The board and staff of the Hub City Writers Project met for an annual retreat and strategy session at the Teter Lane home January 30, 2006. The group began discussion about how to fold the Hub-Bub program into the mission statement, the possibility of a Piedmont Blues concert and term issues.

Present: Mickey Pierce, chair; Paula Baker, Linda Cobb, Liz Fort, Gary Henderson, Eugenia Hooker, Max Hyde, John Lane, Stephen Long, Dwight Patterson, B.G. Stephens, Melissa Walker

Staff: Betsy Teter, Kerry Ferguson

After a delicious dinner courtesy of the Hub City Gourmet Catering Company (also known as all of us), Mickey Pierce called the meeting to order and welcomed the new members. Introductions were made all around.

Mickey noted that our challenges for the evening were to vote on a by-laws change to standardize board terms and to look at our mission statement and revise it in light of changes in the organization over the past two years, particularly the addition of Hub-bub to our list of projects. Mickey and Betsy Teter provided some history of how Hub-Bub came to be and of why we extended some board terms when we began the Hub-Bub project.

After some discussion, the board amended the draft by-law proposal to allow board members to serve more than four terms in a lifetime. (See attached). The revised draft passed on first reading. The board will vote on this proposal again at our February meeting.

Board members also discussed whether we needed to insert some kind of conflict of interest clause in the by-laws to cover the situations of board members who might have manuscripts or artist residency applications under consideration by HCWP or who might be commissioned to complete a project for us. In the past, board members in this situation have voluntarily resigned until the completion of the projects for which HCWP employed them. However, some board members believed that this practice might need to be formalized with a by-laws provision. New board member Max Hyde will get Betsy some language of standard conflict of interest clauses that might be included in our by-laws, and the board will discuss this proposed revision at our next meeting.

Betsy made a few announcements. The capital campaign for furnishings for the Gilbert's Building, spearheaded by Paula Baker, has been successful beyond our wildest dreams. Our goal was $50,000, but total donations to the campaign are $78,000 to date. This includes a $20,000 gift to honor Frazer Pajak by naming the gallery space for him.

Kerry Ferguson reported that progress is being made on the building renovation. So far we have received 19 applications for the artist residenciessome coming from as far away as Bulgaria. The deadline for applications if February 1, and she expects several more applications.

Betsy reported that our book sales for 2005 totaled more than $88,000, a record year for HCWP. The inventory on the South of Main book is nearly gone; Betsy asked the board to authorize a second printing. We voted to authorize her to do a second printing of 1,000-1,500 copies, based on her assessment of what we may sell in the future.

Betsy also explained that she had had initial discussions with Arts Partnership and city leaders about the Piedmont Blues Festival suggested by Gary Henderson at a previous meeting. The plan has "morphed" into a suggestion that several organizations sponsor the development of a Spartanburg music trail that would use bronze sidewalk plaques to honor about 20 Spartanburg musicians from the past. She is pursuing a discussion about bringing the Dixie Hummingbirds, one of the nation's premier gospel groups, to Spartanburg for a fund-raising concert for the music trail. The lead singer of the Dixie Hummingbirds, Ira Tucker, is a Spartanburg native. Betsy will apply for $8,000 in underwriting for the concert from the Arts Partnership and we will have to matches that amount in cash and in-kind donations. The City will donate the use of Barnet Park, an amount that will account for half of Hub City's match. The board voted to authorize Betsy to continue pursuing the concert idea.

At that point, Betsy handed out the existing mission statement. Extensive discussion ensued about the nature of the relationship between Hub City Writer's Project and Hub-bub. There was also some side discussion about potential legal problems with Hub-bub's age limits, although we never resolved the issue. Our legal sage, Dwight Patterson, advised us that we would never know whether there were legal problems with the age limits unless someone sued us. The board approved language for a revised mission statement that will encompass both our mission and the Hub-bub mission. The new mission statement will read as follows:

The Hub City Writers Project celebrates place and community through the literary and collaborative arts.

Section three of our by-laws will need to be revised to reflect this revised mission statement, and Betsy will work on a draft revision of this section to bring before the board. Hub-bub will develop its own mission statement or manifesto for use in its own fundraising efforts.

Finally, as the last order of business for the evening, Betsy noted that our five new board members needed to be plugged into our committee structure. Representatives from each committee briefed the new members of the responsibilities of each committee. Betsy asked new members to consider their preferences and get back to her.

Mickey reminded us that we will meet again at noon on the fourth Tuesday in February. Our meeting place is the freezerer--meeting room on the eighth floor of the Montgomery Building. Betsy will contact members about their lunch preferences, though new members should not expect such sumptuous fare as we enjoyed for the retreat.

The meeting was adjourned some time before 9 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Melissa Walker