Handmade Tile Association
February 2007 Newsletter

Continental Clay the Behind the Scenes Tour
Bookkeeping for Artists
Board Voting Issue
Directory Mailing
Marketing Committee for MN Tile Festival
Update of SAMA Conference
Next Handmade Tile Association Meeting

Host Continental Clay - Mary Swartout
Attendance - Barb Dreyu, Wendy Penta-Nelson, Nancy Froseth, Lori Olsen-Howell, Leann E. Johnson, Tracey A. Christenson, Amanda Ross, Mercedes Austin, Stephanie Kaczrowski, Kirsten Walstead, Christopher Kelly, Pat Joyelle, Karin Kraemer, Margy Baldwin, Norma Hanlaon, Roger Mayland, Ruth McKinney, Joel McKinney, Sharra Frank, Sheryl Tuorila, Jane Swan, Cathy Bryson, Marci Glavey, and Josh Blanc

Continental Clay the Behind the Scenes Tour
The meeting in January was our biggest on record. We had 25 people attend and the food was fabulous! We started off by getting a tour of Continental Clay with Mary Swartout as our guide. Mary is a part owner in the family business and has been running Continental Clay for 17 years. Their space is over 40,000 sq.ft. of warehouse that they store clays and materials from all over the world and sell to ceramic artists all over the region. Many of their clays come from Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, Florida, New York, and South Dakota. We also got a tour of the mixing room where they make all of the clay bodies that most of us purchase. One of the machines is old baking equipment that was modified to mix clay. The other Mary said was an old Ammunitions Gun Powder Mixer from WWII. Needless to say that was cool.

Bookkeeping for Artists
Our meeting had a special guest, Lori Howell from ABC Accounting. Lori does the books for the HTA and was asked to give us a presentation on getting ready for tax season. ABC Accounting focuses on keeping your books ready to give to your tax accountant at the end of the year. Making sure your receipts are entered correctly and you are filing your proper forms to all the tax agencies. The biggest issue she brought up was the Use Tax. This is a tax you pay when items that should have been taxed at the time of purchase, were not taxed. Items like office supplies, computers, etc. which you purchased from an out of state vendor may have not been taxed. You still owe taxes on those items and states are cracking down on people who do not. Lori said that Governor Pawlenty has allotted 50 million dollars to collect use tax from businesses and individuals in the state of MN.

For more information see the MN Dept of Revenue web site at: http://www.taxes.state.mn.us/use/publications/fact_sheets/use_fact_sheet.shtml

Next meeting we will a worker comp discussion with Chuck Woodson from Farmers Insurance. This discussion could save you thousands of dollars if you have employees or are considering hiring some.

Board Voting Issue
During the organizing of the 2007 HTA directory a mistake was made that needs to be addressed and rectified. While making the ballots for the board election Laura McCaul was accidentally left off the list to be voted on. Laura is listed as a board member in the directory but it was not recognized until just shortly before the last meeting. We informed the membership at the meeting what happened. The board has meet and will have a new ballot to vote, with Laura McCaul's name on it, at the March 15th meeting, to allow the membership to officially vote for her board tenure. As the directory coordinator I want to apologize for the not catching the mistake. If anyone has questions about the vote please contact Josh or any of the board members.
Please attend the March 15th meeting to cast your vote.

Directory Mailing
The 2007 directory is off to the mailing list of the HTA. 2114 were sent at a cost of $841.98 which includes the $160 bulk mailing license. Most packets included a directory, membership form and welcome letter. It took 28 hours by five volunteers to organize the mailing and getting it to the Post Office. Thanks to our volunteers Chris Kelly, Josh Blanc, Mercedes Austin, Margy Jean Balwierz, Layl McDill and Sheryl Tuorila. Special thanks to Chris Kelly and Josh Blanc. Chris put in 9 hours of time and Josh 12 hours.
To give us perspective how much volunteering helps with this project one directory mailed first class cost $1.11 the bulk mailing averaged just under $.033 each. 2114 were mailed which would have cost us $2346.54. Saving us $1504.56. Thanks for everyone's help.

