National League of American Pen Women
Denver Branch, March 3, 2018 Minutes
I. Ruthy called the meeting to order at 9:45 AM
II. Members in Attendance: Diane Chambers, Kelly Ann Compton, Karen Gonzales, Jody Hinrichs, Ann Klaiman, Sue Luxa, Virginia Small
III. No Guests in Attendance.
IV. Inspirational Reading: Ruthy read from “The World According to Mr. Rogers” “Fame is a four letter word . . . what ultimately matters is what we do with it.” From an acceptance speech he gave for the Television Hall of Fame.
V. Minutes: November through February Minutes were approved.
VI. Treasurer Reports: The January TR was approved as written. The February TR was approved with the following changes—Change the expense listed as “Biennial Gift to Kelly Ann” to “Biennial hotel expenses for Kelly Ann” and Change the “Checks” expense description to “Check Reorder.” The current balance is $1,184.29
VII. Committee Reports
a. Website: Nothing new to report, Virginia will double check that the e-mail portion of our website is working. (She has had issues with other accounts, so will check.)
b. Membership: No new report; Carol Ehrlich’s certificate of membership has arrived.
c. Tapestry: The work of distributing panels of the Tapestry is currently of on hold. We have 7 panels left. We will re-up the efforts in distributing panels in the fall. Sue thinks churches would be something to consider to pass out the panels. Diane brought up the possibility of hospitals. Ann believes that hospitals rotate art out and would not be a permanent place. Salida High School might be interested because they made on of the panels. Ann is willing to be the point person for this. Karen suggested that we send one to the Florida school where the shooting was. Everyone thought this an excellent idea. Kelly suggested we contact Joyce Fairchild, who now lives in Florida, to gift it to them. We have just enough money in our Tapestry account to pay for shipping. Ruthy will contact Joice about this idea.
VIII. Old Business:
a. Poetry-to-Go: Ann asked, do we want to support them again? We voted to donate $50 this year.
b. Emeritus letter to Kriss finished and signed. Kriss was always fully active in our Denver Branch and is a big reason our Denver Branch still exists. Some of the things she did were: securing the Brown Place for the NLAPW Biennial when our Denver Branch was host, Membership Chair for 15 years, and being the liaison between the Denver NLAPW Branch and Arapahoe Community College’s writing program and with OLLI , founding committee for the Peace Tapestry, instituting our Annual Guest Critiques.
IX. New Business:
a. Guest Critique:
i. Karen reported that a friend of hers tried calling Ruthy and was not able to leave a message, as her voicemail was full.
ii. Diane shared the problem that occurred with ACC in regard to the Guest Critique a couple of years ago; Virginia suggested that we have a feed back page to help us improve the Guest Critique experience
iii. So far we have three people interested. Ruthy is concerned about getting enough people for the critique and is wondering if we should change the date.
Most people were against changing the date and agreed that we need to aggressively get the flyers out.
iv. Sue brought up inviting ACC students again.
v. On critiquing: Perhaps we need to have a program on how to critique.Begin statements with: “You might think about . . .” and “Have you considered . . .?” Kelly Ann will send out the critique guidelines (with edits). Comments can ONLY come from Pen Women members NOT the people being critiqued!! Panelists may NOT critique!!! ALWAYS begin with positives first!!! ONLY comment on the writing, not the person or the author’s point of view.
vi. Ruthy will put flyers at OLLI; Ann will post one at Lighthouse. Sue will put a flyer at Columbine Library. Kelly will give to people at her church. Karen will touch base with DPL main library, Jody will post at Southglenn. Virginia will put the flyer on our website.
vii. Kelly Ann is taking care of the lunch orders; Diane will bring water; Virginia will be timer; Ruthy will take care of name tags; Jody and Ann will be facilitators and share the guidelines. Ruthy will welcome everyone.
b. Elections: Will be done by e-mail this month. Diane is gathering nominations. Jody is willing to continue as historian. Cathy is willing to do membership. Current chairs are willing to continue.
X. Announcements.
a. Sue is doing a presentation on Colorado history from a child’s perspective for the Optimist Club
b. Carol Ehrlich’s husband passed away. Ruthy was able to attend the memorial service.
c. Karen and Ann spoke about Slot houses, in regard to CO history and making a particular set of slot houses as historic landmark. 1300-1344 Quitman St. which was used by Lida B. Burgesss Russell, a homeopathic doctor. Due to the expense and other issues, it has been difficult moving toward getting the historic landmard designation.
XI. Meeting was adjourned at 11:38
After the meeting:
> Karen shared her rewrite of “Finding the Lady Llorona.” She shared that she did not win the contest she entered, and that she is looking at putting her story into book form.
> Kelly Ann shared her book I Was and I Will Be asking for thoughts on how to get copies made before the biennial.
Respectively submitted,
Kelly Ann Compton
Secretary