ROSWELL FINE ARTS ALLIANCE: President's message

At the June 2011 Board Meeting, we identified 5 items from a 20+ Bucket (Wish) List that we felt were important to the health and well being of our RFAA organization.

First - identify a Publicity Chairperson; we promptly realized that wish when Ann Nobel volunteered and she is doing a great job!
Second - improve our meetings; many of you have told us we are doing that by changing the format and inviting more interesting and varied speakers.
Third - pursue corporate donations to help our bottom line; to date, we have not been able to complete this wish.
Fourth – bring in new members and keep the ones we have; we are having some success in this area.
Lastly, or firstly – depending on your point of view – is to have our own location (a.k.a. a home of our own) where we can hold meetings, shows, workshops, rent out studio space, etc. at our convenience and under our own rules, without a tremendous cost in money or resources.

To address this last point, I have been meeting with various people, starting with our Board of Trustees, to identify new ways to team with the City of Roswell in some manner to have more opportunities to show our work and grow our organization. I still have a few more folks to contact but so far I have met with three of our Trustees (Laurieanne Love, Ann Critchfield and Dotty Etris), Morgan Rodgers Asst. Director Parks and Rec., Morgan Timmis Historic & Cultural Affairs Manager and participated in the North Fulton County Arts & Culture Forum. I am looking for a few interested members to team with me to synthesize all the information and opportunities into a clear, concise and achievable package to present to the board and all members. Please email me with your interests at jswiftbarr@gmail.com

A special thanks to Mickie Maddux for moving us forward into a digital newsletter with flair and ensuring that our website is current, to Jane Garver for ensuring we have interesting and informative programs, Don Cramer and Mickie for helping us stay fiscally sound, Ann Noble for publicity, Patti Dugan for great minutes and all our venue chairs – Nancy Fairchild, Betty Walser, Sonja Allers, Judie Hoyt, Larry Breeland and Sherry Hardage. It is amazing how many people are needed to volunteer their time and effort, now and past, to keep us going for FORTY years!

Jane Swift, President
January 2012