The board of the Hub City Writers Project met September 26, 2006. Plans were laid for filling eight open board positions. Stephen Long reported on The Showroom, and Peter Caster reported on the Hub-Bub Film Society. The board got word of another big award and prepared for primetime book-selling season.

Present: Peter Caster, John Lane, Dwight Patterson, Tom Johnson, Melissa Walker, Mickey Pierce, Nan McDaniel, Paula Baker, B.G. Stephens, Linda Cobb, Jeremy Jones

Staff: Betsy Teter, Stephen Long, Emily L. Smith

Mickey Pierce called the meeting to order. The minutes were read and approved.

We're about the same as last time in terms of finances, with HUB-BUB showing strong revenue ($7,000 in black), mostly from concerts. The commercial rate for electricity has turned out to be slightly more than anticipated (running about $250 over per month for the Showroom). Other than that, everything on target. Both Cottonwood and Kirk Neely book projects ran over budget, but revenues from sales will be stronger than expected this year.

Melissa says eight board positions will open next year, and the best approach is to form a nominating committee to decipher holes in board and how to fill them. B.G., Tom, and Liz will serve on this committee with her. B.G. reported that Mike Trammell (successful accountant) enthusiastically accepted our offer to serve on the board. Mack has also agreed to come on but not until January. Please send any further nominations to Melissa. Melissa moved that we approve Mike Trammell, and it passed.

We will talk budget at our November meeting. Betsy reminded everyone that some of the committees must meet beforehand. (Operations in October.) The programming committee also needs to talk about writers' conference immediately (Angela, John, Gary, and Jeremy). The publications committee has seven (record number!) submissions to go through (Carol, Melissa, Tom, Jeremy, Nan).

In the pipeline: Courageous Kate (2006), hospice project with Scott Neely, Olencki/Foster photo book (reshooting the Willis collection), Deno Trakas' "Greek" book, encounters with celebrities/fame in Spartanburg (poems, stories, song lyrics, plays). We will have a proposal for this book by the next meeting and will then invite the community to participate.

Mickey spoke with someone from the Children's Shelter about doing a book similar to the hospice project.

HUB-BUB report: Stephen says we're in full programming mode (4-5/nights week). Film Society has 140 members and counting!) Our third film week was a tad weaker than our first two, but overall, much excitement and good attendance. Great recent music events: young band nightHeist & the Accomplicebrought in a high school & college crowd), also Peter Cooper (114 tix sold) and Dezeray's Hammer (130 tix sold).

Moody Black hosted an open poetry mic on Monday, and over 50 people attended (mostly African American). This is something we can build on.

New art exhibit is up. Deadline for new submissions is Oct. 1, after which we'll begin planning new batch of shows. In the past we scheduled 3-4 artists a time for 5 weeks. When we pick back up, Stephen would like to see more themed exhibits, young/community art. Also working on a charity art event in February. Possibility of environmental exhibit. Betsy says she give us an A+ so far (high visibility, good crowds, relentless marketing!!)

Peter says HUB-BUB events are showing up on listserves at USC Upstate, and he encourages us to promote with other local colleges (Jeremy took flyers to Wofford). As Peter noted, it may be a notoriously poor group, but these are the kids we want to get into the Showroom! Stephen mentioned that Club Art & Design from USC Upstate meets here a couple of nights a month.

Hampton Heights neighborhood association met here last week (for free), and the city Masterplan will also meet here mid-October for eight days (also, free). We have two private functions booked for December and are charging $300 each for those events.

Mickey says we have to have some sort of policy that says which groups are rent-free and which are not. Liability issues need to be discussed as well. We need to watch renting to make sure it doesn't become counterproductive to programming. Now is the time to create a policy before it becomes a problem. Betsy mentioned that we are reviewing the library and Cleveland Park policies as examples. Stephen added that rental dates are limited anyway, because of our small staff and full schedule.

AIR Update: Kerry is back at work. 10 hours/week with Artists-in-Residence. Process of looking for 4 new artists has begun. Extra effort to make sure we're targeting African American applicants.

The Hub is not selling much. Not enough staff to work the store during the events. Several members indicated they'd be willing to staff the store during major events such as Marshall Chapman (Mickey, Linda).

Mary Black received a $300,000 grant to bring lights through Hampton Heights to our building! Good news for us!

Hub City has won the Governor's Award for the Humanities ! (Given since 1990.) Betsy has reserved a table for 8 (Oct. 18th from noon-2 pm) to go pick up the award in Columbia. Four of eight seats have been filled. Let Betsy know if you want to join.

It's prime book selling season. Cottonwood Trail is out and will be released Oct. 7 from 2-4 pm at an event on the trail. Donors get a discount on the book ($24.95 full price; donor price is 25% off). SPACE. is a partner in this event.

Comfort & Joy will arrive around the first of December. All donors will receive a complimentary copy. We'll need everyone to help deliver. Donor event is November 2, and hopefully most donors will pick up books at that event. We'll deliver the remaining copies the following week.

The restaurant contract downstairs fell through. Betsy suggested this is better for us in the long run, as it was a white tablecloth establishment. We would likely have had noise complaints.

