1

Message from the President 1 to 3

Classes Newsletter 3

Volunteers are Needed 4

Goodyear Front Desk Volunteers 4

Spring Singers Concert 5

News Fro the Pottery Guild 6

JEKYLL ISLAND ARTS ASSOCIATION Goodyear Cottage, Historic District

Jekyll Island, Georgia

April 2019 Newsletter

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Membership News 7

From the Goodyear Shop 7

April Exhibit Poster 8

Artists’ Biographies - April Exhibit 9/10

Membership Form 12

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT… Caryl Rice

JIAA Volunteers Behind the Scenes: The Art of Technology

The Jekyll Island Arts Association mission is to help members learn more about various art forms, to

show their work in our gallery, and to sell their work through our sales shop. It is also about sharing art with

the larger Golden Isles community.

Behind the scenes a group of dedicated volunteers have been working to support the mission of the asso-

ciation and improve services to members through the use of technology.

The story began in 2012 when Darrell Davidson set up the first JIAA website. Tom Mertens was the

class coordinator and everything related to classes was on paper, including the class catalog. Consuelo

Stacy was teaching knitting classes and believed that people would be more likely to sign up for classes if

they could see a picture of what they would be learning. Consuelo “volunteered” her husband, Mahlon

Stacy, to put the class catalog on-line with pictures. That was the start of it all.

With the class catalog on-line we needed a member database so people could pay dues and sign up for

classes using PayPal. In 2013 Craig Patterson and Mahlon put their heads together and developed the mem-

ber number ID plan. In 2014 Joan Samuelson became the membership coordinator, and Bonnie Householder

and Caryl Rice took over the class coordinator role. Mahlon did the programming and the Joan-Bonnie-

Caryl team did the testing and kept saying, “can you make it do this?” That’s when we added a classroom

room-scheduling program.

Continued on page 2...

‘A Message from the President’ continued from page 1...

Visit us on Facebook at Jekyll Island Arts Association

Page 2 JIAA Newsletter

Mahlon proposed automating the juried portion of the festival in December of 2015. Susie Corbett, the fes-

tival chair agreed so, 2016 was the first year members received printed labels and price tags. Treasurer, Mary

Stock, was able to key in sales, which provided a record at the end of the festival so that artists could be paid

more easily. Sonja Peterson took over the class coordinator roll and continued to find “bugs” that when fixed,

improved the operation of the class registration system.

In 2017, Members were able to register their own juried art entries on-line for the festival. Consuelo, once

again, “volunteered” Mahlon to develop a database for the festival sales shop. It was not integrated with the

member database so required lots of time and key-strokes by the festival shop managers, Consuelo Stacy and

Susan Kronenberger.

As of April 2018, the Goodyear shop was fully incorporated into the database process under Deb Patter-

son’s control. While she claimed (and still does) that this much automation was not needed, using her patience

she worked with Mahlon to find and eliminate the various bugs in the system and her husband, Craig, helped

with equipment issues. Members were now able to enter items on-line and keep track of their shop inventory.

Dilys Jagger, festival co-chair in 2016, 2017 and 2018, recognized the need to reach a larger audience and

increase attendance at our festival. She encouraged her husband, Rob, to explore options for a new website.

Our new website went live in January of 2018 thanks to their efforts. Bev Hopkins became and continues to

be our Web Master.

Rob was also instrumental in convincing the JIAA board to incorporate bar code scanning into the sales

process, and, consolidate the juried art and shop databases into a single database. The board approved $3,000

to advance our technology.

Mahlon began to program for scanning sales and, in the fall of 2018, the first sales were made using bar-

code scanners. Luana Dickey trained front desk volunteers and we worked through issues during Merry Art-

ists. Darrell Davidson, who assumed the role of treasurer, began using the electronic reporting of sales as the

input for paying artists. We learned quickly that our outdated WiFi router was inadequate to handle the in-

creased use of technology. Craig Patterson, who tends electronic equipment at Goodyear, researched and re-

placed the router in December.

There were over 4,000 items registered for Merry Artists, so bar code scanning made a huge difference. It

has reduced errors, simplified the treasurer’s job, and artists are receiving payment sooner.

The monthly Gallery shows were added to the sales database in November of 2018, so now we have one

“consignment” database instead of three. Carol Fritz is working with Mahlon to add features to the database

that support the work of the Gallery team.

One name flows throughout this story. I asked Mahlon, and several others why they have contributed so

much to the JIAA. Here is his answer:

“My wife made me do it. She wanted pictures on the web page for her knitting classes, because a verbal de-

scription just didn't cut it. I harangued Tom Mertens one summer and got the first class catalog up. Then I got

hooked. Writing software is like solving a jigsaw puzzle. You have all the pieces (or you can find them), you

just need to figure out how to put it together. Like photography, it's an avocation for me. And like photography

(but unlike a jigsaw puzzle), I need somebody to look at it and tell me if they like it or not. JIAA provides a

problem to solve with the software tools. I enjoy the creative part of developing software. Less so the fixing

bugs and doing documentation. But it's all a worthwhile challenge for me.”

