Call for nominating committee volunteers: The Board is moving forward to develop a nominating committee and process for bringing on new board members. Our goal is to have this process completed by October in order to have transition time with current board members. If you have an interest in becoming more involved with AJF either through participation on the nominating committee or finding out more about what positions are available, we’d love to hear from you now. Use "Quick Links" to volunteer.

AJF website expanded: Our website now has a new page, listed across the horizontal top navigation bar. Called Resources, it is designed as a place within the site where you can connect to other resources in a number of categories. We’ve launched this new page with the following categories: Websites of interest; Member Gallery Websites; Shows; Organizations; and Publications. Member Gallery Websites as a link is currently only available to those galleries who are AJF members. We have chosen to post links to these sites to ensure your easy access to their most up-to- date information. If you have come across other sites that you feel would be good additions, please let us know. We’re counting on the internet scanning fingertips of our members to help build out this resource over time.

AJF supports CERF: The Board has again approved a $500 donation to CERF (the Craft Emergency Relief Fund). This is a group which does great work day-in-day-out providing assistance to artists in need. The needs have morphed exponentially with Katrina so we have chosen to give a $500 donation annually from AJF.

Boston trip: The Boston trip registration package goes into the mail shortly. Almost all the details are final and we think you’re going to be delighted. And, aren’t we all ready to plan our own version of a spring break trip in these final doldrums of winter! We’d love to get just an “expression of interest” from all of you at this time as to whether or not you are planning to join us in Boston on May 19- 22. Responding to our request via email to: info@artjewelryforum.org does not obligate you in any way to register but this information will be very helpful to our trip planners at this time so please do let us know if you are planning to come.

This could be your last AJFconnection! If you have not renewed you AJF membership now is the time to do it. The next newsletter will only be emailed to members who have paid their 2007 dues.

We have recently had some questions about our website logon process, now that we have moved the site to a new platform. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Go to www.artjewelryforum.org.
2. Click "Login" in the upper right navigation bar.
3. Enter your first and last name, i.e., Sue Smith and password: ajf (lower case). You can also change your password if you wish.

You will now have access to all of the content on the site, including the members-only Directory (http://www.artjewelryforum.org/members- only/members/).

If you lost your password, follow steps 1 and 2 above but then click "Forgot Password" at the logon screen. If you need help logging on, here is a video tutorial: http://www.likoma.com/lost-password-update-user- info/.

The most frequent reason for login problems is that a member has changed his or her email address and not notified AJF. Our system is based on your email address on file so please be sure to put us on your notification list when changing that address.

AJFconnection can easily be printed on standard 8.5 x 11 paper if the top, bottom, right and left page margins are set to .25. If you need help just send us an email and we'll be in touch to walk you through this simple configuration.