Minutes of the Board Meeting of the Needle Arts Guild of Toledo

January 3, 2008

The Board of the Needle Arts Guild of Toledo met at the home of President Maria Nowicki at 6:45 pm on Thursday, January 3, 2008. Maria, Marianne Mussett, Su Pellitieri, Anna Kerlin, Caren Scarbrough and Annette Hill were present.
Maria brought the meeting to order and suggested that the board discuss goals for the year. Maria reported that Beth Thompson will continue as our outreach chairman and Anna Kerlin will continue as our Resident Organization Counsel representative. Maria will check with Marilyn Freeman about continuing with welcoming our new members and guests, and with Cathy Studer about continuing as Education Chairman. Su Pellitieri will continue as Newsletter Editor. Caren Scarbrough can continue as Great Lakes Region representative for this year, but when she becomes President next year, it is preferred that someone else fulfils that role. Annette indicated that she would be willing to fill in for that year.
Maria shared some ideas that Diane Myers had suggested for increasing membership and volunteerism among all members. Other chapters reported in our last edition of Needle Arts about outreach programs where members taught stitches to the public at libraries and other public meeting places. We will consider similar programs to increase our exposure to the public. We also discussed sending follow-up emails or postcards to members when they haven’t been to meetings for a while. Maria suggested using a sign-in sheet to track who attends each month. Further discussion included doing a display window at library branches and pursuing television promotion of our annual show. We will investigate participating with the TBG web site further. We would like to publicize Kay Griffith’s Golden Thread award in The Blade to help promote awareness of the guild. Maria will ask Nancy Wright to contact Nancianne Cherry at the newspaper about articles other than the show. We could also suggest articles about various members who are Mastercraftsmen.
Peverley Hormann has asked for suggestions for judges for this years show. Su will provide information about past judges to her from our show records.
Maria asked about our feelings about fundraising. Marianne suggested that we promote the idea that people can donate to the guild as a tax-deductible donation to a 501C Non-profit organization. Su will add a blurb in the next available space in the newsletter about it. The board also discussed having an opportunity drawing/raffle type of fundraiser. We also discussed promoting new membership from among show visitors with a drawing from cards they could fill out with information like name and address, phone, email, and stitching interests and whether they want information on future show dates.
The board discussed having members volunteer at least two hours each year. One opportunity for volunteerism through TBG is to teach a class for the public, maybe children. We will get more information about that option.
Annette asked if we will continue to have refreshments at meetings this year. The board agreed to circulate a sign-up sheet in January and see if there is interest.
The board then discussed upcoming programs. Irene Leonard is our program chairman and has provided information to Su for the newsletter. In January, we will learn the chain stitch, and the herringbone stitch in February. We will also begin the heart motif program using a booklet published by national EGA, but promoting use of alternate motifs rather than hearts to increase participation of members. We would all learn the same stitches, but perhaps use a challenge format so that members personalize it for their own tastes.
The meeting was then adjourned. The next board meeting is the first Thursday of February at Maria’s home.