Miniature Enthusiasts of the Central Okanagan

First order of business: Christmas Lunch:

This is being organized by Cate and Julia, to be held on the 21st of December, 2008, kindly at Urbania's house (Cate and Julia will be organizing the June wrap up as well??) . Julia will be donating a ham. This lunch will be pot luck, so now that we have a ham, you can plan to bring things that would go nicely with that - cheese, fruit, crackers/buns, salads and of course desserts - etc. It would be nice if you could let the gals know that you are coming, and probably would be nice if you could let them know what you are bringing.

We will have a gift exchange of a miniature item - $10 maximum. It can be handmade or purchased. Bring one to get one.

Item #2: Membership list: Marianne volunteered to call and see who is still current on our membership list, so we can cull out those not interested, and so we can update our informations. We agreed that there should be ONE list, and that we need someone to keep this as a living document, i.e. that it is kept current.

Addendum #2: If the keeper of the list could make sure that our standing members KNOW about our web site, and how to get there, that would be most helpful and we won't have to rely on mass e-mails, risking missing someone or annoying someone who has left our club but somehow their e-mail just never gets deleted.

Item #3: Marnie suggested that perhaps with club funds we could purchase, for our lending library, things like looms, pleaters (two members kindly volunteered to lend the club theirs for the MECO community good) etc. As miniaturists we often find ourselves wanting to try new projects, but chances are we won't use something enough times that it will justify purchase, we might not LIKE doing what we just spent a bunch of money on to try, and there is also the issue of space. Miniatures, ironically, take up a LOT of room. Therefore, having community gizmos and gadgets in our lending library would be helpful, and also help encourage folks to try something new.

Item #4: Show Project. It was discussed that perhaps for our show this year, we could do a single project that we all could contribute to, and that project could later be donated to a worthy community group (such as for the actors guild(?) in town, etc., should they find it amusing to accept our offer). An idea that was brought up was a stage, and that we take our inspiration from one of the plays that have been done in our community - perhaps Cinderella or other. Each member of the club would be responsible for some aspect of the gift.

The rationale behind this project is:

1. that some of us are rapidly losing shelf space for a project a year.

2. Some of us want to work on our own projects, and not take detours.

3. Some of us don't have the time/money to invest in a large project.

4. We are all different; some of us love room boxes, others hate them or would rather work on a house project instead; some of us are whimsical, others have both feet planted in realism; Some want to work different scales while others are happy in the 1:1 world, etc., i.e. we are, vide supra "all different".

5. it is easier to commit to a chair, or etc., than to an entire piece.

Item: #4: Our workshop - Marianne gave us wonderful instruction on a picnic basket, and fun was had by all. Hopefully everyone has packed theirs now - Thanks Marianne!

On a delayed note - Urbania taught us the ways of the mould in our last session. Thank you, we enjoyed that as well, and we all went away with great plans for the future!

For our future workshops:

Nov 23/08 Marnie will be teaching the Puppet Theatre Dec - No work shop Jan 25/09 - Kim will teach a 1/4 scale bistro table and chairs Feb 22/09 - Cate will teach 1/2 scale couch March 22/09 - Julia will teach...tba April 19/09 - Rosemary will teach ... tba May 24/09 - open June - no workshop

Item #5: Bev will be trying to get our demographics into a wider range of media, plus she will be getting out our show information to the major mags. As last year, Paul and Barb will be organizing our April 25/09 show.

We will see you all on November 23/08, same mini time, same mini channel!

Kim, achivist/secretary

MECO Notes For June 22/08

Club Business:

We had our wrap up today. The infrastructure of the site was discussed, and it was decided today to have the following delegations:

1. Treasurer : Bev

2. Show Organizers: Paul and Barb

3. Meeting Project Organizer: Urbania

4. Secretary/Archivist: Kim

5. Meeting Chair : Marnie(?)

6. Coordinator in Charge of 2nd Key: Cate

7. Marianne: Recruiting officer

8. Harold and Kelly: Webmasters

9. Supplemental Chair : ...?

It was discussed today that organization is a concern, as well as shifting venues. It was discussed that upcoming events and updates should be shared on the website. This will presumably include cancellations, etc. These should be given to our webmasters as soon as possible. I would put forth that this should include weather concerns.

It was discussed that we need feedback about our monthly club projects. We need people who are willing to teach. If you teach, it should be a project that is easily completed in the span of one of our meetings. Please do not be afraid - all project ideas are welcome. As it was pointed out, just because you don't think you can "use" a technique today, doesn't mean you can't adapt a technique for a future project. Please contact Urbania to submit your project idea.

Rosemary will be hosting an informal Peddlar's Market on September 20/08. This will be for mini items only, if it isn't scale, it isn't welcome. She will be coordinating that event - thank you Rosemary! This will NOT be part of the regular meetings.

We had good feed back from our show this year. Again, Good Job, Barb and Paul! We appreciate all your hard work setting this event up. We will have it again next year. It was discussed that we will have some paid advertisements as well as scouting out some free ads. We will see if we can work out the bugs in the big magazine ads, which sadly let us down this year.

We have decided to keep the meetings at the church hall, for better parking and so as not to move the venue again. Fees will remain at $10 a person.

Finally, a big congrats to Cate, whose "Muddy End" came in 3rd place at the Langley Show. Great Job!

I hope everyone has a good summer, and we will see you in September (4th Sunday of the month, as usual!)