Minutes of the Board Meeting June 2007

I. On line meeting June10th thru 16th, 2007: the meeting was called to order and agenda was posted by President Jackie Penner on June 10th, 2007.

II. Present was Jackie Penner, Gwen Pentecost , Kendra Page, Lynn Thomas, Margo Petterson, Janice Muir, Helen Howerton, Elin Pendleton and Dana Nash, Mary Ann Cherry, Kathy Cooper, Linda Walker.

III. Treasurers Report: Treasurers report--- Our bank balance is $23,561 as of today, June 10th

IV. Approval of the minutes of the last meeting was moved by Margo Petterson and was seconded by Kendra Page..

  1. OLD BUSINESS:
  1. The website of the month was tabled last month and brought forward for revote this month and it failed to pass.

B. Trailer follow up on selling the trailer and storing the display boards.

Jackie has been in contact with Elin and Kendra and they are coming up with information about the trailer so we can show it to a prospective buyer. We will discuss with Elin on how we want to go about storing the panels and pedestals.

VI. NEW BUSINESS:

A. The following were brought forward, discussed and voted upon:

1. Establish a permanent collection of the artwork of our founders and members? Failed

2. Approve up to $1,000 of additional money to add to the Chicago Show awards? Passed

3. Pay Debbie Hughbanks trip to Chicago? Failed

4. Help with Debbie Hughbanks trip to Chicago if you do not pay her way? Passed

5. Kathy would like to propose we have a Sunday Brunch (9:00 - 11:00) at the hotel that we choose to get a group discount rate at I have done a bit of checking around and there are a couple of hotels who will rent a room to us for $250 and the buffet would be about $32.
Is this something we as an organization can pick up the bill on?Table

VII REPORTS

A. Ad Director: No new report at this time.

B. Shows:

The budget for the showincludes approximately $4,000 of entry fees, of which about half is budgeted for expenses. I would like to allot the remainder of the show budget ($2,000) towards the member cash awards at the show, and ask the board to approve up to 1,000 of additional money to add to the awards. Please keep in mind that the budget is a very good "guess" as there is no way to know how much of a response we'll get from the membership for the entry fees, and expenses will vary. All-in-all, we have a spectacularly conservative budget here, keeping expenses very low. I would like to have between $2,500 and $3,000 for the awards. Please look at the list below and lets discuss.
Member Awards
All awards will be conferred based upon the merits of the works as judged by the awarding judge. It is possible that not all awards will be given if the awarding judge feels that there is not a suitable winner in any given award category. The judge’s decisions are final.
This list represents the known awards at the time of printing this prospectus. The amount of the award money will be announced as soon as possible. Other awards will become available as other sponsors join our show.
Award Name Awarding Judge Award
Best of Show Nancy Guzik $1,000
First PlaceNancy Guzik $750
Second Place Nancy Guzik $500
Third PlaceNancy Guzik $250
Jury Awards WAOW Jury Panel $500 (qty:5, or we can just use the merchandise awards for these)
Merchandise Awards
(final list of merchandise awards to be supplied at show - we have some great products to give away)
Advertising Awards:(given to WAOW for awards by the magazines)
Art of the West Award of Excellence AOTW staffFull page ad
Wildlife Art MagazineWAM Staff Full page ad (unconfirmed as of today - waiting for email)
Fine Art Connoisseur Award of Excellence Nancy Guzik 1/2 page ad
Horse in Art Equine Merit prizeNancy Guzik 1/2 page ad and editorial coverage

  • I know we have approved a limited number of people to have their trip paid to the Hilligoss show, but I have another one to ask the board about. Debbie Hughbanks has been (and will be) a tremendous help as my Asst. Show Director. I had assumed she was attending the show, but she informed me that she would find it very difficult to pay for such a trip. She is responsible for obtaining all the merchandise awards and is working diligently on the banquet plans. We can probably swing it on our own with the banquet on that weekend, but it would make a big difference to have her there, as she's the one putting it together. We are finding that the gallery is not too terribly helpful with these matters so far. So, I would like to ask the board if we could possibly see any way to pay for her trip too, or at least help out with the expenses. She may even be able to share a hotel room with someone (she doesn't know I'm asking the board about this).
  • Kathy would like to propose we have a Sunday Brunch (9:00 - 11:00) at the hotelthat we choose to get a group discount rate at (I've got a rate, so far, for $119 a night).
    I have done a bit of checking around and there are a couple of hotels who will rent a room to us for $250 (I got them down from $400), and the buffet would be about $32 pp.
    Is this something we as an organization can pick up the bill on?
  • Briscoe and Hall of Fame Show suggestions:

