In attendance:

Mary Diane Bass – MIA

Suzanne Degler – MCAD

Rosemary Furtak – Walker

Kathy Heuer - CVA

Deborah Jindra

Mary Ellen Johnson – Walker

Stepahie Kays – Walker

Janice Lurie - MIA

Rebecca Moss – University of Minnesota

Alysia Peich - MCAD

Martha Ruddy – Walker

Kay Streng - MCAD

Deborah Jindra called the meeting to order at 9:50 a.m. With both Walter Gegner and Jill Vetter absent, the President-elect, Deborah Jindra and the incoming Secretary/Treasurer, Rebecca Moss, ran the meeting. Everyone introduced themselves as there were several first time attendees. 

The discussion first turned to how many meetings a year to have, and the decision was to shoot for three. Deborah discussed the cancelled September meeting, which was to be a tour of the Minneapolis’ Federal Reserve building’s art collection. With the current state of heightened security, it will be difficult to reschedule this tour. Suggestions for future meetings/tours were solicited from the membership. These were some of the suggestions:

Fundraising was the next item discussed. We could raise the dues and/or hold a fundraiser. Some possible suggestions for locations included the Regis Collection (Myra and Anita Kohn), Dayton Home and tours of the MIA curators’ collections at their home. A suggestion was made to offer funds for the international festival being held in the Twin Cities. Current dues are $5.00 a year. The suggestion was made to raise it to $10.00. A vote was held and all were in favor.

Rebecca brought up the possibility of getting together a Chapter basket for the Silent Auction to be held at the ARLIS/VRA joint conference in St. Louis. A discussion of possible items to donate included; artists’ books, magnets, gloves, scarves, socks and Minnesota made items (like nut goodies from Pearson’s). Further discussion will be necessary to finalize the plans for this event.

Deborah noted that there was Minneapolis Arts Commission meeting on November 28 at Intermedia Arts on Lyndale and 27^th from 5:30 – 7:15. The discussion will be about what support is still there for the Office of Cultural Affairs, and whether this will change with the newly elected mayor.

Rebecca gave a report on the MINERVA symposium that was recently held at the University of Minnesota. The event was considered a great success (especially the food thanks to D’Amicos). The goal of MINERVA (http://digital.lib.umn.edu/minerva/) and MAGNOLIA (http://lrts.stcloudstate.edu/mdl/index.html) is to provide statewide access to images and other online databases through various avenues like the consortial buying of resources. There are plenty of issues still to be worked out. Items on our wish list included getting access to Art Index Retrospective and Art Full Text. Janice also discussed getting together a list of finding aids, like an authority list of names that would link to all variant names. The Minnesota Historical Society may already have resources like these.

Our current bank balance is $349.35. Rebecca proposed that we donate $100 to the ARLIS/VRA general conference fund. With the increased membership dues, we will be able to replace this amount without any trouble and still have money for other activities. The proposal was voted on and passed.

A discussion about the terms of office was next, with Deborah noting that she may have to bow out if a job takes her elsewhere. But no one had a copy of the Chapter By-Laws to see whether the terms should be staggered. Alysia agreed to be chair-elect.