November 19, 2017
Oregon Poetry Association board meeting (done by SKYPE)
participating: Lisa Baldwin, Lynn Otto, Shirley Marc, Joy McDowell, Erik Muller, Charles Castle, Stella Jeng Guillory, Bruce Parker, Diane Corson, Dale Champlin
ELECTION OF OFFICERS (2017-18): Lisa Baldwin elected president of board. Joy McDowell elected as secretary. Lynn Otto elected treasurer. Shirley Marc elected as vice president. Bruce Parker will serve in a combined position of historian and as liaison for NFSPS. Shirley continues as conference coordinator. Erik Muller will serve with Joy as OPA representative for the Oregon Poetry Collection held at the University of Oregon Knight Library. Diane Corson and Charles Castle will act as co-chairs for membership. Tiel will assist with the transition of membership lists. Dale Champlin and Bruce Parker will take over work on the OPA newsletter.
OPA’s financial transactions must be updated. A motion was made and seconded to remove Tiel Jackson and Richard Cameron from the Oregon Poetry Association bank account number _________ at Bank of America. Lisa Baldwin, president, Lynn Otto, treasurer and Diane Corson, co-chair of membership, will be added to the account. Motion passed by unanimous vote.
FINANCIAL REPORT: Shirley corrected the hotel billing for conference costs to show an increase of approximately $500 to our projected account balance. She will continue to monitor this situation. Our current account balance is over $4000, but $1700 of that total is designated grant funding for the youth contest.
MOU FROM KNIGHT LIBRARY: OPA should assist writers by sharing information about donating chapbooks, anthologies and broadsides. Holding double copies of the collection is defeated by the locked collection not being easily available. Patrons must request books from the help desk. OPA will work to publicize the OPA collection and the William Stafford collection at Lewis & Clark College. Joy and Erik will follow up with the Knight Library on issues of concern.
SPRING 2018 CONTEST: OPA board members are not allowed to enter OPA contests. The New Poets category eligibility needs to be adjusted. Recent winners have had extensive publications. Amy Miller, OPA contest chair, suggests refining eligibility or doing away with the category. The new definition for the new poet category will be: a poet with not more than two poems published in print or online journals and/or anthologies. Any number of self-publications would not disallow submission.
CONVERSATION PROJECTS: Oregon Humanities is the host organization for speakers. Last year OPA worked with Josephine Library and Springfield Library to present programs. We might be able to find a third location. OPA must apply for these speakers. Two programs with poet presenters are available this year. “Democracy from Inside Out-Listening to our Conscience and Our Neighbors” by Wendy Willis and “In Good Faith-Exploring Religious Difference in Oregon” by Elizabeth Harlan Ferlo. The cost is $75 for OPA to participate. These projects require legwork by locals. We could generate our own events. Lisa will explore these speakers and report to the OPA board at our next meeting.
DISCUSSION ON GROWING OPA MEMBERSHIP: Strophes printed an article about expanding youth membership. Many OPA members want to have more conferences. Mini conferences in different communities might be an answer. Online platforms assist our outreach. Facebook traffic is low for OPA. We will share content from web page to Facebook. Each board member needs to check the Facebook account and submit information. Kathy Pyle screens submissions to our website and OPA Facebook.
A suggestion was made to reactivate local OPA units. OPA membership forms should be available at local reading events. OPA could list open mic events for communities.
FUNDRAISING IDEAS: Increased dues must be voted on at the general membership meeting. Lifetime memberships might raise quick revenue. Many ideas were shared to raise revenue. Selling conference sponsorships for the brochure is a possibility. Allowing attendees at conferences to opt out of paying for a meal might draw more people. Additional ideas will be floated at the next meeting.
INSTRUCTIONS ON LOGGING HOURS: Instructions were shared for use of the spreadsheet to track volunteer hours. These hours translate to in-kind value in grant applications. Enter your hours, dates, and click enter to total hours. Save the link Lynn sends to reopen this spreadsheet with your browser.
NEXT MEETING DATE: Sunday, December 17 from noon to 3 PM.
Meeting adjourned at 4 PM. Minutes respectfully submitted by Joy McDowell, secretary OPA