Hello Clayworks Community,
It is exciting to be approaching a one-year milestone this fall celebrating the ReOPENING of Baltimore Clayworks. “Seven months in” the leadership team is already proud to acknowledge the successful relaunch of all four program areas: education, community arts, exhibitions, and artist residencies. Very soon we will share some wonderful details about our new Resident Artists.
Not as obvious, but as important, we have accomplished many “behind the scenes” infrastructure challenges and continue to transition to new and updated digital technology. The organization has completed a large portion of debt repayment due to you, our strong and generous community and the critical long-term government and foundation support that values the importance of Clayworks in serving Baltimore and Maryland communities.
Of course my letters will always acknowledge Clayworks’ volunteers and a very patient, dedicated and professional staff. In addition, your tireless Board logged in over 3,000 volunteer hours of their time- and this was just in the first 3 months of Clayworks’ reopening. (October 1-December 31, 2017).
I am pleased to announce that all of our Board Minutes and the 2018 Board meeting schedule are posted online. We have spent a good deal of time at Board meetings discussing and conducting research about the posting of minutes online to accomplish our primary goals of transparency and building/ rebuilding trust with the Clayworks Community. It’s taken longer than we intended, but the request to post Minutes is now taking place.
The minutes from October 2017- April 2018 are official, recording decisions made by the Board and details of topics discussed. Executive sessions are used for legal or personnel matters and as such are not public. Financial reports have always been public and can be found in 990’s online, in the Annual Reports, or are available upon request.
Our commitment as a Board is that we ARE our community and we share the deep interest in making the best decisions for Clayworks with you. We want and will always seek community in-put through the website, open communication (we welcome informal conversations), committees and community meetings.
I’m looking forward to seeing you JUNE 1st at Spice It Up and the Seconds Sale that extends into the weekend. Bring friends and family. And join us in a Summer Class or by sending your children or grandchildren, or your friends and neighbors’ children to Clayworks Summer Camp.
Sincerely,
Sue Patz
Susan Patz
Board of Trustees