Local Clay Notes

The following are the notes I took at the November 13th meeting transcribed as best I could decipher the scribbling on the pages …

In Attendance : Don Clarke, Bruce Hoefer, Kathleen Piper, Frank Gosar, Sue Huckaby, Sookjae McCarty, Don Prey, Coni Tarquini, Merry Newcomer, Barbara Ward, Rhoda Fleischman, Kent Willocks, Kathy Lee, Bush, Robert Wolchock, Gil Harrison

• Kay opened the meeting by sharing some personal thoughts … she had become concerned that as individual members we may be infringing upon others with our attitudes/expectations. She wanted us to remember that all of the officers and chairs are volunteers, and that each participates and contributes to the best of their ability. We should look after each other and respect those that volunteer for the efforts they put out. Kay was asked if there were specifics that had brought this to a head and she said that she did not want to delve into the issues, rather she wanted to have us focus on just working together better.

  Kay then said she thought it would be appropriate to thank Georgies for all their efforts for Local Clay. She passed around a card for everyone to sign and said that she was going to put the card on a big plate of cookies and bring it to the store soon.

• Treasurers Report : Barbara read the financials. Basically we started the year with $3677, had $3560 in income, $2656 in expenses, and currently had $4581 in the bank (my interpretation of the very detailed sheet that she handed out).

  On the same topic but later in the meeting, Rhoda asked how much ClayFest 2003 had given to Local Clay. It was explained that the books are still open on the show (outstanding expenses, etc) and that at the February Steering Committee meeting they would review the show's financials and vote on how much to give to Local Clay. ClayFest 2002 gave $300 to Local Clay which was reflected on the statement Barbara handed out.

• Workshops : Frank said we had about $1100 (including $500 from Dain Rauscher) in the budget. This would pay for one out-of-town artist and two local artists (approximately). At this point he is talking to Rebecca Urlacher about doing a pit fire workshop (apparently the most requested demo on the application forms). It would be two days and require a setting where we could dig a large (4'x6'x6') pit. Frank suggested early May as it would be after ShowCase and the weather would be improved. Rhoda indicated that we could use her place to have this workshop as the pit would be no problem.

  Frank is also in contact with Hank Murrow, Rickey Bellinger, Leslie Lee, and Ann Selburg as possible candidates for 2004 workshops.

  Frank indicated that he needs some personal time and would like to step back from some of his volunteer duties. He is asking for a Workshop chair to take over his job. This person would work with Frank probably thru the first workshop of 2004 and then transition into being responsible for the remaining workshops and into early 2005 (see discussion later in minutes).

• Empty Bowls : Mary Briggs was not present and there was no report.

• Clay In Education : Sue Huckaby had a printed report (which I forgot to pick up). She spoke about the great "public art" project that Ann Hubbird is doing, to which Local Clay has contributed $500 (the total grants are about $20,000). Sue is going to make sure she gets lots of photos so we can use them for PR in the coming year.

• New Members : We had three new members introduce themselves. Kathleen Piper does mid-fire sculpture work. Bruce Hoefer from Corvallis is new to pottery and does functional stoneware, he is helping Robert out at his studio in Sweet Home. And Bush (single name kind'a guy) who was a potter for many years but has been out-of-the-scene for about 15 years and is just now getting back into it.

• ClayFest : Robert gave an overview of the show stating that sales were up 14% and the show was a visual treat. You can get more info on the 2003 show by clicking on this link = ClayFest 2003. He then shared some of the thinking for the 2004 show which included items such as :
  • A Grand Opening on Friday night (which would require set-up on Thursday). He mentioned that he has already reserved the Fairgrounds for the show on October 8th thru 10th (with set-up on the 7th) which is again the same weekend as the Home Show. The aim of the opening is to hopefully gain more media attention and attract more people to help grow sales.
  • More advertising in the outlying "local" areas and more signage.
  • They are looking at alternative lay-outs of the building in hopes of getting more booths so there are more opportunities for potters (we had 20+ on this year's waiting list).
  • New member "Bush" mentioned that he was taken back by the potters that didn't stay in their booths (first time to the show). It was explained that with centralized sales area it wasn't really necessary or required, although it usually helps an artist's sales when they're in their booth. Robert broached the idea of having a workshop and/or discussion on marketing and sales techniques. It was mentioned that both Saturday Market and OPA have presented these types of seminars for their members.
  • The poster was again commended and Frank got another round of applause … well deserved !
  • The 2004 Show has openings for several Trainees. Specifically : Demonstrations, Kids Clay, Mailing-Distribution, Poster/Graphics, Publicity, and Security/InfoTable. It was noted that these positions are open because the ClayFest policies state that after a person has held a Chair position for three years the position must be opened to the general Local Clay membership so that we foster new people and ideas getting involved.
  • Don Clarke will post all this information and the job descriptions, etc. on the Local Clay portion of the ClayFest webpage and email everyone with the links so they can check out what's open.
  • Here is the link to all the info on helping out with the 2004 show ... VOLUNTEER
• Local Clay 2004 : Kay lead the group thru an exercise in calendar checking and we established the meeting dates for the upcoming year. Those are : January 8th Board Meeting, January 14th Pot Luck at Georgies, general meetings on March 11th and May 12th, and the annual Pot Luck Picnic on September 16th, with a final meeting on November 17th.
• Local Clay Openings : Kay opened the discussion on openings for the Board and Committee Chairs by asking everyone currently in such a position to write up a blurb about the job so that others would know more about the tasks involved.

