lotus represents a lot more than
- that. And it represents values that a lot of people in this room and parts and people in Bloomington
- really care about. There is service is so important. And this year in particular, I really felt that
- message to keep going forward with what the work that we are doing.
- So I'll get more into that. So my presentation today is talking about celebrating the world's diversity
- with the Lotus Festival. Now let me change screens. Is the clicker? Sorry. There we go. OK.
- So music and art have the power to connect, to inspire, and transform. Lotus Education and Arts Foundation
- ensures that Bloomington and South Central Indiana remain vibrant, globally connected, and creatively
- inspired. We are a local cornerstone of cultural enrichment dedicated to presenting world-class musical
- and visual arts experiences. Our mission is to create opportunities to experience, celebrate, and explore
- the world's diversity through music and art.
- Since our founding in 1994, Lotus has become an established institution that connects Southern Indiana
- to the world through music and art. In 2001, Lotus was recognized by the Indiana Arts Commission for
- the Indiana Governor's Award for Art. The origin of our organization is rooted in innovation, education,
- creativity, and enhanced quality of place through the arts.
- Today, we continue that legacy within our programming with communities throughout Southern Indiana.
- Lotus invites globally diverse artists to share their cultural heritage and perform for children, adults,
- and families in Bloomington and across the Southern Indiana region. We focus on music, dance, cultural
- storytelling, experiences
- via performances, workshops, and lecture demonstrations. These broaden the audience's understanding
- of the world's diverse cultural heritage. And our principal programs are the Lotus World Music and Arts
- Festival and the Lotus Blossoms Education and Outreach Program. Most people know about the festival.
- How many people in here have attended the festival before?
- Oh yeah, that's amazing. That's so great. And how many people have heard about the Lotus Blossoms education
- outreach? A lot. That's so amazing. So we've got a really good group here that already understands what
- Lotus brings to the community. Well, for those who haven't attended, Lotus Festival is an event that
- transforms downtown Bloomington into a dynamic multicultural stage. Over four days, artists from around
- the globe share their music and traditions, drawing thousands of attendees
- And as one of the longest running world music festivals in the United States and the only one of its
- kind in Indiana, the festival offers audiences a rare opportunity to engage with music and cultures
- from around the world and foster cross-cultural understanding and appreciation. Lotus brings people
- together. Thousands of people
- who attend the festival are spiritually, culturally, and artistically transformed by the quality and
- talent of artists who share their artistry, traditions, and love of music. In one of our post-festival
- surveys, one attendee said, the main reason I come to Lotus is for creative renewal, energy, and inspiration.
- Lotus recharges my batteries unlike anything else in my life.
- And the best part for me is the unpredictable mind-blowing moment. You never know when it's going to
- happen. There will be an act that you'll check out on a whim and then kablooey. Mind blown. The Lotus
- Festival welcomes over 400 volunteers from Bloomington and beyond.
- Each year the festival serves as a unifying force that builds relationships among volunteers by fostering
- pride, connection, and community resilience. Research consistently demonstrates that participation in
- the arts is associated with reduced stress, anxiety, and depression. Art making and art viewing can
- lower cortisol levels, enhance mood, and serve as coping mechanisms for trauma and stress.
- Public art and shared cultural experiences foster a local identity and unity. And the arts provide routine,
- purpose, and joy, which are all elements essential to overall wellbeing. Lotus Blossoms is a performance
- series that introduces K through 12 students in South Central Indiana to global cultures through interactive
- performances and workshops.
- Lotus Blossoms invites students to embark on musical journeys across continents, helping to bridge cultural
- divides through the universal language of music and art. Many are introduced to new rhythms, to traditions,
- and languages for the first time. The program places a strong emphasis on hands-on learning with artists
- leading workshops that allow students to explore global music and art in forms that are meaningful and
- interactive.
- We have really strong collaborations with the schools and community partners in Monroe County,
- Green County, Lawrence, Brown, Orange, Owen, and Bartholomew counties. And the sky's the limit, right?
- In 2025, Lotus Blossoms presented 14 artists from five different artist groups.
- We reached about 6,500 individuals in three counties and provided over $3,000 in school scholarships,
- including 15 schools in Monroe County, four of which were Title I low-income schools, one school in
- Orange County, one in Green, and two community centers, Boys and Girls Club and Stone Belt. We hosted
- six public performances at various local venues, including the John Waldron Arts Center, the Buskirk-Chamlee Theater,
- the IU School of Education, and our Lotus Fire Bay. And we partnered with Monroe County Schools Computer
- Science Team to bring two schools a week-long immersive artist residency. In addition to school-wide
- performances, we provide teachers with study guides so students can learn about each artist's cultural
- and musical heritage and interact with art and STEM activities that relate to instruments and the science of music.
