May 3, 2007
The Board of the Needle Arts Guild of Toledo met at the home of President Marianne Mussett on May 3, 2007 at 6:30 pm. Besides Marianne, her cats and her dog, there were four other board members present: Karlyn Thompson, Donna Mohn, Anna Kerlin, and Annette Hill.
Treasurer Karlyn Thompson reported that our bank account balances are: savings $2045.16, checking $1250.39, and CD $2000.00. She paid our dues for this quarters’ renewal in the amount of $152.00 for national, and $8.00 for regional. The Budget Committee delayed its meeting due to Maria’s illness, but will be meeting soon.
Resident Organization Council Representative, Anna Kerlin reported on the recent meeting led by President of the Board of the Toledo Botanical Garden, Mimi Creutz. There are plans to add a visitor’s center at the Bancroft Street entrance, and a children’s center. They are considering setting up artist’s booths in rows this year for the Crosby Festival of the Arts in June, to make it easier to locate artists. Since the recent association of the TBG with the City of Toledo, TBG does have some revenue coming in from the City, but it will be important for the levy to pass in November to complement that funding. The city only provides about 50% of the operating budget. Some of the money from the city is being used for needed repairs. TBG has a new logo. The Garden has paid off the greenhouse debt.
Anna also reported that Janet Schroeder called her on Sunday about our guild’s participation in the 1st Sunday event, Open Art, on Sunday, May 6. They want us to do more than just sit and stitch. We will be in the Terrace Room with the Miniatures group. They want us to have a little project to teach. Anna is developing ideas and will provide materials . The event is scheduled from 12 noon to 4 pm. For Art in the Gardens on the first Sunday in August, we will handle the raffle. Annette Hill will stitch a scissors case to donate as a prize. The ROC wants all signs for various organizations to look the same this year. We need to put together little projects to teach at upcoming1st Sunday events. There is some funding from corporate sponsors for supplies.
Marianne has received our charter as a Resident Artist Organization at the Toledo Botanical Garden. The Board discussed the annual report which is mentioned in the charter, listing events held there and the number of people in attendance, with a description of the programs offered. Although we have probably not filed this in the past, it may be to our benefit to document the programs that we sponsor at TBG.
Donna Mohn, Membership Chairman, will keep in touch with EGA national about the transition in the administration of membership renewals in their office. Marianne is considering writing to national to request that membership renewal be done once a year, and prorated for new memberships to implement this. Donna will be collecting from plural members each January.
Our trial blog now has minutes posted for the February, March and April meetings. It also has our newsletters. Marianne continues to investigate the potential uses of a blog to distribute information on the internet.
Plans for our annual show are coming along fine.
Marianne received an email from Sandy Nicolai regarding the regional seminar in Madison, Wisconsin in 2008.
The meeting was then adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for June 7 at Marianne’s home.
Respectfully submitted,
Annette Meyer Hill
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Minutes of the Board Meeting of the Needle Arts Guild of Toledo
April 5, 2007
The Board of the Needle Arts Guild of Toledo met at 6:30 pm at the home of President Marianne Mussett on April 5, 2007. Marianne opened discussion of our nominations for the Gold Thread Award. Our chapter nomination is due by May 5, 2007. We will discuss potential candidates at the monthly meeting. We want input from experienced members who have attended seminars about what qualities they look for in the award winner.
Anna Kerlin advised that we have invited TBG Volunteer Coordinator, Cindy de Saint Victor to our potluck in June to discuss volunteer opportunities at TBG. We will ask members to update our email list with their email addresses. We will try to forward TBG emails to all email members, in order to assure that in short notice situations information gets distributed to as many members as possible.
TBG has volunteer opportunites on May 10, May 11, May 12, and May 13 during the annual Plant Sale. Gardening organizations do not have to do any additional volunteer work because they already do garden work. Our group can volunteer to do weeding and other garden work during the week.
Marianne advises that our By-Laws require approval of an Annual Budget. We receive about $650 income annually from dues. We need to decide what it is most important to provide to members for their money. How to cut expenses? The show loses money. Marianne, Maria and Karlyn will meet as a Budget Committee and use our last annual report as a starting point.
Su Pellitieri says that our next newsletter mailing will beat the postage increase. We have discussed internet options for disseminating information in the internet in lieu of a mailed newsletter. Some members will want paper newsletters and we will always provide this. It is possible that we could charge those members a surcharge for that service. Su will investigate over the next few months ways to adjust her format so that we can try other options, such as posting to a blog. Marianne will announce the sample blog that she created to the guild for them to try out and give us feedback.
Treasurer Karlyn Thompson reported the following balances in our bank accounts: $2044.61 in the checking account, $1330.39 in the savings account, and $2000 in the newly opened CD, for a total of $5375.00. Expenses recently approved included reimbursement to Donna Cairns for needlework kits mailed to the Brooks-City Base medical facility in the amount of$112.42, and to Su Pellitieri for newsletter expenses totaling $97.00. At our monthly meeting we will ask if we want to continue to send kits to military as part of the Outreach.
