Monthly Archives: January 2023

MINUTES – JANUARY
ACGA Board Meeting Minutes
5:30 p.m., January 3, 2023 via Zoom

Present: Cheryl Costantini (President), Mari Emori (Vice-President), April Zilber (Treasurer), Sally Jackson (Secretary), Jan Schachter, Lee Middleman, Susie Rubenstein, Ren Lee, Emil Yanos, Joe Battiato, Trudy Chiddix

Welcome (Cheryl)
Congratulations to ACGA Board member Ian Bassett for the photo of his work that appears on the cover of the current issue of Ceramics Monthly magazine. Mari Emori, Chris Johnson, and Lee Middleman have also received awards and recognition for their work recently.

It is time to invite new members onto the ACGA board. Please nominate those who you think would be interested (including yourself).

Treasurer’s Report (April)
As of December 31, 2022, our total year-end assets were a robust $95,768. Both income and expenses were higher than expected in 2022, but we ended the year with a net income of almost $4000.

In reviewing the proposed 2023 budget, April noted that we are still behind in membership dues. Emil says that many members have had trouble renewing their membership using the website. This has been a very frustrating situation which Emil hopes to fix as soon as possible. We also discussed how we might decrease our storage unit expenses this year. We can possibly move to a cheaper unit, or consider dropping storage altogether. After discussion and small adjustments to the numbers, the board voted unanimously in favor of the proposed 2023 budget.

Communications Report (Cheryl, Ren, Susie)
Ren is generating the new version of ACGA’s newsletter that will go out on January 10th. She needs more content from board members, and encouraged us to submit items immediately. We have all received a template for submissions from Ren via email. Content might include notices about open studios, shows, accolades, awards, workshops, and other items of interest to our members. It is important that we get this ball rolling!

All-Member Meeting/Board Retreat (Cheryl)

The All-Member Meeting will take place via Zoom on Saturday, January 28, from 10-12 noon. We will generate an agenda and send out an announcement to the membership. A ballot for election and re-election of board members will go out this week.

The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.

Next Meeting: All-Member Meeting (via Zoom)

10:00 a.m. – 12 noon, Saturday, January 28, 2023
Hosted by Zoom All Members Welcome

MINUTES – DECEMBER
ACGA Board Meeting Minutes
5:30 p.m., December 12, 2022 via Zoom

Present: Cheryl Costantini (President), Mari Emori (Vice-President), April Zilber (Treasurer), Sally Jackson (Secretary), Jan Schachter, Lee Middleman, Susie Rubenstein, Ren Lee, Emil Yanos, Ian Bassett, Joe Battiato, Bonita Cohn, Trudy Chiddix, Chris Johnson, Chelsea Fried Guests: Barbara Prodaniuk, Margaret Norman

Welcome (Cheryl)
Congratulations to ACGA Board member Ian Bassett for the photo of his work that appears on the cover of the current issue of Ceramics Monthly magazine. Mari Emori, Chris Johnson, and Lee Middleman have also received awards and recognition for their work recently.

It is time to invite new members onto the ACGA board. Please nominate those who you think would be interested (including yourself).

Treasurer’s Report (April)
As of November 30, our total assets are $84,797.62. Income will better match our 2022 Budget as the rest of our membership renewals come in. This will also balance the budget, which currently shows expenses greater than income.

Festival Report (April)
Annie Hermes at Messenger Events would like to know if we plan to restore festival activities that have been on hold because of the pandemic. These include Clay-for-All, the artists’ party in the Sculpture Garden on Saturday, and the Artists’ Showcase. Each of these involves additional expenses and extra volunteers. The board leans

toward keeping Clay-for-All and the Artists’ Party in some form, but eliminating the Artists’ Showcase. Early next year, after new board members are elected, April will refresh the Festival Committee to look at these options and make recommendations. You do not need to be a board member in order to serve on this committee.

Jury Report (Chris)
The October jury has admitted seven new artists to festival-eligible status. Chris proposed a jurying protocol that includes two meetings of the jurors, one immediately upon receipt of the entries, and a second after the jurors have had time to consider their judgments more carefully. He expressed appreciation for the jurors’ conscientious discussions and scrutiny of the entries. The next jury will be held in March 2023.