- Each year since 1998, Lotus Blossoms hosts a special event called the Lotus Blossoms World Bazaar. Lotus
- buses all the Monroe County School fourth graders to the gym at Fairview Elementary School for hands-on
- globally inspired arts and craft activities. It's a completely volunteer run program and Lotus invites
- almost 40 partners from international departments at Indiana University
- community artists, community arts organizations, and local performers to present activities, demonstrations,
- and performances to over 1,500 kids and adults over the two-day event. You can't say no to those eyes,
- can you? Seriously. So although government grants helped us through the first few years of the pandemic,
- and allowed us to continue the festival, recovering from post-pandemic losses of over $350,000 have
- staunched our activities. So it's a really high number over the last three years of financial losses.
- Last year, we closed the Sixth Street Tent and reduced the total number of venues and overall artists.
- This was a really difficult decision, but both myself and the board agreed that a smaller festival is
- better than none at all. And that is the reality that we are facing. Sustainability means change and
- adapting to new circumstances that often feel like we are losing something. But there is hope to continue
- in a new way. Government funding shifts have altered the nonprofit ecosystem,
- Competition has increased for philanthropic community resources like corporate sponsorships, individual
- donations and private grants. Lotus has an annual budget of approximately $480,000. Two thirds of that
- budget comes from these sources. Only one third comes from ticket sales and other earned revenues.
- Fortunately, we are not alone in these challenges.
- In difficult times, collaboration is key to an effective response. Lotus has a long history of working
- with community partners, including many academic departments at IU, local community nonprofits like
- WFHB and Bloomington Roots, as well as business and corporate partners like Chocolate Moose, the Bloomington
- Yoga Collective, Organized Living, and many others. But there is potential for growth.
- And that's what's really important. There are many areas where we can grow, including how Lotus can
- be a collaborator in our community and beyond. To do this, it is essential to maintain a culture of
- creativity and growth mindset to overcome the challenges and reach for thriving futures together and
- vibrant futures together.
- So according to the 2022 report on planning with arts and culture from the Indiana Arts Commission and
- Ball State University, tourism and community foundation representatives and municipal leaders see arts
- and culture as having an important role in their communities. 88% of leaders and 96% of tourism either
- strongly or somewhat agree that arts and culture are an economic development opportunity.
- 34% of leaders believe that arts-based development is actually more effective than traditional economic
- development, while tourism and community foundation representatives, 62% of them agree with that as
- well. 71% of leaders and 92% of tourism community foundations representatives either strongly or somewhat
- agree that it's important to include arts in community planning initiatives.
- At the City of Bloomington, the Economic and Sustainable Development Department has an economic development
- vision for Bloomington to be a prosperous, inclusive, and cultural magnet, where businesses can grow
- and thrive, and all residents can access economic opportunity, and our natural world and resources are
- protected, treasured, and celebrated.
- Among their goals include Bloomington becoming the center for creativity for Indiana. Bloomington is
- already known as a center for arts, but retaining that mantle requires dedicated effort. Creativity
- should inform our community at all levels, helping make sure we grow a creative economy of the future,
- as well as supporting practicing artists and destination tourism.
- Their second goal is, or one of their second goals is to nurture and grow Bloomington's creative economy.
- For example, reclaiming the Music City Indiana title, launching arts incubators, supporting arts nonprofits,
- and making Bloomington a place that creative people can work. And third, supporting destination tourism.
- For example, visitors to Indiana University, the Convention Center, art and culture,
- and promoting proximity to Indiana. The tourism acts as a trade sector, bringing outside dollars into
- Bloomington and can often serve as a gateway to moving here or establishing businesses here. Lotus is
- an active leader in community and we are participating in focus groups that are facilitated by the Regional
- Opportunities Initiative to create a regional arts and culture plan. It covers an 11 county region where
- Monroe is a part of that.
- We're following the grant process to submit a proposal that will drive growth of the Lotus Festival
- as a major destination festival for Bloomington and the state, and expand access to world cultures through
- music and arts across the whole Midwest. So our story of over three decades, we've had an impact in
- the community.
- More than 10,000 people come to fill the streets of Bloomington every year and nearly $1 million flood
- the local economy during the Lotus Festival. Lotus supports a thriving creative class and an art economy
- which invites new visitors, industries, and fuels the growth of the region.
- Transformative music and arts experiences are accessible for all ages, abilities, backgrounds, and incomes.
