It's all a blur...

Seriously,  a bunch of us showed up, though Memphis had a run of bad 
luck and illness. Hope everyone over there is doing better. We did miss 
you. And everyone else who could not be there.

As far as things to report, our two major conversations of a 
non-business nature concerned TPAC Education's interest in touring a 
one-man version of "A Christmas Carol" for schools across the state. A 
number of ideas were advanced after seeing and participating in a 
wonderful 20 minutes of excerpts from the performance. The primary 
results of the conversation were that 1) there was interest across the 
state in presenters working with TPAC to bring the performance to their 
community's schools, 2) we discovered that other presenters which also 
produce are interested in educational touring as well - and there is 
reciprocal interest from our other members in bringing them to our 
communities and 3) that we will include some information about 
everyone's productions on our "Member Resources" page so everyone will 
know what is available for this project. (Ya'll know who you are - 
don't forget to send me info I can post on the web site.) All in all, a 
very informative discussion which will be a real benefit to Tennessee's 
school children as we follow up on it.

Our second conversation was a continuation of the SAF grants funding 
discussion which Hal opened last week on the listserve. The major 
additional point that I think we came to a consensus on was that it 
seemed a bit disheartening to see the SAF asking the TAC what to do 
about surpluses of grant funds for Tennessee when several Tennessee 
presenters who applied for touring grants did not receive any funding 
at all for their projects. We noted this to be especially true when 
presenters in other states were getting up to five grants each funded. 
It seemed kind of obvious to us what that surplus could go towards....

Otherwise, we worked on developing a punch list for the fall 
conference. I'm getting it pulled together at this point and will 
distribute to everyone very soon, along with some requests for help 
from those who can donate time as the conference approaches. We also 
discussed a format for the Monday morning discussion.

Officers for the coming two years were elected and a slate of at-large 
board members to be elected at the fall conference was also created.

Officers (who took office yesterday) include, if my memory serves:

President - Harry Landreth (Tennessee Valley Theatre/Spring City)
Vice President - Lee Warren (Dixie PAC/Huntingdon)
Treasurer - Susan Robinson (AEC/Chattanooga)
Recording Secretary - Mary Hendershot (MACA/Madisonville)
Booking Secretary - Luke Brogden (Tennessee Theatre/Knoxville)
Past President - Buster Irvin (Cumberland County Playhouse/Crossville)

Buster will now serve as the head of the nominating committee for the 
2010-11 board slate.

At large members, upon election in November, will include (and take 
office in January 2009):

Tania Castroverde-Moskalenko (GPAC/Germantown)
Chris Dallas (Barbara Bailey Hutcherson's hubby and rep/somewhere 
around Nashville)
Ellen Kimball (AACA/Athens) gains a well deserved rest from her 
treasurer duties
Sherri Leathers (TPAC/Nashville) likewise a well deserved rest from 
booking secretary
Bonnie Macdonald (Renaissance Center/Kingsport)
Chip Pankey (Levitt Pavilion/Memphis)
Mimi Shimmin (Metro Parks/Nashville)

So welcome to those of you who agreed to serve in the coming two years 
and a HUGE thanks to everyone who stepped into the fray for the first 
two years of our existence.

Budget-wise - we took in $2117 more income than planned ($11,367) and 
spent $1432 more than planned ($8412), of which $1108 was passed 
through. (We ran everyone's fall conference hotel charges through TNPR 
and most of my travel expenses to the TAC conference in Franklin were 
covered by a special opportunities grant - neither the travel expense 
or the grant income was budgeted.)

Other than that, the BBQ was good as always and B&Bs continued to be a 
topic of supreme interest. I locked my keys in the car and everyone got 
to laugh while I picked the door lock.

Lee, please tell us if I've missed anything.

Don't forget your membership renewals. As of today, please begin 
mailing renewal checks (and fall conference registration checks) to:

Susan Robinson
Arts & Education Council
3069 Broad Street, Suite 2
Chattanooga, TN 37408

We're working on changing that information in the advertising for the 
fall conference.

Thanks to everyone for a great year and thanks in advance for your help 
this fall.

Bob


Robert Boyer
Patten Performances Director
UTC Fine Arts Center
www.utc.edu/finearts
423.425.4379