February 2017 - District 5 Meeting Minutes
Dear KAC District 5 Members,
Here's a summary of February's District 5 meeting.
Minutes February 11, 2017
The meeting began at 1:30, after a “meet and greet” with introductions around. The new officers introduced themselves. Conrad Jestmore offered several books from his home library free for the taking. New Member Don Marler introduced his recently published book, Laddie, which is a memoir.
Treasury Report: Money on hand is $7,068.23. Comment: this looks like more than adequate, but we will be sponsoring the State Convention in 2018, so need to be thinking about expenses for that.
Blog Report: Cindi Kerr reports that the blog is now up to date. She has a “Save the Date” page which lists meetings, entry deadlines for State contests, etc. Cindi encourages members to sign up for e-mail notifications of new blog entries. Also, if you have an announcement pertinent for members, please e-mail to [email protected]. This is her e-mail address which is specific for Kansas Authors Club.
Dan Close is judge of State Prose Contest. He encouraged us to get online, check out the State contests and WRITE. He also needs judges for categories. We are advised to read the KAC State Blog to check contest categories, rules regarding word lengths, etc. Remember the “not published before” rule which states that an entry cannot have been previously published in either print or electronic form. Therefore, Dan says to send your entries to contest FIRST and wait to publish until after winners are awarded at the State Contest in October. Again, contest entries must be submitted between April 1 and June 15, and must be submitted through submittables.com. The State Convention will be held October 13-15 in Coffeyville, Kansas. Watch the State Conference site for details as they become available.
The program today consisted of a couple of writing activities. We were asked to bring the first line of a novel that we had enjoyed. Several people shared their favorite openings. Then we were to write an opening line or two of our own that we hoped to engage the reader to read further, and we had a share around to read our lines to the group. The last activity has become an annual Valentine exercise. Dove chocolate hearts wrapped in foil were passed around. Inside the foil there is a writer’s prompt in the form of a short statement, and we were to use that as the starting point for engaging a potential reader. Again, we had a share around as we shared what we had written. It was an enjoyable afternoon.
Next month, March 11, Roy Beckemeyer, Prem Bajaj, and Diane Wahto will share their ideas on how to write strong letters to the editor. The meeting will begin at 1:30, but we are encouraged to come a little earlier to meet, greet, look over books and get some refreshments. We will look forward to seeing all the members, and to greeting some new visitors, so please reach out to invite someone for next time.
Connie White, Secretary
Here's a summary of February's District 5 meeting.
Minutes February 11, 2017
The meeting began at 1:30, after a “meet and greet” with introductions around. The new officers introduced themselves. Conrad Jestmore offered several books from his home library free for the taking. New Member Don Marler introduced his recently published book, Laddie, which is a memoir.
Treasury Report: Money on hand is $7,068.23. Comment: this looks like more than adequate, but we will be sponsoring the State Convention in 2018, so need to be thinking about expenses for that.
Blog Report: Cindi Kerr reports that the blog is now up to date. She has a “Save the Date” page which lists meetings, entry deadlines for State contests, etc. Cindi encourages members to sign up for e-mail notifications of new blog entries. Also, if you have an announcement pertinent for members, please e-mail to [email protected]. This is her e-mail address which is specific for Kansas Authors Club.
Dan Close is judge of State Prose Contest. He encouraged us to get online, check out the State contests and WRITE. He also needs judges for categories. We are advised to read the KAC State Blog to check contest categories, rules regarding word lengths, etc. Remember the “not published before” rule which states that an entry cannot have been previously published in either print or electronic form. Therefore, Dan says to send your entries to contest FIRST and wait to publish until after winners are awarded at the State Contest in October. Again, contest entries must be submitted between April 1 and June 15, and must be submitted through submittables.com. The State Convention will be held October 13-15 in Coffeyville, Kansas. Watch the State Conference site for details as they become available.
The program today consisted of a couple of writing activities. We were asked to bring the first line of a novel that we had enjoyed. Several people shared their favorite openings. Then we were to write an opening line or two of our own that we hoped to engage the reader to read further, and we had a share around to read our lines to the group. The last activity has become an annual Valentine exercise. Dove chocolate hearts wrapped in foil were passed around. Inside the foil there is a writer’s prompt in the form of a short statement, and we were to use that as the starting point for engaging a potential reader. Again, we had a share around as we shared what we had written. It was an enjoyable afternoon.
Next month, March 11, Roy Beckemeyer, Prem Bajaj, and Diane Wahto will share their ideas on how to write strong letters to the editor. The meeting will begin at 1:30, but we are encouraged to come a little earlier to meet, greet, look over books and get some refreshments. We will look forward to seeing all the members, and to greeting some new visitors, so please reach out to invite someone for next time.
Connie White, Secretary