September 2, 2023

National League of American Pen Women—Denver Branch

September 2, 2023 Minutes

  1. Linda Volin called the meeting to order at 9:41AM.
  2. Members in attendance: Diane Chambers, Atlanta Sheridan, Linda Volin, Andrea Antico, Karen Gonzales, Eleanor Binning, Sue Luxa, Rachel Seekamp, Laurel Becker, Karen Gladstone
  3. Andrea Antico provided inspirational quotes on magazines.
  4. Minutes: August meeting minutes accepted. All in favor. Approved.
  5. Treasurer’s Report was not available and Kelly Ann was not in attendance.
    1. Diane welcomed and thanked Rachel Seekamp and welcomed new member Alfreda Beartrack-Algeo.
    2. Website report of activities and updates for August submitted by Virginia Small and read by Linda. All presentation notices for the calendar were updated for the rest of the 2023 year. All apps were updated. Some obsolete and unused apps were deleted. According to our stats software 62% or our viewers viewed our site from a desktop, and the other 38% viewed our site through their mobile devices. There have been no serious problems with the site this past month. Virginia Small is being published in yet another anthology. 
    3. Karen Gonzales will take on the Zoom meetings. Atlanta will meet with her to test accessing Zoom as Administrator before next meeting.
    4. Critique Group: Met Friday. The members are Syd, Karen Gladstone, Atlanta, Andrea, Kelly Ann and Eleanor. Six are in the group. A suggestion was made to use critique group as a selling point for membership. Aurora knows of a non-published potential member who is taking a writing class: Amethyst King, aspiring writer: aking@denveracademy.org
    5. Tapestry: Diane sent a letter to East High School about the Tapestry, no reply yet.
    6. Cindy was not present for the budget report.
    7. Aurora reported pictures sent to her were put in a scrapbook. She can create a Google slide show and send shared Google Drive. She will scan documents to add to Pen Women Google Drive. Rachel can help with that. Virginia can add to website. An archive can also go to Denver Public Library. National Pen Women will be asked about archiving on Google Drive. Sue thinks it may be an article for The Pen Woman Magazine.
    8. Karen Gonzales reported on Programs. Rachel recruited the following presenters: October 7 – Kim Galloway to present on storytelling and connecting to the reader; November 4th – Fauzia Burke – Title: Beyond the Hype: Practical AI Tools Description: December 2nd – Cara Lopez Lee – about historical fiction titled: All Stories are Historical
    9. Diane suggested for January having the panel of members talk about their publishing processes on a panel with moderator. Rachel can be moderator. Panel members: Sue, Diane, Eleanor, Andrea. Rachel will send email out asking for more panel members.
  1. Old Business: Linda mentioned the online National Pen Women meeting.
  • Andrea has not heard from George Washington High School, but will follow up.
  • Diane asked about more group author book fair events for members. There is one on September 30th, CIPA. Karen announced the Corn Mother Event on September 29th, she will send out email. Also, there are book readings at Mercury Café every last Tuesdays and poetry readings every Friday evening.
  1. The meeting was adjourned at 10:25 AM.

Following the business meeting, Rachel Seekamp gave a presentation on Magazine Feature Writing. Karen Gladstone joined the Presentation.

Respectfully submitted,

Karen Gonzales

Co-Secretary

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