Natalie Scherlong

Hello again WESTAF Trustees: Like many of you in your daily work, we are confronting and assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various parts of the WESTAF organization. We are trying to stay as flexible as advance planning allows, although we’re already seeing some disruption on some of our programs, mostly from travel decisions and restrictions. That being said, we are doing A-OK in the WESTAF office (as of this writing!), and doing our best to continue with our work! Hope everyone is doing as well as possible given the circumstances. Onwards... EMERGING LEADERS OF COLOR: SOUTH ARTS...

Hello WESTAF Trustees: Time for another quick bi-weekly update from the world of WESTAF! It’s been a busy and productive few weeks—here are some updates from individual team members as well as myself: FORMER WESTAF CHAIR ERIN GRAHAM NAMED PRESIDENT OF OMSI Edited from the press release: The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) announced on February 20 that Nancy Stueber will retire from her position as chief executive officer and president of OMSI effective May 31. Chief Operating Officer Erin Graham has been appointed by the board as the new president and will assume the role upon Stueber’s...

Dear WESTAF Trustees: Hope everyone is doing very well indeed! We are making it through this snowy Denver winter and feeling like spring can’t be too far away, can it?! There has been some talk about moving the WESTAF office to Maui, but that’s for a later bi-weekly…so, in the meantime: WYOMING GOVERNOR’S ART AWARDS I sent out an email about this last week, but as a quick reminder, WESTAF has a table at the Governor’s Arts Awards on February 21 in Cheyenne, where they will be honoring two people that are special to WESTAF — recent past trustee Wendy...

Hello WESTAF Trustees: It’s been wonderful receiving so many thoughtful messages from you since our time together in Reno last week! Our time during the meeting as well as at dinner provoked some really helpful follow-up conversations across several topics like equity, advocacy and the creative economy, so thanks for that! As we get back into office life, here are some operational updates from the leadership resource team (LRC) along with some of my comments and observations: ADMINISTRATION January is a busy month for the finance & administration department with the filing of the 990 tax documents, preparation of 1099...

Hello WESTAF trustees: Welcome to the first post-holidays bi-weekly update and Happy New Decade! I hope you managed to get in some fun and relaxation before 2020 came galloping along! So looking forward to seeing you in Nevada this week. Together in Reno we’ll be diving into a lot of WESTAF business and program areas, so just a few quick updates in this Bi-Weekly: BOARD MEETING AND ED FORUM IN RENO THIS WEEK It’s going to be great! By now, you should have received the complete board book. Thanks to Natalie Scherlong for all her hard work in assembling this...

Dear WESTAF Trustees: Here it is—the last biweekly of 2019! I began these missives not long after I began at WESTAF as a way to communicate regularly with our trustees. My first biweekly was on January 25, two weeks after I began my WESTAF journey on January 14. As a reminder, all of these biweeklies are catalogued right here on the password-protected WESTAF trustees page of the WESTAF website. Feel free to browse back on a busy and productive year! Let’s jump right in: ARTS ENDOWMENT FUNDING Our SAA ED trustees are probably aware of these developments, but I wanted...

Hello again WESTAF Trustees: Welcome back to the Bi-Weekly recap. We skipped an edition for the Thanksgiving holiday, but regular broadcasting has been resumed! I hope everyone is navigating with grace the additional joys and obligations that come with the holiday season. Speaking of the holidays... WESTAF HOLIDAY PARTY This past Friday the 13th, I had a fun time hosting the WESTAF Holiday Party at my modest apartment in Denver's Cap Hill neighborhood. We had a strong turnout of WESTAF team members and their significant others for an afternoon/early evening of holiday cheer. A good time was had by all...

Dear Trustees: It’s that time again! First off, so pleased to announce the arrival of Ryder into the WESTAF family! More details below in the Technology & Innovation section. And, I returned safely from an unbelievable trip to Bhutan. Truly a place unlike any other. If you want to see some photos let me know! Speaking of photos, here are some good ones from our October meeting in Denver, including the trustees meeting, the gallery session and our time with the MAC.  Here are some updates from the last two weeks largely provided by the excellent Leadership Resource Team (thanks,...

Hello again, WESTAF Trustees: This will be a relatively brief bi-weekly, as I am writing to you from Hong Kong a little bleary after nearly 17 hours in the air, en route to Bangkok and then Bhutan. Mostly though, I wanted to... WELCOME NEW BOARD MEMBERS! A warm welcome to Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, Lisa Becker and Paul Nguyen. We are so very excited to welcome you onto the WESTAF board of trustees! Thank you so much for agreeing to serve on this very special board with some other very remarkable people. If you’d like to learn a little more about...

Hello WESTAF trustees! We are beyond excited to welcome you to Denver this week! We have a fun, productive and informative agenda planned, and the WESTAF staff is excited to spend some time with you! Please read on, because while we’ll be together soon, there’s still lots of important information to share that may or may not make it onto the agenda at the board meeting: BOARD MEETING IN DENVER ON 10/23 AND 10/24 This past Thursday, you received the agenda and board book. Here’s a web version of the board book as well, in addition to the .pdf you each received....