San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild
Board Meeting of June 24, 2010
Meeting held at Michael and Valerie’s in Vallejo
Members present: Michael Nelson, Valerie Nelson, Barbara Grillo, Art Grueneberger, Conrad
Bishop, Randal Metz, Jesse Vail and Sharon Clay via Skype
Absent: Talib Huff
Meeting convened by Conrad at 7:12 PM
New board members Jesse Vail and Art Grueneberger welcomed.
Approval of minutes from last meeting:
Minutes from board meeting approved, including all motions made at last board meeting
and minutes from general meeting approved.
Resolutions from last meeting:
Pay Pal – Conrad was going to investigate possibility of getting this for membership
payments
Links for web page set up? – Michael. P of A, Bookstore, UNIMA, current festivals?
Scholarship decisions – to the best of my knowledge, the scholarship committee has not
had a meeting or discussion as to how often someone can apply; if scholarship events
should be specified.
Treasurer’s report:  (I don’t have the attachment)
Randal suggested that we move some of our money out into some type of interest bearing
account. Discussion that interest rates are very low. And this would not be very
productive. Larry Schmidt was sent $300 for his scholarship and Stephen Ritz-Barr
received $150 honorarium for last program.
Note: We have a 50th year anniversary (possibly actually even more) coming up next
year.
Perhaps we should consider budgeting some of the money for this.
Michael – did you send out reminder to members as to how to get their website links onto
our web site?
Website: 12 members represented on the website under member services
Membership report:
105 members. Anyone who joins now receives membership for rest of year & all of next year.
Michael reports he gets a few contacts off the web site. Maybe one or two every 3-4 months.
Election of officers and committee assignments
Offices to be designated: President, Vice President, Secretary ,Treasurer, Program ,Nominating,
Membership
Discussion about ‘terms of office” – which officers are are beyond their terms. Conrad
suggested that the by-laws be reviewed about these terms since some offices could be
extended.
Program chair is very important, and Lee did a great job with program, with some help from
Barbara, Sharon and some from Michael and Conrad. But, this really is a very important
job.
Membership officer used to be combined with treasurer, but then Membership officer was
broken off to be an officer on it’s own. Michael has tried to expand this office to increase
our membership.

President: Valerie moved and Barbara 2nd motion that Conrad be retained as President. All yea
Secretary: Barbara moved and Art 2nd motion that Sharon continue as Secretary. All yea
Membership: Jesse moved and Art 2nd that Michael continued as Membership and Valerie
continue as Treasurer. Passed. All yea, 0 no.
Newsletter – Michael will do the July Newsletter. Awaiting Talib’s health report. At this time
there is no information for the newsletter.
Program: Jesse appointed incoming chair of program
Vice President: Barbara moved Randal 2nd that Art be appointed V.P. All yea.
Scholarship: Conrad recommend that Mary Decker be invited to continue as scholarship
Committee chair. But that the issue of scholarships be tabled until the next board meeting.
Conrad recommends that the scholarship committee gather information from board members
as to what the board thinks should be the qualifications and or “return obligation” of
scholarship recipient.
Hospitality Committee: Conrad asked Valerie to be chair of hospitality committee
Puppet Day at Fairyland – August 28th
Vagabond Puppets will be coming in and Fairyland is celebrating its 60th year.
Need a hook to get people to attend the meeting. What do we offer the public here and
what do we offer the members. What do people learn about puppetry?
Jesse suggests that we have several people come that day and set up a table or tables
where they will make puppets during the day
Barbara suggests that we have a pot luck and then some demos or show and tell that will
be of benefit to our members, followed by a short meeting. Hopefully this will result in
some ideas for upcoming meetings.
For the day of puppetry at Fairyland -volunteer groups are welcome. As soon as the
schedule comes from Randal we will be able to move on this.
Next Meeting:
Valerie moved, Barb. 2nd that we have our next guild meeting on August 28th on the Day or
Puppetry – all yea.
Survey: Send survey on yahoo groups and by mail to those without computer.
Conrad asked for input from board on content/wording of survey.
How many meetings should we have a year? Maybe the two big events then several
smaller events? Should we try to schedule meetings to coordinate with other puppet
events? If we have only 4-6 meetings should they be scheduled at a regular date – always
the last_____ of every odd month. Or should we set specific meeting dates?Let’s see what the results of the survey are.
Jesse, Conrad and __________(Barbara?) will scout out venues for meetings/performances.
Recognition of outgoing board members:
It was suggested that SOME type of recognition be given – certificate? Gift?
It was agreed that some type of recognition be given. Recognition in the newsletter
and a gift at the next meeting.
Anniversary Celebration:
Randal: send out invitations to former guild members
Catered dinner? Restaurant? Program of history of Guild.
Conrad moved we form a committee to determine a time/date and location for the
type of anniversary celebration. Art moved/Barbara 2nd that Michael & Randall be
co-chairs of the committee. Sharon nominated Lee to be on the committee also.
Suggested that former members of the Guild send in pictures that represent the
history of the Guild. Sharon suggested a video that represents the history and suggested
that we get a bid from Rik as to what he would charge to put together a 20 minutes video.
Conrad: Next board meeting prior to day of puppetry: possibly August 21st. Conrad will send out
an email questionnaire as to availability of board meeting
Meeting adjourned at 9:40 PM.
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