Present:  Chair Elisabeth Walton Potter, Vice-Chair Christine D’Arcy, Treasurer Richard Van Orman, Ann Altman, Frances Alvarado, Frankie Bell Chuck Fisher, Antonia Jenkins, Thomas Kneeland, Sue McCracken, and volunteer Susan Kelly.

Guest:  Betty Kneeland

Minutes: The minutes for the regular meeting on July 2 were approved after correcting the spelling of Susan Kelly’s last name.

Introductions:  Tom introduced his wife Betty Kneeland.

Inventory and survey:  Christine D’Arcy agreed to vet the applicants for inclusion on the inventory as Susan enters them.  They will be released on line after Christine’s approval.  Tom brought in 45 completed surveys and seven inventory registrations from various constituent museums at Antique Powerland.  Christine noted that she mailed 225 surveys as inserts in a newsletter to members of Children’s Educational Theatre.

Salem Art Fair & Festival : Chuck went through the “watch bill” and other details for our participation in the Salem Art Fair & Festival with the committee members present.  Passes for Pentacle Theatre tickets from Chuck and the Steam-up from Tom were on hand.  (Tom also brought information and passes for Powerland for all committee members.)  Frankie offered Elsinore tickets to a performance by former Eagles band member, Antonia garnered Oregon Garden passes, and Christine will look into Hallie Ford Museum passes as more raffle prizes.  Drawing times were set at intervals on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Frankie will bring a cell phone for the booth.

      Ann brought 100 refrigerator magnets with the OCT license plate number ARTS 4U to give away.  Each of those present was given one for their own use.

      Chuck and Tom will pick up booth materials from Sue Friday morning and set up at the fair.  Christine will bring updated OCT brochures, Polaroid cameras and film, the poster stand and license plate buttons.

      Elisabeth expressed the group’s appreciation for Chuck taking the lead on the fair.

Public Involvement: Christine presented a plan she drafted for information gathering and public information strategies and went through it with the group.  She may be able to get other organizations to help distribute surveys and inventory registration forms.  She said she could use the Internet to direct certain Listserv groups to the MCCC Web site to register and fill out the survey.  She has assigned a staff member to contact Ed Hansen at Spirit Mountain for the Mid-Valley Arts Council’s list of groups and will check groups for newsletters we can get information into.

     Ann announced that she had arranged for the Mid-Valley Arts Council to publish the registration form in the August edition of its newsletter, Arts News.  It was thought to be more economical that doing an insert.  The group congratulated her on her efforts.

     Elisabeth said she would draft a guest opinion piece for the Statesman Journal. 

     Committee members, it was agreed  should take the opportunity to make announcements at civic club meetings, distribute surveys personally, and refer people to the Web site.  A member might also accompany the commissioners to their monthly meetings with cities.  They go to Keizer, Salem, Silverton,  Stayton, Woodburn and Detroit regularly.  Members should log where they speak so that we can list them all as receiving information and contributing to the plan process.

      Christine suggested interviewing key people, civic leaders and arts advocates in Marion County for more in-depth information to augment the survey and add depth to the plan.  She said she would  begin to draft questions.  Elisabeth said pulling quotes from the interviews will be good for driving home points and as a graphic element to break up text in the plan.  Interviews could include people such as the president of Willamette University, a representative of the Council of Governments, and city officials.  Chuck agreed and noted the he, Sue and Richard, as public employees of local governments entities, should probably not be involved as interviewers.  Tom will ask some of the Antique Powerland people to do an interview. Christine estimated that perhaps 25 should be interviewed and she would be willing to do eight.

     Arts, cultural and heritage groups could be targeted for invitation to a face-to-face meeting -- a workshop to which the general public is invited, during which time the draft plan would be discussed and feedback received.  The meeting probably would be held in Salem.  The Salem Downtown Association, which supported registration of the Salem Downtown Historic District, is among the groups that should be invited to participate in the workshop/public meeting.  

