Board of Directors
Chapter Chairs
For further information please contact Shirley Blackwell, President, at president@nmsps.org or membership@nmsps.org.
Update from the President - December 2012
Dear NMSPS Members,
This update is to let you know about decisions taken at the last Board meeting, including some that will need your vote next month.
By January, we will publish our NMSPS newsletter, Language of Enchantment, and items pertaining more to the "fellowship" aspects of our Society will be addressed there. I know you are anxious to know what is ahead for next year's NFSPS Convention, and more information will be forthcoming; however, I'd rather give you the complete picture than information still in flux. So, I beg your patience until after the holidays.
The Board met on October 27th for a phenomenal session. Thanks to Secretary Charles Trumbull, a full account of the reports submitted by members of the Board and the business conducted at the meeting was sent to all members with electronic access. The compilation of information contained in those minutes will be submitted for approval at the next Board meeting. Here are the highlights:
I know that the June 2013 La Conferencia del Encanto will set the highest standard for NFSPS conventions and that the NMSPS and New Mexico's poetry community will long be remembered for exceptional hospitality and enthusiasm.
Shirley Blackwell, NMSPS President
Update from the President - October 2012
In this note:
1. Info on Board meeting on 27 October
2. Membership Sweepstakes closes on 31 October - FAQs about the Prize
3. Members who are Finalists in NM - AZ Book Awards
1. Board plans for upcoming year and 2013 Convention.
The NMSPS Board will meet at the Lucky Bean Downtown Cafe in the old Borders in the Railyard section of Santa Fe. Address is 500 Montezuma Ave. We will hold the business meeting at 1:00 p.m., but will meet at nearby Swiss Bakery Pastries and Bistro, 401 Guadalupe Street, at 11:00 a.m. for brunch and conversation before the meeting. The meeting is open to any NMSPS member, but only the Board will be voting on the agenda items. 2013 Convention workers are especially encouraged to attend.
2. Do it Now--No Invoice Required
Keep those membership renewals (or new memberships) coming! So far, we have received over 50 checks, but THE SWEEPSTAKES DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 31.
Here is your chance to get free registration ($75) to what is shaping up to be a DYNAMITE 2013 Convention. You don't have to mail in your invoice if you are just renewing, unless some of your contact info has changed. Just send a check for $20 ($30 if you can get the newsletter online but choose to have paper copies mailed to you as well) to:
NMSPS
c/o Shirley Blackwell
P.O. Box 1352
Los Lunas, NM 87031
A name will be drawn in November from those who signed up during October for the sweepstakes prize. If you cannot use the prize yourself, you may give it to another member.
3. Congrats to 14 NMSPS members who are FINALISTS in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards!
I am so proud to see 14 members of our Society in various categories on the finalists' list for the NM - AZ Book Awards. Over 1400 books were submitted. The winners in each category will be announced at an awards banquet in Albuquerque on November 16. I went through the several-page lists and spotted the following names. If I missed any of our NMSPS members, please let me know. Here is who I found:
Anthology - The editors of Fixed and Free Poetry Anthology, which was 1 of 7 finalists in this category: Billy Brown, Gregory Candela, Elaine Schwartz, and Stewart Warren.
Note: Stewart Warren was the book designer for the anthology and for three of the members' books listed below. Book design counts significantly in the NM - AZ Book Awards judging process, so I am taking the liberty of expressing collective thanks to him and to the three editors of Fixed and Free on behalf of the poetry community represented in the anthology and below.
Cookbook - Jules Nyquist, 1 of 5 finalists, for Appetites.
Historical Fiction - Maggie Petton, 1 of 8, for Heaven's Daughter.
Fiction - Mystery/Suspense - Annmarie Pearson, 1of 10, for The Fetish Ruby
(also placed in poetry with another book)
Sci Fi/Fantasy Fiction - Bonnie Rucobo, 1 of 7, for King Pachuco and Princess Mirasol.
Religious - Elizabeth Ann Galligan, 1 of 4, for Secrets of the Plumed Saint.
