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March10Newsletter

2:30 at Nelson residence , attending: Conrad Bishop, Lee Armstrong, Randel Metz, Barbara Grillo, Valerie and Michael Nelson

Absent: Sharon Clay, Talib Huff, and Mary Decker

Treasurer’s Report: Balance at last statement: 8064.48 as of 12/31/09

Balance as of 12/31/08 7023.13

A comparison chart of income/expenses for the periods from Aug 25, 2009 to Jan 17, 2010 and the same period a year before shows we have higher income (from dues) and lower costs.

The current sum of 8064.48 includes $1492. Set aside for scholarships, and $6574.27 in general funds.

A motion was made to make Lee Armstrong a second signer on the checking account. Passed unanimously.

Membership Report: Report January 17, 2010

Michael Nelson, Membership Officer

Guild memberships continue to trickle in, both renewals and new memberships.

In December I removed all non-renewed names from the Yahoo Group list and sent an email to each of them informing them that they were being removed because they had not renewed. I pointed out all the great guild benefits, offering them the chance to renew again. Two or three took me up on that and renewed, and the rest are now purged from the email list for, I think, the first time in some years.

Currently there are 97 members, including life members and extra names included in family memberships.

The roster is basically ready to print in the format that we have used in the past couple of years. If the board agrees, it will be ready for the January meeting, along with membership cards. The plan is to hand out rosters and cards and the DVDs from Bruce Sedley to all who come to the meeting, then mail the rest.

Member Benefits: There is a very good sounding Sicilian marionette troupe coming to the Marin Civic Center on Friday, April 16, 8 p.m. Tickets are $30, $12 Students 18 & Under. They have offered the guild a group discount price of $5.00 off with a group of 15 or more. I am not certain if the discount also applies to the student rate. Should the board decide to pursue this, the adult ticket price would be $25.00. We would have to commit to buying 15 for a total of $375.00. We would then offer the discounted tickets to the guild for a period and then open it to our friends, email lists or who ever we could find to buy the tickets. Should we pursue this?

I would like to continue to identify and organize benefits like this for the membership. If anyone hears about something like this that would be of interest to the membership, let me know, the more in advance the better.

Other Reports: a Sicilian troupe will be performing April 16, 2010 in Marin. Mike Nelson moved we pursue buying 15 tickets for a group rate, providing his research shows the group is good. Barbara Grillo seconded. Passed unanimously.

The need for membership cards was discussed. We agreed to offer them to anyone who wants, but to announce in the newsletter that we would no longer issue them. Events which require membership proof will have a current list of members at the door.

Library Report: We have most things catalogued, a few odds and ends excluded. Tim Giugni has donated a box of books. They need to be catalogued.

Lee will do this.

Sharon Clay needs to write thank yous to tim Giugni and one other (ask Lee) for donations

Lee wants more dvds for the library. She has $150 discretionary spending.

Conrad and Barbara will email ideas of which dvds.

Website: Matt Baume has been doing a great job. Some options we hoped for are not possible given that he is using existing matrices to reformat the website. We can list the service officers in alphabetical order but not offer a search for, say, all birthday party shows. We discussed how to thank him.

We will ask matt if he wants to put a link to his website on the guild website.

Valerie moved that we send him a thank you gift. Mike seconded, all passed.

Valerie will send him a book or mug, a check for $100, and a thank you note.

Randel Metz will write a guild history update for the website

Jan 30, 2010 meeting plans: Randal McGee wants a separate space where he can film interviews. Elisheva confirmed there was one by phone. Barbara Grillo will help hand out name tags. Table decorations: Nina Dees, Sharon Brixton and Padmini have agreed to decorate a table each. If no others volunteer, Lee and Valerie will bring décor for 2 more tables. The order of events was discussed. We agreed to put Art Gruenberger first, at 7, when the public is invited. Others will follow.

Lee will ask Randal McGee to MC. Mike will send out a request to use the yahoo group to organize rides.

Lee will ask for volunteers to help set up and clean up.

Plans for the Mar/April 2010 meeting: Barbara Grillo will plan a meeting to be combined with a teacher continuing education day at the Contra Costa College. March 13 is probable date. She envisions several workshops and performances. She has no budget. Various funding possibilities were discussed. She will check with the childcare council. She will put an article in the next newsletter asking mambership for workshops and performances.

Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia: have sent us a letter asking us to consider sponsoring a part of their tour next year. Lee will ask Mary Decker her thoughts and report back.

Pacific Southwest Regional Director: Conrad wants to explore just what his new title means and what he can do to help the region’s guilds communicate and share resources. There is a scholarship fund, but no one knows how to get to it.

Meeting ended at 4:30.

In attendance: Michael Nelson, Valerie Nelson, Lee Armstrong, Conrad Bishop, Talib Huff, Sharon Clay, Barbara Grillo

Absent: Mary Decker, Randal Metz

Meeting called to order by President Michael Nelson at 3:15 P.M.

Minutes emailed to board prior to meeting: Motion to approve as written Conrad,

2^nd: Talib   Motion carried.

Discussion of San Leandro Puppet Day:

Not as successful as we hoped.  Problems with publicity and getting items in newspapers.  Getting events in “calendar” listing is fairly successful but this needs advance planning since newspapers require 2 weeks to 1 month advance notice.

Lee suggested that we have a publicity person for this an other events.

(Selection of this person postponed to an upcoming meeting).

Treasurer’s Report: Valerie Nelson

Income 2008-2009 was $1533.50 less than income of 2007-2008.  Part of this was dues (almost $1200 less), but also event income was $253 less and workshop fees were $40.00 less.

Expenses: $234.60 more this year than last.  Meeting room rental ($250 more): The Holiday Event room was more expensive than the San Leandro location – which was free, but now the person who was in charge of that location has left, and room isn’t free.

And workshop leader fee ($180 more), and other expense increases were offset by a decrease of $193.33 in the expenses in getting out the newsletter since it is now mostly emailed instead of sent by mail. Only about 20 are sent by mail.

However, the $300 stipend for the newsletter editor has not yet been paid.

Last year we didn’t get any income from Puppet Day at Fairyland.  Don’t know why.

Overall summary: Income $1533.50 less and Expenses: $234.60 more 8/28/ 2008-2009 than 8/28/2007-2008.  Treasury balance: $6769.40 Scholarship Fund: $1317.00

(Is this included in the $6769.40)?

Membership: 30 members did not renew their membership this past year.

Question: Are we filing taxes?  Are we supposed to?  Valerie will check into P of A to see if we qualify as 501c3 organization, or if we must file tax returns.

Bill payment: Discussion as to whether all bills should be payed without advisement to board as to what bills have been accrued.  Motion by Conrad that treasurer pay routine expenditures for operation of guild up to $150 per bill, without approval by board.  Expenditures above $150 shall be discussed by board.   2^nd by Talib.    All in favor.  Motion carried

Meeting called to order by Michael Nelson at 1:07 PM.

Present: Michael Nelson, Lee Armstrong, Valerie Nelson, Randal Metz, Barbara Grillo Talib Huff, Conrad Bishop, Sharon Clay. Absent. Mary Decker.

Treasurer’s Report:

Income: 2007-2008 2360.70

Expenses: 1375.06 (Newsletter $714.26)

Balance: 6501.86

Election of Officers:

The membership of the Guild elected a board, and the board will elect the officers within the elected members.

Election: Michael – willing to be Pres. 1 more year. Nominated by Talib, 2nd by Conrad

Vice Pres. – Randal – nomin membership officer, led by Valerie.

White ballot moved by Sharon, 2nd by Barbara, since there was only one nominee for each

office. Approved.ated by Valerie, 2nd Barbara

Valerie – Treasurer -

Secretary – Sharon – nominated by Barbara, 2nd Valerie

Membership Officer – Conrad – nom. by Lee, 2nd Talib

Discussion of the duties of

Discussion of how often board should meet – led by Michael.

Options: Every other month or in conjunction with regular guild meeting. Formal meetings?

Telephone? Email? Decision: 6 x year. Some formal get togethers, some by

phone or email.

Goals of the board: Direction of Guild. This will determine some of the positions needed.

Presented by Michael & discussed by the board.

Publicity of puppetry (bigger presence; promoting puppetry among guild members, community, theater community.

