Full Board Meeting - Minutes

Minutes: September 23, 2010

Members Present – Whitney Jo, Debby Koch, Susan Robinson, Bob Willie, Justine Gregory, Leslie Hull, Cathy Wilson, Betsy Reid, Bo Spessard, Jonah Rabinowitz, Jane Alvis, Liza Zenni, Bob Kucher Others Present – Molly Pratt, Rich Boyd, Dereama Sherrill

• President Bob Kucher called the meeting to order . Informs Board of the recent resignation of Sameera Lowe as Executive Director. Says that the work will be taken over by Molly Pratt and Dereama Sherrill, Pres. Kucher also reports the resignation of Judy Bowers from the TFTA Board of Directors.

• Whitney Jo moves and Liza Zenni seconds approval of minutes from the June 24, 2010 meeting. Motion passes unanimously.

• Travis Bright gives a presentation of the new website design. It is set to go live as soon as some testing is complete. Bright showed that the site will be easier to navigate and will include automatic renewal options. There are also changes to membership levels.

• Todd Shelton is introduced as the new graphic designer.

• Dereama reports increased activity in new memberships particularly from Memphis and Knoxville.

• Whitney Jo reported on a membership recruitment event she and others planned in Memphis. The event was very successful in recruiting new members – many more than expected. Ms. Jo plans to create a basic template to make it efficient as possible for other areas to have similar events.

• Treasurer Jonah Rabinowitz gave a brief overview of the budget reporting that we are running at a smaller deficit than normal for this time of year. He planned to send a more detailed quarterly report by email.

• Marketing Committee – Molly and Betsy gave an update on the Tennessee Arts Commission initiative grant. They also presented a revised budget. They discussed the plan to assign representatives in each region to manage activities such as promoting license plates to County Clerks.

• Legislative Update – Molly reports that Arts Advocacy Day will be April 6, 2011. The format will be much like last year. She also reports that she believes either of the candidates for governor will be a friend to the arts. Several legislative races were discussed.

• Tennessee Arts Commission -- Molly reported on behalf of Rich Boyd that plate sales are up $99,000. She also gave an update on research conducted relative to new Arts license plate design. Complaints have been lodged that some folks have not bought the plates because they do not like the existing designs. The research shows we have authority to have new designs without first getting 1,000 commitments . Betsy moves and Whitney seconds the motion to recommend a new design to the Tennessee Arts Commission. Motion passed unanimously.

• President Bob Kucher called the meeting adjourned