Poetry (6 of the 11 finalists are NMSPS members)
Shirley Blackwell: Already There
Joanne Bodin: Piggybacked
Thelma Giomi: Weaving the Wind
Annemarie Pearson: Nature Rhymes with Natural Impressions
Barbara Rockman: Sting and Nest
Jeanne Shannon: In a Rose Wood Wandering
Update form the President - May 16, 2012
Dear NMSPS Members,
This update is to inform you of several items:
1. Announcement of new NMSPS Board Members
2. Information about Society email channels
3. Help wanted with Contests
4. NMSPS delegates going to Federation convention next month
5. Who's out of range until late May
Item 1. At our State Convention on 28 April, you learned that Sylvia Ramos had stepped down from her position as NMSPS Secretary after 3 years of dedicated service. Since then, I also received a letter of resignation from our NMSPS Vice President, Kitty Todorovich, who has pressing family health matters which demand her full attention at this time.
I am most grateful that two other NMSPS members were willing to step into those vacancies at this incredibly busy time. It is my pleasure to announce that ABQ Chapter member Joanne Bodin has assumed the office of VP and Charlie Trumbull is our new Secretary. Please see below about changes in information flow through the Secretary.
We have two new chapter chairs as well. Chandra Bales took over the reins of the Albuquerque Chapter from Elaine Schwartz on Saturday, May 12, and Chuck Russell will officially take office as the High Prairie Poets (Roswell) chairperson on May 26, but Ann Applegarth, the outgoing chair, said to put his name on the list now because she is going out of town.
So, welcome to the Board, Joanne, Charlie, Chuck, and Chandra (just listing their names sounds like a line of poetry). If you want to communicate with any of these officers by email, you can do so through the appropriate title on our website.
Item 2: Emails within the Society
Please note that the role of NMSPS Secretary has changed because of new capabilities in our website. In the past, Sylvia acted as the "router" of information in our Society, and many of our members submitted news or questions directly to her, which she relayed to the appropriate officer or contact point. Since she has left the post, folks have still sent her stuff, which she has graciously passed on, but I respectfully ask that you stop sending Sylvia these items and that you spare Charles that duty in the future, especially as we now have a more direct way to accomplish the same goals.
You can now send officers and project leaders messages through our website email personas. How does this work, you ask? Well, our Webmaster, Debbi, has constructed a system that channels emails to the private mailboxes of officers, project leaders, and even the general membership, without allowing outsiders, or the Society at large, access to those private email accounts. This practice protects the contact information of all members.
Example: if you go to our website and click on "Contact Us," you will see a list of officers. If you were to click on my name, for example, it would open up a screen addressed to president@nmpoetry.com, and you could write me a message. That message would come to my personal mailbox, but the sender would not see my private email address. The same holds true for chapter chairpersons, our calendar of events, our newsletter, etc.
Item 3: PL for Contests. What does it take? What's NOT at stake?
I very much need someone to be our Project Leader for Contests. This job would involve keeping track of the contest entries in our 4 Quarterly contests, the second of which has a July 1 deadline. These contests are fundraisers for the 2013 Convention.
The Project Leader would spend most of his/her time on: recording and depositing entry fees, coordinating with the NMSPS Treasurer and VP, keeping track of contestant contact info, controlling paper flow, doing packaging and mailing tasks, verifying that submission rules have been followed, sending some poems out for workshopping, and notifying contestants of contest results.
This job needs someone who is not bored by detail and who can keep the contest entries organized and moving on schedule. It also needs someone who has access to daily mail delivery or who goes to their Post Office on a regular basis. At present, submissions are done in hardcopy via the USPS.
Here is what IT DOES NOT REQUIRE: The PL for Contests does NOT have to find judges or do any judging himself/herself. Nor does it require that you make policy decisions about the contests. Clear guidelines and best practices have already been written by our previous PL for Contests, Annmarie Pearson. The PL would be a member of the Board while the contests are going on, but the job does not require attendance at Board meetings, although the holder would always be welcome.
Item 4: NMSPS delegates to Annual Convention next month
On June 15-17, former NMSPS President Joe Shaffer (a lifetime member now living in Arizona), Georgia Santa-Maria, Gary Chorre, and I will represent the Society at the NFSPS Annual Convention in Merrillville, Indiana. We promise to take copious notes to prepare for our own hosting of the event in 2013.
