Guild Experience Enhancement Department: Put More In, Get More Out

There are currently some new opportunities for you to enhance your guild
experience while helping the guild and the art of puppetry in the Bay Area
and getting to know some of your fellow guild members better (networking
connections!)

The following groups were formed at the October guild meeting and seeking
additional members. Members will meet in person or communicate by email
(what ever works best or is most fun) and study their area of focus, coming
up with ideas to share with the guild membership, or recommendations for the
guild.

Library Group

Are you a book lover? Did you know the guild has a library of puppetry
books, some possibly old or rare? It does! What should we do with it? Can a
library work for the guild? Is there a way to make books easily available to
the membership? Should they be online? Is a guild library an outmoded idea?
Should the books be given away to puppet centers? Sold? Should the guild
develop a video library on the Netflix model? This group will address these
and other issues and look for solutions to this literary problem.

Current members:

Kathy Foley, Lee Armstrong, Stephanie Holdermann, Michael Nelson

Hospitality Group

Do you like people? Do you think that eating (and drinking) can be (should
be) a social activity? Do you prefer your drink in a cup, or your food on a
plate? If so, the hospitality group could use you! Perhaps one of the most
important positions in the guild, the Hospitality Hosts will make sure that
there are good things to eat and drink at guild meetings (and things to eat
them off of and drink them out of), facilitate name tags (in case you just
can't remember the name of that guild member you met at last year's holiday
party) and generally make sure that everyone has a great time and is happy!

Current members:

Patty Wick, Valerie Nelson, Lee Armstrong, Anita Coulter, Michael Nelson

Procedures and By-Laws Group

Do you like all of your blocks in a line? Do you know where you put stuff?
Do you hate the idea of making the same decisions over and over again,
wasting all that time? The procedures and by-law group will provide an
invaluable service to the guild by checking our by-laws (written before the
electronic age), seeing if they are up to date (do they state what we are
actually doing, or have we moved on?) and help organize the procedures so
that the current and future boards will be able to easily find and follow
the decisions that the guild has made.

Current members:

Mary Decker, Anita Coulter, Michael Nelson

Public Relations Group

Ever hear about a puppet performance after it had already happened? Ever
give a puppet show and wish that were more people in your audience? Every
wish that you had more performances for your puppet company or that there
were more shows to go to in your area? The guild should be able to raise the
consciousness of puppetry in the bay area by putting a little effort into
getting our work into the public eye. This very important group can help
develop an online, universal puppetry calendar for the members and for the
public, help promote the art form in the community and help guild members
learn how to promote themselves and the art form, generating more interest
in and demand for puppetry throughout the Bay Area. This could easily be our
most important contribution to the art of puppetry in the Bay Area. Any
interested guild member can help, and those with public relations skills or
background would be especially helpful.

Current members:Patty Wick, Anita Coulter, Michael Nelson