Production Sound & Video

Summer 2016

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by Peggy Names 12 THE NEWLY RENOVATED OFFICES OF OUR LOCAL I guess it was after the last election new offi cers were sworn in, new committees were formed and one of was a Social Committee. Among the activities suggested was a Pizza Friday. I think I piped up with one of my sarcastic remarks like "Not until we get a mirror ball in the boardroom." Me and my big mouth! The next thing I knew, a Building Commit- tee was born and I volunteered as Chairperson. A LITTLE HISTORY There was a great desire to move to a different building where we could host meetings, hold larger classes and of- fer more parking. We enlisted the help of Chris Baer (a real estate agent at Colliers and an agent for many other locals) to assess the worth of our building and show us proper- ties that fi t our requirements. We promptly found that a new building was out of our reach so the focus shifted to upgrading the building we currently own. Our sad old of- fi ces needed some serious TLC. We enlisted Chris to help us decide which upgrades would most improve the resale value. Patrushkha Mierzwa (former Board member and boom operator) and Laurie Baer (design consultant) put together designs and ideas that inspired us in making our pig of a building into a silk purse. The Building Committee agreed that the design should re- fl ect the creativity, competency and classiness of the 695 membership. It should be welcoming, open, inclusive and refl ect a positive, forward-thinking atmosphere. With that idea in mind, a coherent plan was formulated with the downstairs refl ecting our history and saluting the mem- bership. The journey upstairs could give a nod to the past and then launch you into the future. To heck with just resale value, we wanted to have a place to be proud of until that day when relocating becomes a reality. FORMING A PLAN Before we could begin anything, we had to form a plan and a budget and set our priorities. We spent many hours with due diligence research, choosing materials and gathering bids from contractors. There were trips to other locals for inspiration. It was hard to know when to include the entire committee because the project was so time-consuming and involved so much legwork. With every sample brought in, new ideas emerged. It became a very fl uid process and an enormous amount of faith and trust was required by all to pull it all off. After working through stacks of ideas and suggestions, the concept was taking shape. WHERE DO I BEGIN?

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