Providing events for members: tie in with publicity – things like the Liebe workhop, day of puppetry, puppet festivals, puppet lams, guild meetings

Education: How can we promote and elevate the art form of puppetry. Where can we refer people who contact us wanting to know where they or their children can learn puppetry?

Website: – it has been suggested that our website become more “user/consumer friendly” with more information about performers, photos, videos, puppetry promotions. Conrad will investigate this.

Work for puppeteers/lobbying – how can we encourage more paying work for puppeteers?

Scholarships – We have had donations to our “scholarship fund” – need to formalize the criteria for funding and awarding of scholarships.

Guild Funds: What should they be used for?

Committees – Chairs:

Library – Currently Lee has it. Lee & Conrad will continue as co-librarians. Conrad will start cataloging books. It was suggested that a list of the books, tapes, CD’s be printed in the annual membership roster that goes out to everyone so members know what items are available. Then they could ask that these be brought to the next meeting of the guild.

Newsletter: Talib volunteered to edit the newsletter.

Historian: Position needs to be filled.

Hospitality Chair: Valerie – with non-board members to be added.

Email coordinator: Mary Decker

Nominating Committee: (not discussed, but currently Padmini, Elisheva and Tia)

Scholarship Chair: Michael suggested that we set up a scholarship committee to establish criteria for scholarship or whether we use some of the fund for “seed” money for special projects. Funding sources were discussed – on dues notice, raffles, wills, estates. Etc.

Committee would decide if scholarship would be based on need or willingness to “give back” to guild after attending conference etc. What would be qualifications for youth receiving scholarship?

Mary Decker will be asked to present the procedure to the board that need to be followed to set up this committee. The committee can also suggest how should the scholarship fund be accounted: separately from regular funds? In a separate account.

Web Master: Matt

Public Relations: Conrad

Future Meetings: Lee, with Sharon and Barbara

Continuing Education: (possibly combine with scholarship?) Barbara

Barbara suggested that it might be possible to arrange Guild events that would provide continuing education for teachers. Also, possible to receive grants for these events. She will investigate.

Guild Events Chair: possibly combine with future meetings?

Michael asked each committee chair to write up the committee’s short term “to-do” list: what are the actions that you will take first to achieve your goals. And also note your long term goals (these can be short & are to help organize yourself and the committee, also to help get input fromthe board that may make the task easier.

Next board meeting: August 30, 3:00 PM. Fairyland

Following meeting: October 5th. (Sharon will not be available)

Program possibilities: October – Art Grueneberger?

January: Holiday Party – possibly Kevin

Spring: Barbara will look into grant for ‘for credit” options

Meeting adjourned.

Sharon Clay, secretary

The meeting was called to order by President Michael Nelson at

4:48 PM.  Members present: 20

Minutes of previous meeting – not available

Treasurer’s report by Valerie Nelson: Current Balance: $5526.22 as of 8/25/07

This is the time to renew our membership and pay dues: $20 per person

$15.00 for seniors and $25 per couple. Valerie will accept dues payments today.

New Members: Toshiko Covello, David Morley, Emily Butterfly

Committee Reports:

Mary Decker – Procedures:   She is working on the By-Laws

Lee Armstrong – Library: Soon there will be a DVD section of the library, and

donations will be welcomed.  Lee stated that if someone wants a DVD or book

prior to a meeting, let Lee know and she will bring items to the meeting.  Question as to what is actually in the library?  She will bring the library so people can check out what is there.  Potential to have the library listings on the web site in the future.

Old Business – None

New Business:

All members and guests introduced themselves and stated their puppetry interest.

Michael proposed to change the Guild structure from the current structure to a 9

member board.  3 members would retire every year.  Only a max of 3 new board     members would be elected each year.

Motion: Conrad moved that the current officers put together a transition plan and propose a slate of officers to be elected by the membership.  Seconded by Valerie.

Discussion followed particularly suggesting that the current officers be part of the new board

and that the current officers be asked to stay on for at least one more year, which would put them

as the 2 or 3 year member of the new board.  Possibly the chairs of the committees could also be

asked to be part of the board, making their chairmanships as responsibility of board members who would be elected in the future.  This was not voted on as a part of the previous motion, but

just used as a suggestion.

The motion was passed with 1 abstention.

