NEA FAC MINUTES 8/22/2010

Fine Arts Caucus

Conference Call

22 August 2010

Members present:

Tom McLaughlin, Debbie Turici, Rich Nicklay, Joe Bartell, Charlie Fry, Oscar Forsman

Dan  Caruso, Sue Lemmo, Kathi Zamora

Meeting was called to order at 7:30 CST by Tom McLaughlin, Chair.

Agenda:  Approval of the meeting agenda was moved by Kathi Z., seconded by Oscar.  Motion carried.

Minutes:  Approval of the minutes of the July 26, 2010 meeting  was moved by Dan and seconded by Joe.  Motion carried.

Logo Design Contest:  Discussion was postponed due to the fact that Jack R. was not in attendance.  He is working on the proposals for this contest.

Constitution and By-Laws:  Rich and Charlie reported that thus far they have been looking over the old and new documents.  They are comparing them.  Several questions were raised such as if there is a timeline to finish this work.   It was decided that Charlie and Rich will use email to work on the bylaws.  The revised sections will be sent to us ahead of each call for discussion.  It was suggested that an attorney might be consulted to be sure that the revised document is in line with NEA. 

The completed tentative revised bylaws and constitution will be sent out prior to the next representative assembly to all members.  The document will be voted on at the next RA, in 2011.

Survey:  Rich and Oscar revised the proposed member survey proposed by Tom.  It now consists of seven questions, and attempts were made to make it more streamlined.  The revised survey was sent out for review during the call, but since some members were having difficulty accessing it, Oscar read it aloud. 

Debbie T. suggested that the names of the national organizations should be spelled out for clarity.

Oscar suggested that they survey should go out in October, and should perhaps be finalized in mid September. 

I was also suggested that the officers and steering committee call members personally to encourage participation in the survey.

Incentives were discussed.  The idea is to award three prizes to encourage participation.  It was decided to award $20 for first, $10 for second, and a fine arts caucus t-shirt for third. 

Debbie T. moved and Sue L. seconded that we should proceed with the incentives.  Motion carried.

Scholarship:  There have been two applications received to date.  Bob is chair of this committee.  As he was not present, there was no report at this time.

State Caucus Update: 

California:  Pam and Joe are working to get a caucus revived, up and running.

Iowa:  Rich reported that at the Iowa Summer State Conference, that the Iowa State Fine Arts Caucus had 56 members sign up.  Twenty of those members also are national members.  He said that several reasons contributed to their success.  They had some time to meet during the conference.  And, they offered food and refreshments…a bribe.  They also sold fifteen t-shirts.

Nevada:  Not a lot of progress as yet.  Kathi has talked to the state president.  She is to send Kathi the information about how the state organizes the caucuses.  The Nevada State delegate assembly is held in the spring, and typically has about thirty minutes available for meeting. 

Illinois:  Oscar shared that not a lot of progress at this point.  More will happen at their state delegate meeting which is also held in the spring.

Pennsylvania:  Debbie updated that 500 letters were sent out to the state and local superintendents regarding the NBI from RA. 

At their summer leadership, there were 1400 in attendance.  They had a 40 minute time slot for meeting, two people showed up.

They are considering doing an arts competition with the theme of the “Fabric of Unionism”.   It would be K-12, and go with a study of the history of labor.  The works would be displayed at the state art education meeting in December.  \Also, at this meeting, a table with information about the NEAFAC could be distributed.  However, there is a $300.00 table fee.

National:  Princess Moss, Dennis VonRoekel, Lily Eskelson, Greg Johnson and Dave Sanchez have joined the NEAFAC.

Techno

At this time, there are twenty members on the listserve.

We still have the Yahoo group. 

Tom reminded that all of could and should be authors in the blog.

It was again mentioned to call people personally to invite them to join the blog and group.

Adjournment:  It was moved by Dan C., and seconded by Debbie T. to adjourn.  Motion carried.  Meeting was adjourned at 8:47 CST.

Respectfully Submitted,

Kathi Zamora

NEAFAC Secretary