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John Leach may have come and gone,
wortkshopped, lectured, soured, and told
endless stories, all in seven days, but his
impact on the local clay communiry, and
the memory of his visic wall linger for some
time. He was an absolute pleasure co meet

and to pontificare with about all things from

pots Co pets to plancs and all nopics in
between! He gave the Gallery and Guild
some thoughts about marketing and
advertising and, [ think, took away a lor
about what we do as a Guild and how we do
it. Many thanks to Gillian McMillan and
family for having John stay with them, and
for all these members who teck him under
their wing (Keith & Celia Rice-Jones, Carol
Mayer Rosemery Amon, and Alsn
McMillan}. And, happily, chis workshop
was a blockbuster as far as revenue
generated, so thanks also to all of you who
attended and supported your Guild.

Made [n Clay seems to have been over a
long time ago now, though it’s only been
about three weeks. Darrel has written an
excellent summary of all that was and will
be again, so | won't elaborate but to suggest
that a bie THANK YOU should be
extended to buih Derrel and John for their
enormous effort!! From che Guild office
perspective, the new system of each booth
managing their own sales simplified the
whole process tremendously - the financial
wrap-up only took a few days instead of a
few weeks!

Also elsewhere in this issue is a summary af
the new lead and cadmium regulations for
bork funecional and non-functional clay
pieces. Please be sure to call the local
contact person for more information (Sheila
Welock 666-5004}. There's scill time to
make the necessary adjustments to your
process now before the deadline kicks in.

The Annual General Meeting, held ac che
beginning of May, was a very successful
event: the meeting was well attended, the
life membership award brought tovether
both current and new life members, and the
reception following consisted of some
incredible food (potlucked by the board),
good beer and medioere wine (it will be well
aged by the next AGM!). Apart from the
regular business of the meeting, a lot of

discussion centered around the newsletter
in response to the committee report
presented in the Annual Report. The
direct cost of the newsletter (my apologies
for the oversight in not having these
figures at the meeting), based on creating
400 and mailing 325, works out to be
$857 /mo. or $8,570/yr (this does not
include indirect expenses such as
ovethead). Anticipated advertising
revenue per month is approximately $170.

Alehough this discussion was initiated by
the question of the newsletter covertng its
own costs (via membership revenue) and
whether the yearly dues should be
increased to supplement this service
(currence revenue does cover the direct
costs and most indirect costs of producing
the wewsietter), it leads to the larger issue
of funding for the Guild's operations.
While the Gallery significantly contributes
to overall operations, this is not a stable
funding platform as it is based solely on
the recail/tourist environment {although
of course we in the Gallery do everything
possible to capitalize on potential sales!).
One option is to increase the membership
fees, and as this action was decided
against for the coming year, the other
option to pursue is fundraising - which
means coming to you, the membership,
twice a year co ask for donations of pots
that we can then structure a fundraising
event around.

Lowery for Pottery was very successful as a
fundraising event, and the board already
anticipates hosting this again next year
and on an annual basis thereafter. We
plan on preselling tickets to this year’s
attendees at a reduced rate, and then
opening it up co the public at large.
Further details will be developed over the
summer months. [n the meantime, the
Potters’ Guild, in conjunction with the BC
Chefs' Association, has planned a dinner
auction event to take place on Saturday,
Sepcember 20th ar the Delta Pacific
Hotel. As part of the cost for a five or
seven course dinner, each of 300 or so
place setrings will be sec with a place
donated by members of the Potters’ Guild,
which the ticket holder can then take
home. The second part of the evening is
structured around an auction, for which
the Porters’ Guild will also be secking
donations of larger priced pieces.

Funds raised from this event will be
targeted cowards reestablishing a
scholarship fund, for which we need to
build a large enough capital base to
generate interesc-paying scholarships.

Sea, the Guild looks forward to receiving
your two donated dinner plates (12 - 147
diameter) by August Ist. Please
anticipate hearing from us over the next 6
weeks 00 remind you of these much

needed donations. Thank you.

Gallery News

Finally, a wee bit of news about the
Gallery! April sales were not as brisk as
anticipated, depleting our 1O% gain in
sales at the end of March compared to last
year oo only 2 2% overall gain at the end
of April. So far, May sales indicate a
positive impact on sales to date, but we
will probably still be short of our target
amount by about 5%.

Next week, it is cime oo cake down Linda
Doherty's Free as a bird and set up John
Cloutier’s exhibit A Canadian Portrait -
the people of our heritage. Jolin's show
will run June 5 - 27, with the opening
reception to be held on June 5th, 6 - pm.
For the summer months, A Garden Tea
Party, which is open to all members to
submit cheir cea-related pieces, will be set
upon June 27/28. The opening reception
will be on Thursday, July 3rd, 6- Spm. In
August, the Gallery looks forward to Fine
Form: New Works by Mary Fox. The
feature artists during the summer months
are: Kathryn O'Regan (ume), Margarec
Hsu (July), and Maggi Kneer (August).

The Gallery was very pleased to have a
small exhibit of John Leach’s work during
May, to coincide with his leccure and
workshop. Of the 14 pieces on display, 6
pieces have been sold. The exhibit will
continue until early June, when the pieces
for the book photographs will be put on
display for sale (finally!).

Lascly, our new computer system is up and
running! All new work coming in to the
Gallery (Wednesday - Friday only please)
should be coded in the new format. If you
have any questions, please call Julia or
Jane (669-5645).

Jane Matthews