As the year 2007 comes to an end we welcome the new year 2008 with another new round in our Sketchbook Club. I can not believe that I have been the Hostess for a whole year already. Within the first month of this PAST year we welcomed Kendall, Jan, Nancy and Bobbi into our artist ranks. It has been tremendously rewarding watching all of the art come across my work bench over the months. Getting to know they style of the new artists has been fun.
As this new round begins, we will send Kendall any books we might still have for her. She has stepped out of the club for the time being. We will welcome her back with open arms if she does decide to return someday. On a WELCOME note, we have a new member, Paulette DuQue! It is so good to have you with us Paulette and that you know some of us already. Thank you Susan for bringing your friend to our group. Enjoy making your books!
At this moment we only have LINDA on HOLD. Gail is back with us again so this will be good. It has been a difficult year for her health wise....and she has been missed very much!
As if you didn't already know, now is the time to start thinking about making the winter round of books. Sandy and I did an even exchange...all hers for all mine! This is a great way to save time and money if you want to pick a partner for that initial send off. Let us hope the Post Office is finally happy with all the $$$ they squeeze out of us and doesn't give us another rate hike!!! We used to send out 2 or 3 books in an envelope. I have been putting 4 or so in them to help cushion the cost. I personally do not mind if you send me LOTS of books in MY packets. I would encourage you to stuff the little packets!
This next year will bring a few changes with it. Our POLL results show that we can do an online newsletter, and here it is. I apologise for not having more mail outs this past year. We all need to simplify our busy lives and the changes will help along those lines. Another decision was to relieve the $5 dues just this next year. We have a nice plump treasury of $82, and that will cover any new rubber we might need for any new members. We will also send out any goodies directly to members along with books and see how that works out. Some of you already do that. I have a few things here that you have sent me for distributing and I will do that by and by. Please remember that all of the membership information is on the yahoo site in the files for you to update if you have new likes and dislikes. I urge you to make any changes yourself, or let me know them and I will do it for you. You can print the files out for a handy reference if you wish as I have done. I fall back to it all the time. The ON HOLD status report is also there and current.
We will try this paper free admin stuff for this year and reevaluate later on to see how happy we are with the change. Some of us are still not totally sold on the changes and that is something we need to consider.
A few things to remember when making and mailing books...please try to stay within the smaller dimensions when making books. Some embellishments tend to be rather bulky and stick up off the books...these tend to get lost or fall off if not welded on:) The books need to lay flat when open! Please credit yourself with your work, we want to know who you are! Autograph it! Do put all the books inside of a baggie to protect them. I love how we reuse the mailers and deco them up with stamps, papers and art! The more tape on them, the more they are protected...the Post Office should give us an award for going green! I carefully cut the mailers open along the edges so the can be resealed with more tape there.
Well, unless I can remember anything else...this is it for the newsletter for the first of the year. So just enjoy making your books and try to have them in circulation by Saint Patricks Day:) Happy Stamping!
