Jan Nolan, a long-time member of our club, is proposing a club-wide project to recognize the emergency room nurses and support staff serving Covid-19 victims in our area.

Jan plans to present to front line responders, on behalf of Grand Clay Arts, a heart-shaped pottery dish as pictured below.  The bottom will be marked "COVID-19/2020."  The hospitals included will be Banner Del Webb and Banner Boswell to start.

We anticipate a minimum of one hundred COVID-19 heart-shaped dishes for the first round.  The breakdown is 35 dishes per 25 pound bag of clay.  Also, two Grand Clay Arts members, Fred Hagen and Lynne Shanrock, have offered to donate kiln time to assist in the project.

The projected time line is thirty days to produce the greenware pieces.  The club will assist with our in-studio glaze offerings.  Are YOU interested in joining Jan and fellow members in this worthwhile effort in recognition of our front line responders?

Please contact us for more details by return email.  svmail726@gmail.com
brucemlucas@gmail.com
Thank you for your support.
     
                                           

A lot of good things have happened since you invited me to speak to your group a few months ago.   Look at what has been accomplished since that meeting.  Your club now has a designated place, first place among all the clubs actually, on the priority schedule for remodeling, you have a helping advocate in Dave Martin to work up the plan and estimate for your expansion and my backing to lend support to make it all happen.  I am happy for all of you.

Obviously we are in uncharted waters.  I truly believe that in such cases, many boards would pull their hood down over their eyes and hunker down to merely survive.  But this board is working diligently with our heads held high to make sure we take our issues seriously to not merely survive but to come out of this never taking our eyes off the duties at hand but continuing to march to our future goals of building out Sun City Grand for the Grand benefit of all.  For this budget year, we are analyzing every project in the current budget to adjust our spending as much as possible for this year.  So far we have identified over one million dollars of reductions.  I have no timeline projections for you or any other entity except to say you will keep your place in the priority line.

Thanks for your support and stay well.

Greetings Fellow Members!

Hopefully we are all becoming accustomed to the new personal space reality that has been suggested through "social distancing" guidelines.

Our goal is to minimize the effects of "social distancing" from your Clay Arts Club and SCG Community through frequent email updates to you, our membership.

Jan's project offers local members an opportunity to stay connected through this worthwhile clay club project honoring our front line responders.  Materials are available through the studio welcoming your involvement.  We look forward to your participation!

The SCG Board of Directors, under Don's leadership, is taking an extremely proactive roll in advancing overall community lifestyle objectives.  As an example, the Board recently voted to offer a "letter of intent" (circa $1.8 mil) addressing Granite Falls Coco's space as well as the accompanying patio area.  The new restaurant and social gathering area is planned to integrate seamlessly with the existing pro shop plus other area amenities.  Stay tuned . . .

Golf remains open generating between $30,000 to $40,000 per day in revenues.  Social distancing standards are maintained; i.e. one golfer per golf cart on the courses.  A golfer who does not come with a resident as a guest may not play on our courses at this time.

Water usage within the community is below budget projections.  Golf courses and common areas are using less water than anticipated.  The SCG property continues to be maintained to top notch standards.  Home sales are up thru the end of March 2020.

Also, CAM has kept vital administrative services intact and running during this period.  CAM staff members will receive full wages and benefits thru May 31, should they choose to come to work or stay home due to health concerns.

On a personal note, the "social distancing" and "stay at home" standards at times may feel onerous to us all.  To keep creative ideas and thoughts flowing, take a few minutes and share an image of an art project that you may be involved in.  You never know, your sharing may inspire a fellow member and also brighten someone's day!

Stay connected!  Only best thoughts for continued good health!

Then . . .                                       
              

Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

                                                        

It is already time for another newsletter and I would like to report on our finances today.  It goes without saying that the closure of our studio has impacted our income stream but on the flip side, it has also impacted our expenses.

As of March 31, 2020, our checking account balance is $23,400.19 while our savings account balance is $23,958.66.  The updated budget summary has been posted on our website.  This summary includes actual numbers for January, February and March as well as monthly budget numbers for the remaining months. Here are some highlights from the budget summary report:

• Educational income is under budget (YTD) by $2646.  Total income is under budget by $6028.
• Total expenses are under budget by $304.  It should be noted that expenses typically trail income since most invoices or payables are processed in arrears.

I also would like to once more thank all members who took the time to complete our first member survey.  We appreciate your feedback and look forward to reopening of the studio so that some of your good ideas can be put into motion.  As mentioned in an earlier communication, we are working on several computer program updates that are expected to result in function improvements for members when registering for volunteer and monitor opportunities.

We will also evaluate other suggestions we received to see how they can be implemented, such as social gatherings and other fun activities for members.

Eductaional offerings will be reviewed and popular classes rescheduled as soon as it is feasible.  Focus will be on the classes that members have requested, popular classes offered in the past and perhaps some new themed offerings over the summer.

Regarding other helpful comments that have been received, we are currently working on a revision of volunteer hours credited to new members so that new member monitor participation can be enhanced.  We would like to remind members members that dues, cubby and class payments can be made on line via PayPal.  Yes, the prepaid phone is still in the change box in the studio. 

We will keep you posted with newsletter updates and email blases.

Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy Easter -- stay well!

Foremost, I hope everyone is able to stay well!  Meanwhile, during our shelter-in-place time, a few IT projects are in progress. Here's a rundown:

1. We've sync'd up the Org Chart with the "GCA Committees" section of the website. Each committee on the Org Chart now has an entry in the GCA Committees section.  On each Committee page, you'll see a list of folks on the committee, along with a description of their responsibilites. Also, included is an estimate of the hour commitment that folks are giving to these roles. Please go to the website under GCA Committees, and take a look at all the various tasks that make our club hum! If there is a committee you'd like to volunteer for, a contact name is shown near the bottom of each committee page.

2. The Home Page has an update that we hope you will enjoy.  Rather than the "Events Feed" on the right of the screen, there is now a "Video Corner."  Bruce has supplied links to interesting "how-to" videos to stimulate our creative streaks, especially during this down-time. We hope this section will grow to be a helpful resource for folks.  If you have a video to share, please forward the info to webmaster@grandclayarts.com.

3. We are working with MemberLeap (our website software vendor) to implement enhancements that will make life a bit nicer for the monitor team. These include a more "friendly" sign-up process, assistance with reminders, and possibly others, depending upon cost.  We will share more specifics, once we've confirmed the details with MemberLeap.

One last thing...if you know of anyone who says they are not receiving e-blasts from the club, please have them contact me.  There are cases where club email is falling into the Spam bucket.  This is an important time for all of us to stay connected, and I can help folks remedy that situation.

Stay safe and healthy, and thanks for reading!
 

During this time of very unique circumstances, this newsletter is being used to keep you informed of some of the happenings within our club as well as within the community.  I want to remind you of the original intent in publishing a newsletter.  From the inaugural (October) issue:

We would like it to be a vehicle to share information provided by our members for our members.  So I invite you to participate.  When you have a tip, new process, book or magazine, or club activity or practice that you feel would be of interest, please write an article to be shared with our members.  You can send your articles to the newsletter editor (currently Lynne Shanrock).

We look forward to hearing from you.  Stay safe, stay healthy!