SOFA Newsletter

Lead Story
Welcome to the new SOFA newsletter! We will be using this as a way to keep members up to date on what the board is doing and what happens at the monthly mixers, which many of you cannot attend, and to connect you with all kinds of new info and ideas.

From the Board

The SOFA board recently met for a mini-retreat to brainstorm about where the organization needs to go as it heads into its 10th year.

We emerged with some key goals, and ways to reach them:

1. Expand services and benefits for members.
-- Launch a monthly series of seminars/workshops/classes on nuts-and-bolts ways for members to improve their professional skills. Topics will include craft issues (such as: recording good sound on a budget, film performance for stage actors, low-cost special effects) and business issues (such as: entrepreneurial skills for freelancers, how to raise money, free and low-cost business resources). Your thoughts and suggestions on potential topics are welcome! Zach Riggins will be working on this series. If you would like to volunteer to help him, drop him a line at zach.riggins@sofanetwork.com. (And yes "dot com" is correct, instead of "dot org.")

2. Recruit more paid members and raise money for programs and services as well as for the basic needs of the group (legal, logistical etc.)
-- We will hold our first real fund-raiser on July 14 at the Carnegie in Covington, with a screening of the documentary "Taken for a Ride." AND, we have our first sponsorship from NKU's College of Informatics! (http://informatics.nku.edu) Thanks to Chris Strobel for making that happen. More details soon. If you would like to volunteer to help, please email margaret.mcgurk@sofanetwork.com.
-- We are researching potential grant sources now, and hope to apply for some within the year.
-- We will be working up a variety of other fundraising events, so if you have any ideas or wish to help, please send them along. Jerry Stone is heading up fundraising, so send along your ideas and offers to him at jerry.stone@sofanetwork.com.

3. Raise SOFA's profile.
-- Despite our long history (compared to many other small arts groups), very few people outside the organization know that SOFA exists, or don't understand what it is. We will be looking for many ways to change that, from banners and T-shirts to collaboration with other groups in town. Mark Burchett will honcho this effort, so if you want to help, please contact him at mark.burchett@sofanetwork.com.

Long-term, we listed these goals:
-- Hire a full-time staff person.
-- Rent our own offices.
-- Buy our own equipment for presenting programs (projector, screen, PA).

If you have any thoughts, ideas, inspirations, advice or comments, please share them with everyone here on the web site forum, or email board members.
mark.burchett@sofanetwork.com
margaret.mcgurk@sofanetwork.com
angela.reasch@sofanetwork.com
chris.strobel@sofanetwork.com
jerry.stone@sofanetwork.com
kat.steele@sofanetwork.com
zach.riggins@sofanetwork.com

Keep up with Cincinnati Fringe Festival online
In your spare time between watching shows and resting up in preparation for watching more shows, keep an eye on our YouTube channel, CincyFringeFestival, for HARD HITTING ACTION NEWS UPDATES.
You can watch our video blogs as well as recordings of our live nightly fringecast from the Underground on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOanXtee3mE