Suggestions to present to Nightlife Advisory Board

Wanted to update you all with the below confirmation from the Nightlife Advisory Board (copied from my email):

Hi Christopher,

You are CONFIRMED to present to the Nightlife Advisory Board at:

4:40pm - 5:00pm on Wednesday, March 27 @ University Settlement at Houston Street Center - 273 Bowery, NY, NY 10002
Please read this email in full, thank you.

***Presentation times are approximate, so kindly arrive at least 20 minutes prior to your selected time and bring a photo I.D. for building security. If you can NO LONGER participate at your selected time let us know ASAP, thank you. If you are not the person who will present please provide us with the correct name and email 72 hours before your scheduled presentation time, and include the name/email of any guest who will join you (1 guest maximum).

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR PRESENTATION?
Our independent Nightlife Advisory Board was established by the city of New York with local law 178-2017. Its members were appointed by the Mayor and City Council to serve two-year terms. Part of our Board’s mandate is to submit recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on a myriad of issues related to New York City’s nightlife. We anticipate these recommendations will range from regulatory reforms for nightlife businesses, to polices that address residential concerns, to supporting the nightlife experience for marginalized populations, and more. Because of your expertise in a specific field, the information you present will help inform the development of our Board’s recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.

WHAT YOU SHOULD PREPARE:

You will present on a topic related to nightlife in NYC
You will present to our Board for up to (5) minutes
We are aware that stakeholders like you have many ideas and concerns, however, we request that you use this time to very briefly explain your issue(s) and focus your speaking time on actionable solutions to those issues.

We ask that you submit these comments in written form too. You may submit longer written comments and supporting documentation for us to consider.
After you present, members of the Board may ask you questions about your subject matter.

We thank you for your time and participation.

Is step one for us right now defining what our topic will be beyond "wages for musicians?" The proposal in my head is to connect permitting for local music events with demanding a Union type scale -- but again we need to be able to produce some kind of demonstrable proof that the problem exists [data]. Is that the direction we wanna go in with this?

Looks like the best options for us to meet are:

Tuesday, March 12 (tomorrow) 6pm, and
Sunday, March 17 12pm or 2pm

Personally I think it'd be great to meet tomorrow and then have a follow up on Sunday to workshop the presentation, but if you guys can only do one that is understandable.

-Chris

And yes I think zeroing in on the wages issue with evidence from research and info gathered from our community is the best starting point.

Tomorrow works for me. Sunday should be doable too, with a preference for noon.

I can do tomorrow but will be out of town on Sunday. My coop shift ends at 5:45pm so maybe we could meet in Park Slope? Another idea would be at Joe's office if that is an option - I could get there by 6:15ish probably. Let me know! Looking forward

My office or downtown Brooklyn seem like decent options.

Ok everybody - want to say Joe's office tomorrow at 6:15pm, with a tentative follow up next Sunday at noon, location TBD?

Address for tomorrow:
110 William St, New York, NY 10038
7th Floor

I'd say we start with Nikhil's proposal and see where that leads us.

Cool, works for me!

Nice, glad the meeting can happen tomorrow although that conflicts with a gig I got.

Would the goal for tomorrow be to design a proposal first, figure out what data we need, and then try and gather some anecdotal data via email surveys?

For now, since I can't be there tomorrow, here's what I'm thinking. We can outreach to our friends and peers with this kind of question:

"We are taking first steps in gathering data in order to advocate for better artist fees at major NYC music events. Have you played an outdoor festival or other major event in NYC in the past four years-- either municipal events like Summerstage, Celebrate Brooklyn, or private ticketed events ranging from Governor's Ball and Afropunk to smaller outdoor food festivals and so forth? If so, would you be comfortable sharing the artist fee provided by the project, as well as whether you feel the fee was reasonable and appropriate? We are hoping for responses by Saturday 3/16."

I'm able to meet on Sunday so I'm thinking hopefully some of the replies we get will support our thesis that musicians are underpaid and taken for granted during these big events, and that the city should set higher standards for events with corporate or public financial backing, using Winter Jazzfest as an example. This way we can at least have anecdotes for next week's presentation.

Not trying to set the agenda, more just trying to jump start the convo and let you all know what I'm thinking...