After a brief summer break, the Hub City board met on August 22, 2006, to hear that the funding situation was good and to get an update on the initial activities at the Showroom. The board voted to name Melissa Walker president-elect and discuss new book projects in the pipeline.

Present: Peter Caster, Gary Henderson, Paula Baker, Jeremy Jones, Liz Fort, Tom Johnson, Melissa Walker, Mickey Pierce, Dwight Patterson, Angela Kelly, B.G. Stephens, Linda Cobb, Nan McDaniel

Staff: Betsy Teter, Stephen Long, Emily Smith

Mickey Pierce called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone back. Accounts update: Hub City $17,000 (checking), $95,000 (money market); HUB-BUB $3,000 (checking), $198,000 (money market, which includes money from the city grant)

Fundraising: We are within $3000 of our target for the year. We have a list of those who gave last year but have not given this year. Mickey volunteered board members to call. Betsy suggested the fundraising committee meet and follow up with these remaining donors.

We have done $42,000 in book sales so far this year, which is very strong, and we haven't even hit the Neely book rush. We are also ahead on SC Arts Commission money due to the legislature's release of additional money.

Hub-Bub is funded through December 2008, and our lease runs through June '09. Betsy is socking away some money every month, just in case (worst case scenario) the city doesn't continue to fund us. Our money market accounts are making $600 a month. Mickey suggested setting up our accounting so that we can see they money we are setting aside for 2009 lease payments.

We aren't selling many books out of The Hub, but we will host a Hub City Book Fair on Dec 2 invite our authors. We do sell a lot of T-shirts! Betsy noted that July/August is historically the worst time of year for book sales. Cottonwood Trail is here and in the warehouse.

The operations committee met and reviewed a few issues. We have several people coming off the board at the end of the year, and are loosing a great deal of experience. We have three openings and would like to have new board members presented and approved by next month.

It was suggested that we create the position of president elect. This person would begin service in January of the year prior to their year of service in order to learn the ropes. A motion was made and seconded. Vote passed. Mickey nominated Melissa Walker and noted she has been an active board member, is well seasoned (laughter), and she has agreed to serve if elected Vote passed. We will have to change our by-laws at a future meeting.

Mack Amick has been asked to join the board and has said he will come back in the fall. That will bring us an experienced board member. Motion to approve and seconded. We also want an accountant on the board and better minority representation.

Programming report:

HCWP hosted a moderately successful writers conference (attendance down 30%). We are going to change weekend to August next year and will have Angela and Emily think about ways to shake it up. Have done the same thing for 7 years and need to try some new stuff.

New brochure and a very ambitious reading schedule for the fall. We'll find out if this is sustainable or not. Four high profile writers are our leads. All are coming at no charge to HCWP, which is exciting. "Express-o" and "Slam" poetry nights are back.

Betsy encouraged everyone to consider being a guest bartender at our events. It's fun : ) Please volunteer!

HUB-BUB Exhibit Opening for AIR was hugely successful. Over 300 people passed through that night. Current exhibit didn't have quite as many, but at least 200 here. Good response from the community. Over 150 for open studio night. TheWaybacks sold out three days before the show; lots of people called with creative stories trying to get tickets. (Gary wants to try and get them on the schedule every year.)

Each event is a learning experience, and we have to work around our bands' requests for standing/dancing room. A little bit of tension between sitters and standers, but overall good feedback. Snappy, sharp kind of sound in here, and most everyone through here seems to like the acoustics.

Meg Barnhouse was the next show. 150 people, almost entirely seated. Meg donated the door revenues to HCWP, which helped us purchase a brand new Toshiba copying machine.

Shane Pruitt blues/soul guitarist. The first of a monthly event called Tad's Picks. Herald Journal promotes it and airs the pod cast on their website. There were issues with the recording this time, but we sold 118 tickets. People are excited about a smoke-free place to hear music.

Beer sales need to be deliberated on as a board. Strong revenue source. Kegs, however, contribute to over consumption, and this is not a risk we need to take as a board. In response to that, we have decided to sell only a limited amount of import bottled beer at $4/each. Only enough alcohol for everyone here to have 1 or 2 beers. Strong system in place in terms of ID and banding. The same man runs the door on Friday and Saturday nights. Betsy says we're encouraging people to sit down at shows, although that may be harder with the younger audiences. Paula says she has heard nothing but fabulous comments. A good mix of people is coming in.

In terms of Wofford, Converse, and Upstate participation, Stephen says we're doing marketing on those campuses and hoping to see them at Soapbox and film nights, especially. We will host the American Institute for Graphic Arts here in Sept., and we will invite local students to come hear the speaker.

Peter updated folks on film schedule, which begins Sept. 7th with Junebug. Films are booked through October right now. Putting together local organizations to underwrite cost of screening these films. A slam poet has agreed to be our distinguished guest for the screening of Psycho over Halloween weekend. Peter is hoping to build a conduit of traffic between USC Upstate and Hub-Bub. The film brochure went out in the mail. We hope to underwrite our film series with these memberships. Betsy says thank you to Peter b/c he has his hands in every aspect of this project!

Paula asked who cleans up? We hired someone to clean the bathrooms. We don't yet have a budget to clean, but we are watching bar sales to see if we can afford it. Mickey mentioned that we do not want the reputation of this place being dirty or unclean. It needs to look (and smell) like an art gallery. Mickey suggested we look at bids from cleaning services, so that the staff does not get exhausted.

Mickey asked whether we had considered renting the facility out? Betsy says we're waiting to see what our programming level is. We only have Sunday and Tuesday nights open, and we don't have the staff hours.

Do we take a commission if we sell art? Yes, 20%. Not a huge revenue source.

Paula would love to send a thank you postcard. So many people were disappointed that the opening was July 6, and she wants people not to forget that we're here. "Please drop by" kind of thing.

The artwork is on the website, but not every single piece. There are some group shots good representation of everything. No pricing, but we may put that into place in the future. Mickey suggests that we consider that just to see what happens.

Kerry had a baby girl last Friday. She is at home recovering, but she is back online! She has to have 10 contact hours with the artists a week, and we expect her back in about 6 weeks.

HCWP Updates:

October 7 is the release date for Cottonwood Trail (with SPACE). We will be sending a letter to donors; they get 25% discount.

Neely book is running on press in China as we speak. Neely has already set up 17 events.

Willis photograph book is in the works. Emily Smith is writing the text, and Mark Olencki and Carroll Foster are shooting photographs.

A Deno Trakas book about Greeks in the Upstate is also in progress.

Gary, John, and Betsy have an idea for a new book - Spartanburg encounters with celebrities through the years. (Think Lindbergh, Elvis, Henry Kissinger, JFK stops to use the restroom at a local citizen's home.) We would open the door to writers to write creatively about these encounters. Might be our Xmas '08 book. Anthologies tend to sell well. The more we include the better.

New budget size creates new responsibilities. Administrative jobs may need to be outsourced. Betsy is certainly capable, but the board should look for ways to free Betsy up to be more creative. We need to address this immediately. Dust off the job description for Executive Director to make sure we don't hamstring Betsy. Dwight recognized how much we have grown over 10 years. We want to make sure we continue on that path.

Betsy reported that we lost office assistant Sara Hamilton. Huge loss for us as she was very capable. We have hired a student from USC Upstate.

September is the month we review HCWP submissions, and Betsy will be in touch. We have two so far.

Respectfully submitted,

Emily Smith