Minutes of the Board Meeting July 2007
I. On line meeting July16th thru 20th, 2007: the meeting was called to order and agenda was posted by President Jackie Penner onJuly 16th, 2007.
II. Present was Jackie Penner, Gwen Pentecost , Kendra Page, Margo Petterson , Dana Nash, Mary Ann Cherry, Kathy Cooper, Linda Walker.
III. Treasurers Report: Treasurers report--- Our bank balance as of 7/03/07 is $24,172.31.
IV. Approval of the minutes of the last meeting was moved by Kendra Page and was seconded by Helen Howerton.
V. OLD BUSINESS:
A. Do you want to have a Sunday brunch membership meeting at the Chicago show that WAOW picks up some or the entire bill on? Failed
B. Would you like to have a no host Sunday Brunch at the Chicago show if there are enough members there for a meeting? Passed
C. How much financial help would you like to see given to Debbie Hughbanks for the Chicago show? Passed—I will suggest a set amount for a vote at our next board meeting.
WAOW Trailer
The one buyer that was looking at the trailer found another trailer closer to him so is no longer interested in buying the WAOW trailer.
Elin Pendleton is going to advertise the trailer for sale when her schedule slows down and does not mind storing it until it sells. Thank You Elin.
VI. NEW BUSINESS:
A. The following were brought forward, discussed and voted upon:
1. Do we want to do regular on line shows in the future, if we can find a member to volunteer for the job?Table
2. Would you like to see WAOW pay for a full-page ad in Art of the West with name and image and a press release in that regard to be sent to all our regular national magazine for inclusion in their news, for each of our Master members, when the Master member structure passes? Passed
3. Do you want to be a group that brings in up and coming artists? Table
4. Do you want to be a group that only brings in the best artists that we
can get? Passed
5. Do you want to invoke a moratorium on membership now? Table
VII REPORTS
A. Ad Director: I have been keeping track of all those who have advertised through me(Sandy) and Pat and those who have informed me of outside advertising. Responses are helping me find out those who haven't informed me of outside ads, and getting some members on the ball to get in an ad this year. The list of sig. members is exactly what I need to help me know which sig members are not participating, so I can contact them personally. Trying to get 100% participation!
I have heard back from approx. half of the sig members.
I understand thatI shouldsend the list I get to Linda Walker and Lynn Thomas?
Mary Ann is puttingmy requestin the West Wind too so that should remind a few
more.
·B. Shows:
Wow, has this been a busy year for me so far! I have so many exciting things planned for the WAOW members this fall. This is a great year for WAOW members, as we are providing fantastic promotional opportunities. It’s up to you to make the most of them.
Another WAOW Show this year...
The 2007 “Mountain Holiday” Miniature Show Prospectus is out, and included in this newsletter. Please read it carefully. This is a great “second” show as we will have it online as well. Although it is titled as a holiday show, this does not pertain to the subject matter. The subject matter is not a “holiday” theme, it is what ever you like. These little treasures will make lovely gifts. She has set no size limitation on sculptures, but lets keep in mind that this is a miniature show.
Thank you Gwen Pentecost for hosting this show in your gallery!
Marketing the Hilligoss Show
Earlier this year I asked membership to submit editorial and images to be included in a press kit. Anita Palmer worked diligently to polish and massage the text to make it a nice uniform package. I put this fantastic text together with all our show promotional images and the individual images submitted by members with their editorial to create a fantastic press kit which was mailed to 13 national magazines. We are now at the beginning of the editorial working timeline for the Sept/Oct issues of these magazines. Our first success is Horses in Art who featured editorial promoting our show and highlighted Anita Palmer and Elizabeth Cameron. I have editorial commitments from Art of the West and Wildlife Art, and am looking forward to what the other magazines will do. I’m very happy for the promotional opportunities this editorial will provide, not only for our show, but for our members individual careers.
We also ran a Hilligoss Show promotional image submission earlier this year which was voted on by the Board. Instead of one image to promote the show, we chose a first, second and third in the following categories: Equine, Figurative, Landscape/Seascape/skyscape, Sculpture, Still Life, Western Theme, Wildlife/Animals. We are presently using the first place images for the Hilligoss show postcard, website home page, and magazine ads. We are also utilizing the second and third place images in the magazine ads as they pertain to the magazine’s specialty (ie: Wildlife Art ). Thank you all for submitting your images to promote the show.
We have received sponsorship of free ad space to promote the show and to award to members at the show as well as editorial commitments from four national art magazines. If you would like to stand out with the show promotion, there’s still time. Contact the advertising director listed below for more information (or visit the members page).
