Houston Polymer Clay Guild
Board meeting minutes, Saturday, November 15, 2008

Treasurer’s report: There was no treasurer’s report..

Future meetings:
November: Patricia will demonstrate Julie Picarello’s “lizard tails.”
December: Holiday party. Everyone will be asked to bring a snack and a gift exchange item. The items should be about $10 and can be anything polymer clay related – handmade items, a tool, a book, etc. No item can be stolen more than three times. If you want to prevent your gift from being stolen you can sing a song to keep it.
January: Paula will demonstrate ways to use a clay extruder.
February: Bob will ask Suanough Zentell if she would be interested in doing a demo on Kumihimo (Japanese braiding) at the February meeting. There had been a previous suggestion for a demo on using liquid clay. The board will look for someone in the guild to teach it. There will not be a meeting in May because of the conflict with the Louise Fischer-Cozzi class.

Classes/Workshops:
Maureen Carlson will be teaching a two-day workshop on February 7 & 8, 2009. There has been interest, but no registrations to date.

Louise Fischer Cozzi will teach a workshop on May 16 & 17, 2009. There will be no regular guild meeting that day.

The Lone Star Retreat is scheduled for September 25-27, 2009 at the South Shore Harbor Hotel in League City.

Challenges:
The challenge for January is nametags.
The spring challenge will be bowls for the HCCC sponsored “Empty Bowls” event to raise money to feed the homeless. Depending on the deadline for submission of the bowls, the challenge will be either March or April.

Nominating Committee:
A nominating committee for the 2009-2010 board needs to be named in January for the April elections. Bob, Betsy, Paula and Patricia all expressed interest in continuing in their current positions. The committee will need to find nominees for the marketing/publicity coordinator and the member-at-large positions.

Website:
Bob will update the website this week with more details about the retreat including photos of the projects to be taught in the three sessions. He will also check with the individuals who expressed interest in helping with the site to find out exactly what they are willing to take on.

Retreat:
It was decided to continue with plans for all the following unless we hit a brick wall on any: goody bags with donated items, door prizes, sale of members’ items, silent auction, vendor’s fair. To accomplish all these jobs we will require help from the membership. We will solicit help as the tasks become more defined and the date is closer. Patricia will get the final contracts from the teachers and ask about donating something for the silent auction.

Bottles of Hope:
There was interest in having another “Bottles of Hope” activity. The possibility of doing bottles as a meeting demo or as a challenge was discussed. First we need to find someone to accept the bottles. Bob will check with Texas Children’s Hospital and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to see if they are interested.

The meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Paula Kennedy, secretary