National League of American Pen Women–Denver Branch
Meeting Minutes
January 10, 2015
I. Ruthy Wexler called the meeting to order at 10:06 a.m.
II. Members in attendance were: Andrea Antico, Sophia Baldwin, Eleanor Binnings, Beverly Chico, Kelly Ann Compton, Ruthy Denker/Wexler, Florence Elliott, Ann Klaiman, A. Marie Kriss, Nancy Peterson, Jo’el Roth, Virginia Small, and Sheila Phelan Wright.
III. Inspirational Reading: Kelly Ann shared two quotes.
A. From Gary Zukav: “We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives.”
B. From Victor Hugo: “Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.”
IV. Introduction of guests: No guests were present.
V. The December Minutes were approved as written.
VI. The December Treasurer’s Report was accepted. Our current balance is $2,489.27.
VII. Committee Reports:
A. The Blog Project: Ann reported
1. In June we will stop and assess the blog, asking the question, “Where do we go from here?”
2. “The Magic of Cold” has five entries.
3. The January/February prompt will be a photo prompt. Pick one of the four photos and respond to it in any creative manner you desire.
4. Jo’el continues to have difficulty with the site. Her submission was never posted. Jo’el sent her submission, but it was never received by Ann, Ruthy, or Virginia.
5. Virginia explained the limitations to our blog site and how that affects its “look.”
6. Sheila shared advantages of having a Facebook page. 7. Using Facebook with links and using blogger.com with links were discussed. The discussion was long, with many opinions and questions about what each type of blog could offer. So the discussion will definitely continue.
B. Website: Virginia reports that the website is going well.
C. Membership: Our March Guest Critiques meeting will be held at Ruthy and Andreas condos with a box lunch being served in the community center of their complex afterwards.
D. Tapestry:
1.There were no responses to Kriss’s article in the Pen Woman Magazine from any branch, so we will seriously look into the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis. Kriss will contact them.
2.We need to unpack and document the condition of the panels. The committee for this will include Andrea, Ruthy, and Kelly Ann.
E. Programs: Mary Levering, Beverly Chico’s sister, will give a presentation at our February meeting. Her topic will be “From Gutenberg to Twitter, 45 Years of Library of Congress.” The suggestion was made
by Ruthy Wexler that a future program should include someone who can do a hands-on workshop for the social media techniques that we understand are out there, but now quite how to use them.
F. Outreach Projects: Kelly Ann will call Stephanie Baker at St. Andrews Village to find out if it would be possible to work one-on-one with residents to help them write their life stories.
VIII. Old Business: No old business
IX. New Business: The topic of the day was the memo from National and the suggestion to sell Pen Arts, our building and headquarters in Washington D.C. Our Denver Branch response to the memo was that we need to re-define NLAPW and its mission. Ruthy had a conversation with Candace Long, the NLAPW president, whereby Candace invited our Denver Branch to spearhead membership talks for the organization. Ann brought up the point that we need a directory of all branches and members to have any sort of vibrant communication. Kriss said that the strategy for National in re-defining NLAPW is that we must learn what today’s women need and what our organization can offer, so they would want to join. Kriss will call Christina to learn the results of today’s board meeting. We all agreed that any committee on membership should be made up with many members from many branches.
X. Announcements: Sophia announced that there is a writing contest coming up from Arapahoe Community College. Ann will forward the announcement to everyone.
XI. The meeting was adjourned at 11:09.
After the meeting, we heard a presentation by Barb Warner on her book, Keep Your Fork Dessert is On the Way: Savoring the Second Half of Life.
Respectively submitted,
Kelly Ann Compton, Secretary