Item 5: Unplugging for some R&R
I will not be online much during the next two weeks, nor will our webmaster, Debbi Gutierrez. We are getting in a little R&R and doing some of our own creative writing, so please don't fret if you don't get immediate replies to our emails. We will catch up sooner or later. That's it for now. Have a great summer, everyone.
Shirley
Update from the President - 18 September 2011
Dear Members,
The NMSPS Board met on 10 September and voted on some important issues. It will be awhile before our next newsletter is published, and I wanted you to know what's in the works before then. I believe, and our new Constitution mandates, that members have the right to know what actions the Board has taken. In the future, the Secretary or another Board member may provide these summaries, but our Secretary, Sylvia Ramos, is away at the present and this information is just too good to keep. Here goes.
1. The Board voted to bid for the 2013 National Convention of the NFSPS, to be held in Albuquerque 13-19 June 2013. I have sent our request to the National Federation Board, and it requires their vote, but there is no doubt it will be accepted. NFSPS President Russell Strauss said he is thrilled that NMSPS has offered to do it. Indeed, he was waiting for our go-ahead so that he could include the good news in his President's Message for the October Strophes.
We already have some volunteers for the Steering Committee and other convention jobs. I'll be asking for help later on in filling the remaining Steering Committee posts.
2. Until now, the NMSPS has relied on a contractor to host and maintain our website. However, the incredible recent growth of our Society and a host of new ideas about how to expand our Web presence means that we need faster, easier, and more economical access to the website. Consequently, the Board voted to assume ownership (domain names, etc.) and maintenance of the website.
Several members who have various skills in related technologies will comprise a team under Debbi Gutierrez, who was appointed Project Leader for Web Presence. I am very excited about the possibilities this move provides to benefit not only communication within our membership, but also ways to promote individual members' publications and other endeavors.
3. The Board voted to raise dues to $20 per year, effective 1 November 2011. Youth dues will be $5. Our fiscal year starts on 1 November because we have to submit full membership lists to the NFSPS by December to prepare for the spring national contests (members get substantial discounts on contest fees, but the Federation Contest Chair has to verify you are a member). So, to encourage everyone to sign up in October...wait, wait.....
4. The Board approved a Membership Sweepstakes that will take place during 1-31 October. Anyone who joins for the first time or renews membership during October will be eligible for a $50 Amazon gift certificate, to be drawn in early November.
5. NMSPS has a prorated dues program for people who join part way through the fiscal year, and this sliding scale had created an awkward situation. For example, if a potential member wished to join the NMSPS at the Poets' Picnic on 24 September, s/he would have been asked to pay this quarter's dues and then a week later, remit $20 for the 2012 annual dues. To remedy this situation, the Board established a protocol:
If a person joins the Society during the first half of any quarter, the member shall pay for that quarter. If the person joins in the second half of any quarter, the dues are waived until the beginning of the next quarter. It isn't as difficult as it sounds, and the Treasurer will set up a chart that lays it out by month.
6. The Board approved the appointments of some returning and some new Project Leaders. Former newsletter editor Annmarie Pearson has taken on the daunting task of PL for Contests and Anthology. This new initiative is designed to generate money for a contingency fund (if not needed for the 2013 convention, it can be applied to other Society projects in the future) and at the same time provide opportunities for Society members to workshop and publish selected poems, even if those poems have not placed in competition.
I've seen Annmarie in action when it comes to contests, and I can't imagine anyone better qualified to keep track of the myriad details connected with this job. I wish we could clone her energy, dedication, and dependability. My heartfelt thanks to her for the fabulous work on our recent Annual Contest and willingness to shepherd future ones.
7. The Board approved several other appointments:
Jules Nyquist to be our new PL for the Language of Enchantment newsletter. Jules is new to our area and Society, but she is not new to this kind of project, and we welcome both her and her expertise.
Princess Ifeoma Achusim as PL for New Members, a returning position. We are glad to welcome her to a second term as the person who enrolls new members and helps stand up new chapters. She was the key person in the creation of our new Santa Fe chapter, which held its charter meeting yesterday (September 17). Way to go, Princess!
