OPA Board Meeting,Sept. 13, 2022

Present: Sue Fagalde Lick (President), Nancy Christopherson (Vice President and Adult Contest Chair), Lauren Mallett (Cascadia Contest Chair), Dan Liberthson (Secretary), Rana Tahir (Treasurer and Webmaster), Dave Mehler (Membership Chair and Publications Liaison), Lorna Rose-Hahn (Membership Co-Chair, Outreach Chair, Events Committee Chair)

Not Present: Priscilla Hunter (Historian), Efraín Diaz-Horna (at-large)

I. Sue called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm.

II. Approval of Minutes

Approval of the August 16, 2022 OPA board meeting minutes was moved and seconded, and the board voted unanimously to approve.

III. Officer Reports


A. President’s Report (Sue Fagalde Lick)

No report.

B. Vice President (Nancy Christopherson)

No report.

C. Secretary

No report.

D. Treasurer

The OPA’s net worth is $46,166.12.

E. Historian (Priscilla Hunter)

No report.

IV. Committee Reports

A. Social Media (Lorna Rose-Hahn)

Lorna has started a campaign on Instagram to boost registration for the fall conference. She will highlight each presenter on Facebook, including a bio and the topic of the presentation.

B. Membership and publications (Dave Mehler)

OPA currently has 340 members.

C. Adult Contests (Nancy Christopherson)

Submissions for the adult contest ended on Sept. 1. The judges have till Oct. 1 to get decisions to Nancy. There were143 total submissions (36 by nonmembers, up by 16 from last time) of 356 poems. Only 5 submitted in the Spanish language section and 7 in the 30 and under section. Due to underenrollment, Nancy will probably will drop those categories from the Spring contest.

D. Youth Contests (Lauren Mallett)

No Report.

E. Webmaster (Rana Tahir)

Though there are still problems with Wild Apricot, most people are managing to use it for registration purposes. The alternative path on Submittable is working for the others.

V. Old Business:

A. Nominating committee/elections (Dave, Emmett, Loren). According to Dave, we have 61 votes for nominees. One voter suggested asking candidates on future ballots why they want to serve on the board. Dave thought this would indeed be a good question to add to future ballots.

B. Banta committee (Lorna, Jennifer, Efrain). A Banta winner has been chosen, will be named at the conference, and will receive a $150 award.

C. Conference planning

a. Registration update. Rana reports thirteen registrants so far, and is sending out email reminders to all who have registered for any events before. Typically, registration has been heaviest in the last week before the conference. Everything set to go except for the links.

b. All speakers are confirmed, and will received complimentary conference admission, as will the Banta award winner.

c. Board members are required to register for and pay for the conference.

d. Sue and Rana will be techs for the sessions but an MC is still needed.

VI. New Business

A. Dave’s fee waiver proposal was approved at the last board meeting, but implementation details will need to be worked out by the incoming board. Dave suggests posting notice of the availability of fee waivers on the website and in the newsletter. Recipients could be determined by people nominating others, by direct request to the membership chair or contest chair, or by donors. Rana will set aside $1000 in the budget for the fee waivers.

B. For future discussion: an event for the Oregon Poetry Collection in Eugene next year, possibly in person at U of O, perhaps as part of the fall conference if that is held in person at the university.

VIII. Announcements

The next board meeting will be on October 9 at 2:00 pm, to say goodbye to departing members, welcome the new members, and elect officers, who will then get on with business.

IX. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 7:18 pm.

Minutes recorded and prepared by Dan Liberthson, Secretary

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