CONGRATULATIONS to these artists! We look forward to seeing you at the festival:

Kevin Scheer, Loren Lukens, Holly Coley, Pierre Bounaud, Cory Ballis, Marienne Chapman, and Tamara Danoyan.

Board Nominations (Cheryl, April)

Six of our incumbent board members are up for reelection. Three of them have agreed to appear on the next ballot: Emil Yanos, Joe Battiato, and Mari Emori. The deadline for nominating others for the board is December 19th. We would like to acknowledge the service of all our board members, particularly the three whose terms are ending: Ian Bassett, Bonita Cohn, and Chelsea Fried. All of them have made great contributions to ACGA. THANK YOU!!

Membership (Emil)

Despite best-laid plans, the renewal notice did not go out quite as planned. Emil has had some emails from members who are confused by the renewal process. He hopes to have all glitches fixed for next year. In particular, we need all renewals to have an end-date of December 31 in any given year. That way we know exactly who’s eligible for the festival.

Communications (Ren)

Ren acknowledged the hard work of Chelsea Fried, Susie Rubenstein, and Cheryl Costantini in launching the new Communications Committee. Communications is now “live” and needs members to submit content. All members received an email this week with the appropriate link. Our news email address <news@acga.net> will be assigned to Ren so that she can send and receive information.

All-Member Meeting/Board Retreat (Cheryl)

At our next board meeting, we will finalize a date and a venue for the 2023 All-Members Meeting. Cheryl will look for a location where we could have a hybrid in-person/online meeting with the right audio/video technology (e.g., a public library).

The meeting adjourned at 7:05 p.m.
Date of Next Meeting: Monday, January 3, 2023
Hosted by Zoom All Members Welcome

Have you ever applied to the Kings Mountain Art Fair? If not, do consider it – the deadline is Jan. 31st. The fair is a three-day outdoor exhibition held annually during Labor Day Weekend, on Skyline Blvd. above the town of Woodside (near Palo Alto).

Here’s a link with much more information about the event and the application process. High quality images are a must! Allow yourself plenty of time.

https://kingsmountainartfair.org/call-for-entry/

If applying, be aware that this can be a physically challenging event – setting up on hillsides can be tricky, or you could get very hot out on the flat parking lot. In spite of these challenges, this is a very well supported event. KMAF has a long history of excellence and its purpose is to raise funds for the local volunteer fire department.

ACGA supported Potters for Peace for many years. They were primarily focused on teaching communities in Nicaragua how to make ceramic water filters to produce clean, healthy drinking water. Now they have expanded their mission to include more countries, broadened their projects (adding hygiene and women’s economic self-sufficiency) and chosen a new name, Good Foundations International. You can read more, and donate if you wish, at their new website: https://www.goodfoundationsinternational.org/

A new communications model for reaching more of our audience, in a more timely way, has been launched after a year of research, development, and implementation. Members who want to share upcoming news, events, milestones, studio equipment for sale, shows, awards, and other craft-related items with our audience of fellow artists and collectors can now fill out a few lines on our website and get posted to our online calendar of events or our news page.

There are two forms:

one for getting on the calendar here: https://acga.net/submit-an-event-to-the-acga-calendar/

and a different form for submitting a news item here https://acga.net/submit-a-post-to-acga-news/

So, for instance, if you have an upcoming open studio event in MARCH 2023, you would put that on the calendar RIGHT AWAY so people who are planning ahead will know to save the date. You can also do a news post that adds further information regarding your event, such as other artists participating in your small event, or what kind of work will be featured. Always include your contact information and wherever possible include your social media handles so people can find more of your work and where to purchase. It is important that you write this as if you want someone to read it, check your spelling, and make it as easy to follow as possible.

Once you’ve submitted your post, it will be reviewed and posted to our calendar page or our news page, and will be included in our regular newsletter distribution to our members, collectors and friends, depending on the target audience you choose.

In addition, members who are active on Instagram who would like to be reposted on ACGA pages can tag @theacga on Instagram and those posts will be reposted in the days leading up to your event. To be reposted, your post should include information about where to find your work for sale online or in person, or interesting aspects of your process. We do not generally repost ‘check out this thing I just made’ posts, but we do like them. We cannot repost anything from accounts that are ‘private.’