President's Message: September 2019
Hello and welcome back Medina County Art League Members. It has been a busy summer and I am sure you all are as excited as we are to be back. Before I get started with what’s to come I would like to take a minute to reflect on the summer. We had a wonderful, but warm sunny day for Art in the Park. We had a great crowd and were blessed to have 103 super talented vendors to make the day a great success. Most importantly though, Kathy and I would like to thank all of those who volunteered to make the day a success. From those that help measure vendor spaces, set up tents, manned the MCAL tents, managed vendors, judged artwork, handed out waters and everything else it takes to put this event on, we thank you with all of our hearts! If anyone is interested in helping out with next year's Art in the Park, please see one of the board members to get started. We have a brand new committee and are coming up with great new ideas to make Art in the Park 2020 a success! We need your input and ideas!!
Speaking of new and great ideas, as you are all hopefully aware of by now, we have a whole new slate of board members who took office in July. Once again we thank the outgoing board members for their service! Myself (Vince Matheney) and Kathy Stokes-Shafer, your new co-presidents met in early August to discuss our newfound duties and to discuss the direction we wanted to take the Medina County Art League. One theme we both agreed upon, and have also heard from many members was Modernization. We are going to work with the other board members and work to minimize paper-based items that lead to printing costs and potential mishaps due to lost paperwork. We plan to look at online membership applications, hopefully with online dues payments. This has also been discussed for Art in the Park. We also plan to better utilize our website to provide a small gallery for members to show off their talents. As always if anyone has ideas, please bring them to us!
A second theme we are interested in pursuing is growth in Membership. We want to find ways to let the world know that the Medina County Art League is as awesome as we all know it is. This means we need to get out and represent MCAL and spread the word by attending and having a presence at local events. It means better utilizing our social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It also means reaching out to our friends and family who may have an interest but stopped coming. In addition, we plan to establish a Welcoming Committee to welcome those newcomers and returnees as they walk in the door. If your not an old pro like some of us who have been here a while, it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle and not have a good experience. We want everyone who comes in the door to be excited to come back. That means those of us who have been here a while also though. This new board is determined to bring a new level of excitement and comradery. Please bring us your ideas!
In conclusion, and I cannot emphasize this enough, we are excited for this new year and are looking forward to making some meaningful changes to help us meet the goals of our Medina County Art League Mission. Promoting and educating visual artists of all kinds, promoting interest in the arts, and providing opportunities for all of you to show your work and grow as artists. Kathy and I appreciate each and every one of you and look forward to meeting and working with you all! See you at the September meeting!
One final note, each of you who attends the September meeting will receive a small surprise! Show up to find out what it is!
Vince Matheney and Kathy Stokes-Shafer
Co-Presidents, Medina County Art League