Kansas Authors Club – District One
November 20, 2021
Participating: Anne Spry, Ruth Maus, Barbara Brady, Roger Droz, Thea Rademacher, Fred Appelhanz,
Barbara Waterman-Peters, Carol Yoho, Julie Sellers, Duane Johnson, Alice Dunavan, Arthur Dunavan, and Max Dunavan
Welcome by President Anne Spry at 1:15PM. Note there were a few technical difficulties connecting to the internet in this first meeting back at the Menninger Room of the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library.
Program by Julie Sellers: Julie is a District One member from Atchison who has been writing several years with many successes, including seven books of published prose and poetry to her credit. She was multiple entry winner for the Kansas Authors Club writing contests with first, second, third place and honorable mentions. She brings a background in music, storytelling, Dominican culture, court transcriber, rural Kansas perspective, and teaching English. She is very interested in how cultures have used people’s popular music to share cultural truths, such as the Dominican musicians that heavily influenced R&B compositions and that style of music. Welcome Julie.
Julie’s presentation on “Inspiration and Intention” was quite informative as she explained not only techniques for becoming inspired to write, but also the personal mechanics and managing time to make writing happen. She recommends that people use their experiences, “Aha” moments, read other authors, try various literary styles (there are 168 poetic forms), and take advantage of themed contests and Submittable to find writing topics. She spoke briefly about using each of these as well as other ideas.
Her personal thoughts on writing include setting a daily time slot for writing and sticking to it even when you are not inspired, surrounding herself with creative people in general, and studying the craft through reading, seminars, trying new methods, and using inspiring people as role models. Most importantly, never give up! She has times that she likes to write on the bluffs above the Missouri River at Atchison. She uses images to inspire and alternate methods to try are the golden shovel method in poetry or writing based upon your response to another author’s work or images. Julie offered the participants two writing exercises, which were then shared in the group. Check out Julie’s webpage at julieasellers.com or her Facebook page julieasellers. For additional information, see the district one November Newsletter.
Business Meeting
Secretary’s Report: The minutes were reviewed as submitted by Secretary Dunavan. Mr. Dunavan recommended one addition and a motion to approve the amended report was made by Barbara Waterman-Peters, seconded by Barbara Brady and approved unanimously.
Treasurer’s report: Treasurer Hemmingway could not attend today but provided a copy of her report to Anne Spry which she shared on the smartboard. There are still bills and receipts pending from the convention. There was continued discussion to aid in understanding of where we stand financially, especially on overall convention costs. The convention stayed well within budget. Hopefully we will see the figures coalesce into firm figures shortly. The report was moved for acceptance by Max Dunavan and seconded by Duane Johnson with unanimous approval.
Old Business:
District One anthology: With the convention behind us, Max suggested it was time to move forward with a member anthology and other projects. There was discussion about timing, what it might look like and how many District One authors had work they wanted to share, It was suggested that there be a poll to determine member interest by our January meeting. Others are to be thinking about the project and their potential to be involved in this project. We will obviously need several to step forward and volunteer time to make this project occur.
There are several projects that the Membership and Marketing Committee has kicked around for District One, and we will need additional committee members to move these projects along.
A reminder. You should now be receiving frequent notices of KAC statewide news and District One news. Please read those and become aware of the meetings, opportunities for writing, and happenings. Other districts are offering speakers of various writing topics and attending expands your opportunity to meet other authors and learn.
New Business:
Election of Officers: The current slate of District One officers has agreed to serve another term, These in addition to all nominations from the floor were to be considered for the November election ballot.
An election after the official announcement last month was conducted. There were no nominations from the floor. It was moved by Barbara Brady that we re-elect the current board and seconded by several. The recommendation passed, therefore the 2022 officers are:
President: Anne Spry
1st Vice President: Ruth Maus
Secretary: Max (Myron) Dunavan and
Treasurer: Reaona Hemmingway.
Note: The state board requested a representative from each district. District One has always let that responsibility fall to the district president, but there is no reason that it has to be the president. Anne had opened that possibility to determine if anyone else wanted to help with that, but no one stepped forward. Please consider if you can help with this task and opportunity.
The Membership and Marketing Committee has been determined to have a continuing mission and will continue at this time. It was determined that we should prepare a recognition and marketing piece honoring member Julie Sellers for her fantastic number of wins in this year’s awards.
Program: The October meeting consisted of readings from winning poets and authors as well as other authors with a reading to share. We thank them for their participation.
Plans for the District One December meeting were discussed with a party being discussed. We will plan on another hybrid meeting, but be using the larger library meeting auditorium room to accommodate a larger in-person attendance, as well as those joining online. We will deal with winter weather and other things such as increased Covid numbers as they arise, but Anne plans to reserve the meeting room for next year.
Meeting adjourned at 3:00 PM.
