SANE Meeting 12 Feb 2008

This month's meeting is Tuesday, 12 Feb 2008, 7pm, at [place TBD]

The plan is to assemble packets for various organizations, simultaneously:

1) Doing a good thing or three
B) Getting rid of art supplies hanging around the house/studio that we'll never ever use in a jillion years
%) Qualifying for a gigantic tax deduction
∏) Earning brownie points to get into heaven. Okay, that may be overstating it a bit. Donating a kidney would likely net you more brownie points, but some of us aren't really at a point where we're willing to commit that much toward heaven, y'know? Check back in 20, 30, and see how we feel about it then (but then our kidneys might be beyond donateability). But I digress... 

We have various projects to accomplish:

Salvation Army: 20 packets, each containing enough paper, envelopes, stickers, gewgaws and knicknacks for someone to create 5 birthday cards. Pam A was busy chunking out stickers with her magic die-cut machine, and at that rate would have met many of our sticker needs (cake, candles, balloons, banner) an hour after the meeting. Other things to bring include:

- Bring (for us to use at the meeting, but you take back home with you)

Happy Birthday rubber stamps: cake/candles, the words "Happy Birthday," balloons, stars, confetti, etc.
Scissors/knives/hatchets/band saws - to cut supplies into manageable sizes for packets.
Art supplies to enhance or pre-decorate the paper going into the envelope.

- Bring (to donate):

markers, colored pencils or crayons
confetti
postage stamps (with appropriate designs)
"anything that is lick 'em or stick 'em" (this is a direct quote, interpret it how you will...)
blank cards and/or interesting paper from which to cut and fold cards
construction paper
envelopes
glue sticks? Is there such a thing as a "ketchup packet" of Elmers?

- Leslie had volunteered to bring Ziploc bags in which to assemble each packet.
- Richard offered to make up a template (instructions, serving suggestions), but is struggline a tad, without knowing perzackly what we'll have in them packets. But he's been confused a lot lately, and is getting better at dealing with it. I digress again.

Veterans Administration:

Mary reports:"[The VA] would love to have packages of art stuff. Everything must be nontoxic and nothing sharp, otherwise we can contribute what we like. They specifically would like small canvases. We could make packages of specifics; bag of decorative papers, bag of envelopes, bag of stamps, etc."

This seems to open it up more to those of us who have a surplus of useful materials that don't necessarily fit into the "birthday card" project above, and want to assemble a small collection of similar objects together. Suggestions/questions:

- Paper supplies
- markers, crayons, pens
- paints, brushes
- "small canvases" was something specifically on their list. I don't get around much, so I asked Mary to clarify: "Any canvases, there's even gesso canvas pads." Who knew? (Well, Mary and the VA, for two.)

Other dumb-ass questions I had:

- Is size an issue? Should we cut larger paper into digestable lumps? Probably not great to chunk fome-core down to 4"x4" pieces, but do we need to make things Baggie-able and/or transportable?
- How big is a bundle? Do these need to be a fixed smallish amount, or if I had a garbage can full of fancy paper (I don't, but work with me here), would that be okay as a single collection of stuff?

"What can I do to best prepare for this meeting?" I hear you ask. First, stop talking so loud. Geez!

The best thing would be to take an inventory of all the arty supplies you have and are willing to part with, and send a short summary to Richard. By the week-end, I can see if we have any gaping holes (like lots of cards, no envelopes, etc.), and I can issue a late plea for what's missing. An Umber alert, if you will. Seems to me like we might need to buy things like envelopes, crayons/markers/pencils for the Bday cards.

Projects for Future Meetings (this is what I have in my meeting notes, and I don't really remember much about them):

March: "Other/Carving" (and should we have a theme? We did "body parts" once...)
April: "Magical pushme-pullyu" (like the device Richard received from, of all places, Fidelity. That's where all the damn money goes, into fancy-schmancy paper marketing thinguses. Dividends are pee-poor, but the graphics are top-notch... Oops, another digression.)
May: "blocks - make into faces/body parts" (wow, this is anybody's guess. Legos? Plastic surgery?)

Damn, this is a long blurg. Hope you got to the bottom!

Richard