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a. Newsletter May2005 West Vancouver Sketch Club www wvsketchclub. c P.O. Box 91051 West Vancouver, Artists from Furiy creek t4 s.c. VYV 3N3 Wvs V'st "glflCOIIZCr SLetcI, Iii Next rvieeing: fF May 17, 2005 7 OOPM St Stephen's Church Hall, r 22nd Street West, West Vancotver, BC \`.` -. ORAL L3BRAR'i' , : cPresifent Lorne rop1iam 604-922-7225 lwtopham@shaw.ca Congratulations to all participants and a big thank you to all the volunteers and Artists who made the Park Royal Show a great success. The Executive held their meeting at the Silk Purse on April 25th. We reviewed the Club's finances and agreed to change some of the financial categories in our statements to improve the clarity of our income and expense statements. Our overall financial picture was also examined carefully. For the first time in several years we have had to dip into our reserves a bit this year. This is a result of several factors: · Purchase of the equipment we use to enhance the visibility of our demos. While this can be considered a "one-time" event we feel that we will have other capital expenditures (improved sound system, more display panels for shows, etc. ) in the future. · Like any other organization we have also been subject to the impacts of inflation and cost increases · Interest rates have fallen in the past couple of years which means the gain from our investments has been reduced. · In order to try to improve the publicity and thus the success of our shows, we have produced some modest cost street signs, which is adding to our requirements. · We plan to have even more workshops next year in response to the demand by the membership, and while we approved an increase fee for workshops this is a subsidized program and may cost us a bit more as well in the future. Putting all this together, the Board has decided to stick to our traditional "pay as you go" stance on finances, that is, to not dip into our reserves on a planned basis. by raising the annual membership fee from $30 to $40 for next year. This will have been the first such increase in well over a decade, and most will agree it is still a great bargain, all things considered. The fees for Supporting Members (who cannot vote, hold office or submit paintings for jurying) is being raised from $20 to $25.) Thanks to a lot of work by Past President Edith Warner, we know have a new copy of the Club's Constitution, Bylaws and Standing Rules. We discussed a number of changes in these where they had become out of date, or needed clarifications. These will be presented to the members at the Annual General meeting in June for review and approval as required. Larry Achtemichuk reviewed the Survey which is included with this Newsletter. Please provide your responses before the due date, as each of your responses and comments is very valuable to the Club and the Executive. ¶Education çünia 0 `Wei( 604-922-3420 gloria@higherbliss.com Our meeting on May 17 will be another of our popular and valuable Critique Nights. Please bring in your paintings which you would like some comments on, or perhaps a painting was not selected at the April 29 jury and you would like to know why. Members will be organized into groups of 6-8 with a facilitator, who will give you suggestions on how to improve your painting. Facilitators are experienced painters who have had a history with the club and with other critique groups. Be sure to attend!