George Forrest as PL for Membership Development, that is, the care and nurturing of established chapters. It was George's idea years ago to have a membership chairperson, and there is probably no one better at explaining the fellowship aspect of our Society. I was so happy to have him by my side when we visited our nascent Taos chapter.
The reappointment of Larry Castillo-Wilson was tabled until I could talk to him about the scope of his project. We chatted today, and I am happy to say that he will be returning as PL for the NM Children's Poetry Project, which he has headed during the past two years. His confirmation will come at the next Board meeting.
8. We adopted as our NMSPS motto this quote from Cuban poet Jose Marti: "A grain of poetry suffices to season a century." Thanks to Kitty Todorovich for bringing it to our attention.
There are a few more items that are cause for rejoicing but were not Board actions.
Susan Paquet is the chairperson for the new Bosque chapter (Corrales) that was chartered on 13 September. Terrific!
James Raby was elected chairperson of our new Santa Fe chapter last night. The name of that chapter will be decided at a later date, when more members can weigh in on the choice of name. James has been hosting a monthly gathering of some 30 poets in Santa Fe, and at their October meeting, he hopes to enroll more NMSPS members.
So far, at least 12 people in the SF area have joined, and our forming Taos chapter has about that many. It seems to be a moving target, but we have topped the 100 members mark and aren't done yet. Anybody have connections in Las Cruces? Carlsbad? Farmington? Raton? Exciting things are ahead.
Best wishes to all, and keep the good ideas coming.
Shirley Blackwell, NMSPS President
Dear NMSPS Members,
This update is to let you know about decisions taken at the last Board meeting, including some that will need your vote next month.
By January, we will publish our NMSPS newsletter, Language of Enchantment, and items pertaining more to the "fellowship" aspects of our Society will be addressed there. I know you are anxious to know what is ahead for next year's NFSPS Convention, and more information will be forthcoming; however, I'd rather give you the complete picture than information still in flux. So, I beg your patience until after the holidays.
The Board met on October 27th for a phenomenal session. Thanks to Secretary Charles Trumbull, a full account of the reports submitted by members of the Board and the business conducted at the meeting was sent to all members with electronic access. The compilation of information contained in those minutes will be submitted for approval at the next Board meeting. Here are the highlights:
- The Board considered the difficulties we would encounter if we adhere to our traditional schedule for an April or May annual meeting and election of new officers, since we will be hosting the NFSPS Convention in June. The Board decided to postpone the annual meeting and election to Saturday, 26 October 2013. All currently sitting officers have agreed to stay on until then.
- The Board voted to propose an amendment to our NMSPS Constitution. The amendment would delete the 2nd paragraph of Article IX, Section 1, which provides a system for pro-rating dues. If the amendment passes, we will do away with "quarters" and go to a flat annual rate. We will address the matter next month, after the holidays. You will be given more information before the vote.
- Charles Trumbull submitted a proposal to broaden our membership to include a wide range of members besides individuals. Bonnie Rucobo offered to help, and the Board unanimously endorsed my immediate appointment of Charlie and Bonnie as co-Project Leaders for Outreach. This proposal epitomizes our mission, and I strongly applaud Charlie's initiative in this sphere, as well as Bonnie's willingness to lend a hand.
- The Board spent a good part of the meeting discussing the June 2013 Convention. Board members approved the projected budget (also in the minutes), helped assemble and approved a PR kit to present to prospective Convention donors, and offered valuable insights on other income sources. The PL for the Convention reported that we are ahead of schedule and prospects look very good for the event.
I know that the June 2013 La Conferencia del Encanto will set the highest standard for NFSPS conventions and that the NMSPS and New Mexico's poetry community will long be remembered for exceptional hospitality and enthusiasm.
Shirley Blackwell, NMSPS President
Update from the President - October 2012
In this note:
1. Info on Board meeting on 27 October
2. Membership Sweepstakes closes on 31 October - FAQs about the Prize
3. Members who are Finalists in NM - AZ Book Awards
1. Board plans for upcoming year and 2013 Convention.
The NMSPS Board will meet at the Lucky Bean Downtown Cafe in the old Borders in the Railyard section of Santa Fe. Address is 500 Montezuma Ave. We will hold the business meeting at 1:00 p.m., but will meet at nearby Swiss Bakery Pastries and Bistro, 401 Guadalupe Street, at 11:00 a.m. for brunch and conversation before the meeting. The meeting is open to any NMSPS member, but only the Board will be voting on the agenda items. 2013 Convention workers are especially encouraged to attend.