- Even if someone can't afford a ticket to the festival, our volunteer exchange provides one night of
- festival for free. It's a great opportunity to engage with the community and discover the magic of the
- festival. Over 100 art partners engage with youth and families every year with experiential learning
- to create lifelong memories and establish core values.
- This year, I've begun conversations with Visit Bloomington to help us determine our current economic
- impact from the festival today. So we will be sending out post-festival surveys that include these metrics.
- One thing that really makes Lotus stand out is that we have hosted artists from over 150 unique cultures
- and countries. This is a really proud metric
- for our work and I think it truly demonstrates that Bloomington is a multicultural city. So what to
- do one step at a time we move forward. Lotus will overcome our challenges by engaging with our active
- and seasoned supporters and finding new friends to help us grow into the future. You can help us do that.
- You can attend the festival, invite your friends and buy tickets with the hands that were raised. I'm
- sure many of you, we'll see many of you out there. You can give a sincerely modest donation to contribute
- to our mission. For those of you who are over 72, a great way to do that is through required retirement
- distributions. You can also become a sponsor and support our artists, our staff and our festival footprint.
- I want to know how Lotus can help your business reach its goals and provide the best experience for
- you and your employees. Finally, I'm just going to leave you with the Lotus flower blooms most beautifully
- from the deepest and thickest mud. So let's work together to rise up and create something beautiful.
- removes with you, doesn't it? Sorry, the furthest one away. Could you talk a little bit about visas
- and whether you bring people from abroad? I know that used to be possible and to piggyback on a visa
- that somebody was here or
- I don't know if you get people from abroad anymore. Yeah, we do. We get people from abroad every year.
- I'm not sure in terms of the amount that we get now versus in the past. But when I attended the World
- Music Expo last year, I was talking to I was talking to people from all over the world music industry,
- and they they find it the most difficult that the US is the most difficult place to tour.
- to get a visa, to get a working permit is incredibly expensive, and it can take years to make it happen.
- And if the artists do not have a US-based agent, it makes it even more difficult to navigate the system.
- For this year in particular, all of our artists are currently in the United States with visas,
- either they're already touring or they're stationed here right now, with the exception of one that's
- coming from Columbia. So we're really hopeful we were trying to mitigate some of those issues. We had
- artists who backed out earlier this year because they were afraid of traveling and receiving, you know,
- potentially being deported at the airport. And so
- They gave us enough time to be able to adapt and find another artist, but those are the realities that
- artists are facing today. Even coming from Canada, it can cost them $1,500 just to come to the U.S.
- for a concert or a tour. This is the realities. Thank you for that question. Of course.
- Michael, right here. Okay. So where do they all stay? Well, we book hotel rooms for artists. We get
- a really great rate from Holiday Inn and we have a whole track of rooms for not just the artists, but
- their managers and any guests that are coming with them. And Lotus covers that cost for the artist.
- Do we remember
- The source, the beginning of the Lotus was with a, it wasn't with a flower, it was with the first Lotus
- ticky in Orange County. I think we should build on that as well. So the statement is that the name of
- the festival, Lotus Festival, I think the original founders, they were,
- they were thinking of calling it the Bloomington Festival and things like that, but they decided to
- look at universality. So the lotus flower blooms in every single country. And then the founders were
- very connected to an artist that grew up and created folk music in Orange County, Indiana. His name
- was Lotus Dickey. And so the merger of the flower and the man became
- the legacy of the festival that we have today. Yeah. Yeah. Katarina, you mentioned growth mindset, which
- I'm a big fan. I don't know if you read the book or not. That's where it came from, from Carol DeWitt.
- But it triggered in my mind as you were talking about all the challenges financially, et cetera. It's
- obviously a common theme across all the nonprofits. There's about 730 nonprofits here in Bloomington.
- And one of the things, and as donors, which there are many in the room for
- all these nonprofits, it's becoming more and more challenging, not only to raise the funds, but to determine
- where you're going to give the funds because everybody's being hit. And so one of the things that would
- be helpful, I think, is that in the spirit of growth mindset, we as nonprofits need to start thinking,
- are there ways we can synergies, create synergies and be more effective? And that's hard to do when
- you talk about political capital, because nobody wants to give up their fiefdom. But at the end of the
- day, it's about survival.
- and how do we maximize and get growth and how do we start thinking differently? So I would just put
- that out there because as I think of Lotus and some of the other fantastic arts venues that we have
- here, there's probably some things we could do to help drive that synergy. And I always go back to the
- constellation example with the BPP and Cardinal. Yeah. So I'll just put that out there. I don't know
- if that's something you all have thought about or not.
