Present: Mari Emori, Chris Johnson, April Zilber, Julie Taber, Sally Jackson, Jan Schachter, Ren Lee, Lee Middleman, Barbara Prodaniuk, Trudy Chiddix, Emil Yanos, Iver Hennig, Susie Rubenstein, Cheryl Costantini, Scott Jennings, Tamara Danoyan   Absent: Sonja Hinrichsen, Vicki Gunter

The meeting began at 5:15 pm

Welcome (Mari): Review of All-Member Meeting

Mari thanked everyone for attending the All-Member meeting on January 20 and asked for feedback. Suggestions for future all-member meetings include the following: 1) have an activity that engages attendees by asking them to do something creative or state their thoughts on topics at hand, 2) arrange break-out rooms on Zoom to discuss particular topics or goals, and 3) make the meeting more fun, participatory and entertaining, with committee reports sent out separately ahead of time.

Board of Directors Directory 2024 (Mari)

Mari has updated the Board of Directors Directory.  Those Board members not assigned particular roles should let her know what area interests them.  Mari would like to create the new position of Volunteer Coordinator to interact with members volunteering outside of the Clay and Glass Festival.  Also, we need someone to take over as ACGA’s historian.

Festival Report (April)

ACGA’s contract with Messenger Events is signed. Our contract with the City of Palo Alto lacks only the Certificate of Insurance.  April is talking to Kathy Maag about the scope of her publicity work. The application for festival booths went out in an email last week.  The deadline to apply is March 15 and Board members will get priority for booth location if they apply by February 27. The map is being reconfigured to accommodate more booths. This year, images submitted by festival artists and other booth applicants will go to a shared GoogleDrive folder.  Ren will have access to these images for social media posts and other promotions.  Joe Battiato will once again coordinate demos at the festival; a sign-up is included in the festival application. Susie Rubenstein will revise our post-festival artists’ survey. Sandy Feder will recruit high school students who can help with set-up and take-down. The committee is considering buying 3-4 portable, folding kiosks to be staffed by volunteers who will welcome visitors at the festival and tell them what’s happening, when, and where. The Board did not decide whether to approve this unbudgeted expense.  April would like to mentor a new Festival Liaison who will shadow her this year.

Combine Membership Renewal & Festival Application (Cheryl)

Cheryl proposes streamlining the process of membership renewal by combining it with festival registration, presumably in January each year.  This could work well for festival artists but must be arranged in a way that doesn’t make non-festival artists and other members seem less important. Also, it would be important to accommodate people who want to apply for membership at other times of the year.  Julie, Emil, April, and Cheryl will meet to discuss this idea and see if it’s a possibility for next year.

Membership (Emil)

Membership sign-ups spike predictably in January and February. Emil proposes getting rid of the late fee and suggests that we shift to join-date-anniversary for renewals. The Board needs more time to decide about this, especially given Cheryl’s proposal to combine renewal with festival application.

The website issues that plagued this year’s renewal process appear to be fixed. The Board discussed whether the auto-renew feature hinders or helps in terms of membership numbers.  During this year’s problematic renewal process, Emil received unkind, occasionally abusive emails slamming him and the ACGA. He and Sally Jackson will work on a Code of Ethics that will be sent in response to such emails. We will also prepare a letter that expresses the Board’s disapproval of harassment and inappropriate language. In some cases, a phone conversation with the Board President is also called for.

The Board discussed festival artists who propose adding someone to their practice and registering as collaborative. One important question is whether the additional artist should be required to jury in. This topic will be addressed in more detail at our next meeting.

Emil emphasized that we need a plan for increasing sponsorship or donations. Donors should be aware that their donations are not tax-deductible.

Treasurer’s Report (Julie)

As of January 31, our total assets were $117,698. Julie is now an authorized user for our Bank of America account.  Julie and Sally Jackson are now authorized users of our Fidelity account. Mari Emori will serve as a third party to look at the bank statements each month.  Now that we have two treasurers, April (festival treasurer) and Julie (general treasurer) have written their job descriptions and will share the monthly stipend that formerly went entirely to April. 60% will go to Julie and 40% to April.  Julie will send the two job descriptions, along with the stipend structure, to Mari for presentation and approval at the next board meeting.

Juror Recruitment (Chris)

The next application deadline is March 31. Chris is recruiting jurors for the next festival jurying. Board members will send him names of possible candidates, particularly clay jurors.  Jurying entails two meetings about two weeks apart, discussions with other jurors, and written comments that are sent to the applicants along with results.

Board Timeline 2024 (Mari)

Mari has prepared a detailed timeline of Board duties, and asked what needs to be added.  She emphasized the importance of adhering to the timeline, especially in terms of our election process and budget approval in December and our festival application distribution in January.

The meeting ended at 6:50 p.m.

Next meeting: 5:15 pm, Monday, March 18, 2024