Letter From new OWS President Pauline Goss

Hello everyone,
I would like to inform you of this year’s People’s Choice Award from the 74th OWS Juried show. The award goes out to Tong Li for her painting “Traffic at Safari Park”. A $200 cash prize from the Society will be awarded to Tong Li as her art work received the most votes from the viewing public. Congratulations Tong! 

Traffic at Safari Park

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to inform you of some changes within the Executive Committee. 

I am pleased to announce that Vic Dohar is now the Society’s Treasurer replacing Suzanne Daoust. I would like to thank Vic for offering his services and Suzanne for all her great work in the 6 years that she performed this role.

Also, I would like to inform that Brenda Beattie has stepped in for the WebMaster role. This is very exciting and you may have already noticed some changes occurring on the website. Please note that the development of the site is a ‘work in progress’ as more changes will continue to get implemented. I would like to thank Brenda for taking on this challenge and Victor Pavlov for his dedication with over 17 years (that’s a long time!!!) in this role. 

And as you will know from our last General Meeting before Christmas, Rick Sobkowicz has reached his 2 year-term (in his case, it was 3 years!) as President of the OWS.
He has stepped down and I am now performing the role of President in his place. 
Rick, on behalf of all the members of the OWS, we thank you very, very much for your support, your professionalism, your commitment, your enthusiasm…! I am certain each and every member of the OWS has benefitted directly or indirectly from your unrelenting dedication. Much appreciated by all!

And on this note, you may be interested in some of the vacant  positions that we have on the Executive Committee and at this time we are looking to fill the following roles:

• Social Convenor 
• Secretary (presently acting in an interim role and would like a replacement)
• Exhibitions - while we still work with an individual who is named Exhibition Chair for the specific event, we are now more focussed on conducting exhibitions by committee. This is working out quite nicely as there are so many different activities to be undertaken when we prepare for these events.  If you think you might be interested in joining the Exhibition Committee, please let me know.  If you prefer to just give it a try first and then decide, that works too. Your participation at the next juried event would be appreciated (the 75th juried show is already in the planning so stay tuned for more information…you won’t want to miss this one!)
• Vice President - yes, it’s vacant again :) We filled it for a few months but now we are looking for an interested person. Please know that  the level of involvement could be adjusted based on how much time you would be wanting to commit. 
• If you think you might be interested in participating in any committee, you can reply to my email or call me at 613-220-3738.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Don't forget that the OWS is now on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Ottawa-Watercolour-Society-339764739552340/) Check it out, upload paintings, chat with friends and let us know what you think! (Elizabeth Hogan will be happy to fill you in on more details! Thanks so much Elizabeth).

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out.

Best Regards and Happy Painting,
Pauline Goss 
FOWS