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February 16th 2003

Today, February 16, 2003, we held our February meeting. We had 5 attendees. The next meeting will be held on March 16, 2003 at Beagle Books in Park Rapids from 1:30 to 4 PM.

TALKING STICK:

Here it is the middle of February and we have not made much progress on the book. We want to get started on applying for grants and also send out a call for submissions at the same time. Angele brought back the information on grant writing and also brought a list of possible places to apply for grants. She is now starting a new business so she will not have time to work on them. We discussed the possibilities: we could apply for a grant for just the book, but Region 5 will probably not give us any more funds just for a book. We could apply for a grant for writing workshops and Region 5 seems to be very interested in doing this. Or, we could apply for both.
We also discussed sponsoring a poetry contest, perhaps with a small submission fee to help cover costs. This would help publicize the next book also.

BOARD MEETING:

The board members (Cindie, Carolyn, and Sharon) will be having a board meeting on March 1. We need to meet at least annually to keep their nonprofit status. We need to decide for sure if we are going to do another Talking Stick book or not, and how much the original members want to help with it. Are they burnt out totally or do they want to assist with at least one more book? Do they want to take charge and some of us newer members will help or do they want us to take charge? If we are going to do it, we need to get the software program for doing the layout. We also need to finalize what we will charge for the older books so Tarah can put it on the website.

OTHER ITEMS:

There is a writers’ conference that will be held in Bemidji in June. Jerry will probably represent our group on the panel discussion they will have. If you would like more information, e-mail Sharon at sharrick@wcta.net and request the info. There are some evening readings that are open to the public.
Sharon plans to take some copies of the older Talking Sticks around to waiting rooms at doctors’ offices and chiropractors’ offices this spring. She is getting cards printed up that have our e-mail address on them that can be stapled in the books in case anyone wants to order. Tarah is adding to the website so people can order from there. As soon as we decide the pricing at the board meeting, that will be ready to go.

NEW IDEAS:

We discussed what direction we really want our group to go. If we do another book, the writers at this meeting say that they will help. Some of them were more interested in writing and sharing information on where to send submissions. Then we discussed just putting on workshops instead of doing a book this year. We also discussed sponsoring a poetry contest and just publishing the winners on the web site. That was an idea that we liked very much.
We mentioned that we need to check into the Hackensack Arts Fair again this year.
We also mentioned having a featured poet on our web site with some of their work. We said before we put someone’s work on the web site, we do need to do our research and make sure of publishing rights, etc. Perhaps Florence can help us with that question? That would be a good workshop to have, discussing writers’ rights, etc.

READINGS:

We had some great readings from Russ, Tarah, and Beth. Angele showed us her new brochure on her new business, called Memoirs. Her business involves creating a printed book with written memories and photographs. Good luck, Angele!