  There followed a discussion on openings and some volunteers :

  • President (a one year position) Michael Fromme had indicated interest
  • Present Elect (one year position) Rhoda gallantly raised her hand
  • Secretary (one year position) Don Clarke (that's me) volunteered another term
  • Treasurer (three year term) Not open as Barbara is in her first year
  • Clay In Ed (one year term) OPEN
  • Workshops (one year term) OPEN
  • ClayFest (one year term) Robert volunteered to do the show again
  • Empty Bowls Trainee needed by March to take over 2005
    • Kathleen Piper indicated she was interested.

  These positions are voted on at the January 14th general meeting and it is hoped that more of the 178 members of Local Clay will step-up to the challenge of helping run the group … it's fun really !

• Brochure : The printing of the Local Clay brochure is apparently not in the current budget. Don Clarke priced them out at $12 for 100 two-sided and tri-folded. There was discussion about how many to order and it was decided to buy an initial 100 as there were no significant price breaks close to that. Frank will update the electronic file and email to Don who will get it printed at the same time he does these notes. Robert mentioned that it would be great to have brochures at ClayFest and we should consider this in the 2004 budgeting. Don said that some of the initial quantity would go to the DIVA show that is currently exhibiting Local Clay artists.
• Hiroshi Ogawa : Don explained the tragic fire that destroyed Hiroshi's studio and gallery (and all his pots) in early October. He broached the idea of Local Clay donating to the fund that had been set up at the local bank in Drain. There was much discussion about this idea … it was not that everyone didn't feel for Hiroshi and his family, it was that donations of this type should possibly be personal decisions rather than organizational. Many were concerned that if we were to make a donation to Hiroshi we would have set a precedence and would have to deal with any other personal tragedies that come along in the local pottery community. With a precedence we would then have to evaluate each event that occurred and people seemed uncomfortable doing the "thumbs-up thumbs-down" decision on each person's crisis. There was brief discussion of setting up a Local Clay fund for these types of things, but everyone seemed to agree that this would be an administrative nightmare and that exiting organizations like CERF are much better at this sort of thing. In the end, Don withdrew his proposal so that we wouldn't have to vote on it and will simply republish the information about the fire and fundraising efforts out to the Local Clay community.
• Members Manual : We have By-Laws (which are very legalistic) and it may be a good idea to consider some sort of membership manual. Don overviewed his thoughts that it could contain a lot of the information we had processed that night (job descriptions, how to get Clay In Ed grants, more about what we do and how we do it, etc). There was some discussion but no resolution.
• Announcements :
  • Rhoda mentioned that she had her station wagon filled with packing materials (peanuts and bubble wrap) and it was FREE … it didn't last too long.
  • Frank told everyone about the national, juried show that Club Mud is doing in conjunction with Maude Kerns Art Center. The show is called "Potter to Potter" and will be held February 20th thru March 26th, 2004. The show application process is complete and the submissions have already been juried. There were submissions from Maine to Hawaii, and all the Club Mud members in attendance agreed that there were going to be some really fine pots in the show.
  • Bush mentioned that he had lots of manganese dioxide for sale (726-9623)

• DEMO : We took a short break and Sookjae McCarty gave us all a fabulous demonstration of her Japanese-learned flower arranging techniques. She made it look way to simple …

  The meeting closed and everyone drifted off into the night ….