- Yes, I've thought about it. For sure, I've thought about it. You're right. It's challenging as each
- of our organizations are vying for these resources, these financial resources. And our community is
- only so big, right?
- I, there's a couple things that I think about I think about like the growth of Bloomington is the growth
- of our organizations, the growth of the festival is connected to that. So bringing in in more industry
- bringing in more people to live in this community is going to grow our nonprofits and give us more resources
- to be able to spread out.
- But that's like, I can't control that. We can't control that. You know, this is a bigger issue. I think
- there's, I don't have an answer for how collaboration will work. But I think in terms of growth mindset,
- in terms of being creatively, like a creative culture, you know, it's so much easier to complain about
- what we don't have.
- instead of thinking about what assets we have and how we can sit at a table, combine our assets and
- make work happen for all of us. It just sometimes doesn't look like the way it used to and it doesn't
- feel the way that you might want it to feel, but that change is really important and it's important
- to embrace that and move into the direction of our whole community thriving instead of siloing and trying to
- it all together. So yeah, thank you for that. Hi, I run my sister's closet and I've had some really
- good experiences with thinking outside of the box as far as looking to host families for some of our
- clients to house women next to jobs that we might have them in. I think
- even within this room, but throughout all of Monroe County, there would be several families that might
- be interested in being host families so that you could cut the hotel portion out of your budget, which
- I think would help out some. That's a great idea. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The international.
- Awesome. We'll look into that. Yeah. Any questions online? At the moment, Michael,
- I'll go ahead and do one. So I'm going to start with a testimonial to get to my question. So back in
- the early aughts, I was a brand new Spankin board member for Lotus, and I was given the opportunity
- to be a driver liaison for a Korean couple of a group called Kakchi and
- I got to take them down to Bedford, a little rural school, and they knew not even a one word of English.
- The challenge, trying to communicate with them, got them in there into that gym, and it didn't matter
- that they didn't know English. They had all sorts of really cool instruments, and they
- played the instruments in a way that was stunning and captivating and amazing and it just transformed
- that gym and the kids were just blown away. Fast forward 15 years, I was at a Lotus
- Night of Music in the summer fundraiser they do. And that principal was there and spoke to that very
- day and that very group that I was there with and what a difference it made to his students and how
- many of those students grew up loving music more and enjoying it. So I throw that testimony out there
- with the question of when we were talking about it 20 some years ago, it was always like the real growth
- that could happen in Lotus is in Lotus Blossoms because it's education oriented, easier to get grants.
- you know, get people younger to come to Lotus, because when you look around at Lotus, there's a lot
- of older people. What are you trying to do to get Lotus younger and make Blossoms a bigger deal and
- work it more? And what plans do you have for the future? Yeah, great question. I have some really exciting
- plans, all I'm happy to share with you. Well, first, to answer the question about bringing younger people in,
- Last year was the first year we decided to make children 12 and under free to attend the festival. That
- was really important to me that we were thinking of our families, the cost to families and you know
- paying $40 for a ticket for a five year old just doesn't make sense right so.
- So yeah, so we did that and I think that's a really great opportunity for getting younger people into
- the festival in particular. This year we've deepened our discount for students and teens. We separated
- our discount out so that they can have 50% off ticket prices and try to make that more accessible for
- that population. And of course, most of our young teens and late teens and college students are volunteers
- and that's how they engage with the festival.
- So Lotus Blossoms, I have been really trying to think about how to connect Lotus Blossoms with the festival,
- how to create more education opportunities at the festival, and then tie the festival back to Lotus
- Blossoms. So just a couple little things that we've done this year. We created the same study guides
- that we create for the spring programs and those artists. We made a couple of those study guides for
- artists for the festival. They are artists, we chose artists that will be performing free performances
- to make them accessible to all students. And we shared that with the Monroe County Schools so that we
- can get that out to teachers and students to be able to learn a little bit more about what the festival
- has to offer to them. And secondly,
- We started a new project, a new collaboration. The pilot project is called Harmony and Heart. It is
- a connection to wellness and music and brain development and emotional and social learning and nervous
- system regulation.
- experience of having diverse music, being exposed to diverse music is really important for brain development
- for young people. And that was something that was shared with me by Jill Bulte-Taylor. She told me,
- she's like, hey, you should kind of connect kids to that concept. So we partnering with Team Peace and
- Let Music Speak, who are nonprofits based in Orange County. And so our
- In this year, we have an expanded pilot program in Orange and in Crawford County, which we've never
- been to. It's pretty far south. So we will keep that artist located in Orange County so that they have
- easier access to all of the schools. There will be six elementary schools that will receive this sort
- of fusion of like,
- they already receive these team peace activities. So this is brain development, social emotional learning.
