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Minutes of VPS General Membership Meeting: January 2004
Hi all VPS Members: I'm Judy Greenwald from Montpelier...a new VPS member as of our last meeting on 10/26/03.
Sorry to announce the resignation of Jan Fead as our most able secretary. Jan's personal agenda has sped up to mach speed and she needs some downtime to catch up on life's ever changing scenario. Thanks, Jan, for all of your hard work and passing along your meeting minutes to me. We shall look forward to your return when things quiet down a bit for you.
Thirteen members and artists convened at the TW Wood Art Gallery in Montpelier on 10/26/03 from 1:30 to 3:30. In attendance were: Phil Laughlin, René Schall, Joyce Kahn, Wendy Soliday, Sandy Buck, Jan Fead, Jayne Shoup, Joy Huckins Noss, Skye Forest, Helene Amses, Fiona Cooper Fenwick, and myself Judy Greenwald. We especially want to single out Larry Walden who drove all the way from Wells, Maine, to attend his first VPS meeting.
René Schall and Sandy Buck had prepared an agenda for the meeting, so here we go.
1. VPS needs a new President as Sean Dye is stepping down. A brisk and lively discussion was held as to the makeup of the new leadership for VPS. It was decided to form an Executive Committee with a President, 2 Vice Presidents, Secretary and Treasurer. The Committee chairs will be delegates to the governing group.
By unanimous vote we committed to the governing committee structure as required by IAPS.
These are the newly elected officers:
President: Sandy Buck
Vice Presidents: Fiona Cooper Fenwick and Wendy Soliday
Secretary: open position - anyone interested? please contact Sandy Buck at sbuck2@direcway.com
Treasurer: Phil Laughlin
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEW EXECUTIVE BOARD AND THANKS TO OUR OUTGOING OFFICERS: SEAN DYE, JAN FEAD AND MELODY REED FOR THEIR PAST WORK AND FOR GETTING US GOING.
The treasurer's report was read by Sandy Buck: the balance is $4060.93. It was recommended by Rene that we reimburse Sean Dye for the IAPS dues he has paid out of his own pocket over the years for VPS and unanamously accepted. Our new treasurer, Phil Laughlin, suggested we consider non-profit status for VPS and volunteered to look into that.
2. The actual working committees and their members are as follows. Each committee will appoint a delegate to the Governing Board.
EXHIBITION COMMITTEE: Primary Goal: to plan exhibitions for members.
Sean Dye
Skye Forest
Helene Amses
Fiona Cooper Fenwick
Marla Ianello
Carolyn Shattuck
Shirley Thompson
Skye and Helene volunteered to get the committee going and send out the initial email. The committee is currently considering venues including Opaline Gallery in Burlington, Mary Bryant Gallery in Jeffersonville, TWWood Gallery, Dartmouth Medical Center in Hanover, NH, Governor's Office, Supreme Court Gallery, State House, Chaffee Gallery, Rutland, Flynn Dog Gallery, Burlington, Fleming Museum, Burlington, Fletcher Allen Medical Center,Burlington, Chandler Arts Center in Randolph. The goal is 2 annual exhibits. VPS will be exhibiting at the Southern Vermont Art Center in April 2004. Any other ideas for potential exhibition sites should be forwarded to Skye at vforest@adelphia.net or 9 Winter St., Montpelier, VT 05602.
WORKSHOP COMMITTEE: Primary Goal: Plan and execute workshops and secure the artists to conduct them.
Sandy Buck
Joyce Kahn
Phil Laughlin
Wendy Soliday
pnbsp; Pat Todd
Larry Walden
Larry volunteered at the meeting to get the workshop committee going. There are already 4 artists under consideration to hold workshops:
The committee will aim for 2 or 3 workshops per year. The awesome success of the Doug Dawson Workshop was held up as an example of the way to conduct and plan a workshop. It was a sellout, with participants coming from as far away as Seattle, California and Texas. A profit of $2000 was made which will be available to fund future programs, speakers, exhibit expenses etc. .
