NOTE: Sorry about the code glitches in this text. Should be fixed on Monday August 9. Thanks!

About the First Night Missoula 2011 Selection Process

Together, as performers, volunteers, tech crew,  and Missoula Cultural Council board and staff, we present Missoula a memorable, meaningful, and important New Year’s Eve tradition.  Not only do thousands of individuals contribute to this event by simply purchasing a button and attending, but we also donate buttons to youth homes, the food bank, and other communities who might not be able to attend otherwise. This makes First Night a true community event, with people of all ages and backgrounds able to enjoy music , theater, dance, and art together in a family-friendly environment.

Committee Members
Our Selection Committee for 2011 is comprised of professional musicians, a Missoula Cultural Council board member, and First Night Missoula site managers:
Kara Sarton : Director of YMUSIC, Helena Symphony Orchestra, Missoula Symphony Orchestra
Ann Andre : Site Manager at First Night Missoula  
Judy Hartz : Missoula Cultural Council Board Secretary
Steve Robertson   : Marketing Consultant, Musician
Erin McPeck:  Zootown Arts Community Center,  Missoula Symphony
Debby Florence: Committee Chair, Program Director for Missoula Cultural Council and coordinator for First Night Missoula

This committee is faced with the tough choice of accepting more applicants and paying many of them less than they requested, or accepting fewer applicants and paying them closer to their request amount.  In the interest of having a more diverse, exciting, and full program, the committee leans more toward choosing to accept more applicants and spreading the allotted budget farther. The talent pool was very competitive this year, with an increase of new acts proposed.  In the interest of transparency, we are sharing our process with you so you can see what kind of criteria we use to come up with these amounts.  Times are tough, as we all know. We appreciate everyone’s willingness to work together.

Please note that First Night Missoula is a non-profit that strives to pay its artists the highest amount that it can and still maintain the quality of the event. We could not run this event, nor pay the artists at all,  without the existence of a 200-volunteer event staff, and so we hope everyone can understand that this is a community effort, and if we all pull together we can do our best to compensate the artists the best we can.  The budgetary limitations do not reflect our attitude toward the many talented groups that perform at our event.  If and when funds increase, the payment scale will also increase. We keep individual payment information confidential , but here is the general idea:

Payment Guidelines:
There are many variables that make it hard to make stringent payment criteria, and its pretty tough to attach a dollar value to the intrinsic value of art, but we do operate under some consistent guidelines. Be aware that there is a lot of subjectivity even while we strive toward consistancy. That is why having a good committee for oversight is such a help. Factors that vary and influence acceptance and payment are:  

Audience draw , Experience,  Fulfilling an Otherwise Unmet Niche ( demographic, genre, venue) , Hours Performing,  Headliner,  Amount Requested ( some performers  request smaller amounts and we accept this because it helps us tremendously to include them if they meet other criteria).

Solo musician: 50 – 300
4 to 5 piece group : 200-500
5 + member group : 500 – 900
Community Organization Performance (in cases where performers will not be paid but the organization will):  50 – 300

Keep in mind there are other factors to take into consideration as well. We have some children’s activities that we devote more money to because they run all day long, etc.  Some of the “bigger name” solo performers may be allotted more than listed here, but they may not receive what they requested. We hope that by getting a better idea of what others are being paid, our artists can rest at ease knowing we strive to be as fair as possible.

What this means for 2011  

This year, by following these guidelines, groups performing a 45 minute set with the highest audience draw would not be allotted more than $900. Some groups have requested more than this while others requested less.  

With our suggested adjustments, we are able to keep 85 performing groups on our acceptance list.  ( 2010 had 65, 2009 had nearly 100).

2011 First Night Performance Budget: 25,000
TOTAL REQUESTS for 2011: 36,359
TOTAL SUGGESTED PAYMENTS: 25,465