Board of Trustees Bi-Weekly Recap

August 8, 2022   Dear WESTAF community:   Another fortnight chockablock with super activity. Just below, you’ll learn more about the launch of our anticipated new RAO-led National Leaders of Color Fellowship—it’s really happening, folks! Once a dream, now an emerging reality, the LoCF will expand the reach and potential of WESTAF’s original ELC curriculum, newly updated and revised for a national fellowship of participants in this acclaimed program. Kudos to Jade Elyssa, Anika, and the whole LoCF team of designers and faculty for moving this forward. Also, great committee progress on the BIPOC Artist Grant Program as well as…

July 25, 2022   Dear WESTAF Community:   We are now well into our fourth and final quarter of the year; the WESTAF team is focused on budgeting, planning and goal-setting for FY23, beginning October 1. The business team (overseeing our five Software as a Service (SaaS) web services) have worked diligently to develop a set of detailed OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to guide their priorities in the coming year. This year, in particular, they are a special achievement, taking our web businesses to new heights of sharp focus, transparency and accountability. Thank you, business team! Lots more services,…

July 11, 2022   Greetings WESTAF community:   While our gathering in Spokane, WA, from June 27 – 30 is now in the rear view mirror, I am still reflecting on so many dynamic sessions and pivotal moments from our time together. Our meetings surfaced deep insights and revealed complex challenges in our collective work at the busy intersection of arts, equity, community and accountability. Some of these are detailed below, with more follow-ups to come in the next weeks and months. Giant thanks to our big-hearted and hospitable hosts, to all who made the trip to Washington, and to…

June 13, 2022   Greetings WESTAF colleagues:   A slightly more abbreviated biweekly this go round, but still loads of great updates from all corners of the WESTAF organization—thanks to everyone who has submitted an update this fortnight! Let’s jump right in: GENERAL BUSINESS (CV) The business team has begun working on budgeting and OKRs for the next fiscal year. As part of this process, we will be updating our workflow so that business creates department-wide objectives. The SaaS products will then create 2-3 key results per objective. This will help us better align with WESTAF overall initiatives and create…

January 24, 2022 Greetings WESTAF Trustees, Committee Members and Staff! Januarys are ridiculously busy at WESTAF and this one is no exception. It’s really exciting to see our web platforms picking up and roaring back in the new year…in fact, CaFE just added its 10,000th event to the system recently…wow! (ZAPP reached the same milestone a few months ago, in fact.). Read on below for more details on this astonishing milestone! CVSuite, GO Smart and PAA have also been very busy with new releases, attracting new customers and retaining current ones. Lots of energy and progress on the web services…

January 10, 2022 Greetings WESTAF trustees and colleagues: So glad to be in touch with our first biweekly of the year. Also, new in 2022, we are adding our WESTAF equity and inclusion committee (EIC) members-at-large in this twice a month missive on all the news, activities and happenings from all corners of the WESTAF-iverse. We are thrilled that Cynthia Chen and Rene Asanga have joined the WESTAF community! You can learn more about them below. So glad to have you, Cynthia and Rene! There is a lot of important information to follow, including an update on our board meetings…

December 13, 2021 Greetings WESTAF community: Got some great feedback that we should mix up the order of the biweekly reporting, so business (and ZAPP ) wasn’t always at the end of the biweekly. So, we’re kicking off with news of all of the excellent work that is happening across our business platforms! And there is some terrific progress. In this biweekly, you’ll see some well-deserved kudos from our CaFE customers going to our support team (well done, guys). Also, a new customer was announced in CVSuite, and some major news on the Public Art Archive front, as well. Our…

November 29, 2021 Hello WESTAF colleagues: Here’s hoping that everyone had a very peaceful holiday weekend doing just what you wanted to do! While the holidays are now definitely underway, there are still loads happening in WESTAF-world. The PAD (Performing Arts Discovery) program is moving into a new phase. We’re excited for our new partnership with the Hewlett Foundation and for our co-chair position with the newly-formed Creative States Coalition—congratulations to David on all fronts! Thanks also to the executive committee for meeting just before the holiday to review our beginning of the year financials as well as other matters,…

November 15, 2021   Greetings WESTAF trustees and staff:   Some really significant advances in all corners of WESTAF World over the past few weeks! Look immediately below for some great news about a confirmed new partnership with The Wallace Foundation. This is a huge step forward for WESTAF and our RAO partners and we’re all extremely excited about this project! This week, we also responded to an RFP issued by the state of Washington—more on this below, as well. Fingers crossed! Also, check out Creative Vitality Suite’s new DataEd project—a really crisp and elegant way to make some complex…