2. Do it Now--No Invoice Required
Keep those membership renewals (or new memberships) coming! So far, we have received over 50 checks, but THE SWEEPSTAKES DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 31.
Here is your chance to get free registration ($75) to what is shaping up to be a DYNAMITE 2013 Convention. You don't have to mail in your invoice if you are just renewing, unless some of your contact info has changed. Just send a check for $20 ($30 if you can get the newsletter online but choose to have paper copies mailed to you as well) to:
NMSPS
c/o Shirley Blackwell
P.O. Box 1352
Los Lunas, NM 87031
A name will be drawn in November from those who signed up during October for the sweepstakes prize. If you cannot use the prize yourself, you may give it to another member.
3. Congrats to 14 NMSPS members who are FINALISTS in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards!
I am so proud to see 14 members of our Society in various categories on the finalists' list for the NM - AZ Book Awards. Over 1400 books were submitted. The winners in each category will be announced at an awards banquet in Albuquerque on November 16. I went through the several-page lists and spotted the following names. If I missed any of our NMSPS members, please let me know. Here is who I found:
Anthology - The editors of Fixed and Free Poetry Anthology, which was 1 of 7 finalists in this category: Billy Brown, Gregory Candela, Elaine Schwartz, and Stewart Warren.
Note: Stewart Warren was the book designer for the anthology and for three of the members' books listed below. Book design counts significantly in the NM - AZ Book Awards judging process, so I am taking the liberty of expressing collective thanks to him and to the three editors of Fixed and Free on behalf of the poetry community represented in the anthology and below.
Cookbook - Jules Nyquist, 1 of 5 finalists, for Appetites.
Historical Fiction - Maggie Petton, 1 of 8, for Heaven's Daughter.
Fiction - Mystery/Suspense - Annmarie Pearson, 1of 10, for The Fetish Ruby
(also placed in poetry with another book)
Sci Fi/Fantasy Fiction - Bonnie Rucobo, 1 of 7, for King Pachuco and Princess Mirasol.
Religious - Elizabeth Ann Galligan, 1 of 4, for Secrets of the Plumed Saint.
Poetry (6 of the 11 finalists are NMSPS members)
Shirley Blackwell: Already There
Joanne Bodin: Piggybacked
Thelma Giomi: Weaving the Wind
Annemarie Pearson: Nature Rhymes with Natural Impressions
Barbara Rockman: Sting and Nest
Jeanne Shannon: In a Rose Wood Wandering
Update form the President - May 16, 2012
Dear NMSPS Members,
This update is to inform you of several items:
1. Announcement of new NMSPS Board Members
2. Information about Society email channels
3. Help wanted with Contests
4. NMSPS delegates going to Federation convention next month
5. Who's out of range until late May
Item 1. At our State Convention on 28 April, you learned that Sylvia Ramos had stepped down from her position as NMSPS Secretary after 3 years of dedicated service. Since then, I also received a letter of resignation from our NMSPS Vice President, Kitty Todorovich, who has pressing family health matters which demand her full attention at this time.
I am most grateful that two other NMSPS members were willing to step into those vacancies at this incredibly busy time. It is my pleasure to announce that ABQ Chapter member Joanne Bodin has assumed the office of VP and Charlie Trumbull is our new Secretary. Please see below about changes in information flow through the Secretary.
We have two new chapter chairs as well. Chandra Bales took over the reins of the Albuquerque Chapter from Elaine Schwartz on Saturday, May 12, and Chuck Russell will officially take office as the High Prairie Poets (Roswell) chairperson on May 26, but Ann Applegarth, the outgoing chair, said to put his name on the list now because she is going out of town.
So, welcome to the Board, Joanne, Charlie, Chuck, and Chandra (just listing their names sounds like a line of poetry). If you want to communicate with any of these officers by email, you can do so through the appropriate title on our website.
