state arts action network
State Arts Action Network
Professional Development Meeting
Sunday, March 30, 2008
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Chair: Sheila Smith
Vice Chair: Anne Katz
Staff Liaisons: Jay Dick, Tim Mikulski
Capital Hilton
1001 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Senate 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
Donna Collins, Ohio Citizens for the Arts
Sally Gaskill, Indiana Coalition for the Arts
Virginia Gowski, Utah Cultural Alliance
Jenny Hershour, Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania
Dan Hunter, Mass. Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities
Ra Joy, Illinois Arts Alliance
Linda Kreutz, Texans for the Arts
Mary Langholz, Washington State Arts Alliance
Sherron Long, Florida Cultural Alliance
Betty Plumb, South Carolina Arts Alliance
Trish Poupore, Virginians for the Arts
Philana Quick, Maryland Citizens for the Arts
Jan Selman, Arts Leadership League of Georgia
Leslie Schumacher, Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota
Brenda Sperduti, Arizona Citizens for the Arts
Cecelia Wooden, Arts Kentucky
Staff:
Jay Dick, Director of State and Local Government Affairs
Tim Mikulski, State & Local Govt. Affairs Coordinator
Guests:
Rebecca Borden, Manager of Prof. Development, Americans for the Arts
Anne L’Ecuyer, Assoc. VP of Field Services, Americans for the Arts
Sherry Stanley, CEO, Capitol Advantage
Sherry Stanley & CapWiz:
Sherry introduced herself and said that she would like to touch on a variety of topics including using CapWiz to get out the vote, for personalized communications and to find out how successful alerts are.
She began by discussing the election tool, a newer function from the past few years. The product serves as a report card for members of Congress and can even track earmarks. She also highlighted the importance of using webstickers as referring links to other pages and sites and discussed the new influence score feature that can be used to track the success of your alerts.
Virginia Gowski asked if the name of the person receiving the message is in the subject line, is the open rate for that email better? Sherry replied that there are better open rates for emails with names in the subject line. On a similar topic, Sherry also demonstrated customized fields that can be used for subjects and the body of messages.
Sherry then went on to highlight some of the web 2.0 tools that CapWiz can assist with including showing examples like the Human Rights Campaign’s shopping texting tool that helps shoppers determine if companies are GLBT-friendly (ex. text “shop sears” to 30644) and the Blue Ocean Institute’s texting tool for restaurant patrons to help them choose which fish to order.
She also encouraged all SAAN members to branch out into blogs, podcasts, Google Maps overlays, and YouTube. Judy Weiner added that they posted their “I Am An Artist” video on YouTube. Lisa Caretto also stated that YouTube is collecting arts videos now to help encourage them to create an arts section of their site.
Sherry also mentioned that the future of the internet is in WiMax, which provides wifi internet access up to 35 miles from the source instead of the current limited radius. Also, backing up her explanation for the growth of the internet, Sherry shared some interesting statistics including that 50% of 21-year-olds in the U.S. have created content for the web and that it took radio 38 years to reach 50 million households as compared to only 4 years for the internet.
CapWiz Q&A:
Sheila Smith asked if all of the technology pieces that Sherry mentioned were available to SAAN members now and the answer was yes with your current account.
Dan Hunter and Judy Weiner pointed out that CapWiz information was not up-to-date for some of the legislative leadership in Massachusetts and the new Governor of New York which caused confusion and made both organizations look bad.
Brenda Sperduti said that she has some online training with CapWiz, but wanted to know if there was any other short or basic training available. Sherry said that online training is offered twice per month and that whenever SAAN members are in Washington, DC, they would be happy to provide training. Regarding training, Virginia Gowski suggested to the other members to train a second person from your organization to learn the basics so that something can get done if you are away or indisposed.
Rebecca Borden & Emerging Leaders:
Jay explained that due to another engagement across town, Rebecca Borden was moved up on the agenda so that she could attend the SAAN meeting. He also mentioned that he met with the Emerging Leaders Council in El Paso a few months back and that they are very interested in meeting with and learning from the SAAN members. He also hopes to have a combined meeting of some kind with the SAAN and Emerging Leaders at the Americans for the Arts convention. He then introduced Rebecca who agreed that her group is very interested in advocacy and getting to know the SAAN member from their states. She also invited the SAAN to the Emerging Leaders reception the next night.
Rebecca then explained that the Emerging Leaders are not an age-restricted group and that they work together and network like the SAAN. As members they take part in a listserv to discuss leadership issues and there are 18 local networks across the country. She added that some SAAN members are already involved in the group including Judy Weiner and Anne Katz.
Betty Plumb asked how students can start their own campus arts groups. Rebecca said that Amy Fitterer has started groups previously and has a good template for that through Student Advocates for the Arts. Donna Collins added that she has 12 students who formed Central Ohio Student Advocates that can be used as a template.
Ra Joy asked about the Joyce Foundation scholarship recipients who came to Arts Advocacy Day this year. Rebecca said that it is a pilot program for emerging leaders of color to be able to come to Arts Advocacy Day and it will be evaluated after this year.
Anne L’Ecuyer & Field Services:
Anne L’Ecuyer introduced herself and discussed the tasks that fall under Field Services – Americans for the Arts convention, other networks (Public Art, Emerging Leaders, Arts Education), community development, economic development, civic engagement, and animating democracy.
She also invited SAAN members to consider their role for the 2009 convention in Seattle where the topic will be “the arts and the environment”. Session proposals will be accepted starting in June and will close in August.
Anne L. also showed the group the “Services for Your Community” brochure that details the offerings of Field Services – planning a conference, gaining visibility for events, speakers, etc.
Anne Katz stated that SAAN needs to talk more about how to work with Field Services citing the example of a local arts agency wanting to be created. In that situation, Field Services can come to the SAAN member for their advice or help. Anne L’Ecuyer said she would never think about starting a local arts agency without checking in with SAAN members or any other group that should be consulted with first.
Anne L. went on to explain their new Knowledge Exchange programs which will be national-level small meetings of 100 people at a location where something good is happening in the arts. For example, Columbus, OH has a strong cultural districts program. The session in Columbus would bring people who have cultural districts as part of their daily job for an expert level discussion at deep, down case study level. The first ones will launch at the end of the year.
Sheila Smith raised the issue that the fees in the “Services for Your Community” are a little high for SAAN members. Anne responded that the cost is for high-quality professional development, but at the end of the day they will accept all requests and see if national foundations may be interested in partnering to offset some of the burden.