Continued on page 3...

JIAA CLASSES

JIAA has completed its Fall 2018 - Winter 2019 Class Season

Our Instructors still love teaching (they don’t do it for the money!) and enjoy the use of Goodyear Cottage

in the Jekyll Island Historic District. Every one - students and Instructors - had a lot of fun and learned new

skills. A HUGE Thank You to all of the instructors and students who participated in the 2018/2019 classes.

We are already getting ready for the Fall 2019/Winter 2020 Classes and will keep you posted on the details.

Remember, in order to register for classes, you need to be a JIAA member. You can pay/renew your member-

ship online at jekyllartists.com . You can also join/renew and pay your dues by mail or in person at Goodyear

Cottage - cash or check only - and don’t forget to accompany the dues with a completed membership form,

even if you are renewing. With dues paid, you will be able to register for classes online.

If mailing in your dues please send to (a membership form can be found at the end of this newsletter):

Jekyll Island Arts Association

ATTN: Dues

P. O. Box 13201

Jekyll Island GA 31527

SEE YOU IN CLASS! NEXT YEAR!

Sonja Peterson

Joan Samuelson

Classes Co-Coordinators

April 2019 Page 3

‘A Message from the President’ continued from page 2...

I’ll share more answers to the question, “Why do you volunteer?” in the following months.

Volunteers are contributing every day to the growth and success of our organization. Improvements will

continue. We understand that technology may be frightening to some of us who didn’t grow up with electron-

ic devices all around us. The evolution of technology in the JIAA has been an incremental at times and fast

paced at others. The process has hopefully allowed members to advance at a comfortable pace.

If technology is your “thing,” we would

welcome new members on our technology

committee.

Current members:

Darrell Davidson

Chuck Diefenderfer

Beverly Hopkins

David McCune Jr.

Craig Patterson

Caryl Rice

Mahlon Stacy

http://jekyllartsassociation.org

GOODYEAR FRONT DESK VOLUNTEERS... Edith Gross

ATTENTION: All Goodyear Front Desk Volunteers

1. Life happens, and sometimes you have to cancel your volunteer date for the Goodyear Front Desk. If it is

necessary to cancel your signup date, you are responsible for finding a replacement. To exchange with another

volunteer, simply look on the SignUpGenius monthly calendar and contact other volunteers through the mem-

bership directory and ask them if they will exchange dates with you.

2. Our snowbirds will begin leaving us in April and we will miss their faithful and cheerful service. This

leaves us with gaps in our April and May SignUpGenius calendars. We still have 10 slots available in

April and many openings in May. Go to SignUpGenius and grab your preferred date! Thank you!

3. It is fun to work at the Goodyear Front Desk and greet visitors and potential customers. If you would like

to be trained to work at the Goodyear Front Desk, please contact Edith Gross at 704 466-6633 for your person-

al training session.

Page 4 JIAA Newsletter

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Among all of the reasons why people have volunteered to help with the JIAA, two stand out right now.

1. If no one volunteers, something I really enjoy isn’t going to happen.

2. Bonnie Householder asked me to help (she is very persuasive)

We are at a point where we do not have anyone to over see Merry Artists for 2019. We have a great team of

people who, independently, make their part of the bigger picture run smoothly. It is fun, a great way to meet

people, and if you sell your artwork through the Goodyear Shop, a way to give back to the JIAA.

We are also looking for a team of three to four people to make sure we have

our 46th annual festival in 2020. There is another great team of members who

take on specific tasks for the festival year after year. There are people who

have managed the festival to provide support and information. There is a

binder containing everything you need to know about the festival. If you have

a team or if you are willing to be part of the festival team please contact me.

Please review reason number 1 above and volunteer for Merry Artists or the

2020 Festival. I am asking this because it would be a loss to JIAA members,

the association, and Jekyll Island if either of these events were to disappear.

Caryl Rice

President JIAA

Visit us on Facebook at Jekyll Island Arts Association

April 2019 Page 5

SONGS ACROSS AMERICA CONCERT Performed by the Jekyll Island Singers

Kate Hamer

The Jekyll Island Singers performed their concert ”Songs Across America “ to a full house on Tuesday,

March 19th at the Jekyll Convention Center, Directors, Anne Jennings and Kate Hamer and accompanist

Lois Richter, were the very proud leaders of this 28th Spring concert of the Jekyll choir. The singers were

dressed in red, white and blue tops to visually portray the patriotic theme.