Meeting adjourned:5:38 PM.  Followed by a Pot Luck

Sharon Clay, Secretary

The business meeting began at 4:32. President Michael Nelson introduced the board members:

Mike Wick, Co-Vice President, Treasurer Valerie Nelson, Newsletter Editor: Michael Nelson,

and Secretary: Sharon Clay.  Michael reported that elections are scheduled to take place in May, and that a nominating committee needs to be involved. But at the moment we do not have a written procedure for that. We do have a Procedures Committee, and Mary Decker is chair of that committee and that a procedure for the election of officers is on their agenda. A discussion ensued about how to select/elect a nominating committee. P of A board selects their nominating committee. There is a job description for each officer position. The fact that candidates should be selected from members regularly attending meetings was mentioned.  Valerie Nelson moved and it was seconded by Talib, that the previous nominating committee would select the new nominating committee. Vote was taken and passed, with one abstention.

Guild Library: Lee Armstrong is the new Guild Librarian. She would like suggestions as to how to make the library a useful resource and make the books accessible to guild members. At the end of the meeting Lee arrived with the library and the books and videos were displayed and members who were interested, signed them out with Lee.  They will be able to keep them for 6 months, or bring them back at the next Guild meeting.

Publicity Committee: We should be publicizing Guild activities and the Art of Puppetry to the people of the Bay Area.  It was discussed how should this be done? Suggestions were: on-line calendar could be used to publicize puppet performances. Mary has two domain names Puppetshowcase.org &.com which could be used.  The publicity committee should decide what should go on this web site – puppet performances, guild meetings?  It was suggested that the publicity committee should develop a list of appropriate connections (email lists, publication lists, etc) who should receive this information.  Nina and Mary Decker volunteered to be on the committee to implement these suggestions. Mike suggested that a procedure for this should be written and a manual should be developed so that this information get passed from one board to the next.

Future meetings and meeting locations: Herbert brought up this subject. That in order to increase the attendance at meetings we need to be consistent in meeting schedules. And in order to get special speakers or activity leaders, our meeting dates need to be secured in advance.  Several venues were discussed: Mill Valley, Vacaville, San Leandro, Fort Mason.  Fort Mason is now charging for parking, so that now makes that less optimal. We need a location that is inexpensive and convenient. A May meeting date of May 20^th, in Mill Valley was set in conjunction with a Lettie Schubert dedication. Herbert Lange and Mike Wick will do the first part of a puppet workshop: “How to Make Puppets Come Alive”.

At 5:14 Paul Mesner was introduced to lead a question and answer period about his career in puppetry.  Paul is a former President of P of A and has won many awards for his puppetry.

He started at age 18 in Omaha and was only going to do this for one year.  He had been working in a down jacket factory.  After several years of working with a partner, he went out on his own in 1980 in Lincoln, Nebraska.  His first years in his new career were not exactly profitable. His net profit was ZERO.  Then he moved to the grand total of about $2,000 a year.  His income has slowly progressed from there. He moved to Kansas City, in a small theater, doing 1 show for 1 week, alternating 4 different shows for the year.  When he went into the next year, he had to increase the number of shows (couldn’t do the same shows the next year).  By the third year, he could put back in one of the shows from the first year, but he did have to continue developing shows, and building puppets, and making costumes.  His theater seats 320, and he had no trouble filling the theater for the morning shows, but the evening shows were a bit more challenging.  Getting people out of the “puppets are for kids” mentality.

He now has 2 full time puppeteer and sometimes hires extra puppeteers as well as involving many volunteers.  He has progressed to some pretty elaborate shows.  A few years ago they

did the complete Nativity utilizing 8 additional puppeteers, and many musicians. Now he is doing the Mikado with 24 musicians and singers, 27 puppets and 10 paid puppeteers, plus many volunteers.  He has a $105,000 budget for this production.  This show uses 4.5 foot tall puppets

operated by 2-3 puppeteers each.

His theater is currently a not for profit organization with funds coming from subscriptions, grants, ticket sales and donations.  Since the Mikado has been so successful, next year they

will do the Hansel and Gretel opera with marionettes, and have plans for The Magic Flute in 2009.

