Houston Polymer Clay Guild
Board meeting minutes
Saturday, September 15, 2007

--The meeting began at noon. Present were: Bob Wiley – President, Rebecca Wells-Stout - Vice-President and Demo Coordinator, , Paula Kennedy – Secretary, Meg Marchiando – Education Coordinator, and Carmen Anderson – Member-at-Large. Absent was Ronalyn Hurley – Treasurer and Membership Coordinator

--Ronalyn was not present to give a treasurer’s report, but had emailed the board that we currently have $10,754.24 in the bank account. Some of this is fees for Sharilyn Miller’s and Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg’s classes that will be paid to the instructors.

--Future meetings were discussed:
October: Bob will demonstrate a simple “Some Assembly Required” 3-d ornament.
November: Demo to be determined.
December: Holiday party and gift exchange to be coordinated by Rebecca.

--Classes:
Sharilyn Miller, Oct 5-7: Sunday’s class is full. There is still room for the Friday and Saturday classes. Jill Kersner who is hosting Sharilyn will need help arranging meals for Sharilyn as Jill is on a liquid diet. Paula and Meg volunteered to take Sharilyn to dinner one night.

--Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg, Nov. 10-11: Registrations are coming along.

--Sarajane Helm: She is coming to teach in February. Exact dates are not yet determined.

--Other upcoming activities were discussed:
The Houston Gem and Mineral Society is having a show and sale at the Humble Civic Center Sept. 21-23

The Houston Handweavers Guild is having a sale at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) Sept. 27-29. The possibility of having a clay guild at the center was discussed. The handweavers are renting the facility and therefore are not required to give a percentage of their sales to HCCC. A clay guild sale would most likely need to be held when HCCC’s exhibit space is empty between exhibits.

HCCC has asked the guild to participate in another Hands On Houston demonstration on December 1 in conjunction with an exhibit of works by four Israeli women jewelry artists.

Bayou City Art Festival: The Houston Arts Alliance has invited the guild to demonstrate and exhibit at the fall Bayou City Art Festival downtown on October 13 and 14. The following schedule was arranged:
Friday evening set-up: Rebecca and Paula
Saturday: Rebecca, Paula, and Ronalyn
Sunday: Rebecca, Paula, Meg and Bob
Additional help will be requested from the general membership.
The type of interaction with the public was discussed. We decided not to do a hands-on demo where they could take something home. The cost of the clay would be too high. We will have an area where they can try using the clay and have a pasta machine or two, but they cannot take item home.

Rebecca made and Paula seconded a motion to buy two new Tyvek banners with the guild’s name and web address on them.
Paula will re-do the new color brochure to black and white and possibly to a ½ -page size to save printing costs, and will design a new business card with monthly meeting date/time and location information. Paula will also make up a small “for more information” blank for visitors to complete.
Bob had done a “What is polymer clay?” set of posters and will look for the text info to be used for new posters.
Rebecca will investigate having aprons printed with the guild name and website, or if the cost is prohibitive, check on iron-on transfers.
The general membership will be asked to provide items for the display at the festival. We need to emphasize that we may not use all pieces due to decisions by ourselves and the Arts Alliance representatives on diversity of items. We need to ask for larger non-jewelry items.

Other business:
We still need to replace Merry as Publicity Coordinator.

Carmen asked what has happened to the library deposit checks. Bob will meet with Patricia Daugherty, library coordinator.

At January’s meeting we will conduct a “Free Cycle” give-away to fellow guild members of any craft items you no longer want.

The meeting adjourned at 12:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Paula Kennedy, secretary