Verde Valley Cultural Collective's Meeting Minutes

Verde Valley Cultural Collective Minutes for Monthly Meeting

06/05/24 at 11:00AM at the Camp Verde Community Library

· Present at meeting: Barry Brennan, Sherry Morris, Tennousei Liila Leslie, Jennifer Eissinger, Frank Clara (New Member), Debbie Lynch (New Member), and Patty Miller (New Member).

· New Member introductions were made. Frank Clara works with pastels, watercolors, sculpture, and carving. Debbie Lynch does a variety of mixed media art, and Patty Miller currently does drawing, painting, and pastels. WELCOME!!!

GROUP DISCUSSIONS AS FOLLOWS:

· Officer roles that are currently being occupied as well as future roles members could volunteer for. These included:

o Barry Brennan – Chief Financial Officer and Special Events Officer.

o Tennousei Leslie – Social Media Officer

o Jennifer Eissinger – Website Officer

o Sheri Morris – Meeting Minutes Officer

· Other officer positions available also could be created by each member, depending on what they want to do in the group as well as other roles needing to be filled, for example – Newsletter Officer is currently needing to be filled. (This would require a monthly brief newsletter with current group events, and other group information, which would then be e-mailed to the group)..

· Non-Profit Status - It was determined that this is still in the works, with a meeting being conducted on Tuesday, June 25th at 11AM in the Key Lime Room at the Camp Verde Community Library with Tess from the Arizona Art Alliance. Tess has agreed to travel from the Phoenix area to explain to the group ideas about becoming non-profit, as well as becoming a cohesive artist group. Barry will be talking to Tess about this meeting being streamed for those who cannot make it in person. The topic of LLC was also talked about until we become a non-profit.

· Website - VerdeValleyCulturalCollective.com - Virtual Art Gallery is still available for members to be added to, which would include two images of your artwork, a self-photo, short biography and contact information. The fee of this is $20 to go towards the website fees, payable to Barry currently. This is not required to be a member, only if you want to be added to the online Virtual Gallery. You can e-mail Jennifer Eissinger or get in touch with her on Facebook if you want to be added to the gallery – JenniferSPrice@hotmail.com

· QR code for the website has been developed for business cards and is available if you want to use it elsewhere. It was e-mailed to e-mail group (if you aren’t on the e-mail group and want to be, please contact us through the website or the Facebook group).

· There will be a logo and banner contest posted in the VVCC Facebook group, if your design is chosen by the vote of the collective, you can be added to the Online Virtual Gallery without the $20 fee.

· September Fall Festival Arts & Crafts show was discussed – the group will be taking sign ups starting mid-July, please be watching for e-mails and Facebook posts for details. The booth fee will be $30 for a 10 X 10 foot space, that includes three tables, that you will need to set up and take down. This will be an indoor venue, and members can share a booth with someone. You will also need to be prepared to accept your own payments for your artwork, whether that be with Venmo, the Square, or cash only. For those who want to learn more about any of these options, who need more information, please reach out to the Facebook group, and someone can guide you through this.

· Future pop-up events and Art shows were discussed, regarding juried shows, and specific shows for only painting and photography as possible events. Pop up events will continue to happen spontaneously as venues arise, and these will be limited to about 4 artists per event. Currently pop-ups will not be juried, and the upcoming Fall Festival will not be juried, however there are limited spaces. Criteria currently for all types of shows/events are that you live in the Verde Valley area and that your items are handmade by you, the artist.

· Show venues can be sought out by all members. Patty Miller, added the possible Beaver Creek Adult Center and Tennousei Leslie, added possible art displays at Udderly Divine. Udderly Divine has a fee of $20 per sq. foot/per month. (Thank you Tennousei and Patty!)

· Advertising for the website, VVCC group (which would also include advertising for each of our members as a whole group) – was discussed, with Next Door Neighbor being a new addition. Facebook groups are also a great place to share our meetings, events, website, and FB group to. All posts online and our website are shareable via their links. The more we get the word out there, the better this group can grow and bloom.

· VVCC will be hosting our Library Exhibit from December 1st, 2024 through February 1st, 2025. (THANK YOU for securing that, Barry!) There is a limited space available, so depending on how many members sign up, there will be a rotating schedule for artwork.

· Next VVCC meeting (Other than the special Arizona Art Alliance one on 6/25 – see above) will be on Tuesday, July 2nd at 11AM. The following one will be on Tuesday, August 2nd at 5:30PM. VVCC will be alternating monthly meetings from morning to evening every other month, to let everyone get a chance to attend. It was also decided by those present to hold the monthly meetings on the first Tuesday of each month. Odd months will be at 11AM and even months will be at 5:30PM. Meetings last about an hour to an hour and a half, and we will be working on getting them streaming and recorded for those who cannot attend in person or need to watch the recording later.

· Artist classes and “shadowing” were discussed for future artist member activities. This way we could each share our talents, get to know each other, and delve into other art categories we may each be interested in. This will be an ongoing possibility as we get more organized, and we have interest for those who want to teach and those who want to learn.

· Topics for the next monthly meeting were discussed, and this will be on-going. If you have anything you would like added, please reach out via Facebook Group or the E-mail list/Website:

o Fund Raising Efforts

o Artist Shares/Education/Classes

o Fall Festival

o Non-Profit/LLC

o Member roles

o Consent forms for any group recordings

Thank you to all of those who made it out to the meeting, we got a lot accomplished. Sorry for those of you who could not make it, you were missed, and we hope you are doing well and that we will see you next time. Please feel free to reach out to any of us in the Facebook group or through our website/e-mail if you have any questions, ideas, or concerns!

VVCC E-mail Address: VerdeValleyCulturalCollective@gmail.com

VVCC Website: www.VerdeValleyCulturalCollective.com