To the Board of Directors:
Please download the following pdf:
which is information about the BriscoeMuseum for you to view. It is an exciting project for western art - nationally. Hopefully, this pdf will give you a visual of the project.
Here are some notes and recommendations I have from my meeting with Dr. Beauchamp:
Our Discussion about WAOW at the Briscoe Museum
After the tour of the museum, Dr. Beauchamp and I had lunch on the river walk and discussed what the Briscoe Museum was looking for in their shows and how WAOW could be a part of their plans. I spoke of our organization in high regards, of it’s purpose, to encourage high quality and the promotion of fine art in the profession of women’s fine art. I discussed the western background of our organization and how we were rich in western art talent and would be capable of a high quality western themed show. I spoke of our highly respected sponsors, Art of the West and Fine Art Connoisseur and their donation of ad space and editorial coverage for our show. He seemed very impressed with our national recognition.
He stated that their standards are very high and he would present our organization to the board for consideration. When you read my presentation of the museum, you'll find the list of artists supporting the "Night of Artists" including Howard Turpning, Cyrus Afsary, Nancy Bush, John Coleman, Andy Thomas, Larry Fanning, Tony Eubanks, Oreland C. Joe, Sr., Dave Powell,Sandy Scott, (we have her too!) Kent Ulberg, Hollis Williford, Curt Walters, Roseta Santiago, George Hallmark, Luke Frazier and Xiang Zhang.
Dr. Beauchamp is not the one to make the decision of who shows at the BriscoeMuseum. He will present WAOW to their board and keep in touch. Dr. Beauchamp is looking for a long-term relationship, wanting to communicate closely along the way, as 2009 is a bit away. We also discussed the possibility of an annual show with us at the Briscoe. This was a good indication that he liked what he heard. The meeting I had with him is the beginning of such relationship which we should work hard at upholding. Helen and I will continue to keep in touch with him.
He also seemed impressed that we were able to obtain advertising and editorial sponsorship for our Hilligoss show. I stated how we had strong support from the Duer's, owners of Art of the West, and they've been behind us for years. He jokingly stated he should hire me for their publicity! That told me that he recognized how hard we work to publicize our shows. I left him with our press kit which he will give to the board (I also mentioned the Briscoe project to our Am Art Collector rep via email as a good editorial. She said she passed the info along to their editor. If something happens for them editorial wise, and they mention WAOW, it would be a good bonus for us. Networking works wonders sometimes).
The museum is strongly about "telling the story of the west". I pointed out a few bios from the press kit which was along that line. He liked what he saw.
My recommendation for our next step is the following:
Work on presenting our “best” out in front. Award our Master members as soon as possible and put them out front.
Encourage our members to update their member pages with new quality works & submit their national accomplishments (shows, awards etc).
Create a brochure to promote the “western” theme of our org. Supply this to Dr. Beauchamp. Keep communicating with him on a regular basis develop a relationship. Helen is committed to doing this.
Establish categories of our members work on our website. We need to be able to sort the member’s work by style, and subject.
Tighten the WAOW jury process to improve the quality of work coming into the organization.
1. Consider a highest quality of work when considering new members.
2. Draw a hard line on existing members not filling their advertising obligations, and show obligations. Make sure there is at least one show for every member to be a part of. We should have more than one show.
3. Take a pro-active step towards recruiting women artists. Create a simple presentation to attract quality artists to our organization. Define the benefits and future show opportunities. Email these artists inviting them to apply for membership. We can take a closer look at the information provided to prospective members on our website as well.
4. Revamp the member application to state a clear definition of what type of fine art we represent and the organizations benefits to them. Present our organization in a nice brochure (or even an email) to send to prospective members.
To conclude, I see WAOW at a crossroad with many fabulous opportunities in the “high quality” road, which I would like to see the organization choose to take. If we do not tighten the quality on our membership, we will loose these opportunities. Both Hilligoss and Briscoe have both stated their concerns about the overall quality of work in our organization. I would like to prove to them that we do have high standards for our members. Tom Hilligoss is willing to trial our show this year, but will be deciding on the quality overall for future show possibilities. We need to show more of our best to Dr. Beauchamp over the next 6 months to convince him and the board of the stature of our organization’s work.
I was honored to represent WAOW for the BriscoeMuseum and with Helen, look forward to our future relationship with them.
I have written a thank you note to him, but I also think we should still produce a western presentation to send to him of our artists. This would be helpful with the Rodeo Hall of Fame as well.
Kathy Cooper
WAOW, 2nd Vice President/Show Chairman

