Greetings. Our next chapter meeting will be Wednesday, June 18, at our new meeting location.  In case you haven‘t heard, The Tampa Chapter of the FMPTA has moved it’s regular meeting location to the American Legion Hall at 3810 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL 33609.  This new location is in the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Kennedy and Dale Mabry just a little bit west of Dale Mabry. (MapQuest or Google the address.) We will meet at our regular time at 7:30 p.m.. Many arrive about 7:00 for networking and socializing.

       Our latest “Short Takes” project is a wrap. “Tastes Just Like Chicken,”

which was written by Chris Battle, was shown at our premiere party last Sunday, June 1, at the Clearwater Coconuts Comedy Club. We had an enthusiastic crowd on hand and many favorable comments were heard. Many times I heard the comment that “this was our best one yet.” Congratulations need to be extended to director, Ray Nelson, and producer, Dotty Pessillo, and to all of the numerous members who worked both behind and in front of the camera (often in some very chilly weather) to make this a very successful project.

       All of the copies of the DVD which we produced have been sold. However, a few people have asked if more could be made available. In the past we have not done this. However, I have made a unilateral decision (since I’m the guy responsible for producing the disks) that we can extend the time for purchasing the movie just a bit longer. Here’s the deal. If you would still like to purchase a copy, go to our web site at www.fmptatampa.org and click on the link for an order form. Print the form and either mail it to me or give it to me at our general meeting. I will accept any further orders until our next meeting (June 18). THEY MUST BE PREPAID.  I will be out of  town for a while after that meeting so it will be early July before I can get them duplicated and delivered. Final deadline for orders will be our next general meeting, June 18.

       Our speaker for the June meeting will be Tom Garrett. He is a producer of independent feature films and is a founding partner of Circa Films. He is currently teaching film production at the University of Tampa. He has recently attended the Cannes festival with several of his students and will report on that festival experience and give us an overview of the movie production program at UT.

       The next major project for our chapter will be the 19th Crystal Reel Awards Gala which we will again be producing this year. We need a lot of support to undertake this project under the chairmanship of Jerry Alan. We will start working on these plans at the meeting. Come and see how you can help.

 See you on the 18th.