By Mary Alice Murphy

After participants identified themselves at the monthly Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Board Chairman Tony Trujillo introduced Lee Gruber, co-owner with her husband David Del Junco of Syzygy Tile in Silver City.

"Syzygy really is a word," Gruber said. "It's when three heavenly bodies line up. We began Syzygy Tile one evening when there was a lunar eclipse.

"This is the fourth year of the Clay Festival," she continued.

Gruber quoted the reason behind the Clay Festival: "Clay, mud and earth are the common ground of New Mexico's people and the embodiment of their history. Taking place every summer in Silver City, New Mexico, the CLAY Festival gathers together artists, educators, entrepreneurs, families, youth, adventurers, and life-long learners to explore clay in its many forms as well as its impact on our history, present, and future."

"We are working as a community to build this event," Gruber said. "We kick it off every year with a poker tournament." She explained that the husband of a long-time helper with the festival is a poker aficionado. "He told me the best chips are made of clay. He contacted the maker of the best chips with a proposal, and they thought it was great fun and made the chips we use at the tournament each year. It's a wonderful event, with people from all over the community.

"But we don't stop there," she continued. "We have workshops." She said she had attended a conference on clay, and had her poster with Jack Troy on it. People would stop and say: "You have Jack Troy coming?" She explained Jack Troy is one of the foremost potters in the world. "His workshop will take place at the Ceramic Department at Western New Mexico University. We look for people with national and international presence, so they go back and tell people: 'Wow, they put on quite a festival in Silver City.'"

Gruber said the intent of the festival has always been to bring people to Silver City for the workshops and to take clay-related tours. "Our goal is to get people to Silver City and get them to stay for a week, because we give them so much to do."

She noted the July issue of New Mexico Magazine would have a feature on the Clay Festival, written and photographed at last year's event.

Another of the well-known participants in this year's Clay Festival is Roxanne Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo. "She will have an exhibition and will speak. We also will have lots of activities for young people, including activities at all the community libraries to create garden ollas. Alicia Edwards of The Volunteer Center came up with the idea, because all the local schools are starting gardens. Mud fun is always great for the younger kids. They build dinosaurs and they get bigger every year. We have events for all kids and all people."

"We received no funding for the festival this year," Gruber said. She said she wrote a letter to the head of the company that makes the best grout. "He put the festival on his bucket list and wrote a check. We have sponsors. It shows the pride in this community."

The poker tournament will kick things off on July 25, and the workshops begin July 27. Thursday evening, the gala will be held and events last all weekend long through August 2. "WNMU Museum Director Cynthia Bettison will give a private tour of the Nan Ranch Collection, with a catered lunch for $250 a head to end the festival and fundraise for the museum."

WNMU President Joseph Shepard said July 3 would mark four years since he and his wife came to town. "They held a parade for us the day after we arrived. This town has a number of things that occur, unlike other small towns. We just had the Blues Festival; we have a big July 4th parade; the Clay Festival. I get paid to run the university. These people do not get compensated. They do it for the community."

Professor Steve Walker of the WNMU Marketing Department was the second featured speaker.

"My wife and I have led academic lives," Walker said. "We have worked at four different universities. We never engaged in the community the way we have here."

He has three degrees from New Mexico State University. "I just finished my second year here. We both had good job offers from Highlands University," but he said the town didn't appeal to them. "Then we came here. I had asked a friend in Las Cruces about Silver City. He said it was eclectic and diverse and everyone gets along. He was right. My wife is a literacy coach in the Cobre Schools."

"I'm in marketing," Walker said. "We don't lie. We engage in puffery. When I found out Western didn't have a marketing degree, I set out to create one. The three parts of business are accounting, management and marketing. I had had the chance to build programs, but never from the ground up. I took the first year to assess the environment here and to determine what would be the best way to differentiate Western from other business schools. I got a sense of an amazing community."

He described the T-shaped model developed by IBM, which wanted their people to be deep, but also be able to talk to people in other departments.

"How can we provide something that will employ our students?" Walker asked. "Marketing is life. It is cross-disciplinary. We wanted to create a T-shaped program. Three courses covering the basics are required. Then there are four other marketing courses and three courses are where the students concentrate in another subject. We have 20 majors and double that in minors."

"Another thing a marketing course does is, after the principles, it becomes services marketing, sports-based marketing, multi-cultural marketing," Walker continued. "We worked with the Native American students to develop the latter course. We not only encourage the cross-disciplinary look, but the students work on real world projects. They learn and I learn. We're deeply involved in community projects. Students learn theories, but they also learn what to do with them."

Bettison asked if Walker envisioned a course for non-profits.

"Not yet, because I'm it. I'm the marketing department," Walker said. "I teach four courses a semester, but we have sections where we deal with non-profits. I have a five-year program. I want to make it self-sustaining and grow the programs.

"So many projects are win-win-win for the students, the university and the community," he said. "I want to help programs that will morph for the benefits of all three. As long as a student wants to stay engaged with me, I encourage it."

Dave Thomas of WNM Communications said his experience with the class was "amazing. I talked to the class, and went back three weeks later to answer their questions. They made a proposal, and the quality of work at the end blew me away."

Shepard said last semester, the class did a marketing plan for the university. "What they did was equal to what we had paid $120,000 for at my previous university. We also hired one of the students-Alvaro Nuñez."

Trujillo called for announcements.

Jane Janson, Small Business Development Center director, said the Economic Development Course, presented by Western, in cooperation with the NM Economic Development Department, the NMSBDC, and the NM Rural Alliance, will take place July 19-23, with five days of course work. "It is world class and is certified to be taught internationally."

Bruce Ashburn of PNM, and a Chamber board member, said the course, which he attended, is an introduction to economic development and seeing exactly what goes into it. "It's one of the better weeks I've spent. The best part is the relationships you develop and the networking is excellent."

Bettison confirmed that the course is "intensive. You get to work on projects. I'm one of the judges this year."

Ashburn noted the course is also available for college credit.

Annette Toney, representing Girl Scouts of the Desert Southwest, said she had applications for Women of Distinction nominations.

The manager of AmberCare announced an open house on June 18.

Bettison said the event for the Clay Festival that she will lead will allow 16 people to see the Nan Ranch Collection, probably for the last time for a while because the museum is going into renovation.

A chamber member, Azaima Anderson, said she would be the featured musician tomorrow, Friday, June 5, at Gila Regional Medical Center at noon.

Allen Townsend invited people in to his AllState insurance agency to "meet the friendly staff. We have benefit packages for employees of your company."

Sandy Feutz of FeVa Fotos announced a reception for her and her husband's photography from 3-5 p.m. Friday, June 5, at Copper Quail Gallery.

The area representative for United Way said the agency has begun its funding for non-profits.

Lori Bonomo of the Chamber board said she has applications for the July 4th parade and for vendors and booths.

Trujillo noted the parade route would be different because of the bridge construction, with the lineup being between Broadway back to the bridge and traveling only along Hudson Street to Daylight Donuts at 14th Street.

The next Chamber luncheon will take place July 2.