Present: Marilou Moschetti, Bruce Fihe, Susan Penney, LeAnn Bjelle, Joan Vierra, Amy Chirman
Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm
August Board meeting minutes had been provided to the Board in preparation for this meeting and were briefly discussed. In particular, it was determined that the Treasurer’s cycle should remain as is. A motion to approve the minutes was made, seconded, voted on, and passed unanimously.
Treasurer’s report: Effective this month, the budget report will now include beginning balances and a Projected column. Budget reports will be made available at general membership meetings in the Information Manual maintained by the Secretary and brought to each general membership meeting.
Budget: The Board needs to determine how much to spend and on what. The current budget shows that we are spending roughly 2x our income.
Library: Marsha has located a metal, lockable, wheeled shelving cabinet that may work to hold the library collection. The cabinet costs ~$300 with additional shelving available for purchase. There is a weight limit to this cabinet system that may not allow its use by us. The library collection currently fills three 3’ x 6’ bookshelves with additional boxes of ephemera that may not need to be retained, or which could be used as part of the Welcome to the Guild cards. No decision on this cabinet idea or a standing Library budget can be made until after meetings have relocated to the Friends Meetinghouse in October, at which time an onsite storage location may (or may not) be identified.
Fundraising: Joan Vierra will make a presentation about fundraising for the Guild at the October general membership meeting. A fundraising committee will be formed and people are expressing interest in participating. Some questions about fundraising include: how would any funds gathered be used? What fundraising events might occur, and how often? Might we partner with the PVQA or Pajaro Quilt Festival for any of this? It was suggested that, once formed, the Fundraising Committee write a proposal describing their ideas and provide it to the Board. Joan has already started this process and will report back.
Credit Card Use for any purchase such as Guild membership or workshop/event registration: There is a 4% charge levied by the credit card processing company for any purchase made through the Guild. Since members have the choice to pay with cash, check, or credit card, it is proposed that the fee should be absorbed by the buyer instead of by the Guild. This fee information will be included on the website where there is a credit card purchase option. A motion to approve this fee process was made, seconded, and an opportunity for additional discussion was provided. The motion was then voted on and passed unanimously.
Anything sold at workshops for use by participants is exempt from the 10% Guild “take.” Only finished items sold by the workshop presenter is charged that 10%.
Website: The Guild website is in good shape, is an ongoing process, and a Donate button has been added at the foot of pages, both public and password protected.
What vendors other than the Woolery might provide our members with a discount? Options to look into include Webs, Gist, Yarn Barn, Lunatic Fringe, and locally Harts, Beverly’s, and the soon to be Michaels. In the past, did Guild members receive a discount from Halcyon? Who might have time and interest to reach out to these vendors to see if these discount relationships can be established? If they can, we can offer vendor promotion on our website along with member purchases. If we are able to secure this sort of relationship with enough vendors, a Shopping page will be added to the Guild website.
Effective October 2023, all workshop signups will be online.
The November, 2023 will be a Zoom only meeting.
The January, 2024 workshop can have up to twenty participants. If all seats don’t fill with our members, the opportunity will be shared with the greater SC fiber arts community. The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 pm