ALC Monthly Board Meeting Minutes via Zoom

Thursday, May 22th, 2025

Opened at 4 PM via Zoom

Present were:

President/Bylaws:  Anne McFarland (a.m.studio0528@gmail.com)

Vice President/Web Manager:  Vonn New  (vonn.new@gmail.com)

Secretary:  Position open

Membership Coordinator: Barbara Logan (barbara.logan@gmail.com)

Marketing/Publicity: Claudia Essenberg Rojas (ce.tx898@gmail.com)

Social Media - Position Open

Old Business:

Artful Codgers: Vonn and Anne met with Melody to review event roles. The roles were created; next, they will meet with Claudia, who manages the Ajijic Cultural Center, to discuss oversight of fund distribution and the changes resulting from the event's transition from a single person to an organization. 

Peter Shandera scholarship fund: 11,650 pesos. Vicki has been unable to make the 3 arranged meetings to collect the money at this time. Anne will continue to work with Vicki to arrange a suitable time to meet. 

Neill James Legacy Artists: Jesus Lopez Vega requested that young adult students in the LCS youth program get free memberships to ALC and a shared space at the art markets. Antonio Lopez Vega joined the May Board of Directors meeting. ALC requested clarification about his youth program, which is different than children in Jesus’ group. Anne also met with Hunter Johnson from LCS for clarification of the two youth programs. The questions posed in the May BoD meeting could not be answered by either Jesus, Anthony, or Hunter. 

Questions

Q. What merits qualify a young Neill James artist? Are they trained under an original Legacy artist? 

A: There is no official training through Jesus or LCS, and it is unclear what training is offered by Antonio.

Q. How many young legacy artists' memberships are you requesting?

  A: Neither Jesus nor Antonio could provide a count.  Hunter stated that LCS requested but has never received a list of Neil James artists or a count of youth artists. 

Q. How many young artists’ memberships are anticipated from other Neill James artists?

A: Because there isn’t a list of Neil James artists available, there is no way to collect this data.

ALC Considerations

Membership

• The youth over the age of 15 can join ALC at the standard membership fee (300 mx)

• Youth membership can be financially sponsored by another ALC member.

** Does ALC have any process in place to notify the members of a requested sponsorship, and if not, do we want to consider the process?

Art Committee Review

• The youth can purchase a table at the market as a group, but are limited to the same physical space as is set for other members..

Bylaws

A revision of the bylaws is not required at this time. 

New Business:

There are two open board positions. The descriptions from our bylaws are below.

The Secretary shall keep the minutes of all Monthly & Annual meetings of the ALC and the Board of Directors.  These minutes shall be collected and become a permanent record of the activities of the Association. The collected minutes shall be readily available to any Board member at any time.  If the Secretary is unable to be present at a meeting, s/he may designate another person to take minutes.

The Social Media Manager is responsible for ALC’s Facebook group, approving new members, and moderating the posted content.

Thank you, Claudia and Barbara - Update Ajijic Nonprofit/Service Expo on June 8th at the Malecon. 

     Membership report

___  Total ALC members,

____New or renewed members, 

____pesos were collected in May for new and or renewal memberships.  

____Reconnect emails were sent out (to past members who expired in May and June 2023).  

____Renewals of present members are due in July.

BoD communication

Remember to use the BoD calendar 

Social Media

Vonn’s photo and post sharing tutorial was reposted to FB to encourage engagement and to share enrichment events.

Collaborative show Ad Hoc committee - Migration, the multidisciplinary collaborative group, has met several times

If anyone knows of someone who is interested but has not yet been contacted, please inform Vonn so she can update zir records accordingly. 

Finance report:  There have been challenges with Vicki Shandera's schedule; currently, the funds are still awaiting transfer to Vicky.

Volunteers are still sought. Volunteer opportunities are on the ALC website  https://www.artistsoflakechapala.org/volunteering. The list explains the position details and contact information..  If someone has additional volunteer needs, a description should be sent to Vonn.We have a spreadsheet that tracks everyone who has volunteered at  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JD3le0s0om3IvbW3zhgDnA_6MTo2SG3LaYaZvzo6Ab0/edit?usp=sharing. BoD members should themselves and any volunteers who have helped them so we can recognize and thank them.

A “Volunteer Appreciation” event was suggested, maybe at one of the  Third Thursday Socials.

Website: Update (graphics and color).  Julieta (Jules) Treviño is working on this with Vonn.   

          Update ALC Website Artists Profile Page: 

Further clinics will be announced. 

Barbara will send out an email announcement of the clinic before the 6/2 monthly meeting, informing members that they need to provide their bio in English and Spanish, a headshot, and photos of art to input during the clinic.

Art Market: Elena will need help in preparation for the September Art Market.  Some of the items needing review before September's show are: 

• tent availability and 

• cost to our vendors, 

• bartender cost and 

• hours, 

• general expenses, 

• anticipated profit, 

• volunteerism, especially on the day of the market

• vendor breaks and the recruiting of volunteers 

• Bilingual translators were mentioned. 

The possible change of Art Market venue: Barbara will update the meeting with Ana the manager at Hotel Real de Chapala.

Enrichment Opportunities:

Third Thursday Social, June 19th, is at Unico Restaurant and Bar: Address: Carr Jocotepec-chapala 160, 45907 San Antonio Tlayacapan, Jal., Mexico  Phone: +52 376 115 8659

6/25 Amphibious Bus adventure into the lake in Joco and lunch at Sabors Restaurant, more details to come. Anne suggested that we invite the Urban Sketchers to join us and requested that Nancy contact them and extend the invitation.

July’s Board of Directors meeting will be held via Zoom on July 24th.

Meeting adjourned at 

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