Local shops need to know when we are hosting workshops so they can have the appropriate supplies on hand.
Everyone at the meeting felt the members should feel as though they were getting their money's worth from their $30.00 dues. Skye pointed out that at the IAPS convention she learned that other state societies usually only hold exhibitions, not workshops and meetings.
MEETING PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Primary Goal: Arrange for guest artist speakers, slide shows or educational presentations for our meetings.
Marla Ianello
Sandy Buck
Jayne Shoup
Wendy Soliday
Also discussed were alternative meeting sites other than Montpelier so that all members would be able to attend some meetings during the year. Any suggestions for sites would be welcome. The program committee will also take under consideration suggestions that meetings be held 6 times a year with the program to be the main event and only a short summary of business items by each committee. Summer will be for paintouts.
Suggestions for future programs (to be added to a list from previous meetings) were: to plan a meeting to coincide with a VPS exhibit opening or hanging of the show.
for the program committee to contact Elizabeth Mowry about presenting a lecture.
a program on digital photos and how to get them onto our web site
to have everyone bring their best piece and/or most challenging piece for feedback.
Any other suggestions and ideas for potential programs, please forward to Wendy Soliday wsoliday@aol.com or 885 Murray Road, East Montpelier, VT 05473
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE: René Schall Chairperson
René announced there were 47 paid members. The survey she compiled from member responses on their membership forms regarding their interests yielded the following results.
31 checked off workshops
33 checked off exhibitions
23 checked off critiques of their work
28 checked off paint with others
33 checked off meet other pastelists
33 checked off see others work
Bi-monthly meeting got the most check offs
The Executive Committee will take these requests under consideration.
ODDS AND ENDS FROM THE MEETING
VPS WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/vermontpastelsociety/
Our website needs to be updated. Phil Laughlin volunteered to work with Michael Johnson on that. René suggested planning a program geared to teach members how to get their paintings onto the VPS website. Ideas mentioned for the VPS website were posting workshop pictures, a link to the Vermont Arts Council, a member news form that can be downloaded. Any suggestions regarding the website please forward to Phil at plstudio@together.net or 222 McJay Dr., Williston, VT 05495.
Other Web sites members may want to check out:
IAPS: http://www.pastelinternational.com/
Vemont Arts Council: http://www.vermontartscouncil.org/
Vermont Crafts Council: http://www.vermontcrafts.com/index.html
Fiona mentioned the deadline to signup for Vermont Crafts Council's OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND is coming up Dec 15th. You can find out more about it at their site listed above.
LILAC SUNDAY: Fiona will look into a VPS paintout on Lilac Sunday at the Shelburne Museum in a timely manner for possible inclusion in their program.
Update as of 12/2/03 - Signing up to be on the Shelburne Museum's Lilac Sunday Program requires a strong commitment to have members show up. The executive committee felt there was a conflict with the Robert Carsten Workshop in May (possibly the same weekend), so will look into that again for next year, but hope to plan a paint out there this summer instead.
NEW MEMBERSHIP: René will update the VPS informational flier to be placed in Artist Mediums, Drawing Board, Black Horse and Boutiliers art stores. Joy said she would give the flyer to her classes, and Wendy would put it on the Vermont Arts Council web site to spread the word. Any suggestions or additional sites for the flier should be directed to René.
Wendy Soliday will investigate a grant possibility from the Vermont Arts Council to help us with our website.
The next meeting is tentatively planned for the 2nd Sunday of January, 2004. The program commitee will be in touch as to the scheduled program, time and place. An April meeting is planned for southern Vermont in conjunction with the upcoming VPS show at the SVAC there.
Slides of pastels of the members attending the meeting were shown. The meeting was adjourned at 3:30.
Minutes recorded by Jan Fead and written up by Judy Greenwald.