state arts action network
State Arts Action Network
Network Meeting
Sunday, June 22, 2008
11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Chair: Sheila Smith
Vice Chair: Anne Katz
Staff Liaisons: Jay Dick, Tim Mikulski
Sheraton City Center
17th and Race Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Logan 2 Room
Attendees:
Sheila Smith, Chair, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts
Anne Katz, Vice-Chair, Arts Wisconsin
Judy Weiner, Immediate Past Chair, Alliance of NY State Arts Organizations
John Barsness, Montana Arts
Lisa Caretto, California Arts Advocates
Lisa Carnevale, Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts
Donna Collins, Ohio Citizens for the Arts
David Cupps, Arts Kentucky
John D’Angelo, City Arts of Wichita
Sally Gaskill, Indiana Coalition for the Arts
Jenny Hershour, Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania
Dan Hunter, Mass. Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities
Ra Joy, Illinois Arts Alliance
Mary Langholz, Washington State Arts Alliance
Whitney Llewelyn, Wyoming Arts Alliance
Ann Marie Miller, ArtPride New Jersey
Betty Plumb, South Carolina Arts Alliance
Jan Selman, Arts Leadership League of Georgia
Tommy Usrey, Louisiana Partnership for the Arts
Diane Scolaro, Vermont Arts Council
Staff:
Jay Dick, Director of State and Local Government Affairs
Tim Mikulski, State & Local Govt. Affairs Coordinator
Stan Rosenberg, SAAN Consultant, Americans for the Arts
Guests:
Nina Ozlu Tunceli, Chief Counsel of Government and Public Affairs
Narric Rome, Director of Federal Affairs
Gladstone Payton, Associate Director of Federal Affairs
Natalie Shoop, Government Affairs and Grassroots Coordinator
Ben Burdick, Public Affairs Coordinator
Jessica Strieter, Arts Action Fund Coordinator
Kirsten Gercke, Government & Public Affairs Associate
Theresa Cameron, Director of Membership
Eulynn Shiu, Research Manager
Jonathan Katz, NASAA
Carol Brown, New York Partners for Arts Education
Jeremy Johannsen, New York Partners for Arts Education
Scott Hutchenson, Louisiana Partnership for the Arts
Pam Breaux, Asst. Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development
Welcome & Americans for the Arts Government and Public Affairs Staff Visit:
Sheila Smith welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Nina Ozlu Tunceli. Nina explained the roles of the various members of the Government and Public Affairs staff including federal issues, the public service announcement campaign and the Action Fund. Sheila added that it was through Nina’s work with SAALA that brought it together with NCAN to form SAAN at Americans for the Arts in 2004.
Narric Rome explained his role as the Director of Federal Affairs – developing the agenda for the year, producing the resource guides, biennial report cards, and the candidate survey.
Gladstone Payton is involved as an adjunct of the federal portfolio as he has worked in the House in the past and now is the lead in that chamber for Americans for the Arts. He explained that the appropriations process is currently taking place and he is monitoring it plus other legislation in the House.
Sheila commented that Narric and Gladstone are doing great work and thanked them for their contributions. She then asked when the NEA may be notified of an increase in funding.
Gladstone said that it would be no later than September 26 and that the $160 million amount seems right at this point. Narric added that if the Senate would raise their amount by $15 million, it could be done faster.
Nina explained that our current method is an example of smart advocacy. We are not bothering constituents or legislators that do not have a role to play at the moment – only utilizing 25,000 of our 100,000 advocates.
Natalie Shoop then explained her role as a monitor of CapWiz, a trainer upon request and an assistant if SAAN members need help writing an alert.
Jay asked Natalie when an alert is sent, how many entries need to be updated. Natalie said that she receives 400-500 out-of-office replies that she sorts through for updating purposes.
Sheila asked if Natalie writes the alerts and if there was any particular wording that works better? Natalie said there is a best practices document and Sheila asked if SAAN could have a copy of that document.
