July 16, 2017 Oregon Poetry Association Board Meeting Minutes
(on SKYPE conference call: Tiel, Lisa, Joy, Shirley, Susan)
FALL ADULT CONTEST is open. A handful of membership renewals have come in because of the contest.
CONVERSATION PROJECTS in Springfield and Grants Pass were successful. Positive feedback. Thirty people in Grants Pass. Sixteen attended Springfield’s evening. Reports with sign-up sheets have been forwarded to Oregon Humanities. Copies of the reports should be kept for future reference.
STUDENT CONTEST: Board members assigned to the student contest are working on funding opportunities. Cost of mailing will be included in grant request. Mass mailings to high schools should arrive in teacher’s hands about the first of October.
OPA NEWSLETTER will be sent from an OPA email account rather than an individual’s email. Changes in the mass email system are still being fleshed out. The letter from Lynn regarding her reasons for being a board member will be included with the newsletter.
FINANCIAL STATUS: No changes on projected figures from last month. No word on bequest.
WEBSITE: Ideas about website design should go to Tiel or Oregon Poets Gmail. OPA’s Outlook account is more secure than Gmail and receives our business mail. Tiel will manage the website changeover from Katie Eberhardt. OPA also has a Facebook page.
OCTOBER CONFERENCE registration information will be released August 1, 2017. Board members can share the conference flyer from Shirley with other parties since it is a PDF. Tiel sent last year’s format to Shirley. The registration form and schedule will be on our website, in mass email and sent to other outlets.
September 10 is the early bird registration deadline. A reminder about this registration deadline will be sent September 5. The hotel’s special rate for OPA reservation deadline is September 12.
The conference menu will be finalized by August 15. The hotel will work with our limited budget. OPA’s order can be flexible at outset and firm up nearer date of conference. Our request for workshop AV equipment will be submitted. Coffee provision is expensive. Limited coffee and tea are part of our current plan. There is a coffee shop in the hotel that attendees can patronize. OPA will also request a parking discount for attendees. The regular fee is $15 for overnight. Two years ago, the hotel discounted parking to $9 per day. There was also a service change. Shirley will inquire about that charge.
OPA had approximately seventy in attendance at the 2015 Portland conference. Students pay only $40 to register. Recognition for the bequest would come during the business meeting.
OPA’s next meeting will be Sunday August 13, 2017 from 1 to 4.
Respectfully submitted by Joy McDowell, secretary of OPA board