November Meeting Minutes

Our November meeting was held at Jo Shaddy's home on November 9,  Thanks for the hospitality, Jo.

We had a good exchange of ideas about plans for 2012 along with some action items as summarized below.
1. Gil Gragert was re-elected President for 2012.-- MANY CONGRATULATIONS, GIL!

2. The 2011 Holiday Party will be held at Trudy Vrchota's home on December 14 at 6:30.  This will be a potluck celebration so please bring something tasty to eat or drink.  We will also have our annual tesserae exchange so please bring a small bag of tesserae to exchange at the party.  More details about the party/meeting will be posted well before December 14.

3. 2012 meetings have hosts for the following months.  If anyone would like to host the November meeting, please raise your hand!
--February: Barb Steen
--April: Susan will ask Lori Greene if she would like to host this meeting and if we can change the show date to April (rather than September).  We had a discussion that we are likely to have better participation in the Mosaic on a Stick Show in April rather than September.
--June: Barb Napawocki
--September: Janine Irrrisarri
--November: OPEN
--December Holiday Party: Susan Mathis

4. Our 2012 Summer Show will be in Stillwater and our opening reception is scheduled for the same evening as the Stillwater Main Street Art Crawl kicks off.  The show will be June/July.  -- Gil will be providing more details.

5. September Tile Festival: Guild members would like to participate in this in September 2012.  We will show and sell a variety of 8 X 8's at the Tile Festival at the newly-renovated Swedish Institute.  This is the CALL FOR 8 X 8'S FOR THE FESTIVAL. We'll call our pieces a "Style Sampler" which will showcase the diverse styles of our talented members.  Please bring your 8 X 8 to the February 2012 meeting  (well in advance of the Tile Festival). -- We would also like to display and sell our 8 x 8's at the Stillwater Show.  Judy Sell is the keeper of the existing 8 X 8's so she can bring them to the two shows as well.

6, We need to make arrangements for our 2013 Summer Show NOW!  -- If we do not get space reserved now, it will be impossible to get a venue.  Action Item: Sandy Bartel will contact Hopkins Art Center as well as others (Bloomington, Minnetonka) and she will report her findings at the at our Holiday Party.

7. Mosaic on a Stick is celebrating it's 7th birthday this month.  Happy Birthday, dear "Stick"! Several of you want to be on the email list to receive Mosaic on a Stick's newsletters which broadcast information on special sales, upcoming classes, new products, community projects, etc.  Please contact the store at 651-645-6600 to get your name and email address on the list for newsletters.  Also, please remember that Guild members ALWAYS receive a 10% discount on purchases at the store. Just remind them that you're a member when you check out.

8. Guild members will continue to receive 10% discounts on glass and beads at J. Ring.  However, due to low profit margins on larger items like grinders, we will not receive the discount on those types of items.

9. Community Projects:  There was an exciting exchange of ideas about potential community projects for 2012. Some of the ideas were: aligning with a local nature center and making a piece for them; aligning with a local women's shelter and make an upbeat piece for them; have an electronic auction on "Bidding for Good" to benefit the charity of our choice; partenring with "Free Arts Minnesota" to teach children the art of mosaics. We'll revisit all community art project ideas at our February meeting and make a decision on what to do.  Bring your ideas, please.

10. Haiti Project: The children's hospital in Haiti is ready for installation of our quilt, having painted the lobby walls to complement the colors in the quilt.  Unfortunately, one board member was concerned that Catholic people who bring their children to the clinic will not like the Vodou theme of the quilt.  (96% of the population is Vodou and 4% of the population is Catholic).  All were shocked by the decision - especially Michele Boston who heads up No Time for Poverty.  Michele is looking for an alternative location of the quilt in Haiti.  If  that doesn't work out, we'll look for a home for it in the Twin Cities such as International Market Square would be one possibilty.  We're all disappointed but we will find a place for it.

11. 2012 Field Trip Idea: Suzanne Demueles is interensted in leading a field trip to a church in St. Michael, MN, where there a lot of mosaics in a church there.  Suzanne will keep us advised.

12. We want to have all dues from existing members collected no later than February 1.  Those who attend the December Holiday Party may their dues at that time.  After that, there will be an aggressive email campaign to collect all dues from existing members by February 1.  New members may join at any time during the year.

13. Contact Information:  We all agreed that it would be helpful to have an up-to-date contact list of Guild members. When members pay their dues, they will be asked to provide their email address and phone numbers.  A member needs to take responsiblity to keep the contact list up-to-date.