- They're already receiving that in the classroom. And then we're going to pair that with the music and
- combine those two together. So we're going to see how it goes. It'll be our first pilot. Hopefully we'll
- be able to grow and expand from there and integrate wellness into the concept of
- world music and what we're bringing to the schools and the classes and what kids need today. Yeah. Well,
- Michael, your testimonial inspired me to also testify. I am a 20 plus year. I don't remember the number
- 20 plus year volunteer at Lotus as well as a festival goer. And what I can say about volunteering, if
- you are interested in engaging with people in different ways,
- is that you never know what you're gonna find. And one year, it was actually the first year it's what
- created our info table. And that happened the year of Hurricane Katrina, if I'm not mistaken. And we
- had loads and loads of people that were transported to Bloomington because they were homeless due to
- the storm and they were temporarily housed here and Lotus provided tickets
- to all of these wonderful folks so that they could have some entertainment in their lives, and they
- had to come check in at the info, at this new info table, which I staffed for an evening. And it was
- the most fascinating evening to have one-on-one conversations with people who had just experienced amazing
- trauma, were in a town they knew nothing of, and they were so happy to be in our space and to share
- the love of,
- humanity that we were expressing. So you never know what you're going to find if you volunteer at Lotus.
- Thank you, Lynn. Appreciate it. Back in the late 1990s, one of the first big events that Wonder Lab
- participated in was the Lotus Blossoms.
- They brought in Mather Museum with their different instruments. And then we had the music, obviously.
- And then we had Wonder Lab coming in talking about the science of music. What Wonder Lab has gotten
- a great grant for from Lilly is to go out into the surrounding counties to bring science. And I'm not
- sure what the parameters were on the grant. I only just heard about it. But the idea of there being
- a possibility for music to go out into the communities
- You're already got links there, whether it's possible to do that and get a grant to underwrite that
- for you and possibly help recoup some of your costs. The other option might be, we do have a lot of
- theater companies in South Central Indiana. If there was ever a way to be able to offer a world music
- group to come and play before the show opens, I mean, before the curtain goes up, you're going to hit
- an audience that already likes the arts.
- and it would allow them to have a taste of your event. It would give the theater company something really
- cool to offer the audience. And it might be a really great way to get the word out in smaller communities
- about the festival of having actually seen someone play. I love the idea of going out with a partner,
- you know, especially we already have a precedent for, for integrating STEM into our programming and
- And for in terms of theater, I love the idea of Lotus touring something, you know, into the community.
- Suppose bringing touring artists in, we bring something, you know, in a little bit of more of an integrated
- way with other organizations. And so those kinds of collaborations I think are the, that's the mindset
- we need to have and take
- you know, it one step at a time and try to develop those collaborations and come up with the logistics
- and the funding and things like that. So to me, that's the future, you know, and how we connect with
- people in here, you know, yeah, and the region, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Nathan. Glad to be here.
- And Melinda, that is exactly the growth mindset and kind of thinking that we all need to start doing,
- because there's a lot of good nuggets in there that can help us. So thank you for that. Katerina, I
- want to thank you for the wonderful presentation. Obviously, you've got a lot of Lotus lovers in here.
- And in honor of your presentation, we'll be making a donation to Off Night Productions as a club. A
- meeting like this doesn't come together without the help of many, many people. So I'd like to thank,
- first of all, our fabulous greeter, Ruth Boschkoff.
- Jim Sims and his styling guest introductions. And Mr. Happiness, Alon Barker for our speaker introduction.
- Joy, it's fabulous to see you online. We like you in person, but we like seeing you online as well.
- Tim for the thoughtful and inspiring reflection. Glenda for reporting. It's the hardest job there is.
- So, and Michael for stepping in at the last minute to run the mic in my absence. And then Alon for the
- photos, Sally and Judy for running the desk and making us all feel welcome as well when we come in.
- And I would think we were gonna have Paula Harris, we'll hopefully be able to do that next week. Our
- next meeting will be on September 23rd in the Frangipani Room. And Sandy will be speaking, Sandy Keller
- will be speaking to us about my sister's closet, which I know we're all looking forward to.
- and hot off the press community service meeting at one o'clock here in the room. And with that, Tyler,
- would you please share the graphic? And for those of you who are able to stand, join me. Of the things
- we think, say or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, will it build
- goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun?