Do you ever have those days when you just can't think of what to paint? It sure didn't happen at the Janice Miller seminar - everyone did a really great job on their Jantangle. That took some thinking!! Now that we have completed our seminar with Janice Miller, it is on to finishing out the year with one more project. Diane will teach the ribbon pine cone ornament at our next meeting. You should have received an email with a list of supplies but just in case I am adding it below. We will have our normal meeting and then will start our projects. Being that this is the last meeting we will have this year, there are several things we need to discuss:a. Our bank account
b. Fund raiser for next year
c. 2014 seminars
d. Club participation
e. Newsletter
f. Board positions
g. Increase in dues
h. Being a member of National vs. not
I want to take this time to thank Jane for the wonderful job she did this year with the seminars. We had some great teachers and lots of fun. The teachers had such lovely things to say about her and how welcomed she made them feel. Now that she has completed the two years, we are in need of someone to take her place. This position can be held by more than one person and it is what I would suggest since almost half of our chapter lives outside of Pensacola. With this position you would receive your seminar free - with two people you would share. Since we only have two seminars a year it is really quiet simple.
I know I keep harping about this but we need someone to be Secretary. This also can be done by several people in case one is not able to attend. It is simply a matter of keeping notes of what happens during the meeting. Nothing fancy, you don't have to write down everything, you can then give it to the President at the end of the meeting or send it by email. That's it...I can think of no reason why one of our members can't handle this.
I have a lot going on in my life and I am cutting back on a lot of my projects. Hence, I will no longer send out newsletters effective the first of the year. If someone would like to take over this position, I have the program which makes it very easy. I will continue the blog for now and will revamp it so you will receive almost the same amount of information as in the newsletter. The newsletter is an unnecessary expense right now that we cannot afford and I do not have the time to put into it like I had before. I have always enjoyed writing the newsletter and enclosing little articles for you but it has become time consuming so I will try to do as good a job with the blog. Just be patient with me.
I have reserved a room for the Christmas Party. We will discuss this at the meeting.
As I am sure you all know, we only had 13 members attend the last seminar for which the club took a big loss. We are going to have to be realistic and start following the rules as stated in our club brochure on seminars. Some things we can look the other way but with our limited funds we have no money to fall back on when we don't have enough attendees. Our bank account is very low, Diane will talk about this at the meeting. We hope to replenish some of it next year with fund raisers but for now we are going to have to take a good look at what we have planned for 2014 and how we can attain it. If you have any ideas on fund raising, please speak out. We have such a great group of ladies in our club no one needs to be bashful. We also need to discuss the Ros Stallcup seminar. It will cost approximately $2,000 for her seminar. We will need a minimum of 23 people at $85 each to even come close to breaking even. I have had only one person contact me outside the club about the seminar and we are only two months away. So the dilemma is - if we do not get a commitment from our members we may have to cancel.
I think I have found a place to have our meetings. The board has been diligently looking all year for a place that would accommodate us. Everyone wants to charge - and as I said before, our money is tight. I was very frustrated a few weeks ago and just about ready to call it quits with the club when Jane suggested that I try the fire departments. I called several - one had a room upstairs, I couldn't see us dragging our stuff upstairs. Another never called back. I called the Ferry Pass Fire Department and the LT. was very cooperative and said he saw no reason why we couldn't use the training room they have - bottom floor. He said it will seat 35 class room style. He said he only needed to run it by the Board of Directors and since he was Vice President, he didn't think it would be a problem. But their meeting is on 4 November so I won't have a definite until then. They ask nothing in return but did say they like to eat. I am sure we will find a way to repay them if it is approved.
This gives you some things to think about before the meeting. I hope you will come with suggestions and the willingness to give a little of your time. Without it our club will not survive.
See y'all Saturday.
NOTE: Yippee!! I just got a call from the LT at the Fire Department and they have agreed to loan us the room for our meetings and seminars. I will take him a schedule tomorrow and will see if it will meet our needs - I am sure it will since our major need is FREE SPACE.
RIBBON ORNAMENT WITH DIANE
The supplies you will need are:
Scissors
Styrofoam egg shape form size approximately 1 7/8 inch by 2 1/2 inch. for the pine cone
Styrofoam cone shape for size approximately 3 inch by 2 inch for the Christmas Tree
lots of straight pins, plain, no fancy head on the pins, cheapest you can find
Ribbon (Found in the Christmas ribbon section at Michael's) 7/8 inch wide and wired edge.
Ribbon topper. Bow at the top of the ornament. I find it at the Dollar Tree and use wired edge 1.5 inch wide fancy Christmas ribbon that looks good with the ribbon for the actual pine cone..
I have plenty of ribbon for the hanger.
That is it for this month. I hope I didn't make anyone mad, I worked for the military for almost 30 years so I have a habit of writing without frills or as they say, the KISS method. So please take the above in the manner it was meant, concern and love for our club and its members.
