PROJECTS & TO-DO's

Revised 6/22/06

Related Documents
Leadership
Committees
Volunteers Needed
Membership Maps
Also see the Committee Work Board in the Members Areas.


Pending Projects
Publicity
News
Education Committee - Wire Jewelry
Professional Standards Committee
Additional Revenue Opportunities
Membership Drive
Member Benefits
Bulk Buys
Local Chapters
Exhibits/Shows
BB
Web Content
Pay-It-Forward Campaign
Classifieds Directory
Business Plan
WebSite - Underpinnings
Centralized Database

PUBLICITY
These efforts need to ramp up, including placing advertisments and writing articles for submission to magazines, etc.
There are 2 different targets -
Wire Artists, to let them know the guild is here and invite them to join. Also should publicize the pay-it-forward campaign (see below). Probable submission targets include wire jewelry magazines, arts & crafts magazines, snag magazine, crafts report, etc, etc
Public Sector, educating them about wire art jewelry, getting JAD info out, telling them about exhibitions and other places to see it, etc. Probable submission targets include regional magazines, newspapers, arts & crafts magazines, etc, etc.

NEWS
Two vehicles have been suggested for letting guild members know what is happening, a blog and a newsletter.

Blog: If we have someone that wants to commit to creating this and keeping it up, please let us know.

Newsletter: This could be quarterly or monthly, depending on the person or teams that takes this on. This could also be rotated between a team of people, or be co-authored. If we have a volunteer, please speak up.

EDUCATION COMMITTEE - WIRE JEWELRY
Another committee that needs a chair!
One of the things people wanted to accomplish with this guild was structured learning. Not everyone was interested, but for those that were, we need to pursue this goal. What this means is yet to be defined. It will most likely be accomplished through the local chapters. Someone that is interested in this aspect needs to step forward to start leading some discussions and start hashing out what the program would look like. A read through the "white board" at the bottom of the "guild committee discussions" on the public bb would be a good place to start - see the "educational path" section.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS COMMITTEE
Another committee that needs a chair!
Open items at the moment -
o critique of round 2 of jurying, as we get some experience with it
o discussion of whether we wish to pursue a multi-tier system - why, what is the purpose of the tiers

ADDITIONAL REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES
Need to define and investigate
o followup on magazine subscriptions and see how they are doing
o define corporate memberships
o define the classifieds section
(and understand the non-profit implications as we do so - verify which are unrelated business and which are not)

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
Headed by the Secretary. Put together a team of volunteers to go through existing publications, websites, etc, etc and cull out the names and contact information for wire artists. Create a database for this information, so that each person is only contacted once and not innundated with what goes from a sincere communication to spam. Draft a invitation letter for individual members to send out to the people in the database - letting them know that the guild exists and inviting them to join. Also invite these same people to participate in a "pay-it-forward" campaign (see below), regardless of whether or not they want to join the guild.

MEMBER BENEFITS
There is a topic on the committee board in the members areas with ideas that have been generated to date. This area needs some go-getters to get things moving.

So far, inquiries into insurance, etc have led to as many questions as answers. We probably need to put together a member poll, to see what members want/need before we will make very much progress here.

POSSIBLE AREAS TO LOOK INTO -
o health insurance (umbrella under another org?)
o "show" insurance (liability, theft, etc)
o property insurance - raw mtls, wip, finished goods, etc at home, at shows, at exhibits, etc
o an article on insurance for the business resources section - with what we learn as we pursue this

o bulk buys on stones like larimar
o bulk buys on wire
o ability to ship bulk buys to Canada at lower rates

o magazine discounts
o supply discounts

BULK BUYS
Need a volunteer with bulk buy experience to take this on and organize the first couple. This person should create the procedures, document the process, survey for what types of things they'd like to see in bulk buys, manage a schedule, and then recruit others to help with each individual bulk buy. The guild web site does have a shopping cart feature that can be utilized. Also see notes on the committee work board.

LOCAL CHAPTERS
Local chapters can be very beneificial in bringing artists together, serving as a platform for educational goals, hosting exhibits/shows, etc. If we could get a chapter up and running, we could then set up guidelines for other "official" guild sponsored chapters to follow.

EXHIBITS/SHOWS
To some extent, exhibits and shows will grow out of the local chapters, BUT, if members find opportunites and someone is willing to be the point person for that opportunity, we should do what we can as a group to participate. An example is the Canadian Craft Year 2007. IF WE WANT TO DO THINGS LIKE THIS, someone near there will have to organize it, get submissions from guild members, etc. It takes a lot of advance planning.

BB
Looking for ideas to things up and make it a more active place.

WEB CONTENT
We've got a start - but we need a LOT more!!!!

o Articles & Tutorials!!
We need people to volunteer to write these!! Please note - you do not have to send tutorials for complete projects - you can send tutorials for elements, like "how to make a bail", "how to make a pin finding", etc. (We do want great pictures through, as they are so much easier to understand than words.) We don't need to build a library of project instructions - there are plenty of books, magazines, classes etc that people can find projects in - what we are looking for is to teach techniques that people can use to create their own new designs with quality construction.
We also need lots of articles on the business skills side - for example, "how to put together a jury submission". As anyone trying to do wire jewelry as a business already knows - making great jewelry is only about 1/4 of the sucess formula.

o Links/Resources
we need people to send us info!!

PAY-IT-FORWARD CAMPAIGN
So many wire jewelry artists got some help somewhere along the way. We need to get a campign going to give opportunities to pay that help forward by contributing articles to the guild's resource library. Whether tutorials on wire techniques or articles to help on the business side, there is a world of knowledge there we need to capture.

The resource library does not have to be full of projects - it does not need to compete with all of the people selling project instructions - but it should be full of information on techniques and it should be full of information on how to run a jewelry business. Educational tutorials that focus on how to do techniques, how to create speicific elements such as bails, pins, etc. would be great places to start. Focus on skills that allow artists to create new and original designs. Focus on articles that teach aspects of business management that comes from experience.

Come up with a campaign to ask wire artists to contribute tutorials and articles to the resource library - whether or not they choose to be a member. Use publicity, get topics going on forums, etc. etc.

The guild is not tied to any individual or business. It is a logical gathering spot for info on wire jewelry that could be lost otherwise. We've already seen data lost when businesses decide not to sponsor their sites anymore (economics, illness, death, etc)and we would like to get copies of that type of data into the library - either now or as sites close down operations.

CLASSIFIEDS DIRECTORY
THIS NEEDS A VOLUNTEER to take it on. Whoever takes it on will need to define the project, get approval from the directors on the rates to be charged, create policies/procedures, recruit additional volunteers as required, set up a campaign to get advertisers, post/maintain the ads, etc.

Part of the challenge will be setting up the pages, defining the sizes of the jpgs, etc.

BUSINESS PLAN - President/Vice President
Needs to be created. As part of this, we need to review the purose and see what items have projects associated with them and which still need a game plan.

WEB SITE
1) DOCUMENT ALL PROCEDURES, so that any task can be done by any web editor, as required.
(Review the Web Maintenance area to see which policies/procedures still require documentation.)

2) Web Site Streamlining
Figure out how to decrease the number of screens you have to go through to get into the members areas!!

CENTRALIZED DATABASE
At the moment, we are using excel spreadsheets to organize databases. This means that one person has to maintain the spreadsheet and give copies to others. As changes are made, they have to go through the central person and then new copies distributed. This is not an ideal situation.

We have identified 3rd party software that will allow a central database where multiple people can update information. We still need someone to take it on and write reports that let us all interface with it.