Item 2: Emails within the Society
Please note that the role of NMSPS Secretary has changed because of new capabilities in our website. In the past, Sylvia acted as the "router" of information in our Society, and many of our members submitted news or questions directly to her, which she relayed to the appropriate officer or contact point. Since she has left the post, folks have still sent her stuff, which she has graciously passed on, but I respectfully ask that you stop sending Sylvia these items and that you spare Charles that duty in the future, especially as we now have a more direct way to accomplish the same goals.
You can now send officers and project leaders messages through our website email personas. How does this work, you ask? Well, our Webmaster, Debbi, has constructed a system that channels emails to the private mailboxes of officers, project leaders, and even the general membership, without allowing outsiders, or the Society at large, access to those private email accounts. This practice protects the contact information of all members.
Example: if you go to our website and click on "Contact Us," you will see a list of officers. If you were to click on my name, for example, it would open up a screen addressed to president@nmpoetry.com, and you could write me a message. That message would come to my personal mailbox, but the sender would not see my private email address. The same holds true for chapter chairpersons, our calendar of events, our newsletter, etc.
Item 3: PL for Contests. What does it take? What's NOT at stake?
I very much need someone to be our Project Leader for Contests. This job would involve keeping track of the contest entries in our 4 Quarterly contests, the second of which has a July 1 deadline. These contests are fundraisers for the 2013 Convention.
The Project Leader would spend most of his/her time on: recording and depositing entry fees, coordinating with the NMSPS Treasurer and VP, keeping track of contestant contact info, controlling paper flow, doing packaging and mailing tasks, verifying that submission rules have been followed, sending some poems out for workshopping, and notifying contestants of contest results.
This job needs someone who is not bored by detail and who can keep the contest entries organized and moving on schedule. It also needs someone who has access to daily mail delivery or who goes to their Post Office on a regular basis. At present, submissions are done in hardcopy via the USPS.
Here is what IT DOES NOT REQUIRE: The PL for Contests does NOT have to find judges or do any judging himself/herself. Nor does it require that you make policy decisions about the contests. Clear guidelines and best practices have already been written by our previous PL for Contests, Annmarie Pearson. The PL would be a member of the Board while the contests are going on, but the job does not require attendance at Board meetings, although the holder would always be welcome.
Item 4: NMSPS delegates to Annual Convention next month
On June 15-17, former NMSPS President Joe Shaffer (a lifetime member now living in Arizona), Georgia Santa-Maria, Gary Chorre, and I will represent the Society at the NFSPS Annual Convention in Merrillville, Indiana. We promise to take copious notes to prepare for our own hosting of the event in 2013.
Item 5: Unplugging for some R&R
I will not be online much during the next two weeks, nor will our webmaster, Debbi Gutierrez. We are getting in a little R&R and doing some of our own creative writing, so please don't fret if you don't get immediate replies to our emails. We will catch up sooner or later. That's it for now. Have a great summer, everyone.
Shirley
Update from the President - 18 September 2011
Dear Members,
The NMSPS Board met on 10 September and voted on some important issues. It will be awhile before our next newsletter is published, and I wanted you to know what's in the works before then. I believe, and our new Constitution mandates, that members have the right to know what actions the Board has taken. In the future, the Secretary or another Board member may provide these summaries, but our Secretary, Sylvia Ramos, is away at the present and this information is just too good to keep. Here goes.
1. The Board voted to bid for the 2013 National Convention of the NFSPS, to be held in Albuquerque 13-19 June 2013. I have sent our request to the National Federation Board, and it requires their vote, but there is no doubt it will be accepted. NFSPS President Russell Strauss said he is thrilled that NMSPS has offered to do it. Indeed, he was waiting for our go-ahead so that he could include the good news in his President's Message for the October Strophes.
We already have some volunteers for the Steering Committee and other convention jobs. I'll be asking for help later on in filling the remaining Steering Committee posts.
2. Until now, the NMSPS has relied on a contractor to host and maintain our website. However, the incredible recent growth of our Society and a host of new ideas about how to expand our Web presence means that we need faster, easier, and more economical access to the website. Consequently, the Board voted to assume ownership (domain names, etc.) and maintenance of the website.