  1. Publicity: No report.

D. Executive Director report from Helen Howerton

First, I want to applaud Kathy Cooper on the wonderful job she has done in representing WAOW with the BriscoeMuseum in San Antonio, TX. Her meeting with Dr. Darrell Beauchamp was very successful and has provided us with a huge step forward in attaining a terrific opportunity for a show of WAOW art works there, possibly in 2009 when the new museum will have it's grand opening event. Kathy and I will continue to keep in contact with Dr. Beauchamp to develop a good working relationship with him and his museum Board of Directors. I hope all of you have taken the time to read Kathy's fine report. We look forward to receiving your comments and suggestions as it will take all of us 'combining our brain power' to turn this possibility into reality.
I returned last night from attending two days at the Prix de West fabulous western art show at the CowboyHeritageMuseum in Oklahoma City. They sold over 5.2 million dollars in fine art on Saturday evening at the fixed price art sale during a cocktail party and in a live auction at the following awards banquet....over 1200 people attended the banquet...... what a lineup of artists!
Tom Tierney and Allan Duerr were in attendance. Art of the West provided bright blue carry bags for all attendees. Several magazines provided free issues for everyone too. All and I did manage to visit for about 30 minutes. Of course, I thanked him for their continued support of WAOW. Though he did indicate some concern about our spotty advertising this year, he promised to continue to support our organization. I assured him that our present very active WAOW Board have been avidly updating our Bylaws and membership categories, while tightening our requirements of present and new members. I suggest that we consider sending him a news release about our organization, i.e. approximate number of Associate & Signature members along with an announcement of Emeritus and newly elected/selected Master Signature members and a listing of our Board of Directors too...I feel that he will give us some extra publicity here.
While I did not reveal to him the name of the BriscoeMuseum, I did 'entice his interest' by mentioning that we are working with a distinguished top notch Museum for an exhibition in 2009. He was somewhat surprised to hear that I have never really left the WAOW Board and seemed pleased that I, too, am involved with the project. He asked me to keep him informed when we do reach an agreement with the 'unnamed' museum as he will do an article about the museum and more about WAOW.
I also was able to visit with Marc Fleischer our representative for Southwest Art. Paul Montag with Wildlife Art was there, but I didn't meet him there.
Sandy Scott, the sculptress who will have work with us at the Hilligoss Gallery, was in attendance and I took the occasion to introduce myself as WAOW's Executive Director....thanking her for agreeing to exhibit her work in the show in October. She was gracious and thanked us for inviting her...She will try to be there in person in October too.
Also visited with Cynthia Rigden, sculptress in the Prix De West, who judged the Phippen Show...... she was very impressed with Mary Ann Cherry's winning painting! Way to go, Mary Ann!
Unfortunately, I was not able to meet the director of the Booth Museum who also made a presentation at the Prix de West seminars...... I didn't purchase the $135.00 package for seminars as I knew I couldn't attend them all due to the fact that I couldn't arrive in OKC until 1pm on Friday.....he spoke at 9am on Friday....Actually, I was lucky to go at all with the funeral of my Father in Law this past week too. While I didn't hear his speech, I heard that it was informative. This gives me another opportunity to send him a short email....The Booth museum in Georgia had already contacted us several months ago just asking for contact info. We may have show possibilities here too.
Must go for now...... Again special thanks to Kathy Cooper! And, as always, best wishes and hugs to all of you for the great work you contribute to making WAOW a great organization.
Helen F. Howerton
Wildlife & Western Artist
WAOW Executive Director

Tulsa, OK

E. Volunteers:

  • We also have two new volunteers: Jeanne Englesath (web and Cafe) and Marilyn Heed (details - help with email questions). Please make note of these wonderful new volunteers. Welcome aboard Jeanne & Marilyn, we're thrilled to have you part of the show. Gwen and Suzanne are chatting with Jeanne to get her going, and we will need to keep Marilyn informed on all show info.
  • Joan Wayne Brown has graciously agreed to be the official contact for
    Member Banquet Registrations(not public)
    her email is
    I will list her as the contact for member tickets when we have the banquet plans more together.
    She will be very helpful to Debbie in this regard, although she will NOT attend the show.
  • Leslie Allen and her husband Dave have volunteered to handle the book/catalog sales at the show. They are perfect, as he was a Borders Books manager for years
  • Anita Palmer plans to attend the show. Put me down to help with the banquet or any otherplace I can be ofassistance.I can take reservations via e-mail, setup tables, clean-up, take tickets, etc. I have a nice camera, but others probably are more of a camera buff than me. I'm not nearly as computer literate as some in our group, but willing to help.
  • Janice Muir has offered to assist Gwen with the slide scanning part for those members who can't or won't do it themselves. I think we should announce this to the membership.

Adjournment of the meeting with the final tally of the votes.

Respectfully submitted by Margo Petterson 6/28/07