Three join festival board

Festival of Arts board members will serve 3-year terms; group’s revenues tallied $8.2 million in 2005. Three new members joined the Festival of Arts board of directors Nov. 9 in a meeting at the Festival Forum Theatre.

Artist Linda Potichke, former City Councilman Wayne Baglin and John Hoover were elected to serve three-year terms alongside President Anita Mangels, Vice President Bob Henry, Treasurer Fred Sattler, Secretary Carolyn Reynolds, Scholarship Chairwoman Ann Webster and Production Chairman David Young.

About a third of the eligible voters mailed in ballots. Bullet-voting may have been a factor: Each ballot allowed the voters three options -- which allowed three votes on a single ballot for one candidate.

Potichke was the top vote-getter, with 915 votes on the 1,122 ballots cast. Baglin came in second with 773 votes. Hoover was third with 657 votes. More than 3,000 Festival of Arts members were eligible to vote.

A festival committee, headed by Laguna Beach certified public accountant Jim McBride, counted the votes the morning of the festival’s annual membership meeting.

The meeting included reviews of the past year’s accomplishments and a preview of the new fiscal year’s goals and the 2006 Pageant of the Masters.

Pageant producer and director DeeDee Challis Davy announced the show’s theme, “A Passion for Art,” illustrated with slides of what she described as a multicultural exploration of love and romance.

Challis Davy also presented festival life memberships to Kim Corrigan of Aliso Viejo, Wilford Michael of Santa Ana and Marian Whitney of Laguna Beach, all of whom have volunteered at the pageant for 15 years.

The success of the pageant is dependent on its volunteers, according to Challis Davy.

“It is their passion for art that makes this all possible,” she said.

Challis Davey was honored earlier this year for a decade of professional service to the pageant.

“I have worked with seven different pageant producer-directors,” said David Young, who has served on the festival board for 51 years. “They were all good and did their part to make the pageant what it is today.”

But only one of them -- Challis Davey -- repaid a festival scholarship by returning to serve on the staff, Young said.

Mangels also paid tribute to the volunteers and festival participants for the success of the 2005 season, which was voted by readers of American Style magazine as one of the three top art festivals in the United States.

“It is a marvelous tribute to the efforts and talents of our exhibitors, volunteers, staff and creative team that art lovers across the nation have honored the Festival of Arts as one of the very best,” Mangels said.

The recently ended 2005 fiscal year was a financial as well as an artistic success, said Sattler, the treasurer, who presented the unaudited annual financial report.

Revenues reached almost $8.2 million, Sattler reported. Expenses of $7.2 million left the festival coffers about a million dollars ahead, with total assets of a little under $3.5 million.

Festival ingenuity will be challenged this year by the capital improvement needs that Sattler said would approach $600,000, a figure he estimated would become the annual benchmark.

“I believe we are up to the task,” Sattler said.

Annual festival expenses also include scholarships. The festival has awarded scholarships to 32 college students for the 2005-06 year, valued at $56,600, and five scholarships to pageant volunteers.

The meeting was convened after a determination that a quorum was present. Nineteen members constitute a quorum, a leftover from the early festival days.

“In the ‘30s, the festival had 87 members, so a quorum of 19 was reasonable,” President Mangels said. “Now we have thousands of members.”

The festival will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2007. A committee has been organized to plan an extended birthday celebration that will “put Disneyland to shame,” Mangels said.

She closed the meeting with praise of the membership.