Goals for 2009 for the HTA are similar to many years past:
1. Educating people that fabulous tiles and mosaics are available to be used not only as installations but as art.
2. Get our members to know each other and collaborate and become better artists and business professionals.
3.  To communicate with our membership opportunities and educate the membership to develop their skills and ideas.
To accomplish our goals the HTA will be co sponsoring a national tile conference with the Potters Council  in September in conjunction with the MN Tile Festival. There will be many workshops, gallery shows, and tile tours for our members to help accomplish the goals and get exposure at the same time. 
The HTA will be encouraging members to make more presentations to professional trade groups like the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), American Institute of Architects (AIA), and American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).  To accomplish this we will need members to help facilitate the presentations by contacting the representatives in your immediate area. 
The HTA can help by providing you with a power point presentation on a CD to work with and images and content to create your own presentation as well as directories and even cover costs of providing lunch for the participants up to $40 per presentation.
As part of the process we will continue to develop gallery shows across the country for tile and mosaics to be shown as art.  The HTA has two shows slated for 2010 and many galleries are two years out in their scheduling process.  What we need are members to find galleries and art centers criteria and write the proposals to have a show at each perspective gallery.  The HTA can facilitate calls to members and provide graphics, content, and images upon request.  All the tools are in place if you are ready to build upon the success of the past 10 years the HTA is ready to help you get more exposure and opportunities to build your business.