The meeting began at 12:05 p.m. Present were: Bob Wiley – President, Betsy Fraser – Vice-President , Paula Kennedy – Secretary, Ronalyn Hurley – Treasurer and Membership Coordinator , and Patricia Daugherty -- Education Coordinator. Absent was Milli Jewell – Publicity Coordinator.

Treasurer's and Membership reports: At the current time the guild has $10,786.65 in the bank account and $153.53 in the PayPal account. There are 49 paid members.

Future meetings:
September: Because of the Gathering of the Guilds at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) on Sept 12 and the retreat on Sept 25-27 there will be no regular meeting in September. Instead we will hold a “Clay Day” where attendees can work on whatever clay project they choose.
October: Bob will demonstrate faux precious stone
November: Betsy will help us make a variety of holiday ornaments.
December: Holiday Party

Pre-Holiday Sale: The guild will hold a sale and demo at Read It Again on Saturday October 10.

Gathering of the Guilds (GOG): The GOG will be held at the HCCC on Saturday, September 12. The guild will have a table. Bob mentioned that there is nothing on the HCCC website about the GOG. Bob will check that it is still taking place.

Classes for 2010: Patricia will invite Laurie Mika, Judy Belcher and Julie Picarello to teach classes in 2010.

Donation of Guild Clay: Betsy will be holding a workshop for docents of the Fort Bend Museum to make holiday ornaments for them to sell at their open house as a fundraiser. She has asked the board for the guild to donate clay for this workshop. The board agreed.

Challenges: The next challenge will be the butterfly challenge at the retreat. The next challenge will be in the spring.

Website:
The refund policy was replaced on the website. Bob reported that the website can be transferred to Microsoft Front Page without losing any content. The Upcoming Events page needs to be updated with the Gathering of the Guilds, the Sale at Read it Again and the holiday party.

Tax-Exempt Status: The board discussed the pros and cons of applying for non-profit status. The decision was made not to pursue it. We will continue to use Meg Marchiando’s or Ronalyn’s state sales tax ID number at our sales.

Retreat: The September 25-27 retreat was discussed at a separate meeting at 11:00 on August 15, 2009.

The meeting adjourned at 12:42 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Paula Kennedy, secretary