President’s Message:

Happy New Year to all! A new decade is motivating and that is what is happening with your Reading-Berks Guild. We are motivated to move our Guild forward and we are asking for your input. We are going to be trying some new things and staying with some old. One of our new “something new” things is our Pop-Ups at Renninger’s. We are doing these pop-ups on First Saturday’s in February, March and April. Check it out on our website. We need 20 vendors. It is easy in and out, great parking, indoor spaces only, heated and air conditioned. Another “something new” for 2020 is our show chairperson, (he is not new to our chapter) but this is a new position for Steve Hunter. Steve is very enthusiastic in this new role. Steve has been serving on the show committee and it would be great to get some new volunteers on board for this year. We will be reviewing the results of our Holiday Show 2019 on Tuesday , January 7, 2020 at our show meeting before our regular Guild meeting. Our program that night will be Barry’s normal excitement “sorting door prize slips. Also at this meeting it becomes a good night for our membership to share their ideas for our Guild. This helps us move forward. We will be continuing our drawings at meetings for a free booth at the Holiday Show. As soon as I get a date from Kutztown University, we will get the information out to you for the 2020 date for The Reading-Berks Guild of Craftsmen’s 71st Holiday Fine Art and Craft Festival. It will be either the last weekend in October or the first weekend in November of 2020.

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” Joseph Chilton Pearce

Your President, Barry L. Bennecoff

Pop-up Shows:

Pop-up Show(s) Application

Media:

“Your Berks Craftsmen” will be featuring highlights from the Kutztown Folk Festival 2019 on Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at 7:00 PM on BCTV. Barry and I attended a little gathering on Friday, December 20, 2019, to say “So Long” to a great friend, general manager, Bill Martin at the BCTV studio. Bill has retired at the end of 2019. Bill Martin is just a really good guy. Many of you know Bill because he always volunteers at our shows and is a great fan of our Reading-Berks Guild. We wish Bill our best and hope that he gets to do everything he wants to do in his retirement. Also, we reassured him that we will still need him at our entrance table at all our future shows.
Your Host of BCTV’s

“Your Berks Craftsmen’, Kay L. Bennecoff

Programs:

Our program this month is a working program. We will be sorting tickets from the holiday show. This is very important, as we organize the ticket to make data entry easier. It’s a fun evening, of holiday stories from the show and home. Hope to see you there!

Program Chair: Matt Vardjan

Education

The Guild awards four Mini-Grants of $50 each year, chosen randomly from applications submitted, to members in good standing who wish to continue their education. Mini-Grants may also be used to explore new areas of interest. The Guild is deeply committed to encouraging each member’s pursuit of excellence and growth.This year’s Mini Grants will be randomly drawn at the Reading-Berks Chapter’s regularly scheduled meeting at the Goggleworks on Tuesday, April 7, 2020.

Winners will be drawn from applications (completed in full) and submitted by the deadline of Monday, March 16, 2020. Entries must be received at our Reading-Berks Chapter PGC, ATTN. Carol Haile, Post Office Box 85, Mohnton, PA 19540 by that date. Those received after that date will not be included in the drawing.

Education Chair: Carol Haile

Mini-Grant Application

Standards:

Next jury session is scheduled for March 10, 2020 at the goggleworks. If you have been a member for 3 months, you are eligible to have your work juried. The application and more information about jurying is on our website under resources/standards, or contact louise mehaffey at eglassplace@gmail.com.

Standards Chair, Louise Mehaffey

Get Juried

Events:

General Meetings: (1st Tuesday of Month)
January 7: 7 PM, GoggleWorks
February 4: 7 PM, GoggleWorks
March 3: 7 PM, GoggleWorks

Pop-up Shows:
1st Saturdays at Renninger’s:
February 1st
March 7th
April 4th

Happy New Year!

Want to add something to next month’s Newsletter

If you would like something added to our Newsletter, please contact Sandra Jones at info@rbcrafts.org

January 2020