Jodi Heinz, New IDAL President

I am your new President, having been installed at our recent Convention in Charlotte NC. Convention, spearheaded by now Past President, Kathy Otto, was a huge success! We had wonderful volunteers for set up, a great trip to High Point, and classes were fantastic, with everyone saying they learned so much.

We had two really fun parties, one being the AGM and Expo opening and a second Biltmore party, with really inventive hats and a great auction. Our Expo day with mini classes worked OK, but we know that our lectures kept people out of Expo, and we plan to correct that. We’ve listened to all your feedback, which has been mostly positive, so that we can have an even better convention next time.

Your board and I have many ambitious goals set for the next few months. We are working diligently on a new website, which I feel is our number one immediate goal. We want to have the front and back end of that website up and running in about three months. With this new interactive website, we will be able to accommodate vendor and teacher submissions online, with smooth class sign ups at Convention. We will also have better communication. It will look visually beautiful and viewers will know instantly what we are about and what we can accomplish.

We also expect to have some great class offerings and artist lectures online before our next Convention. We hope to secure a site and venue in a couple of months for the convention, which will take place in the fall of 2024, most likely in October.

Please feel free to reach out to me anytime with questions and concerns.

Thanks and have a creative day!