The smooth functioning of the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society is made possible by the efforts of our many talented and hardworking volunteers. Please click on a title below to see what that position entails, or scroll through the whole page to view them all.
Responsibilities: Find and secure venues for shows for two years out. There are typically 3-4 shows per year. Requires submitting proposal, reviewing and signing contract, making clear expectations on both sides, and maintaining ongoing communication with venue contact. Submit articles on upcoming exhibits to Newsletter and Website. Create prospectus and online forms for show signups.
Manage the overall process for shows. Work with Hospitality chair for Reception and Publicity for promotions.
Requirements: Good communication skills, ability to use Word, Excel. Process and detail oriented. Good delegator, negotiator. Requires 10-20 hours per month (20 hours is for months right before show).
Write a monthly report for the board and attend board meetings when shows are active.
The Hospitality Chairperson is responsible for providing food, drink, and decorations if called for, at all the Society social occasions. This includes the Annual Holiday Party in January, the Reception for the Annual Show in the Fall, and receptions for one or two other shows throughout the year when needed. It is best to have a committee of at least three people.
No extensive computer ability is needed for this job, but it is important to like working with ideas, choosing themes and enough “crafty” skills to provide enjoyable decorations for the events. Organizing abilities and the ability to communicate well with others is also helpful. The Chairperson will also need to purchase the needed supplies, store some of them over the year and keep a general inventory.
The committee will need to meet a couple of times before each of the major events to plan and design what is needed. Smaller events can be planned on the phone or online. The major events will require 4-6 hours of planning twice a year, plus set up and clean up time which could be another 4-6 hours. Smaller receptions would take a few hours depending on the venue.
The Chairperson is on the Board and needs to file a report of each event, and an annual report. Attendance at the Board meetings is encouraged.
The word "Leader" may also be called President.
The leader presides at monthly board meetings – preparing the agenda, collecting reports from board members and chairs and sending the agenda and consolidated reports to board members before each meeting. The leader also attends the annual member show and the annual holiday party and addresses the group at these events. Leader may also attend demos and exhibit receptions and make brief presentations about club activities to encourage visitors to learn more about the society. Leader writes a brief “headlines” article for the monthly notice announcing enews.
The leader oversees the activities of the society providing guidance as needed. Leader assists in recruiting volunteers for various committees. Leader also may troubleshoot issues that arise between meetings, usually via personal discussion with chairs or individuals involved.
The most important skill the leader needs is the ability to interact well with people and set direction for the society, interacting with internal and external stakeholders as needed. Leader also keeps the society as a whole in mind when evaluating projects and proposals.
Besides the time commitment for preparing and attending board meetings (3-4 hours per month) the leader can spend an additional one hour a month interacting with other members.
Most new member signups and renewals and payments are completed online through the website, and the membership directory is kept on the website as well. Some signups are paid by check, and the Membership Chair gets the payments and documents the payment online. The Membership Chair checks for new members once a month and sends them a current directory and welcome note.
Every 2-3 years the membership chair creates a new directory, usually in March, and prepares it for printing.
The membership chair creates a monthly report for the board and may attend board meetings as needed.
Monthly time spent is about 5 hours.
The newsletter editor collects and compiles all the entries that come in via email or snail mail before the deadline each month (currently the 10th) and lays them out in Adobe InDesign (current program used, although other alternatives may be considered). Some minimal editing of text and images is needed, but the bulk of the job is in desktop publishing. A draft is sent about mid-month (13th or 14th) to the board and chairs for review and edits. When all the changes are made the final file is sent to the website team for posting (usually by the 15th or 16th of the month).
The job can be shared, but it helps if all involved have the following:
The job typically requires about 6-10 hours of time per month. Attendance at board meetings and submission of board reports are not required.
Paintsites duties are performed by a team of two to three members. One member acts as Coordinator. Another (or sometimes the Coordinator) creates the Blog entry after the paintsite, and a link from Facebook.
Coordinator responsibilities: Determine weekly paintsite location, obtain permission to paint at location, if required, write up description of weekly paintsites for newsletter, update website with information about paintsites, attend paintsite, having arrived about 1/4 hour early, check in with host or hostess, if any, greet participants at paintsite and familiarize them with location, determine location for lunch and sharing, conduct sharing time after lunch, document paintsites for ease of future planning, using website, notify members if paintsite has to be changed or cancelled due to rain or other unforeseen circumstance.
Coordinator Requirements: Computer skills to document paintsites for newsletter, website, and archives, people skills to make participants feel welcome and to conduct sharing time after lunch, enjoy outdoor painting.
Coordinator Time commitment: Normally it requires 4 1/4 hour per paintsite plus driving time, 4 hours per month to determine, publicize, and document paintsites, 2 hours per month to prepare for and attend board meetings for a total of 23 1/4 hours per month plus driving time
Coordinator Board Participation: Prepare a monthly report and attend monthly meetings.