Q.  “How did you evaluate Kansas City as a “good theater town”?

A.  There were 5 theaters, doing well, and another children’s theater also doing well.

Q.  You didn’t regard this as competition?

A.  No, it showed me that there was a market for theater.  We also charge for everyone over

1 year of age.

Q.  Why didn’t the Nativity production make money, if it was so well received?  Lack of

audience or cost of production?

A.  Actually, it was a year of terrible weather.  And we ran it from Dec. 26-30th.  People didn’t

seem to want to do Christmas things after Christmas.  They start thinking of Christmas

in October, so maybe we should have run it earlier.

Q.  How do you keep track of costs?

A.  We budget, carefully.  We can predict costs of some things like scenery, costuming, etc.

But when it comes to puppet making it gets harder because sometimes things have to

be redone.  I have some paid puppet makers – a puppet sculptor, several papier mache

people, puppet painters.  The major cost is rental of the hall, with union craftsman,

electricians, lighting etc.  But, they are well worth having.

Q.  Who does your booking.

A.  The Artistic Director, mostly.

Q.  How do you do your publicity?

A.  We send out press kits.  And we also make 1 poster. We now take a picture of the people

attending the show and the day after the performance, we e-mail them the picture saying

“Thank you for attending our show. If you liked it, please tell your friends”.

Meeting adjourned at 5:55 PM..

of Fairyland and the “Grand Opening” of the remodeled puppet workshop and stage..

The meeting was preceded by a viewing of a video taken by Lee Armstrong at the 26th Annual Puppet

Faire -in 1988. On that date 1433 people attended the Puppet Faire.

The meeting was called to order at 5:15 p.m. by Mike Wick and Elisheva Hart, co-vice Presidents for the

2006-2007 Guild year.

They conveyed the greetings from Mike and Valerie Nelson who were unable to attend today’s festivities

because they are moving.

They thanked everyone who helped with the Puppet Faire: the Johnsons for their Puppet Petting Zoo. Tia

and Elisheva who did crafts. Mary Decker who manned the table of “recycled puppets”;

Mia Truskier, Louis Mahlmann, Lee Armstrong and Nick Barone, Alan Cook, who brought puppets for

the display. Also Mike and Tia Wick, and everyone who helped clear up everything afterwards. And of

course, Fairyland for providing our upcoming dinner..

Elisheva announced the officers for the coming Guild year:

Mike Nelson President

Mike Wick and Elisheva Hart are Co-V.P’s

Sharon Clay – Secretary

Jeff Pidgeon – Newsletter

Valerie Nelson – Treasurer

Mary Decker – Communications Coordinator

New Business:

September Meeting: – Lee announced that the Sept. 16th meeting would be here at

Fairyland at 4:00 PM. She would lead the program with items from sessions

she attended at the Tacoma festival “Much Ado About Puppets”. These

sessions were “Theater of the Hand”, and “Character Development”, and possibly even “Critical

Response – Getting and Giving Feedback that works”.

October meeting: – Mary announced the possibility of viewing the film “The World

According to Sesame Street” – a film by Linda Goldstein Knowlton and Linda Hawkins Costigan.

This film follows three producers from the Sesame Street Workshop to Bangladesh, Kosovo and

South Africa where they localize the world’s most-watched children’s television program with

indigenous songs, puppets and curricula.

Lee passed out dues notices – which could be returned to her with checks and not mailed back to Valerie

Reports of sessions attended at the “Much Ado about Puppets” festival were given by Sharon Clay, Mike

Burroughs, Barbara Grillo-Selleck, Mary Decker and Tim Giugni.

Motion was made by Lee, (2nd – Mary): “If a president of another guild would like to receive a copy of

our newsletter we should send a complementary copy”. After discussion the motion was

tabled in order to do further research on this since the newsletter is available free online.

Several visitors introduced themselves, and were welcomed and encouraged to join the Guild.

Meeting was adjourned at 5:40 p.m. by Mike Wick.

Show “The Man Who Had to Mind the House – a Yiddish Folk Tale, was performed on the Fairyland

Stage by Randal Metz and Rhonda.

In this issue:

Holiday Meeting

Reviews and News

Class Announcement

Equipment Review

Scholarly Paper on Sock Puppet Creches

Calendar

And Much More!