I just came from our open board meeting on Jan 8 at the home of The Fratello
marionettes. In attendance were: Pres Randal Metz, Co-pres Tim Giugni and
his wife Emily, secretary Kevin Menegus, E-mail coordinator Mary Decker, and
guild members: Larry Dominguez, Larry and Margie Rex, Sharon Clay, Michael
Wick, Lettie Schubert, Elisheva Hart, Michael Burroughs, Herbert Lange, and
Michael Nelson via speakerphone in Napa. Members Luman Coad (Canada) and
Nina Dees sent their concerns through email. The board met for three hours
and has decided to initiate the following decisions that were voted
on. Please note that some of these are temporary decisions and could be
amended in future meetings.
1) The meetings shall be changed to the following schedule. There will be
six traditional meetings, one holiday party meeting, one month we are dark,
and four “flex” meeting dates. A “Flex” (for flexible) are months where the
guild might meet if a member wishes to put together a meeting at a special
venue or for another purpose. These meetings are planned by members in the
guild and not necessarily by Board Members. The Board Members are
responsible for planning six meeting/events and the holiday party. However,
a board member must be at any “flex” meeting that is planned, and the Board
has final approval of that meeting’s content.
Yearly Schedule:
All Meetings are held on the third Saturday of each month:
January – Holiday Party
February – Annual Meeting
March – “Flex” Meeting
April – Annual Meeting/Event (Day of Puppetry)
May – “Flex” Meeting
June – Annual Meeting
July – “Flex” Meeting
August – Annual Meeting/Event (Puppet Fair)
September – “Flex” Meeting
October – Annual Meeting
November – Annual Meeting
December – SFBAPG Dark
This was approved by a vote of 12 members in favor of this schedule, and 4
members in favor of 11 meetings per year, including an informal gathering in
July.
2) The following meetings are currently being planned as follows:
January- Holiday party
February – Meeting being planned by Tim Giugni
March – “Flex” meeting being assembled by Mary Decker to view Blacklight of
Prague show at the Marin Center in Marin. (News to follow in future
newsletters)
April – Annual “Day of Puppetry” sponsored by SFBAPG and San Leandro
Library. A committee was formed to coordinate this event: Chairman: Randal
Metz, Mary Decker, Elisheva Hart, Michael Burroughs and Kevin Menegus. If
you wish to be on this committee please contact Randal at (510) 351-four522
May – “Flex” meeting being assembled by Tim Guigni
June – Meeting being planned by Tim Guigni
August – Annual Meeting/Event – Puppet Fair at Fairyland. A Committee was
also formed for this large event. Chairman: Randal Metz, Kevin Menegus and
Mary Decker. Contact Randal if you want to be included in the planning.
IF YOU WISH TO HOST A “FLEX” MEETING OR PERFORM AT ANY OF THE
ABOVE, PLEASE CONTACT TIM GUIGNI OR RANDAL METZ.
3) Where are meetings to be held? It was suggested that we do a survey of
where are members are located and then try to plan meetings throughout our
counties. This discussion was tabled until Tim could get his membership
statistics (who lives where) and until he could generate a list of venues
and prices. The Board is going to meet and come up with a working budget to
see how much can be spent to rent rooms in other cities. More news will
follow soon.
4) The Newsletter. Michael Nelson, of Magical Moonshine Theater, has
offered to try his hand at producing the newsletter. He should take over
the production sometime in the next couple of months.
Our biggest debate came over if we should stop printing hard copy
newsletters. It was suggested that the internet was a cheaper way of getting
out the newsletter. Tim Guigni informed us that 12% of our membership did
not have email. Some members voiced that they want only email newsletters
and other members said they preferred the hard copy each month to emails and
printing their own. In the end a vote was taken and it was decided to
continue to offer a hard copy newsletter and an email one. Members could
decide if they preferred to have their newsletter via computer or mail. The
vote is as follows: 14 for offering both choices. 1 abstains.
A committee with Tim Guigni as chairman and members Mary Decker and Michael
Nelson will meet to propose how to make this a working reality. Thanks
Michael for volunteering your services.
This was a tremendously successful meeting with feedback from many members
via personal appearance or other means. As one member pointed out, “A guild
member does not need to make every meeting we have. Just attending even one
or two is great, and helps keep our guild vibrant.” In February, the board
will present the working budget that they have come up with for the rest of
their term. And remember, elections are coming up in June. If you wish to be
President, Vice Pres, Secretary or even Treasurer (Yes after many years Pam
Brown will be stepping down as the guild treasurer), please contact your
current board
Randal.
See you at the January 22 holiday party! Don’t forget to bring a
gift for the gift exchange, and an offering for our pot luck!
