Abilene Writers Guild Meeting Minutes
Center for Contemporary Arts Building
March 28, 2002
President Stewart Caffey called the meeting to order. The reading of the minutes was waived, and the minutes were accepted as posted on the web site.
Treasurer Gail McMillan reported we have a balance of $3,573.97 in our operating account.
Guests Eilene Gipson and Gale Cooley were introduced and "Brags and Sags" were reported by the membership. These included: Elaine Coleman sold 21 books in three hours last week, Gwen Choate is a finalist in the San Gabriel's Writers contest, Barbara Darnall wrote and produced a drama last week for First Baptist at Camp Butman, and several others.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We now have 100 members. Patti Bowden, our 100th member, is from Cross Plains and paid by PayPal on the web site. She was present. Our contest was announced in the Dallas Morning News and they contacted Jan Carrington to clarify the information given. We've had several inquires because of that.
Stewart read a thank-you note from Luke Holman Volunteer Fire Department for a memorial for Ann Considine, Jan Carrington's mother.
NEW BUSINESS:
Jan Carrington announced we have 102 contest entries before that point and several more were handed to her as she spoke. The entries have come from all over including Oregon, Illinois, New Jersey, Florida, and the Netherlands. She asked that anybody knowing web addresses for other writing organizations get that to her as soon as possible.
We have 5 registrations for the June 8 workshop. This year we are having separate checks and separate forms for the contest and the workshop to facilitate record keeping.
Stewart appointed a nominating committee who will present nominations at the April meeting for President, Secretary, and two at-large members of the Board. That committee is Gail McMillan, Chairman, Lake Monhollan, and Marv Johnson.
Stewart announced the need for a refreshment chairman to complete the year and prepare for the next year, and Dorris Tull volunteered.
Nancy Robinson Masters announced the program for April will be Laura Thaxton and Stewart Caffey talking about going from a hobby of interest in family and community history to newsletters with about 200 subscribers for Stewart's and 125 for Laura. They will discuss self-publishing periodicals.
July's program will be Sarah Mulkey who is a lyrics and vocal songwriter with 4 CD's of Christian Music. She'll use a piano to talk about writing songs.
Mary Craig began the program with a contest about our contest, and Nancy Robinson Masters concluded by talking about the uses of dialog to move plot, portray character, create or resolve conflict, and to tell something the reader needs to know. She said the formula far creating conflict is to have: a concept of the story, a person with a goal, a reason for the goal, and an obstacle.
Meeting adjourned and refreshments were served by John Busby, Mary Craig, and Barbara Rollins.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara B. Rollins for Carolyn Dycus