Paintsites Blog Author Responsibilities: Attend paintsite, photograph artists at site and their artwork, keep track of who painted each piece of photographed art, accept photos of artwork via email after the paintsite, crop photo of artwork to show only artwork, post on blog a general description of paintsite, what is happening with the paintsite group, and the photos, each with a description.
Paintsites Blog Author Requirements: Ability to take good photos, writing skills to write text, computer skills to accept photos via email and to crop photos and post photos and text to blog.
Paintsites Blog Author Time commitment: For each paintsite, 4 hours to attend and take photos and 2-3 hours to prepare blog afterwards. Board participation is not required.
Key responsibilities for this position are:
1. Build awareness about the society through updates on social media platforms about Society’s Exhibitions, Workshops, Demos, paintsites, and any other event. 2. Work with other organizations in the bay area to publicize upcoming exhibitions. 3. Work with print media organizations to publicize upcoming exhibitions.
During events promotion period it can take up to 3-4 hours per week for coordinating with different parties.
The publicity chair sends a monthly report to the board, but generally isn't required to attend board meetings.
Scholarship and Community Outreach (this can be a shared position)
Scholarship Responsibilities: The primary responsibility of this position is to facilitate the awarding of a scholarship to a local art student (or two). This includes contacting the Art Professor who chooses the winner, enrolling the student/s in the club and annual member show (at their option), and collecting a bio and jpegs of some of the winner’s paintings for the website.
Community Outreach Responsibilities: Duties include responding to suggestions or initiating ideas for the types of community outreach described on the SCVWS Community Outreach page and working with other committees when appropriate for implementation.
The position requires good people skills and good communication skills. Attendance at board meetings is not required, and reports to the board are only made when there is new information. The scholarship task requires a few hours in the Jan or Feb, March, June, and July and Community Outreach requires a few hours a year.
The Secretary attends the once monthly SCVWS Board meetings. She takes notes on the proceedings and later transcribes them into a Word document. The minutes are then sent to each Board member and committee Chair via mass e-mail for any corrections. After the Secretary receives any comments from Board members and Chairs, the finalized minutes are again sent via e-mail to the Board members and Webmaster.
Requirements include basic computer skills (word, email) and good note-taking skills.
The secretary attends all board meetings. The job takes about 5 hours per month.
The Treasurer is responsible for maintenance of day-to-day financial records. Make bank deposits and reconcile bank accounts. Review and issue vendor payments including monthly recurring payments. Report financial results on a regular basis to the Board. Help guide financial decisions made by the Board. Prepare and issue tax forms relating to independent contractors. Provide financial data to outside CPA firm for annual not-for-profit corporate tax reports. File government forms as needed. Send donor thank-you letters as needed.
Requires working knowledge of Quickbooks and understanding of the legal and tax reporting requirements for not-for-profit corporations.
Time commitment is 10 to 25 hours per month depending on the time of year. The busiest months are January, February and August.
Board participation includes preparing financial reports for the Board and attendance at Board meetings.
The webmaster is responsible for keeping the website current and running smoothly. Responsibilites include:
Computer skills necessary include Word, Excel, Photoshop Elements (or equivalent) and some ability with HTML editing. The job requires a basic understanding of website structure, good website design skill, good organizational skills, and ability to work well with others (training and supervising).
The webmaster prepares a monthly board report and attends board meetings in order to be aware of current needs. The workload varies, from several hours a week to only one or two. During a slow month it’s about 8 hours.
The Workshop Leader is responsible for contacting and implementing contracts with up to 10 workshop instructors per year and maintaining a list of upcoming workshops for approximately three years ahead. The leader coordinates with instructors for travel and hotel reservations to and from the airport and the workshop facility. The leader also determines the price for each workshop and collects images and information from the instructors for the workshop brochure editor and website. The leader contacts the workshops facility coordinator to reserve the facility.
The leader meets with the workshop committee at least once a year to mail out workshop brochures and handle other committee business. Leader writes a monthly article on the workshops for the newsletter. Leader works closely with Workshops Registrar to monitor enrollment and cancellations.
This position requires good computer skills (Word, Excel, Dropbox, E-mails and some database query skills). Good communication and people skills are also important.
The Workshops Leader attends all board meetings and is a board member. Leader writes a monthly report to the board. The time commitment is heaviest when there is a workshop (12-15 hours/month). Otherwise it averages about 5 hours/month. The annual total is about 35-40.
The registrar is responsible for creating the Current Workshops page and Workshops Calendar on the website. This involves collecting images and files from the instructors and posting them to the website. The registrar also handles issues with signups for workshops. She collects payments made by check (US mail) and coordinates with the Treasurer for deposits and refunds. The Registrar works closely with the Workshop Leader and Webmaster.
The position requires good computer skills, attention to detail, and organizational ability. The workload is heaviest during the summer in order to be ready for the coming year’s workshops (Workshops open September 1st) and in the first two months after workshops open. During the rest of the year the registrar duties require about 8 hours a month.
The Registrar submits a monthly report to the board, but attendance at board meetings is not required unless there are workshop issues to be discussed.
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