Regarding the Membership Committee, Marianne has asked Karlyn and Donna to work together to save steps in membership administration. Su has been asked to be a member of this new Membership Committee in charge of maintaining the roster. Future rosters are to have renewal dates listed for each member.
The board discussed ways to reduce the costs associated with our annual needlework show. In recent years, we have rented 16 banquet table sized tablecloths, incurring approximately $80.00 expense each year. Su advises that Hancock fabrics will be closing their Airport Highway location in the coming months. When they do their clearance, we will investigate purchasing fabric for tablecloths. Marianne has a contact who might be liquidating catering supplies and might have tablecloths. She will investigate potential purchase. Printing costs are a large part of our show expense. Diane will ask for guild members to help with publicity for the show. We will try to get someone who will print the show booklets for free.
The meeting was adjourned. The next board meeting is scheduled for May 3, 2007 at 6:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Annette Meyer Hill
The Board of the Needle Arts Guild of Toledo met at 6:30 pm at the home of President Marianne Mussett on April 5, 2007. Marianne opened discussion of our nominations for the Gold Thread Award. Our chapter nomination is due by May 5, 2007. We will discuss potential candidates at the monthly meeting. We want input from experienced members who have attended seminars about what qualities they look for in the award winner.
Anna Kerlin advised that we have invited TBG Volunteer Coordinator, Cindy de Saint Victor to our potluck in June to discuss volunteer opportunities at TBG. We will ask members to update our email list with their email addresses. We will try to forward TBG emails to all email members, in order to assure that in short notice situations information gets distributed to as many members as possible.
TBG has volunteer opportunites on May 10, May 11, May 12, and May 13 during the annual Plant Sale. Gardening organizations do not have to do any additional volunteer work because they already do garden work. Our group can volunteer to do weeding and other garden work during the week.
Marianne advises that our By-Laws require approval of an Annual Budget. We receive about $650 income annually from dues. We need to decide what it is most important to provide to members for their money. How to cut expenses? The show loses money. Marianne, Maria and Karlyn will meet as a Budget Committee and use our last annual report as a starting point.
Su Pellitieri says that our next newsletter mailing will beat the postage increase. We have discussed internet options for disseminating information in the internet in lieu of a mailed newsletter. Some members will want paper newsletters and we will always provide this. It is possible that we could charge those members a surcharge for that service. Su will investigate over the next few months ways to adjust her format so that we can try other options, such as posting to a blog. Marianne will announce the sample blog that she created to the guild for them to try out and give us feedback.
Treasurer Karlyn Thompson reported the following balances in our bank accounts: $2044.61 in the checking account, $1330.39 in the savings account, and $2000 in the newly opened CD, for a total of $5375.00. Expenses recently approved included reimbursement to Donna Cairns for needlework kits mailed to the Brooks-City Base medical facility in the amount of$112.42, and to Su Pellitieri for newsletter expenses totaling $97.00. At our monthly meeting we will ask if we want to continue to send kits to military as part of the Outreach.
Regarding the Membership Committee, Marianne has asked Karlyn and Donna to work together to save steps in membership administration. Su has been asked to be a member of this new Membership Committee in charge of maintaining the roster. Future rosters are to have renewal dates listed for each member.
The board discussed ways to reduce the costs associated with our annual needlework show. In recent years, we have rented 16 banquet table sized tablecloths, incurring approximately $80.00 expense each year. Su advises that Hancock fabrics will be closing their Airport Highway location in the coming months. When they do their clearance, we will investigate purchasing fabric for tablecloths. Marianne has a contact who might be liquidating catering supplies and might have tablecloths. She will investigate potential purchase. Printing costs are a large part of our show expense. Diane will ask for guild members to help with publicity for the show. We will try to get someone who will print the show booklets for free.
The meeting was adjourned. The next board meeting is scheduled for May 3, 2007 at 6:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Annette Meyer Hill
Minutes of the Board Meeting of the Needle Arts Guild of Toledo
March 1, 2007
The Board met at 6:30 pm on March 1, 2007 at President Marianne Mussett’s home. In addition to Marianne, the following board members were present: Treasurer Karlyn Thompson, President-Elect Maria Nowicki, Membership Chairman Donna Mohn, Secretary Annette Hill, and Resident Organization Representative Anna Kerlin.
Marianne advised that she had received update information for the President’s notebook, including a new Petite Project, Purple Mountain Majesty.
Karlyn reported that she has most of the arrangements done to update the CD account information. Nothing has been done to change the officers signed on to the checking and savings accounts, though. Treasurer’s reports will again be more fully presented in itemized form at the regular meetings so that members are more informed. It has come to the board’s attention that we have gotten away from our usual audit procedures. Our By-Laws set out the requirement that we have a three member committee review our annual Treasurer’s Report for audit before it is submitted to National EGA.
