ACGA Board Meeting Minutes

Monday, March 18, 2024 via Zoom

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

The meeting began at 5:15 pm.

Welcome (Mari)

Several board members have received phishing emails that appear to be from Mari, but are actually scams.  Check the email address carefully; do not respond if the address is not Mari’s usual email.

Mari has asked Susie to be our website liaison, replacing Emil, who is now working on graphics and other projects.  Send your website questions to Susie.

International Ambassador Candidates (Mari)

Longtime ACGA members Lee Middleman and Guangzhen Zhou spoke about their enthusiasm for traveling, meeting, and working with other ceramic artists around the world. They are active members of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) and both expressed their willingness to serve as international ambassadors. This role was filled for many years by ACGA member Barbara Brown. The Board passed a motion to appoint Lee and Guangzhen as International Ambassadors (ayes: 15, abstain: 1). They will continue Barbara Brown’s legacy of inviting and hosting international artists here and arranging visits, exchanges, and events in other countries.

Exhibitions Report

Santa Cruz: Iver continues to explore exhibition opportunities in Santa Cruz.  Plans for a show this year at MK Contemporary are currently on hold as we consider timing and budget considerations. Iver is looking into possibilities at other galleries. He and Jan are also working on a proposal for a show two years from now at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

Fresno: Ren reported that the October show in Fresno will be announced soon via a call for entries.  The call will be open to members of ACGA, the San Joaquin Clay & Glass Association, and members of Clay Hand Studios, which is hosting the exhibition.

Treasurer’s Report (Julie)

Presentation of February Financial Package: Total assets as of February 29 were $140,027.  An unusually large portion is in our PayPal account because of incoming festival booth fees.

Un-Budgeted Expenses: Julie proposed that unbudgeted expenses over $1000 should be approved by the Board before the money could be spent. After discussing the dollar amount, the Board voted unanimously that unbudgeted expenses of $500 or more require prior approval via Board Member vote (ayes: 16).

Moving Funds from one Institution to Another: Julie asked for the Board to require her to get Board approval to (1) transfer funds of $2500 or more between banking institutions where ACGA has accounts, and (2) make a one-time transfer of $28,000 from PayPal to our Bank of America accounts. Both motions passed unanimously (ayes: 16).

Request to purchase Quickbooks Online: Julie proposed that ACGA purchase Quickbooks Online to facilitate bookkeeping. A motion to do so passed unanimously (ayes: 16)

Proposal for Bookkeeper & Stipend for General Treasurer & Festival Treasurer (Mari)

            Mari proposed that it would be more cost-effective if Julie takes over as bookkeeper, rather than paying an outside bookkeeper each month. She also proposed paying Julie $300/month as General Treasurer/Bookkeeper, paying April $220/month for 8 months annually as Festival Treasurer, and paying $940/year for Quickbooks Online. Julie and April were in a breakout room during the discussion, and the Board agreed with and approved Mari’s proposals (ayes 14, abstentions 2 (April and Julie)).

Festival Update (April)

To date, 110 artists have signed up for the festival. April is confident that eventually we’ll have around 120 artists in total. She is working on a few hiccups with PayPal booth fee payments and GoogleDrive photo uploads.  She is seeking a new publicist/media consultant, as Kathy Maag has recently bowed out.  April is also gathering data on what combination of kiosks, banners, and other signage we can afford to add to the festival this year.

The meeting adjourned at 6:48 pm.

Date of Next Meeting: Monday, April 15, 2024, 5:15pm via Zoom

Sebastopol Center for the Arts

282 S. High Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472

MARCH 2 – 31, 2024

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 2, 2-4pm

Juror: Cheryl Costantini

Handmade ceramic works, showing excellence in technique, 

including innovative and traditional explorations of clay. 

The blind jury resulted in several ACGA members including:  Ian Bassett, Suki Diamond, Ruth Ehrenkrantz, Geraldine Ganun, Rebecca Love, Loren Lukens, Vince Montague, Kathy Pallie, Jan Schachter, Karen Winograde, Lynn Wood, Melissa Woodburn, Emil Yanos

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

Present: Mari Emori, April Zilber, Emil Yanos, Iver Henning, Chris Johnson, Jan Schachter, Cheryl Costantini, Lee Middleman, Ren Lee, Trudy Chiddix, Julie Taber, Vicky Gunter, Susie Rubenstein, Barbara Prodaniuk, Joe Battiato, Sonja Hinrichsen (recorder)   Absent: Sally Jackson

Welcome (Mari)

Mari reported that on December 5^th, ACGA hosted a lively evening presentation at the Palo Alto Art Center featuring officials from the 13^th International Ceramics Festival in Mino, Japan (www.icfmino.com/english/). This triennial festival includes a juried exhibition of ceramics from all over the world. Application is free and the deadline is January 31, 2024. Exhibition dates are October 18-November 17, 2024.

Treasurer’s Report (April)

As of the end of November, our net profit for the year is $11,413.32. Less than half of the budget estimate for membership dues has come in so far; April expects more income from renewals in December. We spent $75 using social media to promote the spring and fall juries.

Exhibitions Report (Iver, Jan)

Iver has been in conversation with MK Contemporary Gallery in Santa Cruz about the possibility of a two-month clay and glass show. The gallery has recently requested a substantial financial contribution from ACGA. The Board discussed the pros and cons of spending this money, and whether part or all of it might be recovered. Some on the Board felt that losing money is imprudent, and that we need more information to decide if this show would benefit our members. Others felt that we should pursue this exhibition as an opportunity to promote ACGA. All agreed that we need more information about who covers the costs of show-related things like publicity, promotion, etc. Changing from a two-month show to one month would save money. Iver will continue his conversation with the gallery with these points in mind.

Preliminary Budget and Communications Proposal (April)

The Board discussed a proposal to pay a higher monthly stipend to our newsletter editor, and an occasional honorarium for those authoring newsletter articles. We also discussed budgeting a stipend for whomever is posting on social media. Ren pointed out that these added costs would use most or all of our yearly profit, so that other expenses would have to pay for themselves some other way. Due to several undecided expense items (mostly related to Exhibitions and Communications), the Board decided to postpone voting on the budget until our next Board meeting in January.

ACGA Board Nominations Update

As of this meeting there are two nominees for election to ACGA’s Board of Directors: Tamara Danoyan (clay) and Julie Taber (clay). Those eligible for re-election are Trudy Chiddix (clay), Cheryl Costantini (clay), Sally Jackson (clay), Chris Johnson (glass), Ren Lee (clay), Susie Rubenstein (clay), Jan Schachter (clay), April Zilber (glass), and Lee Middleman (clay). The ballot will be sent out in early January.

Longtime Board Member Joe Battiato is stepping down as his term ends. We extend our deep appreciation for Joe’s many contributions over the years, and wish him the best. Thank you, Joe, we’ll see you at the festival!

Membership (Emil)

Our membership year begins on January 1 and ends on December 31. The Board discussed how to handle membership fees paid as part of the March and October juries, or those paid at some other point during the year. The Board agreed that those paying in October should receive membership status through the following year. The Board also settled on a $20 refund to those joining in June or later.

A glitch in our website has made General Membership renewal unavailable on some browsers. Our website manager Pam Carpenter has tried unsuccessfully to fix this. Emil is thinking about asking members to send checks in the mail.

 Date of Next Meeting: Monday, January 8, 2024, 5:30 p.m. via Zoom