Surface Design Guild Meeting

                                     December 9, 2008

                                    6:30 pm at Firehouse

 Following the 6-6:30 social hour, we had the potluck dinner part of the Christmas party. Kendra opened the meeting at 7 with a welcome to guests and new members. Treasurer Judy Merick reported 42 members and a balance of $1376.01. Our membership has picked up since last meeting, but Kendra still encouraged people to put flyers in likely spots and to mention Surface Design to people they know or meet. There will be a recruitment contest; new members can put a name in the “referred by” spot on the application, and whoever has referred the most by March will win free membership for next year. There is also a new email for contacting our group. There is a full membership fee until March, when it is prorated for the remainder of the year.

People had the first chance to sign up for the technique pages swap. January is the final chance, since we need a definite count for each participant to make that number plus one of the pages and samples, for the February meeting.

The January meeting is dimensional painted flowers, with Diane giving the program and the play day. There will be a kit fee for play day participants who wish to do dimensional flowers. March is TBA, since the fashion show has been moved to the April meeting. Fashionistas must sign up at the March meeting or by email to Diane no later than one week after the March meeting. She needs a brief bio and description of the fashion items being shown. (can bring multiples, models to show them, but no last minute additions or changes!)

Boutique table – this was our first time offering members an internal boutique opportunity. We will continue on a trial basis. In addition to handmade items, used books and magazines or un-wanted art supplies can be sold.

The ornament challenge showed how creative and diverse our membership is. Great job, everyone.  Maybe some techniques will become topics for programs next year. There was the monthly ATC swap as well as the inspiration table.

Roberta and her husband have a show at a Gallery at Towles court, to be seen by appointment or at the December Art Walk. Sunday is the Atomic Bazaar, 12-6 at the municipal auditorium. Kim told us about it. We might want a group table next year.

FAB report from Betsy- the show did well enough to end in the black. There was good coverage in radio, tv and newspapers. There will be another one, same weekend in 2009, with the possibility of Sunday 12-4 being added. (this would of course require more shifts of working in the show). There were 54 artists, of whom 4 received checks over $400 from sales. Seven people did not sell anything this year.

Fiber Arts show report – March 10, 2009 from 10-3 is the receiving day. The show runs Thursday, March 12 through March 28. It is judged, not juried. There is a maximum of three entries per person per category, with a fee of $5 per entry. Volunteers are needed to do demos of their art during the show. Also, each guild needs to solicit ads; we need to get $500 in ad sales during the next 6-8 weeks. Betsy says business card ads should be easy to sell, get the money, and bring to Betsy. Because this is the first year Surface Design Sarasota has been a sponsoring guild, we have the opportunity to add some categories to the established list. Betsy had a prospective list. When people gave examples of possible entries, we suggested which categories would be applicable.  Items must have fiber to be in the show. People can email category suggestions to Betsy within the next few days. Laura Bryant is the judge of all non-basket categories. Flo Hoppe is the basket judge. She will be the speaker at the Venetian Society of Basket Weavers March meeting and also give a two day

workshop.

Respectfully submitted,

Carol Anderson