The board of the Hub City Writers Project met in The Showroom February 27, 2007. They approved publication of a history of Spartanburg Methodist College and discussed upcoming publication of Stars Fell on Spartanburg. The board received updates on building issues and will soon begin long-range planning.

Present: Mack Amick, Monta Anthony, Paula Baker, Peter Caster, David Dedmon, Liz Fort, Ibrahim Hanif, Tom Johnson, Jeremy Jones, John Lane, Gary Henderson, Nan McDaniel, Rebecca Ramos, Jessalyn Story, Mike Trammell, Melissa Walker.

Staff: Betsy Teter, Stephen Long, Kerry Ferguson, Leah Brown

Melissa Walker called the meeting to order and the Board approved the January 23rd Minutes.

Operations Committee Report (Melissa Walker): The Operations Committee met in February, addressing several issues, including raising Betsy’s check authorization to $500. The committee also agreed to create a form to get board sign-offs for budget change orders. Study is still continuing on the issue of creating a vice president. This committee will meet together with the Fundraising Committee on March 19 to address 2007 issues. Melissa said the committee is searching for a facilitator for long-range planning.

Financial Report (Mike Trammell): For the first 2 months of the year, the HCWP’s gross profit is $2,000 over budget, and Hub-Bub’s is $6,000 over budget, primarily because of strong ticket and concession revenues from events in late December.

Publications Committee report (Peter Caster): The Willis photo book is on schedule and will be released in November. The board approved the addition of the book Common Ties by Kathy Cann to the 2007 publication schedule. This book is a history of Spartanburg Methodist College; the college is providing underwriting funds. We will begin soliciting community participation in the Stars Fell on Spartanburg in March.

Artists in Residence Report (Kerry Ferguson) Scarecrow Wedding was a huge success! The current AIRs will be having their opening reception for their exit show on March 21st. We have our applications in for the next round. This year we have a strong selection of local and national applicants, with 38 applicants total. Many of these came via an association we have joined, the Alliance of Artist Communities. We will be continuing the blogs for our current AIRs so we can see what they do following their residency. We will welcome the next batch on June 1st.

The Showroom Report (Stephen Long): We have been hosting outside parties in the space on a case by case basis. Among the events we have hosted are the Need to Read Program, a group of green architects, the Spine Tingling Poetry Slam, and Poetry Out Loud. In March we will host the SPACE annual meeting. We have set our rental rates at $200 for a non-profit and $300-600 for individuals and businesses. On March 7 Hub City will host the release party for Lucas Patterson’s newspaper, Root. This is a publication about sustainability, animal rights, and environmentalism with a literary focus. This is a personally driven project–we are not supporting him financially– but we will be throwing him a release party to foster awareness and support from the community. The newspaper costs $800/issue to produce, and is 24 pages in length. We hosted Arts with Heart, and it was so successful we are hoping it will become an annual event. It raised $6000 for charity and 250 people attended. Monta Anthony raised $500 for HCWP and Buck Brandt raised $200 for Hub-Bub. Thanks guys! Bank Meridian sponsored the event, so all we had to supply was time and effort.

Executive Director’s Report (Betsy Teter) The new Web Page for HCWP is up and running but still under construction. Seeing Spartanburg has been ordered and will be here in 3 weeks. A story from Comfort and Joy is being made into a play. Kirk Neely and Hub City will own the copyright. We have been notified by ASCAP that we owe $903 in annual fees for the right to host live music. It is possible that BMI will charge the same. This is money we did not budget for. This is part of the laws surrounding the Public Display of Intellectual Property, which is protecting the rights of the artists.

Stephen is interested in a publication to document the 1st year of Hub-Bub. We can sell copies, give copies to donors, and use it as a national marketing tool. Betsy will report on the budget and possible fund-raising options at the next meeting. Brasserie Ecosse is planning on opening May 19th. They will only be open at night. Our landlords are meeting with the city about creating a new lot behind our building. A chain link fence was almost installed in the lot behind us last week, but that has been placed on hold. (At this point several board members looked nervously in the direction of their illegally parked cars). Snyder Electric is doing a good job fixing up its building across the street and houses are being torn down in the neighborhood.

Meeting Adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Leah Brown