Art of the West Sandy Wisecup
Fine Art Connoisseur Pat Schermerhorn
Wildlife Art Magazine Sandy Wisecup
Horses in Art Sandy Wisecup
You can also find the ad rates and deadlines in OurArt forum (see membership communication below).
We are also thrilled to have the notorious Palette & Chisel will help promote our show. This is a well respected academy in the Chicago area, and one close to Nancy Guzik’s heart as it’s where she met her husband, Richard.
Show Awards and Goodies
Debbie Hughbanks has done a spectacular job at obtaining many wonderful goodies to award to members at the show. Take a look at the list of our sponsors at the bottom of our home page ( . It’s quite impressive!
Join us!
This is a fabulous show to attend. We’re getting more and more interest snowballing from the magazines and members. We are expecting Nancy Guzik, Richard Schmid, Kristen Thies, Timothy Thies, and most of the invited artists. We are also expecting representatives from the magazines sponsoring our show. We have several demonstrations and presentations from members and will have a “meet the artists” press-networking period during the Saturday events. We’d love to have you join us!
Hilligoss Show Banquet, Friday night, Nov 9, 2007, 6-9 p.m.
I thought I'd let you know who's working so hard on this event for our enjoyment!
Debbie Hughbanks, Assistant Show Chairman - is making arrangements with the gallery and will be in touch soon with the cost of the tickets.
Joan Brown, Membership Banquet Registration - will be accepting all the member reservations and tracking ticket payments for the Banquet. Email:
As the final plans are not yet in place, you can expect the Banquet tickets to be around $50 each. This will include a wonderful evening of awards, a slide presentation and keynote presentation. As mentioned above, many special guests are expected to attend which will make the evening an exciting networking opportunity.
Thank you Debbie and Joan for all your hard work for our banquet!
Book Signing at the banquet.
Kristen Theis and Nancy Guzik will sign books after the Hilligoss Show Awards Banquet Friday night and on Saturday, as supplies last. WAOW will handle the sales and receive 15% from Ms. Theis book and 33% from Ms. Guzik’s catalog during weekend event!
To reserve your copy to be picked up at the show, or to be signed and mailed to you; please post a reply to the notice in OurArt, or use the form attached to the prospectus mailed with the last newsletter. All book reservations need to be pre-paid. We are hoping to have a means of PayPal payments very soon, for your convenience (place a reservation and then pay when PayPal is up). Also, please let us know if you plan to be at the show (and will pick them up at the show), or if you would like the autographed copies mailed to you.
Airport: O’Hare
We have obtained a group rate at the Wyndham Garden Hotel which is close to the gallery. If you would like to take advantage of this rate, contact them directly. We also have members interested in sharing a room. You can post a notice in OurArt to connect.
Wyndham Garden Hotel
900 W. Lake-Cook Road
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
Phone: 847-215-8883 Fax: 847-215-9904
Group Name: Women Artist of the West
Rate: $73.00
Dates: Friday, 11/9/2007 and Saturday, 11/10/2007
(rate is also good for one day before and one day after - reserve early, as they are not saved)
Guest Room Payment: Credit Card or Cash
Reservations by: Individual Guest will Call Hotel Direct for Reservations
GUARANTEE LATE ARRIVAL
A Credit Card or Advance Deposit is required to Guarantee Reservations
If reservations are not received by 10/10/2007 this block will be released and rooms will be on a space available basis only. Check-in time for groups is 3:00pm and check-out time is 11:00am.
The Show Committee
We now have many members working diligently on the Hilligoss show. With the help of Jeanne Englesath, we will be able to provide the Hilligoss show online, and Suzanne Ferguson for putting all the show info on our website. Thanks to Debbie Hughbanks, Joan Brown and Velida Palmer we will have a lovely banquet to gather and honor our artists. Our detail coordinators, Marilyn Heed, Anita Palmer, Janice Muir, and Esther Marie Versch make sure everything gets done and information is relayed to the right people. Leslie Allen and her husband will handle the book sales. Gwen Pentecost and Jeanne Englesath make the Cafe process run smoothly.
I graciously thank all of my volunteers for making this show a success. Without these members, the show would not go on!
Membership Communication
Besides notes in the WestWind Newsletter, with the help of Suzanne Ferguson and Linda Walker, I have been providing show information to the membership via the members page and OurArt. If you haven’t checked these two areas out, you should.
99.9% of the questions asked can be answered in these two areas:
Members Page: (user name: waow, password: member)
OurArt blog: (password: waowinc)
If you have questions regarding the show that are not answered in these two areas, please email Marilyn Head at and she will get the information you need.
