Agenda
Portland Handweavers Guild Board Meeting
7 PM, August 26, 2021
Online Zoom Meeting
August 26, 2021
- Call to Order – Meeting started at 7:03 pm
- Roll Call: Lynne Fitzsimmons, Chris Rossi, Sue Walsh, Lynette Peterson, Linda Edquist, Robin Korybski, Dan Steves, Maggie Patterson, Sylvia Emard, Sarah McCully-Posner, Jessica Bardsley, Jane Wilson
- May Minutes approved. (Lynne Fitzsimmons)
- Introduction and Approval of new board member and Sales Director, Jane Wilson (Sarah McCully-Posner)
- Jane has experience doing craft and art shows. She ran the Gourd Society show in Springfield. Not done convention center before; involved w/GOTG for 4 years. Jessica B will be co-chair.
- Jane’s appointment was unanimously approved.
- MAC Rental Discussion (Chris Rossi)
- MAC usage is currently a moving target. They have our dates. We will be split between gym and auditorium. First time in auditorium, Sept 9. But MAC is hoping to open in Oct. Won’t charge us if they aren’t open. Cost is a little bit higher this year. There will be fewer meetings, plus the Guild is $1500 to the good from Kathy Sengenberger’s sale.
- We cancelled the dye workshop space reservation.
- There was a discussion on MAC usage on Nov 11, as it is Veterans Day, and the MAC is closed. The Fall Sale/Weftover Sale is scheduled for Nov 12-14. We might consider holding the sale in the Spring, plus Jessica will look for backup space downtown – she works for a creative agency; they have a large, not much used photography studio, and she’s the COO. For comparison, the MAC auditorium is 3000 sq ft.
- An online sale was discussed. Jane noted that she didn’t get a single online sale through the GOTG online sales.
- ZOOMing the live Guild meetings? Will we do one or both? We’ll do a test run beforehand.
- The issue of the presenter’s intellectual property was discussed. Dan said that our recordings are not very accessible – members have to log in to our website to view them. Also, they can be deleted after some time interval.
- Dan will order the recommended camera.
- We will return to morning and evening meetings once we return to the MAC.
- Schedule Clarifications (Dan Steves)
- See the discussion notes above. Dan will communicate with speakers vis a vis recording and so on.
- New Member Tea discussion (Jessica Bardsley)
- With the Delta variant and virus surge, do we want to forgo the new member tea or host it online? There was no new member tea last year.
- Nice to meet new members and have them meet the board.
- 100 active members. 210 lapsed members.
- There is an outside mask mandate. Jessica and Lynne volunteer their yards. Since it is 2 years in a row, maybe invite the members who have joined in the past 2 years. Jessica will propose dates.
- Outreach Volunteering – (Cooki Messmer & Maggie Patterson)
- The Fall Festival of Arts (Sept 18-19) was cancelled
- The main concern is we have the same people volunteer. Need some new ones.
- Suggestions: put out specific dates/events
- Dan will get something to Sylvia about the volunteer page on the website. Do we have a signup page? Maggie – that’s new (the volunteer signup page for specific events)
- Also, we need new trifold brochures. Outreach has $100 allocated. The money left over from banner – a little less than $100. Cooki has a mockup from a designer. For 100, $150 printing. 300 – $350. Designer is $100. Higher quantity is something we can keep for a longer time.
- How many brochures hand out at events? Maggie we could hand out 25-50 depending on the day.
- Jessica wants stuff for the open to the public weaving and dyeing workshop for Portland Textile Month
- Lynette moves to spend $450 Lynne seconds, unanimously approved.
- Volunteerism in general – “everyone has 2 hours in the year to give”. Fall Sale, all the stuff we do.
- Maybe put a volunteer question in the membership profile, signup (Jessica and Jane). Do volunteer signups at the meetings. (Jane – we do that, successful)
- Lynette – gotta follow up on those ☺
- Additional Business
- Grants (Linda Edquist)
- Still no applicants for our grants
- Jessica suggested, rather than having an annual deadline, take the grant applications on a rolling basis, as opportunities come up as the year moves along.
- Grants are $150, and used for attending conferences, workshops, and travel. Possibly also for expensive materials. The idea is to, whatever the grant was used for, bring it back to the guild, possibly as a presentation.
- Jessica asked if we could add grant information to the flyer.
- Could we do fewer larger grants? Maggie recommends $350.
- The grant policy needs updating.
- Membership (Jessica Bardsley)
- Currently, 100 active members, 210 lapsed.
- The possibility of outreach (emails, phone calls) to elapsed members was raised. Sometimes people forget to renew.
- For lifetime membership – there are those that probably qualify, but we don’t know their birthdate. Lifetime membership is available if the member is at least 75 years old and has paid dues 10 of the last 15 years.
- Jessica mentioned that – HGA sent me her birthday card in the mail. It was signed. We could send birthday cards (as an incentive to get member’s birthdays)!
- Chris notes that some people want to keep paying their dues to support the organization.
- Sarah we could also give them a choice of accepting the benefit or not.
- Our current membership form doesn’t have a lifetime member option. When we had a paper form, that was a way to keep the member info updated. Maybe the lifetime option would go to a form and not paypal.
- Robin will verify member status before checking out library books.
- Meeting adjourned 8:12pm.