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Mateel Community Center annual Membership Meeting 11/15 & Message 2022

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Dear Mateel Supporter,

You are invited to our Annual Mateel Membership Meeting on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, opening with appetizers at 5:30 p.m. and meeting starting at 6:00 p.m. 

PUBLIC bit.ly/MCCBODpublic

Call in: +14086380968,,98728869440#,,,,*5995560# US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 987 2886 9440

Passcode: 5995560

Come hear what’s been happening and what your elected board has planned for next year! Also, candidates for the Board of Directors will be nominated so think of some good folks and make a list.

This will be your last chance to secure voting rights for the upcoming 2023 term by becoming a member of the Mateel Community Center. 

You and your family are the Mateel’s strength and foundation. Please let this letter serve as a gentle reminder that your annual membership will expire at year’s end and this meeting is an opportunity to renew your membership. You may also renew your annual membership or become a sustaining member online at mateel.org/become-a-member 

Benefits include a vote in the annual Board of Directors election; discounted admission to MCC-sponsored events; discounts on Mateel merchandise; a monthly e-news letter. Most importantly, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you contributed to our many programs and events, which in turn supports many other local nonprofits and worthwhile organizations.

Despite Covid being a major hindrance to us all, the Mateel worked hard to continue good works and is jubilant to be coming out the other side. We first purchased supplies in bulk, then wrote grants to CDPH and were able to first provide free onsite testing and later, once available, distributed many thousands of Covid rapid tests to anyone in the community at no charge. We are grateful to our members for supporting this massive outreach effort. 

Despite Covid complications, this year the Mateel Community Center has been very busy! We hosted a variety of programs and events. The hall was used for numerous events from First Baptism to memorial celebrations and the in between birthdays and weddings.

We hosted Southern Humboldt Housing Opportunity which  distributes food and promotes social services to the houseless and less fortunate people in the community. 

The hall was the base location for Sohum Provisions, a program that receives donations from many grocery stores to prepare boxes of food for people in need.

We also hosted the South Fork High School Prom and 8th grade graduation party. 

MCC was an ongoing host for the theater group Recycled Youth. We lent out festival equipment to other nonprofits including KMUD, Briceland Volunteer Fire Department, and Southern Humboldt Community Park.  We produced and co produced many various genre concerts including, the Red & Black Ball, Israel Vibration, Gondwana, Word Humboldt Poetry Festival, Free 420 BBQ event, Los Tangueros del Oeste, Ultima Elexion, Stephen Marley, Steve’s Big Rock Show, Long Beach Dub Allstars, Nattali Rize, B.o.B., and two DJ events. 

We are particularly proud that we brought back the Summer Arts and Music Festival at the new and fabulous location at County Line Ranch . Summer Arts was voted best festival in Humboldt County in the North Coast Journal! Our recent festival, Reggae Legacy, had at least eight bands over two days, as a tribute to the annual Reggae on the River. Stay tuned for more information regarding the three day camping festival Reggae on the River 2023!

We used our hall over the last couple of years for emergency and disaster response as fire evacuation and then for an emergency warming center. We are working with several agencies and local groups to train for and expand those services including the Red Cross, Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT), and our various local responder organizations. We hosted the Southern Humboldt Warming Center through February and March, with support and funding from SHO and the Humboldt DHHS, and was staffed and run by dedicated community volunteers. We currently host Redway Fire Safe and plan to continue supporting emergency and disaster preparedness. 

Meanwhile in the office we have made some improvements and upgrades and done some cool stuff. We switched from paper and filing cabinets to digital workflow with automatic cloud backups. We have considerably better accountability across nearly every aspect of our operations, allowing deep dives and analysis of Mateel Business operations.  Our telephone system, which now includes texting and remote forwarding, cameras, and security systems can nearly all be done remotely. These improvements let us be more productive and are, in nearly every case, more affordable than the previous infrastructure.

The Mateel participated in numerous smaller community betterment projects including equipment loaning or staff support to local individuals and organizations, hosting smaller meetings and events like “Collage Day”, or giving out free snow cones during the heatwave. We are actively seeking more opportunities to contribute to the community. If you would like to hold a class, have a meeting, develop a program, perform a show or any other ideas that we can be a part of, please give the Mateel a call.

Financial stability is paramount and the Mateel is committed to solidifying our long term sustainability. We came into 2017 with a substantial, nearly organizationally ending, amount of debt. Since then, through a combination of frugality, innovation, and considerable effort and support from local community members, plus some lucky grants and funding, we have been making progress. Covid hurt us in terms of opportunities but we were able to qualify for some assistance. For the past year we have been paying a minimum of $1000 per month toward old bills and have been setting aside 20% of gross earnings from each and every event into a fund to pay individuals and businesses that the Mateel still owes. We are currently considering the most equitable way to distribute this fund. Repairing our financial situation is going to be slow, but we are making genuine efforts to rectify this and we have faith that our long term ability to serve this community is sound and with the additional accountability in place that we will not repeat those past mistakes.

Coming up in 2023, we are actively diversifying our funding sources by pursuing grants and focusing on ways to capture revenue from outside the area. We plan to continue to update our workflow simplifying things like membership and involvement opportunities. We plan to have the hall in constant use by our friends and neighbors hosting a morning fitness class, after school programs, and movie nights. All starting this November.

Specific upcoming events include:

You will receive a ballot in December for your vote in the upcoming Board of Directors Election. Please reach out if you do not receive your ballot.

Check out our website at mateel.org to stay up to date on our many offerings. Feel free to call the office 707-923-3368, Monday thru Friday from 9am to 5 pm, with any questions or concerns. Your input and feedback is important to us.

Thank you for your participation. 

We look forward to seeing you at these upcoming events.

Halloween Boogie on Saturday October 29th, Makenu, a live cumbia band, on Friday Nov 4th, Harvest Jubilee : Great Moments in Weed History live podcast and comedy show with host Billy Wayne Davis Nov 6th

Dell’ Arte December 15th and the Winter Arts Faire happening December 17-18th.

Sincerely,

The Mateel Board of Directors & Staff