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COLUMBIA

The Benefits of Guild Membership

Remember to renew your membership by September 15.

Membership is a valuable means of establishing and maintaining a
bond with the people that are making ceramics thrive in B.C. It will
also allow you to keep up to date with the events and opportunities
that are available to local clay artisans.

Networking Opportunities
¢ A Membership Directory published annually and distributed to all
members.
* Mailings of invitations to social events, such as special openings.
* Opportunities to become active and work with other potters to
build the guild and/or help organize guild events.
* A link on the PGBC website Links page

Marketing and Sales Opportunities

¢ Submit your work to be juried as a regular presenter in the Gallery
of BC Ceramics.

* Participate in the PGBC’s open public shows like Made of Clay, and
gain eligibility to apply for the Guild's juried public shows.

* Put forward a proposal to have your own showing in the exhibition
space at the gallery of BC Ceramics.

* Sell mugs on the mug wall at the Gallery of BC Ceramics.

* Request to sell your work as an Emerging Artist in the Gallery of BC
Ceramics (non-juried, for a duration of 1 month).

* Have your own webpage on the PGBC's website.

* Have a link to your website from the PGBC’'s website.

* Post classified ads free of charge in the PGBC’s newsletter.

* Have your ‘chops’ or signature catelogued for identification. Click
here to submit your chops.

Learning Opportunities

* A newsletter published and distributed 10 times annually to
all members. It is filled with informative articles and listings of
exhibitions and studio sales,

* Information about relevant workshops, classes, and events held
throughout BC.

* Access to the PGBC's reference library (located at the Gallery) which
contains an abundance of books and periodicals.

Additional Member Benefits

¢ Discounts, advance notice, and registration for local and international
workshops with ceramic artists.
* 10% off purchases made at the Gallery of BC Ceramics.
Annual Membership is from September and is prorated monthly for
those joining during other months.

Website Evolution & Online Membership Renewal 2) Don Jung

It’s been quite a summer. Yes, it’s time to welcome autumn and
look back on a terrific summer. It was one of the warmest and driest
summers that I can recall. I enjoyed the extra sunshine, but it wasn’t
very good for my pottery making. I was, however, very productive
with the website. There are some significant changes and I would dare
say they are fabulous improvements. We have:

* Freshened the look and feel of the website with an updated events
listing.

* Added a new drop down menu for navigating the website.

* Inserted a new website search box. You can search for anyone or
anything on the website and it will also check all our past newsletters
to find the article or page you may be looking for.

* Dumped the static image and added some guild and pottery images
which continue to change.

* Installed a new membership management program to handle the
administrative aspects of memberships and access to membership
items like the newsletter.

* Set up PayPal to handle the membership payments online.

The Membership and Members-only menus have all the links to
log in to your profile/account, renew your membership, go to the
members-only page or download the newsletter and other files.

Behind the scenes, the website has been reorganized and streamlined.
I still have some old stuff to clean out, but once that’s done, it'll be
so much cleaner to work with. Well, there’s no stopping here. It only
seems natural that we keep going and get an online gallery up on the
website. Online sales could be just around the corner with an online
shopping cart and online payments. It'll be exciting but I'm not sure if

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter - September 2009

itll be good for my pottery...gotta find time to make a real pot!

We've sent out a reminder that September is membership renewal
time. The new membership management program will handle
your membership renewals and PayPal will process your credit card
payment. It’s secure, convenient and simple to use. I encourage you to
use the website so we can reduce the manual data entry required.

All existing members have access right now and can log on and
check their account/profile. Once more:

Your USER ID is your EMAIL ADDRESS.

Your PASSWORD is your EMAIL ADDRESS. (Good practice to
change this. If you forget, you can have the system recover it.)

You can renew as early as you like and the system will extend your
membership from the expiry date. New members and those rejoining
after their membership has lapsed for a while should use the new
member sign-up links under the Membership menu. Once your
payment has been processed, a receipt/invoice will be sent to you by
email from the guild as well as PayPal. I believe the system will send
you a reminder one day before your membership is due to expire.
If you dont renew, the system will automatically inactivate your
account and lock you out from the membership page, newsletter and
eBroadcast list. The good thing is you can immediately activate your
account online, too.

I’m thrilled to see that some members have already renewed through
the website. Please write in and tell us how it went so we can share it
with others. Give it a go. Click this link:

www. bepotters.com/amember/member.php