Keeping it under three pages,

Emily L. Smith

The board of the Hub City Writers Project met September 26, 2006. Plans were laid for filling eight open board positions. Stephen Long reported on The Showroom, and Peter Caster reported on the Hub-Bub Film Society. The board got word of another big award and prepared for primetime book-selling season.

Present: Peter Caster, John Lane, Dwight Patterson, Tom Johnson, Melissa Walker, Mickey Pierce, Nan McDaniel, Paula Baker, B.G. Stephens, Linda Cobb, Jeremy Jones

Staff: Betsy Teter, Stephen Long, Emily L. Smith

Mickey Pierce called the meeting to order. The minutes were read and approved.

We're about the same as last time in terms of finances, with HUB-BUB showing strong revenue ($7,000 in black), mostly from concerts. The commercial rate for electricity has turned out to be slightly more than anticipated (running about $250 over per month for the Showroom). Other than that, everything on target. Both Cottonwood and Kirk Neely book projects ran over budget, but revenues from sales will be stronger than expected this year.

Melissa says eight board positions will open next year, and the best approach is to form a nominating committee to decipher holes in board and how to fill them. B.G., Tom, and Liz will serve on this committee with her. B.G. reported that Mike Trammell (successful accountant) enthusiastically accepted our offer to serve on the board. Mack has also agreed to come on but not until January. Please send any further nominations to Melissa. Melissa moved that we approve Mike Trammell, and it passed.

We will talk budget at our November meeting. Betsy reminded everyone that some of the committees must meet beforehand. (Operations in October.) The programming committee also needs to talk about writers' conference immediately (Angela, John, Gary, and Jeremy). The publications committee has seven (record number!) submissions to go through (Carol, Melissa, Tom, Jeremy, Nan).

In the pipeline: Courageous Kate (2006), hospice project with Scott Neely, Olencki/Foster photo book (reshooting the Willis collection), Deno Trakas' "Greek" book, encounters with celebrities/fame in Spartanburg (poems, stories, song lyrics, plays). We will have a proposal for this book by the next meeting and will then invite the community to participate.

Mickey spoke with someone from the Children's Shelter about doing a book similar to the hospice project.

HUB-BUB report: Stephen says we're in full programming mode (4-5/nights week). Film Society has 140 members and counting!) Our third film week was a tad weaker than our first two, but overall, much excitement and good attendance. Great recent music events: young band nightHeist & the Accomplicebrought in a high school & college crowd), also Peter Cooper (114 tix sold) and Dezeray's Hammer (130 tix sold).

Moody Black hosted an open poetry mic on Monday, and over 50 people attended (mostly African American). This is something we can build on.

New art exhibit is up. Deadline for new submissions is Oct. 1, after which we'll begin planning new batch of shows. In the past we scheduled 3-4 artists a time for 5 weeks. When we pick back up, Stephen would like to see more themed exhibits, young/community art. Also working on a charity art event in February. Possibility of environmental exhibit. Betsy says she give us an A+ so far (high visibility, good crowds, relentless marketing!!)

Peter says HUB-BUB events are showing up on listserves at USC Upstate, and he encourages us to promote with other local colleges (Jeremy took flyers to Wofford). As Peter noted, it may be a notoriously poor group, but these are the kids we want to get into the Showroom! Stephen mentioned that Club Art & Design from USC Upstate meets here a couple of nights a month.

Hampton Heights neighborhood association met here last week (for free), and the city Masterplan will also meet here mid-October for eight days (also, free). We have two private functions booked for December and are charging $300 each for those events.

Mickey says we have to have some sort of policy that says which groups are rent-free and which are not. Liability issues need to be discussed as well. We need to watch renting to make sure it doesn't become counterproductive to programming. Now is the time to create a policy before it becomes a problem. Betsy mentioned that we are reviewing the library and Cleveland Park policies as examples. Stephen added that rental dates are limited anyway, because of our small staff and full schedule.

AIR Update: Kerry is back at work. 10 hours/week with Artists-in-Residence. Process of looking for 4 new artists has begun. Extra effort to make sure we're targeting African American applicants.

The Hub is not selling much. Not enough staff to work the store during the events. Several members indicated they'd be willing to staff the store during major events such as Marshall Chapman (Mickey, Linda).

Mary Black received a $300,000 grant to bring lights through Hampton Heights to our building! Good news for us!

Hub City has won the Governor's Award for the Humanities ! (Given since 1990.) Betsy has reserved a table for 8 (Oct. 18th from noon-2 pm) to go pick up the award in Columbia. Four of eight seats have been filled. Let Betsy know if you want to join.

It's prime book selling season. Cottonwood Trail is out and will be released Oct. 7 from 2-4 pm at an event on the trail. Donors get a discount on the book ($24.95 full price; donor price is 25% off). SPACE. is a partner in this event.

Comfort & Joy will arrive around the first of December. All donors will receive a complimentary copy. We'll need everyone to help deliver. Donor event is November 2, and hopefully most donors will pick up books at that event. We'll deliver the remaining copies the following week.

The restaurant contract downstairs fell through. Betsy suggested this is better for us in the long run, as it was a white tablecloth establishment. We would likely have had noise complaints.

Keeping it under three pages,

Emily L. Smith