The board of the Hub City Writers Project met March 27, 2007. They voted to approve another full-time position at Hub-Bub and discussed a future long-range planning session. Applications for two grants were discussed, and approval was given to a Hub-Bub color book that will document in pictures the first year of activities.

Present: Mack Amick, Paula Baker, Peter Caster, Linda Cobb, David Dedmon, Liz Fort, Ibrahim Hanif, Gary Henderson, Tom Johnson, Jeremy Jones, Dorothy Josey, John Lane, Rebecca Ramos, Dwight Patterson, Melissa Walker, Nan McDaniel

Absent: Mike Trammell, Jessalyn Story, Monta Anthony, Chris White

Staff: Betsy Teter, Stephen Long, Leah Brown

The meeting began with a budget report. Hub City is running a profit of about $10,000 and Hub-Bub is just about even.

Melissa Walker reported that Kerry Ferguson has resigned her position to spend more time with her new child. The board approved the creation of a full-time position to handle the Artist-in-Residence program and Resource Development. Betsy will begin searching immediately for the right person for this position. Melissa reported that she and Betsy have been talking with possible candidates to facilitate a long-range planning session. Betsy will email the board to see if we can find a Friday/Saturday in August or September to have this session. John Lane said it was important that we begin to think about what happens at the end of the current city Hub-Bub grant, which is scheduled to expire at the end of 2008.

Fundraising Committee Report-Dorothy Josey:

Dorothy reported about the recent joint meeting of the operations and resource development committees. She said we need to step up our fundraising, specifically by getting individual and business sponsors for our events in order to get more money coming in.  We are applying for a $25,000 grant from the SC Legislature on Friday. This money would be allotted to marketing.  Rebecca Ramos offered to help with getting letters of support from three targeted lawmakers.

Executive Director's Report-Betsy:

Comfort and Joy reprint:

We have approved a reprint of Comfort and Joy in a previous meeting because the book sold so well in Spartanburg. We approved reprinting 4,000 copies at $10,000, but this figure did not include shipping costs. In actuality, 4,000 copies would cost $12,300.  Because of heavy returns after Christmas from the Barnes & Noble chain, the board voted to drop the reorder number to 3,000 copies, which will bring the cost (with shipping included) to $10,300. 

Old Business: Betsy reported that she had renegotiated the fee from ASCAP from $900 down to $500. This fee goes to artists' rights. Also she reported that we can insure our book inventory being stored at Wakefield Buick for $350/year.

The Hub-Bub Report:

The board voted to approve a $5800 expense for a book to document the first year at Hub-Bub, provided that we are successful in receiving a 1:1 matching grant from the Arts Partnership. The full color book will be 5x5, 160 pages and will be used as marketing tool and for donor gift. It will also be sold for a price yet to be determined. We would get a first printing of $500. Our release date would be early July, in time for the one year anniversary of the Showroom. We have an intern from USC who is doing the bulk of the layout, and we also have Hub-Bub volunteers and AIR working on pages. There is the possibility of making this an annual publication.  Peter recommends using the 1^st year copy for a few years. John warns of careful marketing since we will have so few copies, and suggests that all the current AIR sign the books. Betsy notes that we could do a second edition or a larger first edition if we could raise the money for it. We could also use some of the money from the legislative grant for a reprinting, if we are awarded funding.

Stephen Long reported that we need more stuff for our yard sale that was originally planned for this Saturday. We'll hold the sale when we have enough stuff to make it worth our while.  What we don't sell, we can pass on to the Salvation Army and to Safe Homes.

The Stars Fell on Spartanburg meeting is tonight, and we hope to have all our material in hand by August.

Books in the pipeline to be designed this summer: the Willis book (called Double Exposure: A Second Look at the Spartanburg Photographs of Alfred and Bob Willis), the SMC book, and a Encircled, a book by the Hospice Writer in Residence, Scott Neely.

Respectfully submitted,

 
Leah Brown