Ben Burdick explained that he works with the Ad Council on a daily basis in addition to working with the advertising agency that produced the PSA’s. He also helps partners to use the campaign as a tool to get out to everyone at the local level. He explained that our “The Arts. Ask for More” campaign is one of the top-10 for the Ad Council, receiving $150 million worth of donated media. It is also the #1 print ad campaign for 10 consecutive years. He also explained what a partner is and asked if anyone was interested in becoming one to let him know.
Nina added that Ben also takes care of a lot of the technical aspects of the department and is in charge of the Nancy Hanks Lecture.
Jessica Strieter introduced herself as the newest member of the team as she joined two weeks before the convention. She explained that she works with the Arts Action Fund and PAC from membership solicitation to processing contributions and deciding what candidates will receive a contribution.
Sheila asked if she could tell SAAN what the timeline is going to be to decide endorsements and when checks are going out.
Narric said that they selected July 8 as an arbitrary date. The open seat candidates will receive checks in the late summer while challengers against incumbents would receive money later in the fall.
Jan Selman asked if there was anything SAAN members can do to help with the surveys?
Narric said yes. One way would be to bring the survey with you for meetings or events where candidates will be present.
Sheila asked that when surveys are sent out, to let the SAAN know. Jessica said she would be happy to email going forward.
Lisa Caretto asked if a C3 organization can hand out a campaign check. Jessica responded that you could as an individual on behalf of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC.
Jan then asked where the Congressional Report Card is housed. Narric said the 2006 version is on the Action Fund site with the 2008 being posted in early August.
Kirsten Gercke introduced herself by stating that she started working at Americans for the Arts in February, providing support to Nina and the department in an administrative and programmatic capacity. She also worked on Arts Advocacy Day, convention, and assisted with the PSA campaign.
Sheila also acknowledge consultant Alene Valkanas who joined the meeting.
Alene said that she is working with statewide groups that want to be great. She just returned from a visit to New Hampshire and found it very rewarding. She will be working with them over four months to help them develop a plan. She will next visit Utah in July, Arizona in August and Kentucky in September. She also worked with Eulynn Shiu (Research Manager) to develop a tool to provide information about the groups.
Sheila thanked Alene for her work and Nina added that is a dream come true to have Alene helping in the field. Sheila also acknowledges Stan Rosenberg.
Research Department Visit:
Sheila next introduced Eulynn Shiu to the SAAN. Eulynn said she was grateful to be invited to the meeting to speak to everyone in person after speaking to many members on the phone. She also added that she adapted a version of an assessment tool to have organizations use to help start Alene’s work with them, citing that as an example of how SAAN and research can work together to tackle issues.
She explained that in Colorado, Think 360, an arts education advocacy organization, worked with the research department to pursue a parent poll. 17 organizations throughout the state sent emails to parents, receiving 700 responses on subjects such as feelings on arts education, out of pocket spending on the arts and outside of school. This is an example of how online surveys put more bang into your argument.
Dun and Bradstreet is working with Americans for the Arts to make it easier for organizations to be signed up and counted. She also explained that if you aren’t signed up yet, but need a number for a grant, when you call you are sent into the sales pool for 30 days. Organizations do not have to sign up for any packages during that time. As much as possible, Eulynn recommends signing up online 30 days in advance and if a State Arts Agency is requiring a number, show them proof that you have applied for one.
She also recommended that SAAN may want to put together a research committee. Sheila said she would love to chair the committee and Jenny Hershour, Whitney Llewelyn, Sally Gaskill, and Philana Quick all said they would join them. She added that the Creative Industries reports are amazing and since they are so vital to advocacy, she would like to see them be free because an economic barrier shouldn’t be set up between tools and organizations.
Judy asked if the data already exists. Ann Marie Miller suggested broadening the topics of those considered to be involved in the “creative economy.”
Eulynn said that the district data actually doesn’t exist until it is requested. She also added that SAAN members should code themselves as state arts councils when they sign up with Dun & Bradstreet.
Sheila said that the 2006 data that is free online is not that out-of-date in light of the work that gathering the new data entails.