The repertoire included patriotic and American folk songs as well as songs like the Erie Canal, Colora-

do Trail, John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High and Country Roads, and Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your

Land which included a special audience participation verse about Jekyll Island.

The evening came to a close with a special tribute to our Armed Forces. All of the active and retired

military stood when their branch’s song was sung . We concluded with the pledge of allegiance and the

National Anthem.

A special thanks to all of our members for their support of the bake sale and the Singers concerts!

Anne Jennings conducting the Jekyll Island Singers

http://jekyllartsassociation.org

Page 6 JIAA Newsletter

NEWS FROM THE POTTERY GUILD Gretchen Sharlow

At the Pottery Guild we are grateful…for a fantastic Festival; for fine

weather for the Festival; for robust sales at the pottery table; for fun with

the kids at the Raku Station and at Play in the Clay; and for the huge team

effort on our part, helping to make the Manna Soup Bowl Dinner a suc-

cessful evening.

Throughout the Festival weekend, the Raku Station was busy, with lots of

little kids and their parents, a fair number of teenagers, and many artistic

adults. We are especially grateful for our very capable and efficient Guild

members who worked the sales table, fired the kiln and fine-tuned the fin-

ished pieces for happy patrons. In the past years, silly Raku creatures like

weird fish, and “curmudgeons” have been our best sellers. Especially in-

teresting this year, instead of the sillies, even the little kids and teenagers

were choosing wheel-thrown pieces - lovely small bowls and vases. The

Raku Station did well. So did Play in the Clay. What a great idea to have

a pottery wheel at that site, so that Mary Perkins, Pete Wager and others

could give kids lessons in throwing pots.

This was a banner year for the Manna Soup Bowl Dinner. The

Rev. Jim Crandall, the Comptroller for Manna House, expressed

his gratitude to Guild in a letter, “Dear Potters,…To say it was a

success would be an understatement because we exceeded our goal

and raised the amount of $3,282.00. This would not have been

possible without your help and support…We cannot begin to ex-

press our thanksgiving for what you were able to do…We look for-

ward to 2020 and our continued partnership in raising funding to

feed the hungry in our community.”

The potters contributed 200 beautiful bowls, and also contributed

$973.00. This amount was raised by the silent auction of Al

Kline’s platter, a raffle of exquisite pieces donated by Lesley

Hughes and Al Kline, and monetary contributions from many of

the potters.

It has been a busy season at the Pot Shop. Soon many

of the potters will head north. But for now, we are

gratefully celebrating the successful events and the

good times.

Visit us on Facebook at Jekyll Island Arts Association

Mary Maes, great granddaughter of Lou Lodico,

granddaughter of Paul & Jane Christian.

Third generation potential potter?

Art Sennett checks out the work

of the many potters he has taught

over the years...

Jim Talada and Bob Newman, who

each year help bring the joys of Raku

to Festival visitors ...

April 2019 Page 7

MEMBERSHIP NEWS Lucy Loehle

The membership year at JIAA ends on March 31. There are 180 members who have joined or renewed

their memberships for the coming year. If you are one of the 367 members who have not yet renewed their

memberships, you can do so on line through the JIAA website using PayPal, or by stopping by Goodyear Cot-

tage and paying by cash, check or credit/debit card. Remember that only paid members are eligible to sign up

for classes. Renew now and be ready to grab that class you want in the fall or winter sessions. Paid member-

ship is also required to place entries in the Festival, and sell works in the Gallery Shop.

FROM THE GOODYEAR SHOP Jackie Becker

Greetings from the Goodyear Shop. After 6 years of managing the Shop Deborah Patterson has “retired”

and I am taking it on. I will try to make this transition as seamless as possible, maintaining label printing on

Monday and Thursday and most procedures remaining the same. I would also ask all of our Artists who place

items in the Shop for sale reacquaint themselves with the Goodyear Shop Guidelines found on the Art Associ-

ation Webpage. In the post festival hiatus our Technology department has been working feverishly to make

improvements to our inventory system (see below). Going forward your item will not show up in inventory

until the Shop Manager scans it into inventory. Of utmost importance is removal of old labels and replace-

ment with new ones. The old labels will no longer scan. Registration opens on March 27th with intake of

items for sale beginning on March 30th. I am looking forward to a great reopening on April 1st.

http://jekyllartists.com

Visit us on Facebook at Jekyll Island Arts Association

April 2019 Page 9

Prepared by Pattie Carofano

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http://jekyllartsassociation.org

Prepared by Pattie Carofano

April 2019 Page 11

Visit us on Facebook at Jekyll Island Arts Association

Prepared by Pattie Carofano

http://jekyllartsassociation.org

April 2019 Page 11