Several members who have various skills in related technologies will comprise a team under Debbi Gutierrez, who was appointed Project Leader for Web Presence. I am very excited about the possibilities this move provides to benefit not only communication within our membership, but also ways to promote individual members' publications and other endeavors.
3. The Board voted to raise dues to $20 per year, effective 1 November 2011. Youth dues will be $5. Our fiscal year starts on 1 November because we have to submit full membership lists to the NFSPS by December to prepare for the spring national contests (members get substantial discounts on contest fees, but the Federation Contest Chair has to verify you are a member). So, to encourage everyone to sign up in October...wait, wait.....
4. The Board approved a Membership Sweepstakes that will take place during 1-31 October. Anyone who joins for the first time or renews membership during October will be eligible for a $50 Amazon gift certificate, to be drawn in early November.
5. NMSPS has a prorated dues program for people who join part way through the fiscal year, and this sliding scale had created an awkward situation. For example, if a potential member wished to join the NMSPS at the Poets' Picnic on 24 September, s/he would have been asked to pay this quarter's dues and then a week later, remit $20 for the 2012 annual dues. To remedy this situation, the Board established a protocol:
If a person joins the Society during the first half of any quarter, the member shall pay for that quarter. If the person joins in the second half of any quarter, the dues are waived until the beginning of the next quarter. It isn't as difficult as it sounds, and the Treasurer will set up a chart that lays it out by month.
6. The Board approved the appointments of some returning and some new Project Leaders. Former newsletter editor Annmarie Pearson has taken on the daunting task of PL for Contests and Anthology. This new initiative is designed to generate money for a contingency fund (if not needed for the 2013 convention, it can be applied to other Society projects in the future) and at the same time provide opportunities for Society members to workshop and publish selected poems, even if those poems have not placed in competition.
I've seen Annmarie in action when it comes to contests, and I can't imagine anyone better qualified to keep track of the myriad details connected with this job. I wish we could clone her energy, dedication, and dependability. My heartfelt thanks to her for the fabulous work on our recent Annual Contest and willingness to shepherd future ones.
7. The Board approved several other appointments:
Jules Nyquist to be our new PL for the Language of Enchantment newsletter. Jules is new to our area and Society, but she is not new to this kind of project, and we welcome both her and her expertise.
Princess Ifeoma Achusim as PL for New Members, a returning position. We are glad to welcome her to a second term as the person who enrolls new members and helps stand up new chapters. She was the key person in the creation of our new Santa Fe chapter, which held its charter meeting yesterday (September 17). Way to go, Princess!
George Forrest as PL for Membership Development, that is, the care and nurturing of established chapters. It was George's idea years ago to have a membership chairperson, and there is probably no one better at explaining the fellowship aspect of our Society. I was so happy to have him by my side when we visited our nascent Taos chapter.
The reappointment of Larry Castillo-Wilson was tabled until I could talk to him about the scope of his project. We chatted today, and I am happy to say that he will be returning as PL for the NM Children's Poetry Project, which he has headed during the past two years. His confirmation will come at the next Board meeting.
8. We adopted as our NMSPS motto this quote from Cuban poet Jose Marti: "A grain of poetry suffices to season a century." Thanks to Kitty Todorovich for bringing it to our attention.
There are a few more items that are cause for rejoicing but were not Board actions.
Susan Paquet is the chairperson for the new Bosque chapter (Corrales) that was chartered on 13 September. Terrific!
James Raby was elected chairperson of our new Santa Fe chapter last night. The name of that chapter will be decided at a later date, when more members can weigh in on the choice of name. James has been hosting a monthly gathering of some 30 poets in Santa Fe, and at their October meeting, he hopes to enroll more NMSPS members.
So far, at least 12 people in the SF area have joined, and our forming Taos chapter has about that many. It seems to be a moving target, but we have topped the 100 members mark and aren't done yet. Anybody have connections in Las Cruces? Carlsbad? Farmington? Raton? Exciting things are ahead.
Best wishes to all, and keep the good ideas coming.
Shirley Blackwell, NMSPS President