David Cupps said that he is relatively new to the reports and he said that it would be helpful if we could have a similar comparison to other industries to put side by side for comparison’s sake.
Jay recommended taking the number of employees and comparing it to the biggest employer in the state or city. Laura Reeder said that she found out that the arts were ahead of big insurance companies in her region and attendance was much higher and revenue greater compared to sports.
Sheila explained that the Cultural Data Project that started in Pennsylvania seems to be a trend of data collection being centralized in one place. After completing several economic reports at once, this data will then be collected on an annual basis and the reports will be easy to generate.
Mary Langholz suggested sharing the cost of the reports with the state arts council. Sally Gaskill agreed, stating that they share the cost in Indiana and her organization distributes them.
Sheila thanked Eulynn for the work of her department.
Membership Department Visit:
Sheila introduced Theresa Cameron who asked for everyone to introduce themselves before explaining her role at Americans for the Arts and her previous experience at Montgomery County Arts.
As a backdrop, Theresa told the SAAN that the goal is for Americans for the Arts to have one million members with a short term goal of 100,000 by the end of 2009. Theresa said that Americans for the Arts would like help in identifying new members and will be working to get different lists and a partnership program.
In addition, she explained that Americans for the Arts now has a contract with the Metropolitan Group and one of their recommendations was to offer free memberships in the Action Fund to partners. For example, members of MENC would be automatically signed up with the Action Fund too. A social networking version of the Arts Action Fund site is only in the works.
Jay explained that some of the SAAN members have their own PAC now and they feel that giving up their names is giving away something so there must be a benefit for SAAN organizations to do this.
Ra commented that he is excited to talk about member-sharing and Jay explained how data is being shared currently.
Sheila asked how would the Action Fund solicit and how often?
Theresa said that all of that is changing and that there will be much less direct mail with more coming through partnerships in the future instead.
Anne asked what does it mean for Americans for the Arts to solicit free memberships when Anne needs to solicit the same people for funding?
Theresa said she sees the free Action Fund membership as a free member benefit that the SAAN organizations can offer.
Betty wanted to tell Theresa that the funding infrastructure of SAAN organizations involves unrestricted membership revenue. She wanted to make sure that it is being considered when coming up with a plan so that the plan can work for everyone.
Theresa said that she comes from the advocacy side and would want to take a careful look at this and make it a real benefit and a way to make it easy for SAAN organizations to make money.
Alene said this is an important conversation and suggests that a SAAN committee be formed to work with Theresa.
Sheila supported the idea and asked for volunteers (Ra, Jan, Donna, Judy, and Betty) and Ra was chosen as the leader of that committee. Sheila added that any joint membership projects must protect SAAN organizations from losing their revenue.
Theresa said it must be a benefit that unifies both sides, not one that cannibalizes the SAAN organizations. She also stated that the conclusion might not work for everyone at the end of this process.
Lisa Caretto asked why big lists couldn’t be purchased to create the 1 million members? She also thanked Theresa for cutting down on the mailings.
Theresa said that they were looking at other options besides that.
Jay reminded the group that this is all preliminary discussion to get things started.
Lisa Caretto asked if at the conclusion, three SAAN members are against it and 10 are for it, what happens?
Sheila said that it is a joint decision starting at the committee level with Ra’s new subcommittee.
Jenny Hershour asked as a C3, how does she solicit people to sign on for a membership that includes the Action Fund?
Theresa said that the Action Fund is a C4, not the PAC. It is their hope that C4 members would then contribute to the PAC.
Sheila thanked Theresa for her time.
Adjournment:
Sheila said it was a pleasure to be the chair of the SAAN and is completely confident that Anne will keep the ball moving forward.
Anne thanked Sheila for everything and began to ask about the SAAN Council Fall/Winter meeting. She suggested the meeting take place between November 4 and the second week of December.
Tim was asked to follow up by sending out a Doodle email to determine which dates in November and December work for the most people. Tommy Usrey volunteered to host SAAN in New Orleans.
Anne adjourned the meeting.