Present were Fred, Aree, Leigh, Arwen, Harper, Marilyn, Melissa, and Gwydion.

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as published.

Treasurer's Report. Our June balance was $2075.84. It looks as though our funds are recovering from paying the directors and officers insurance.

Maine Arts. Marilyn reported that she's still waiting to hear back from the (new) coordinator to see if they'll have a venue for us, since they won't be doing the Arts & Community tent this year. It's most likely they would only offer us a chance to do a presentation, which didn't really receive much attention last year. It was therefore MOVED by Arwen and SECONDED by Leigh that we not do any activities at Maine Arts this year, and that we look into other venues for next year. The motion PASSED unanimously.

There followed a discussion of other possible venues, particularly regions we don't already cover well. Fred and Leigh agreed to ask Bill Chellis if he would put some EPN flyers at his booth/tent at the Highland Games in August. We also disucssed the Rennaissance Fairs, and Harper pointed out that they cost more money and occur over several weekends. He then suggested that we look into the possibility of doing a "time share" of a booth at a Ren Fair with other Pagan-minded folks, like Julie and Wren, the PSA at Portland, etc. Arwen said she would put a message out on MEP and EPN lists to see who might be interested.

Common Ground Fair. Due to postal failure, we just barely got into the CGF in time, so we don't have our usual corner booth, but we ARE in. We'll be doing the usual panel discussion on Paganism in Maine. Marilyn asked if there might be any interest in involving Lady Olivia Robertson of the Fellowship of Isis, as she will be in the state that week. Arwen suggested that Lady Olivia might like to visit the CGF in any case, and that she'd be welcome to sit at the EPN booth for a while if she wished.

New T-Shirts. Arwen suggested that we do new T-shirts using the original EPN logo Leigh designed. Leigh said she'd find the pattern at home, and prepare something to go to a printer. We'd like to offer a choice of colors for the shirts and wondered if PJane could have them done via Cassius. We want to have lots of XXL and XXXL shirts this time, as they seem to be the most popular sizes. Our preference would be for black, green, and purple shirts, with lettering saying "Earth Tides Pagan Network" above the logo and "Pagan Pride Statewide" below.

EPN Web Page. PJane and Nikki are working on this; Arwen is doing the calendar.

Standards. At the last quarterly meeting we discussed the possibility of dropping the membership requirement of signing the standards, and instead retiring the standards to the status of "guiding principles". If we did this, we would no longer distinguish members from subscribers, and we'd need to change the By-Laws. It was MOVED by Arwen and SECONDED by Harper that we follow the By Laws procedures to change the Standards from a signed document to guiding principles of the EarthTides community. This will be announced to the membership via the Lammas newsletter and on the EPN list, and will be voted on at the next quarterly meeting, which is open to all members. The motion PASSED unanimously, and so THIS SERVES AS NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE VOTE AT THE NEXT QUARTERLY MEETING ON A CHANGE OF THE BY-LAWS AS INDICATED ABOVE.

Newsletter. Since our finances are in better shape, we no longer have such pressure to eliminate or reduce our paper newsletter and move to a Web-only product. We no longer do drop copies, but we do send out free copies of our event calendar. Given the financial improvement, we could consider sending out calendars to more places.

Next Meeting. Our next meeting will be held on either Sat 9/28 or Sun 9/29 at Nikki's house (Fred will check with her on availability). Failing either of those dates, we will meet on Sat 10/5 at Nikki's house. Thea's house is an alternate location. The meeting will begin at 5 pm, and will include a potluck dinner. Fred will post the chosen day, time, and location to the EPN list and to the Lammas newsletter.

Arwen having so MOVED and Melissa SECONDED, the meeting was adjorned at 8:11 pm.

Blessed be!

Marilyn
Volunteer Note Taker