When: Saturday, January 8, 2005

Where: The home of Kevin Menegus and Michael Burroughs. Eleven Padilla Court, Danville. 925-98four-3401

Time: 4:00 pm

Purpose: An open board meeting to discuss the future of The San Francisco
Bay Area Puppet Guild. All are invited who are interested. The guild
structure will be discussed and decided on. All who have an opinion are
welcome.

NOTE: THERE WILL ALSO BE A HOLIDAY PARTY ON JANUARY 22, 2005 -

Festivities will include a raffle, gift exchange, and entertainment by The
Fratello Marionettes and a guest puppet artist from Japan. (really!)

If you would like to be on the entertainment list, please contact Randal
Metz at (510) 351-45two2.

Tim Giugni would love to hear from you personally about our guild. Please
email him at Tim teatrocalamari dot com or phone him at (707) 963-eight259. He will put your ideas together into a format that can be presented to the board at the January meeting. We would love to hear your ideas!

Prayers go out for our fellow guild member Stephen Weber, who Passed away on
Tuesday November 16th. A memorial is planned for him in Southern California.
Not only was he a creative puppeteer but he was also a fine makeup artist in
TV and Movies. He will be sorely missed in our puppet world.

Well folks, here we are again. Unfortunately we have missed out on another
monthly meeting. As our guild grows further and further apart, meetings are
harder and harder to fill. We will be discussing the idea of a new format at
our next board meeting on Jan 8, 2005 at 4:00 pm. It has been suggested
that we attempt 12 newsletters and 6 basic meetings. They would fall on the
months of February, April, June, August, October, and our annual holiday
party in January. When signing on as Co-President, I agreed to plan so many
meetings for the year. I have upheld my end. The January party will be on
the 22nd in San Leandro at The San Leandro Community Center. And....I am
organizing or annual "Day Of Puppetry" again in April. I will be looking for
people to be on a committee with me for that. Please call or email if you
are interested. Mary Decker is hoping to arrange the March meeting, with a
tour backstage at the Progue Black Light Theater show. This leaves Febuary
and June to be planned. Tim Giugni is working on these. As I have mentioned
before, the guild needs to pull together. We had a magnificent year
2003-2004. Now....we seem to be drifting apart. Please join us in January
with your ideas on how we can restructure the guild to make it work for all.

Thanks, Randal.

NOTE: DUE TO PROBLEMS IN SCHEDULES AND A VERY HECTIC HOLIDAY SCHEDULE FOR MANY OF OUR MEMBERS, THERE WILL BE NO NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER MEETING. SEE YOU IN JANUARY!

The October 23rd meeting began about 7:00pm on a cold and rainy evening with
8 members in attendance. The business meeting consisted of an open
discussion questioning whether the guild should maintain the monthly
meetings. It was suggested that we switch to a quarterly meeting, or
possibly a bi-monthly meeting. Most people agreed with maintaining the
monthly newsletter, but no final decision was made for the meetings. It will
be discussed with the board as well as the members, and a consensus will be
taking in the months to come. Randal also discussed how the Day of Puppetry
at Fairyland was not a money making venture for the guild this year because
of the fees paid for performers. It was also mentioned that we might try to
do an informal improv session during the meeting to get those creative juices flowing.
After the business meeting we were treated to a hands-on workshop using
Celluclay and how to make a simple hand puppet head. Everyone used Styrofoam
shapes and created a head using a mold to get started, or sculpting
freehand. Randal also discussed how to sand the head after the sculpting
process, and how to prime, paint and finish the Celluclay heads.