WAOW Hilligoss Show Committee:
Show Chairman, Kathy Cooper,
Asst. Show Chair/Banquet Mgr, Debbie Hughbanks,
Publicity, Dana Nash,
Demo/publicity, Michelle Gladish,
Website (online show), Jeanne Englesath,
Café Asst., Jeanne Englesath,
Detail Coord, Marilyn, Head,
Detail Coordinator - at Show, Anita Palmer,
Demo Details, Janice Muir,
Editor, Anita Palmer,
Café Manager, Gwen Pentecost, Gwen Meyer,
Mailing Tasks, Esther Marie Versch,
Banquet Registration and Payments:
Membership, Joan Brown,
Non-Membership, Velida Palmer, .
Book sales coordinator, Leslie Allen,
Hilligoss Show Timeline:
August 3 - Deadline for all digital entries at
September 3 - Notices of accepted work are mailed
October 12-19 - Shipped paintings must arrive at gallery. Detailed shipping instructions will be provided to artists upon acceptance.
November 9 - Awards banquet 6-9 p.m.
November 10 - Exhibit opens in gallery, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. meet the artists open house for collectors and the press, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Opening reception
10 a.m. - 4 p.m. demos and presentations by members
November 21 - Last day of exhibit
November 30 - Gallery begins shipping unsold paintings to artists. The return shipping process will take four to five weeks. We have asked that artists do not call to check on their painting prior to December 20.
As you can see, this is a big event, and there are many people working very hard making this show a success. We hope you will take advantage of these great opportunities.
2008 Show(s)
We have a committee of members working on the Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado. This show will be Western Themed.
We would like to ask the membership to consider a venue in their area for a second no-theme show, which they can organize. Please contact me directly if you are interested in working on such a show for 2008.
Hope to meet you in person in Long Grove!
Kathy Cooper
2nd VP/ Show Chairman
978 589-3840
C.PUBLICITY:
We (Michelle &I) will be sending e-mail alerts. We have found bysending our publicity to our projected buyers and patrons and art guilds by e-mail is the way to get noticed.When weget the post cardwe can use it as an invitation along with a brief explanation about the event. The last two weeks before the show, wewill have anarticle similar to theseveral we sent for the historical files or toWAOW's historical director.
We do not need all the postcards, as I only asked for 30. We have had great response from The Sun-Times & Tribune and Herald through e-mail. Hard copies are a thing of the past especially in such a huge market. We have an interview the week before with Heartland Cafe and the other Chicago radio stations will pick this us. WGN and local television will advertise as a little blurb.It will be very minor, but still publicity.
Much can be done by the artists notifying their respective newspapers about the event.
Heartland Cafe will do a 5 minute radio program on Saturday before the show. We will talk about WAOW and their coming to the Chicago suburbs again. I have done radio and television before so I know how to promote this.
I will be working with Tom and see what he wants to do...He used to take out a $4,000.00 ad in the Chicago Tribune for OPA.Healso made a CD to go to the television stations. He is a little cash strapped right now, but I still will prod him a little. I will do the CD myself, it will be very minor, but we will be advertised.Milwaukee, Wisconsin is very close and I am endeavoring to see if we can get publicity there. Let you know real soon.
Editorials will be in the following papers.
Ring of Fire-Russian Newspaper
Polish Women Alliance-Polish News
The Daily Herald
The Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Reader
The Pioneer Press goes to 160 communities
The Journal-We will have a HUGE editorial.
The Where Magazine-goes into all hotels
The Chicago Magazine-editorial submitted
I spoke with the Polish Women’s Alliance and they are willing to do an article about the show and attendance of the Saturday at the Studio of Long Grove. I convinced them it was about women and not just about being a "Polish” woman.
Publicity Chairman Dana Nash
D NEW MEMBERS:
Our new juried in members who have paid their dues and are now official members are:
Stephanie Birdsall
Carla D’aguanno
CristaForest
Marilyn Hansen
Heidi Harner
Catherine Hill Dolores (Dee) Lessard
Tina Moore
Loretta Schapnsky-Phillips
Connie Stewart
Jourdan Dern
Carol Neely
Marilyn Zvonkovich
Accepted but DUES NOT PAID and are not yet official member until her dues are paid.
Linda Phillips
E. VOLUNTEERS:
Suzanne Ferguson has handed in her resignation for web site in 2008. I told her we were sorry to lose her as she has done a wonderful job this year. I do think we should all start looking for someone that would maybe work with Suzanne this year and take over next year.
Adjournment of the meeting with the final tally of the votes.
Respectfully submitted by Margo Petterson 7/28/07
Margo Petterson
WAOW Signature Member
Equine Art Guild
CAC-Artist Member