2007 October

Compiled by Robert J. Lang from minutes by Rachel Langley These notes cover some of the highlights of the recent OrigamiUSA Board meeting, October 11, 2007.
The Board is planning a retreat, which would be an extended meeting to do strategic planning in a way that can include the entire Board and can run longer than the usual Board meeting teleconference. Dates to be determined, but probably in March.
Wendy Zeichner, the new Treasurer, has been receiving training from Jan Polish, the previous Treasurer. Wendy is coming up to speed, but still anticipates that a few more sessions will be required.
We agreed to rent a climate-controlled storage space in Fort Lee, NJ, for storage of the exhibition models. The storage space at the museum is an extremely harsh environment and the exhibition collection includes beautiful and historic works. After an extensive search through Manhattan and surrounding areas, the Administrator has secured a space that offers reasonable access and controlled environment. The Board approved this commitment, as well as funds for purchase of archival storage materials.
The dates for the 2008 Annual Convention have been confirmed and secured with FIT. It will be held June 27-30, 2008. (This is much earlier confirmation than we have usually been able to obtain from FIT.)
The current membership is 1558, up from 1554 a year ago. One of our members raised a question about how we handle late renewals. The Membership Committee was charged to study the question, develop a policy, and recommend it to the Board for approval. The Membership Policy Committee is continuing to put together a survey to understand what services our members (and/or potential members, and/or ex-members) would like to see from us.
The Development Committee is working on several projects for outside companies. One is to fold a large number of flowers for a corporate event. In a second, we've received a contact from a book publisher interested in a coffee-table book of origami. A third involves folding a large number of animals for decorations for a display. Discussions are ongoing.
The Paper, issue #96 is complete and is ready for mailing (and will probably be in the mail by the time you read this). The next issue, #97, will be devoted to Convention 2007. For this issue, editorship will be transitioned over from Wendy (who is overbooked with her Treasurer duties) to Toby Schwartz, who will take over as managing editor. Ros Joyce has also volunteered to help.
It being October, it is time for the Finance Committee to lead the annual budgeting process. The Chair (RJL) promises to start that process. The goal, as always, is to get a budget to the Board before the end of the year.
The PCOC Conference is coming together. Early Bird registration is closed. Total registration as of October 11 was 208 attendees, including visitors, companions, and sorry kits. The catering guarantee has been met. Everything seems to be shaping up well.
The Policies and Procedures Committee is asking all Committees to document their policies and procedures. Some committees have responded already; others are coming along.
The Library Committee continues sorting and cataloging of periodicals. They're running out of storage space, and are seeking a quote from the Museum Carpentry department for the construction of two new cabinets. Storage space in the Home Office is tight, and the Committee anticipates that at some point soon, some very old periodicals will be stored in boxes in the office.
The Origami By Children Exhibition Committee has a set of photographs of the 2007 entries and is pulling together labeling and caption information so that we can create a gallery on the website.
The Fundraising/Grants Committee is in discussions with Green Fuse Films about developing a DVD to be used in fundraising. At this point, it's only in the discussion phase; no actions taken just yet.
The Online Presence Committee has had a busy month. A new webmaster, Trevor James, has been hired. Trevor brings both technical web programming and graphical design skills to the job. The Board approved a gift of recognition to the previous webmaster, Mark Saliers, for his eight years of service.
With a new webmaster on board, the OLP committee has several tasks staked out for the coming months: (1) a redesign of the contact page, to make it easier for our members to reach the right person and make it harder for spammers to reach anyone; (2) moving the site to a new hosting service; (3) a complete redesign of the website. Concepts for the redesign are now circulating among the OLP committee and the Board.
Registration for the October 21st Special Folding Fun Session is lighter than expected, but December and January attendance are healthy.
The Annual Gift mailing went out, which was a Flying Dragon designed by Ros Joyce. (The Annual Gift is an origami figure presented to the Museum employees as a thank-you for the Museum's gift of space and facilities to OrigamiUSA.) In addition to the Annual Gift, we produce the Museum's Holiday Tree each year, which has become quite famous. This year's design, by Sok Song, revolves around dragons (to complement a Museum exhibition on mythical creatures) and has been embraced by the Museum. Further plans and activities are now under way.
The World Origami Days committee organized a special hand cancellation event on October 13th and 14th, in conjuction with CultureFest. Teaching tables have been arranged on every floor of the Museum on October 24th, the opening day of WOD.
The Board decided to try a more expansive version of Board Notes, covering more topics from the Board meeting and presented in a bit more conversational style than we have done in the past. We will also strive to create, approve, and post Board Notes as soon after the Board meeting as possible. Board members will take turns writing up Board Notes each month. You are now reading our first installment of Board Notes 2.0.
Tony Cheng will be responsible for the Board Notes in November.