I am excited to kick off my term as your President. I am fortunate to follow Lloyd Whannell into this position, because Lloyd did a great job and has left me a finely-tuned machine to run. I have enjoyed working with the association as a board member and look forward to more interaction with members over my term. If you are similarly looking for more contact and involvement with other sculptors I encourage you to contact a board member or me.
As a volunteer organization we flourish only because of the involvement of people like Bill Brayman, who coordinated our recent successful Flower and Garden Show exhibit. As of the closing night of the exhibit we sold four pieces. Of course the real reason for the exhibit is to educate the public about the magic of stone sculpture. But as an artist I cannot help but to get really excited about our members exhibiting and selling their work. It is still early, but we will be doing this exhibit again next year, and hope to arrange another group show with the Kirsten Gallery. If you enjoy coordinating this sort of event please contact me and we can put you in touch with the Exhibition Committee.
Similarly, if you have an accounting background, the Finance Committee has an opening. This is a low-demand position that requires some expertise in the workings of balance sheets and income/expense statements. We have a bookkeeper but need someone to ensure continuity of our expertise as committee membership rotates.
Now to some association business. The board is considering a motion to amend the bylaws to change our fiscal year from January 1st - December 31st to July 1st – June 30th. We are considering this because the largest part of our financial operations revolves around Camp Brotherhood, held in July each year. We continually struggle with a number of issues that we believe would be simplified if we were on a July fiscal year. At the same time we want to amend our bylaw-mandated annual membership meeting from February to July (at Camp Brotherhood). Look for a full discussion of this in the next newsletter and at Camp Brotherhood.
As a wrap up to this column, I want to encourage everyone to consider attending the Whidbey Island symposium. It is the first symposium of our season and is a great place to connect with sculpting friends, both old and new. The symposium focuses on hand-carving and promises some good instruction.
Carve well, have fun and wear a good respirator,
"Give me Comfort"
"Purpose"
"Inner Child" 