Marketing Committee for MN Tile Festival
At the January meeting the HTA asked if there were people who would be willing to create a marketing committee for the MN Tile Festival. Six people volunteered to meet on March 15th, during the day, at North Prairie Tile. $1000 has been budgeted to the committee to come up with a plan of how to get more people to the festival. Our main goal is to get over 1000 people to attend the festival every year. We have been averaging 600 to 800 people. Challenges include that there are two types of people that come to the show. One are arts festival types that purchase tiles as art. The other are project people who are looking for ideas and which tile artist works in the style they are looking for. Both are very different and have issues to market to. People on the committee Wendy Penta-Nelson, Roger Mayland, Tracy Christianson, Nancy Froseth, Marcia Glancy, Karin Kraemer, and Sabra Waldfogel

Update of SAMA Conference
HTA member Lori Greene was awarded the Annual Juried Show Best Large Scale - Interior for "Divination Systems" which is located at the Sears Building in Midtown Minneapolis. We got to see this piece during the Tile Conference Mosaic Tour.
If you are interested in attending the conference in warm Mesa Arizona you still have time. Here is the info:
March 21-24 in Mesa, AZ SAMA Conference

Edina Art Center Retiring Fellow
Brad Benn of the Edina Art Center sent the HTA a note saying that he was retiring and his last day was Friday, January 26. Brad was one of the first people to engage the HTA, asking if the Edina Art Center could be a part of the 2002 symposium"Tiles in the Twin Cities". He organized a special tile exhibition for the event as well as helping make a movie of a prominent house of Batchelder tile in the South Metro. Brad also organized at the MN Tile Festival over the past four years running the "Make one take one project". We will miss him and hope he still comes to our events. Brad says he plans on teaching, traveling and fishing. We wish him happy trails in his new adventures.

Next Handmade Tile Association Meeting

When - March 15th 2007
Time: 6pm
Where - Sharra Frank Studio in the Northrup King Building
1500 Jackson St NE Suite #469
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55413

Agenda
Vote on Board Member
Mn Tile Festival Marketing Committed report
Special Guest: Chuck Woodson. He will talk about workers comp.
Sean Tribity of Blue over Blue: Sean will talk about web sites and how to make your web site more vi sable.
Talk about Coverings

6th annual MN Tile Festival
Registration for the 2007 MN Tile Festival form is now available. Every members will be sent a registration form. If you can not wait till it comes in the mail please click here to get the PDF. Please note it is on legal size paper.   It is a first come first serve process There are only 8 outside spaces left and 25 inside left.  The cost is $165 for an outside 10’ x 10’ booth and $140. For a 3’x 8’ table inside for an additional $25 you can get a 2nd table inside.  Members will receive 10% off.  produced the show.  Postcards will be available for the show at the March 15th HTA meeting.

Coverings travel info

Coverings is fast approaching and if you have plans on showing your work please contact Jeff Sproehnle
jsproehnle@ntpshow.com
+1.703.683.8500 ext. 201
www.coverings.com

Karin Kraemer has sent the HTA great deals on flying to Chicago from $29 to attend Coverings. Here are the links farealert@airfarewatchdog.com
http://www.airtran.com/Home.aspx

www.Smartertraveler.com
www.bookingbuddy.com

National Tile Festival choices
If you ever wanted chances to sell your tiles, you have many choices over the next year, but you will just have to travel for it. Here are a couple to consider:

The 2nd Annual Northwest Handmade Tile Festival April 27th, 2007 Seattle Washington www.ArtisanTileNW.org

The Moravian Tile Festival is coming up May 19th and 20th, 2007
Doylestown, Pennsylvania www.mptw.go.to

Go to the events section of the HTA website and you can check out all the opportunities available to you.