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,- ;.. )IttCfl -- Dec 03 Page 5 We have now completed four sessions of a 2 hour workshop for the members that wifi have their own websites. This workshop gave them some instruction and practice to allow them to be more or less self-sufficient in terms of being able to load and change their images and personal information on their sites from home on an on-gong basis. These people were given some "homework" based on their newly found or refined skills to prepare their photos of paintings and get them ready for a 2 hour Website Loading Workshop which will be repeated twice on each of December 9 and 13. We currently have 27 people signed up to have their own websites. The overall message of these workshops is that one needs to learn just a few specific things on a computer to be able to use and manage a website for artists. In fact it is truly unfortunate that this is needed at all, because this is not about computers, but about communicating with people who are or may be interested in your art. Perhaps it is a bit like having to endure the necessary evil of learning to operate a car in order to be able to explore the world around you, which may be the real motivation for having the car. And like cars, computers need a bit of skifi and some experience to be able to take a drive in the country, but it is not necessary to understand all about how they function. Based on discussions and feedback from a number of members in the club the Executive has decided to take a number of new and additional steps and actions related to the website and photographs of paintings. These include the following: We wifi repeat the workshops we have just held, in the New Year, for additional people who would also like to have their own website. We have had a number of new members join recently for example. To participate, you wifi need to sign up for a website, which is a cost to you of $60 for the next year, or $5/month a very, very attractive offering based on any alternatives we have seen. Call Deb Taylor and arrange to make the payment. If you would like to see some real live member websites after mid-December this will be possible as well. We would then schedule a couple of two hour workshops for you and you will be online. · There are also a number of people that would like a website, but do not yet have a familiarity with computers to make them comfortable in attempting to be self-sufficient in these matters. We have decided that we wifi offer a new service to these members. If they can provide us with the raw materials (in the form of photos of your paintings, a bio and contact information) we wifi have volunteer members in the Club prepare the material and load it into your website for you. Once you have the website in operation the tasks of adding new images or changing your bio are extremely simple, much easier than the initial stages of preparing and loading your information. You wifi get instructions that could allow you to be self sufficient or you can contract for some ongoing support as well as required. The cost for this service will be a $30 fee. Again you need to sign up for a website first, by contacting Deb Taylor. Let me know if this is of interest to you. · Several members have also asked if we could assist them with taking photographs of their paintings. We are not sure of the overall demand for this, but we are wffling to try the following, if you contact me ahead of time we will arrange to have someone with the appropriate equipment camera, lights, tripods, etc. at the regular meeting site at the St. Stephen's Church Hall at 6:30PM on the evenings of our regular monthly meetings. You bring your paintings, we do the photos and get them to you later in a mutually agreed to format and media. You would need to pay for any out-of-pocket costs involved, such as CDs, printing and postage costs, or film and processing costs if a 35mm camera is used. If this is of interest, please call me to book the times. · At the last meeting there was also a request to have copies of the digital photos that were taken at the last jurying made available to members. We have not yet edited them (that is, cropped and "fixed" them as necessary), but wifi in the next few weeks. There are several ways in which we can get these images to you. o if you have a computer and e-mail, we can send the digital image to you as an email attachment. There is no out-of-pocket cost to you for this. o If you would like a normal 4x6 image of your painting, printed on photo paper, the out of pocket cost would be about $.50 for the 4x6 photo paper, say $.25 for the inks, plus the postage and envelope to mail the photos to you. So an estimate would be $1.50 for the first photo you order and then $.75 for additional images done at the same time. -- -