Karlyn reported that we have cashed out our recently matured CD and moved the interest of $533.33 to our checking account. Our current balances are: $2044.05 savings, $1199.81 checking, and in our CD $2000, which is for 9 months earning 5% interest.
Marianne relayed feedback from Diane Myers regarding our consideration of using One Seagate as the venue for our annual show. She has concerns about parking. Other members have expressed concerns about being in downtown Toledo on the weekend. Nancy Foth, head of the branches at the Sanger branch of the TLCPL, has indicated to Marianne that the library is very interested in making space available for us to have the show at a branch. There would be no charge if we limited it to four days. Diane has spoken with Mary Mayer at the Way library in Perrysburg, and the rooms there would cost us $50 for the Thursday evening, $100 each for Friday and Saturday, and $100+ for Sunday. We have also been offered the Fenwick Gallery. We are going to advise the membership of our options in the newsletter, and we must decide at the March meeting where we are going to have the show.
Anna reported for ROC. TBG is developing a general management plan, and requested input from each member organization. They gave very little notice, and wanted the input by March 1. There is a survey form available. Annette will make copies and have them available at the meeting for all members.
The Board then discussed options available for reducing our newsletter expense. Marianne is investigating the use of a blog with restricted access for our information dissemination. The Toledo Botanical Garden has a website and is willing to make space available to us on it. We would still have to produce some sort of newsletter for those who don’t have internet access. A lot of the information need not be repeated in every newsletter. For instance, an officer’s list could be distributed at the beginning of the year. General policies need not be repeated in every letter. We will continue to investigate our options, and after we have dealt with our show arrangements, we will move on to dealing with this issue later. Marianne is checking on whether there is any EGA requirement to have a newsletter. We must send minutes to our state liaisons, and various officers send in reports. Any website we establish must meet EGA requirements which are set out in the President’s notebook.
Respectfully submitted,
Annette Meyer Hill
The Board met at 6:30 pm on March 1, 2007 at President Marianne Mussett’s home. In addition to Marianne, the following board members were present: Treasurer Karlyn Thompson, President-Elect Maria Nowicki, Membership Chairman Donna Mohn, Secretary Annette Hill, and Resident Organization Representative Anna Kerlin.
Marianne advised that she had received update information for the President’s notebook, including a new Petite Project, Purple Mountain Majesty.
Karlyn reported that she has most of the arrangements done to update the CD account information. Nothing has been done to change the officers signed on to the checking and savings accounts, though. Treasurer’s reports will again be more fully presented in itemized form at the regular meetings so that members are more informed. It has come to the board’s attention that we have gotten away from our usual audit procedures. Our By-Laws set out the requirement that we have a three member committee review our annual Treasurer’s Report for audit before it is submitted to National EGA.
Karlyn reported that we have cashed out our recently matured CD and moved the interest of $533.33 to our checking account. Our current balances are: $2044.05 savings, $1199.81 checking, and in our CD $2000, which is for 9 months earning 5% interest.
Marianne relayed feedback from Diane Myers regarding our consideration of using One Seagate as the venue for our annual show. She has concerns about parking. Other members have expressed concerns about being in downtown Toledo on the weekend. Nancy Foth, head of the branches at the Sanger branch of the TLCPL, has indicated to Marianne that the library is very interested in making space available for us to have the show at a branch. There would be no charge if we limited it to four days. Diane has spoken with Mary Mayer at the Way library in Perrysburg, and the rooms there would cost us $50 for the Thursday evening, $100 each for Friday and Saturday, and $100+ for Sunday. We have also been offered the Fenwick Gallery. We are going to advise the membership of our options in the newsletter, and we must decide at the March meeting where we are going to have the show.
Anna reported for ROC. TBG is developing a general management plan, and requested input from each member organization. They gave very little notice, and wanted the input by March 1. There is a survey form available. Annette will make copies and have them available at the meeting for all members.
The Board then discussed options available for reducing our newsletter expense. Marianne is investigating the use of a blog with restricted access for our information dissemination. The Toledo Botanical Garden has a website and is willing to make space available to us on it. We would still have to produce some sort of newsletter for those who don’t have internet access. A lot of the information need not be repeated in every newsletter. For instance, an officer’s list could be distributed at the beginning of the year. General policies need not be repeated in every letter. We will continue to investigate our options, and after we have dealt with our show arrangements, we will move on to dealing with this issue later. Marianne is checking on whether there is any EGA requirement to have a newsletter. We must send minutes to our state liaisons, and various officers send in reports. Any website we establish must meet EGA requirements which are set out in the President’s notebook.
Respectfully submitted,
Annette Meyer Hill
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