     Christine gave a brief legislative update.  A coalition of groups is putting together a package to save the tax credit and to merge the Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust to show streamlining and efficiency.  Senate Bill 931 has been introduced by the Senate Rules Committee.  Governor Kulongoski favors the proposal.  Representative Billy Dalto and Senator Bev Clarno are interested but there will need to be a groundswell of support.

Mexican Fiesta: At Elisabeth’s request, Frances Alvarado discussed the Mexican Fiesta in Woodburn, August 1-3.  The event is in its 33^rd year and draws Hispanic families for a parade, crowning of a queen, crafts, music, and traditional food.  Even if we had the survey translated, we would need to have Spanish-speakers staffing the booth to help people fill it out.  She advised against putting our efforts toward reaching the Hispanic community into the event since most fiesta patrons are parents who bring their young children and, for the most part, they are too occupied to sit down and fill out a form in such an atmosphere.  Chuck asked if we could reach them through agencies and Frances agreed that would be the best plan.  Frances works with a number of agencies, including the Hispanic Services Council, and believes they would be willing to help.  There are also a number of cultural clubs and Hispanic groups at Willamette University and Chemeketa Community College which would be good avenues for distribution.  She will also check with Bob Miley, Coordinator of the Mexican Fiesta,  for a list a local performing and artistic groups to whom inventory registration can be directed.       Chuck said perhaps the balance of funds once approved for the Art Fair but freed by OCT’s sponsorship could be applied to the costs of translating the simpler, shorter version of the survey that Frances recommends into Spanish and printing perhaps 1000 copies.

     Elisabeth thanked Frances for resolving the question of participation at the Mexican Fiesta and for  being willing to work with her agencies to distribute the survey.

Finance:  Tom proposed and Antonia seconded a motion to approve funds for translating and printing the survey in Spanish.  Motion passed unanimously.

     Sue asked the committee to approve $200 for printing committee letterhead and envelopes.  Richard so moved and Frankie seconded the motion that passed unanimously.

Other Scheduled Events:  Sue said our booth at the Marion County Fair yielded only a few surveys since we did not staff the booth, but that we were a visual presence.  Since some of the forms were taken away, we may see some return by mail. 

     Antonia reported that she has secured a place for us in the demonstration pavilion at the Silverton Fine Arts Festival.  We will just need to bring a table and chairs.  She will circulate a sign-up sheet for staffing the booth at the August 6 meeting.

     Tom has secured a spot for us on the first weekend of the Great Oregon Steam Up at Antique Powerland, Brooks, July 26-27.  He also secured passes for those staffing the booth.  The Committee will need to supply a table, canopy, and chairs.  The location is near the sound tower.  The open hours  are7 a.m. to 5 p.m. but Tom agreed that 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. are peak hours.  Ann has a canopy we can use for cover and said she would bring it in to Sue’s office the week before.  Tom said he would help with set-up.  Sue and Elisabeth agreed to take consecutive shifts on Saturday.  Members not present at this meeting will be contacted to see if they would be willing to cover a similar period on Sunday. [Hanteng and Jim signed on for Sunday shifts.]

     Richard suggested that we drop the State Fair from our list of events but encourage the OCT to have a presence there.

     On Ann’s behalf, Elisabeth offered to contact Karen about facilitating a presence for us at the Aurora Colony Days event, August 9-10.  Since it was determined the other festival events in August and September would not be covered, Elisabeth said she would contact groups in Stayton and Mill City for an invitation to speak to historical agencies so that there will have been an outreach in each of the main population subdivisions of the county identified by the Committee. 

     Antonia suggested that, in lieu of the Oktoberfest, the Benedictine Abbey outlying Mt. Angel  would be a good outlet for the survey.

Next Steps:  The August 6 regular meeting will focus on progress with building the cultural resource inventory, a draft outline for the cultural plan, and following up on public involvement efforts.   The next regular meeting is at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 6, at Courthouse Square.

        The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 p.m.