OPA Board Minutes, September 7, 2021

Minutes of the Oregon Poetry Association (OPA) Board Meeting of September 7, 2021

The meeting was scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm via Zoom.

Present: Jennifer Rood (President, Historian), Sue Fagalde Lick (Vice-President), Dan Liberthson (Secretary), Rana Tahir (Treasurer), Dave Mehler (Membership Co-chair), Dale Champlin (Newsletter and Verseweavers Editor), Lorna Rose Hahn (Membership Co-Chair, Outreach Chair), Susan Morse (Assistant Secretary, Adult Contest Chairperson)

Not Present, Rayn Roberts (At-Large)

I. Jennifer called the meeting to order at 7:15.

II. Approval of Minutes

A motion by Dan to accept the August 16, 2021 board meeting minutes was seconded by Sue and approved unanimously.

III. Officer Reports

A. President’s Report (Jennifer Rood)

Fall Conference—Keynote Speaker

The Oregon Poet Laureate, Anis Mojgani declined our invitation to be the keynote speaker, but is open to coordinating with the new board for some future event, to be determined. We need to decide if we will solicit another keynote speaker or if we will go without a keynote speaker this year. There was discussion of other possible keynote speakers, and several of those suggested will be queried.

Fall Conference—Workshops

The Fall Conference date is Saturday, Oct. 9. All eight workshop leaders solicited for the conference have accepted our invitations. We need to think about rolling out the Fall Conference schedule and advertising. There was a discussion about recording the workshops and making the recordings available for a limited time to conference registrants so they can view courses they can’t attend during the conference. Permission for this will be sought from the presenters. The board discussed the agenda for the annual meeting.

Banta Award

The Banta Committee (Jennifer and two other OPA members) met to go over the four nominations that were submitted. No decision was made; the top two choices are under review. The final selection will be made by September 15.

Collins Grant

The Letter of Intent was submitted on time to the Collins Foundation to apply for a grant to fund the Cascadia Student Contest for the next two-year cycle. We are supposed to hear back sometime this month about whether or not we will be invited to submit a full grant proposal. Duy Doan, our grant-writer, went over the established 10-hour limit by 2-3 hours, but said he would donate that overage time as a poetry lover for the sake of promoting poetry in the world. Thank you, Rana, for suggesting we use his service, and thank you, Duy!

Last of our Third Friday Summer Poetry Readings Celebrating Poets’ Birthdays

We need advertising for our next event. Rana has already set up the Wild Apricot and Zoom links.
September 17—“The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
Incorporate a line from Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day” into a poem, or write a new poem that is rooted in summer in some way. In honor of Mary’s birthday: September 10, 1935.

B. Vice-President (Sue Lick)

No report

C. Secretary (Dan)

No report

D. Treasurer’s Report (Rana Tahir)

Total Funds Left in 2021 Budget: $34,099
– Bank Balance: $47,190

IV. Committee Reports

A. Membership (Dave Mehler)

We have about 370 members. There were 92 responses to an emailed request for votes for new board members. Almost all votes were “yes.”

B. Contests (Susan Morse)

There are 70 total entries. The deadline for the contest was extended by 15 days to Sept. 15. A further extension was discussed, but rejected. Registrant counts are very low for the Young, New, and Spanish Speaking sections. Registration fees will be refunded to three people who registered and paid twice. Rana suggested holding the contest in October in the future too avoid the after-summer, back-to-school rush.

C. Verseweavers, Pandemic 2020 Anthology, Newsletter (Dale Champlin)

We have a judge for each section in the contest.

D. Social media (Lorna Rose Hahn)

Lorna requests that people share with her for social media posting any contests they hear of or other information of interest to poets.

V. Old Business

We may need to purchase additional Zoom capacity if there are more than 100 attendees at the Fall Conference, as our current Zoom plan is limited to 100. Dave mentioned that last year about 150 attended. How to prepare for additional attendees was discussed. Rana thinks we can use her business Zoom account and will confirm this, but if it is not possible we will need to purchase extra capacity from Zoom. Motion: (1) If Rana is not able to use her institutional account, the Board approves paying to boost Zoom capacity to more than 100 people, and (2) the Board approves paying for a second license if we need an additional room.

VI. New Business

None.

VII. Announcements

The next board meeting will be on Sunday, October 10 at 1 pm.

VIII. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 8:52 pm.

Minutes recorded and prepared by Dan Liberthson, Secretary

1 thought on “OPA Board Minutes, September 7, 2021”

  1. I’m glad you didn’t extend the fall contest deadline again. Frankly, I don’t think it’s fair to those who meet the original deadline to extend it at all. Also, the fact that 3 categories had very few entries is an indication that maybe those categories need to be changed to elicit more interest. As a member, there were very few categories I could even enter–I’m not new, not young, and don’t speak a second language. I would have entered more if I had been eligible. I’m guessing a lot of other members feel the same way.

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