Thank you, Jen

I have sad news. Jennifer Scantlebury-Vienneau has decided to step away from her responsibilities as blog coordinator and regional representative. I will miss her hard work and the somewhat acerbic emails we sometimes exchanged. It was good to have someone with a great sense of humour with whom to share information and decisions.

Jen had been a member of SAQA for one day(!) when she volunteered to spearhead an effort to make our blog more useful to the members. I have no doubt that you all know how hard she has worked to gather material and to encourage you to consider the blog a tool for communication. She will be a hard act to follow but I hope someone will consider stepping forward to pick up where she left off. You do not need to be familiar with blogging or the software we use. I can get you up to speed in no time and I will always be available to adjust things were necessary.

At this time we won't be recruiting a new regional representative but there are several other slots where volunteer help is needed. My main concern is that we still don't have anyone to look after the main SAQA trunk show when it comes to the region in December.  Please contact me if that's something you would consider doing.

In closing, let's all raise a virtual glass to Jen and salute her with our thanks for amazing service over the last two years. She set an incredible example in her commitment to SAQA and to her responsibilities and has earned whatever new and creative activities she can now fit into her life.

More on the SAQA mentorship program

For those of you who are not on the main SAQA Yahoo group, Sue Bleiweiss recently posted an update on the mentorship program. I think you'll agree that the list of participating mentors is impressive. I am sure that many more equally qualified artists will step forward as the program gains momentum. If you have not already done so, please consider submitting an application to the program. You can find details at the link in Sue's note.

I am beginning work with my own mentor next week. I plan to write a series of posts/updates about the process and will post them here and on my personal blog.

Chris Nielsen

From Sue Bleiweiss:

Now that the mentorship program has been underway for several weeks I thought I would post an update on how it’s going and provide some statistics and other information about it.   

So far 12 matches have been made and all the mentees have met with their mentors at least once via Skype, FaceTime or telephone to talk about their objectives and goals and to set up a regular communication schedule with each other.   Everyone is very excited about their new partnerships and I couldn’t be happier about that. 

You might be wondering who these mentors are so I am going to tell you!  I’m sharing their names with their permission of course and they are: 

Pamela Allen
Sue Bleiweiss
Lisa Call
Jenny Bowker
Sherri Culver
Kathleen Loomis
Alison Schwabe
Pamela Druhen
Carol Ann Waugh
Susan Polansky
Phylis Cullen 

Each of them have signed on to work with at least one mentee and a couple are working with more than one.   I am grateful for their willingness to sign on to be a part of this program because the success of the program really hinges on having enough mentors.  And that brings me to my next statistic… 

I have 9 mentees on the waiting list waiting to be matched up with a mentor.  I need more mentors! 

So I am once again putting out the call for mentors.  Now I know that being a mentor isn’t for everyone and I absolutely understand and respect that but I’m guessing that there are some of you out there that are thinking you might be interested but your not sure about it because you are not sure how to be a mentor or what areas or categories you can mentor someone in.  To answer those questions, just pop over to the SAQA website here.  All the information about the program is there and if you take a look at both the mentor and the mentee applications (regardless of which you want to apply for) those will also help answer your questions.  If you still have questions or your unsure, then write to me at sue@suebleiweiss.com.  I will be happy to talk with you about the program and how you can be a part of it.   

The mentorship program is just one of the programs brought to you by the SAQA membership committee.  The committee is chaired by Diane Wright and is made up of volunteers Clara Nartey (Secretary), Sue Bleiweiss, Paula Huffman Brown, Sharon Buck, Christine Hager-Braun, Candice Phelan, Allison Reker, Desi Vaughn, and Martha Wolfe.  We meet once a month to discuss, brainstorm and develop programs and initiatives related to areas of membership. Watch for updates about the committees other programs and initiatives in future emails.   

By the way - if you're curious about what other commitees that SAQA has you'll find that information on the SAQA website here.  

Sue Bleiweiss
MA/RI regional co-rep
Membership committee volunteer
Mentorship program coordinator
http://www.suebleiweiss.com