November 20, 2021
Participating: Anne Spry, Ruth Maus, Barbara Brady, Roger Droz, Thea Rademacher, Fred Appelhanz,
Barbara Waterman-Peters, Carol Yoho, Julie Sellers, Duane Johnson, Alice Dunavan, Arthur Dunavan, and Max Dunavan
Welcome by President Anne Spry at 1:15PM. Note there were a few technical difficulties connecting to the internet in this first meeting back at the Menninger Room of the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library.
Program by Julie Sellers: Julie is a District One member from Atchison who has been writing several years with many successes, including seven books of published prose and poetry to her credit. She was multiple entry winner for the Kansas Authors Club writing contests with first, second, third place and honorable mentions. She brings a background in music, storytelling, Dominican culture, court transcriber, rural Kansas perspective, and teaching English. She is very interested in how cultures have used people’s popular music to share cultural truths, such as the Dominican musicians that heavily influenced R&B compositions and that style of music. Welcome Julie.
Julie’s presentation on “Inspiration and Intention” was quite informative as she explained not only techniques for becoming inspired to write, but also the personal mechanics and managing time to make writing happen. She recommends that people use their experiences, “Aha” moments, read other authors, try various literary styles (there are 168 poetic forms), and take advantage of themed contests and Submittable to find writing topics. She spoke briefly about using each of these as well as other ideas.
Her personal thoughts on writing include setting a daily time slot for writing and sticking to it even when you are not inspired, surrounding herself with creative people in general, and studying the craft through reading, seminars, trying new methods, and using inspiring people as role models. Most importantly, never give up! She has times that she likes to write on the bluffs above the Missouri River at Atchison. She uses images to inspire and alternate methods to try are the golden shovel method in poetry or writing based upon your response to another author’s work or images. Julie offered the participants two writing exercises, which were then shared in the group. Check out Julie’s webpage at julieasellers.com or her Facebook page julieasellers. For additional information, see the district one November Newsletter.
Business Meeting
Secretary’s Report: The minutes were reviewed as submitted by Secretary Dunavan. Mr. Dunavan recommended one addition and a motion to approve the amended report was made by Barbara Waterman-Peters, seconded by Barbara Brady and approved unanimously.
Treasurer’s report: Treasurer Hemmingway could not attend today but provided a copy of her report to Anne Spry which she shared on the smartboard. There are still bills and receipts pending from the convention. There was continued discussion to aid in understanding of where we stand financially, especially on overall convention costs. The convention stayed well within budget. Hopefully we will see the figures coalesce into firm figures shortly. The report was moved for acceptance by Max Dunavan and seconded by Duane Johnson with unanimous approval.
Old Business:
District One anthology: With the convention behind us, Max suggested it was time to move forward with a member anthology and other projects. There was discussion about timing, what it might look like and how many District One authors had work they wanted to share, It was suggested that there be a poll to determine member interest by our January meeting. Others are to be thinking about the project and their potential to be involved in this project. We will obviously need several to step forward and volunteer time to make this project occur.
There are several projects that the Membership and Marketing Committee has kicked around for District One, and we will need additional committee members to move these projects along.
A reminder. You should now be receiving frequent notices of KAC statewide news and District One news. Please read those and become aware of the meetings, opportunities for writing, and happenings. Other districts are offering speakers of various writing topics and attending expands your opportunity to meet other authors and learn.
New Business:
Election of Officers: The current slate of District One officers has agreed to serve another term, These in addition to all nominations from the floor were to be considered for the November election ballot.
An election after the official announcement last month was conducted. There were no nominations from the floor. It was moved by Barbara Brady that we re-elect the current board and seconded by several. The recommendation passed, therefore the 2022 officers are:
President: Anne Spry
1st Vice President: Ruth Maus
Secretary: Max (Myron) Dunavan and
Treasurer: Reaona Hemmingway.
Note: The state board requested a representative from each district. District One has always let that responsibility fall to the district president, but there is no reason that it has to be the president. Anne had opened that possibility to determine if anyone else wanted to help with that, but no one stepped forward. Please consider if you can help with this task and opportunity.
The Membership and Marketing Committee has been determined to have a continuing mission and will continue at this time. It was determined that we should prepare a recognition and marketing piece honoring member Julie Sellers for her fantastic number of wins in this year’s awards.
Program: The October meeting consisted of readings from winning poets and authors as well as other authors with a reading to share. We thank them for their participation.
Plans for the District One December meeting were discussed with a party being discussed. We will plan on another hybrid meeting, but be using the larger library meeting auditorium room to accommodate a larger in-person attendance, as well as those joining online. We will deal with winter weather and other things such as increased Covid numbers as they arise, but Anne plans to reserve the meeting room for next year.
Meeting adjourned at 3:00 PM.