KC Clay Guild Board Minutes - May 1st, 2024
Start: 6:00 End:
ATTENDEES: Cindy Percival, Cynthia Brown, Kelly Daniels, Deborah Kashyap, Laura Tyler Strawn, Louis Reilly, John Devaney, Kelsie Herron, Josh Wood, Abby Callaghan, David Firman.
BUSINESS UPDATES:
President: Josh Wood
Vice President: John DeVaney
Gallery: David Firman
Workshops: Deborah Kashyap
Membership/Outreach: Cindy Percival
Monitors/Volunteers: Cynthia Brown
Treasurer: Kelly Daniels
Secretary: Laura Tyler Strawn
Education: Abby Callaghan
Publicity: Kelsie Herron
Treasurer’s Report –
Votes outside of meeting
We voted to put an offer in for potential building start at $600,000 and to go up to no more than $750,000 (at least without voting again).
Spring Sale – Kelsie, Josh, Laura, Amy T, David
May 10th and May 11th
Can we do a last meeting Monday or Tuesday evening before the sale? Tuesday at 6
Amy is working on final email to send out to participants with load in/out instructions
Workshops –
Deborah wants to get microphone and expand YouTube page
*Late October: 1 day teabowl workshop with Jamish Jackson
Youth Pinch Pot Monster Workshop
May 5, 5-7
*First Sunday of each month for kids
*Second Sunday more for adults
Monitors / Volunteers -
Planning outdoor picnic for next monitor meeting at Leawood City Park – July 14th or 21st
Planning to organize documents on the desktop
Can we combine the monitor slack and the general Clay Guild slack?
Publicity – Kelsie
Working on Spring Sale publicity
KC Studio post coming out next week
Spot in KCUR this week for Spring Sale
Community Outreach/Membership –
The number of active members as of 4/29 is 631.
ENewsletter
Organizational News: Raku at Truman Highschool
Maybe an employee or board member spotlight: Spotlight Louis
Workshops:
Anything else?
Education –
Airs on the Move at Hale Cook just ended. Trying to find more people that are interested in doing it.
Education Coordinator –
Summer Class—Louis
Some availability in 8:30am classes
3 or 4 classes out of 24 need more students to run
Building Maintenance -Louis
In order to enable moving the Blaauw kiln in one piece (strongly recommended by Blaauw) we need to open the wall into the kiln room and install a roll up door. I have a discounted quote to make the wall opening for ~$7,000 and the door will be another $1,000. The high cost of refabricating the complicated kiln supports for the Blaauw kiln, the risk involved in moving the kiln in pieces, and the ease at which we can move everything else out of the building through this 'dock' justify the expense. I think this will also add a bit of value to our building when it's time to sell.
Voted yes
Technology–
Laura – Can we get gmail email addresses for all the positions?
-Would it be helpful to get Microsoft Word and Excel accounts? I know Louis and Amy probably use Google Sheets and Docs primarily, but Amy was having issues doing the labels because Google Docs wasn’t compatible. Would it be helpful to get an account that then Louis and Amy could have on their laptops, and then the guild computer could also have?
Should make a website tech committee to search for a new platform for the website that has the functionality that we need. – Louis, Cynthia
Grants
We were awarded the 20K matching grant from the Murial McBride Kauffman Foundation
Should hear back about 20K grant from Deffenbaugh soon
Will be applying for Francis Family Foundation
Artist in Residence
Going to Arkansas Pottery fest in May
Applications ended for AIRs April 15, had 17 applications which is almost half of what we had last year. Kelsie and Louis are interviewing 7 people. Will have 3 spots and whole new group of people. 5 people have already committed to interviews.
Gallery –
Louis: We needed nice pedestals for use in our gallery and for use during the AiR exit shows, Teabowl National, etc. I have had a prototype flat pack pedestal made. We could have 20 pedestals made in various sizes that will last decades made for ~$2300. I have sample pedestals to show you all. Voted yes.
Izanna expressed interest in doing a solo show and Louis expressed interest in doing a show of his collection.
An instructors show would be cool. Also a show for kids.
Strategic Planning Committee- Josh, John, Melynda, Abby, Louis
Hamburger Mary Bingo Fundraiser –
Friday, May 17 at 7pm
Will help each other advertise
On the building, we have been negotiating with the owner's representative. They initially asked $895,000 or $71.60 per sq/ft for the building. We met as a board to offer no more than $750,000 for the building. John did some more financial research and concluded we couldn't afford to pay more than $700,000. Our nonprofit speciality lender, IFF has suggested we can afford to borrow and carry a $700,000 loan. We have discussed putting in ~$100,000 cash and borrowing ~$600,000.
Once we are able to sell off our current building we would apply the proceeds (roughly $450,000 or $93.75 per sq/ft) to the loan, knocking the principal down to $150,000. The loan would reamortize, payments would be reduced to reflect the small loan size.
We were recently awarded a $20,000 matching grant, once matched we'll have an additional $40,000.
We offered $600,000 initially, they countered at $870,000 or $69.60 per sq/ft. We came back at $700,000 as a best and final offer. They countered at $810,000 or $64.80 per sq/ft. We'll need to decide how to proceed tomorrow. My suggestion would be to counter at $720,000 citing the new grant.
*Louis and John will meet with IFF to talk more about how much money we are good to borrow. Or can IFF meet with the board as a whole?
Teabowl National – Aimee, Josh, Louis (Committee) David
Shikha Joshi is TBN juror for 2024
Raku Weekend
Holiday Sale
Apparel Committee – Laura, Aimee, Louis, Mike
Aimee ordered aprons
Have we heard if these have been received?
New business:
Joe Smith Lifetime achievement award – want to finalize nominations
Need to get it on the website and what the criteria are
