9/07/22 DFW Writer’s Workshop

Business Meeting Minutes

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Helen Dent

Vice President of Events and Programs:  Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: Allen Crowley

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Grant Gargagliano

Conference Chair: Collin Holmes

Officer(s) absent:  Charlie Hilliard

Number of Members: 170

Members attending: 24 via Zoom/26 In-Person

Time Meeting called to Order:  7:02 PM

John Bartell opens meeting and asks Officers to deliver reports.

Conference Chari – Colin Holmes gives DFW Con report. Sales of new tickets increase every day. Conference will be held on October 7 – October 9. Wednesday night there is a party for the workshop members where there will be agents. Please get your tickets now.

VP of Social Media – Brian Tracey asks that if anyone has anything they would like for the Workshop to share on social media please reach out to him via the contact us page on the DFWWW website. Brian will share on all platforms: Twitter, Facebook.

Treasurer’s Report – Leslie gives Treasurer’s Report

Date of report: August 28, 2022

Prepared by: Leslie Lutz

Monthly Statement

Workshop account ending in 32: $97,122.36

Con account ending in 40: $8409.38

Paypal account: $740.67

CD: $10,457.59

Total: $116,730.00

Membership income into Paypal: $270 

Membership income into Authorize.net: $1450

Total membership since August 1: $1720

Con Ticket Sales

Con Tickets sold since August 1: $7260

Con Tickets sold in the last 90 days: $19,002.42

Con Tickets sold since we opened registration in May of 2022: $27,463.42

Con Expenses

Expenses: Con refunds:

DFWCon Refunds since Aug 1: $2628

DFWCon Refunds since 90 days ago: $5380

DFWCon Refunds since January 1: $5569

Expenses: Con 

Payment to Hurst Conference Center: $22,230

Expenses: Workshop

Quickbooks yearly charge: $975.39

Zoom: $15.99

Security: $150

Writer’s Bloc Speaker fees: $300

Nationbuilder: $930.00

Bank charges: $59.21

Workshop expenses: $2430.59

VP of Outreach Report – Allen Crowley lets members and guests in attendance know of the North Texas Giving Day. North Texas Giving Day is 9/22/22.

VP of Education & Programs – Charlie Hilliard (not present) Rosemary Clement provides details for her upcoming Writer’s Bloc.

VP of Membership – Helen provides membership numbers: 170 current members.

VP of Infrastructure – Nothing to report.

John discloses in full transparency that there was an unauthorized data download from the Workshop’s Mailchimp account. John wants to make clear that the data download is not a data breach because it does not include personal, passwords, or financial information. John says this was someone with prior access and believes it was not nefarious. Since then, John says the passwords have been changed.

John also mentions hybrid meetings will be ending at the end of September. John presented the option available for Zoom-only meetings. Kimberly asks that if anyone interested in participating in the Zoom-only meetings to reach out to her and provided a link in the chat to sign up. John said the Board of Advisors will be looking into long-term goals for the DFWWW and assess if absorbing the Zoom-only workshop is part of the vision at a later time. John said right now the focus needs to be on the Conference.

John directs members that signed up recently that cannot attend in-person meetings to the Treasurer for a pro-rated refund.

Various members questioned why DWWW could not offer a hybrid meeting. Rosemary Clement moved to vote to close the Business meeting as this topic has extensively been discussed and proposals reviewed.

John asks JB Sanders if Rosemary can make a motion to vote to close the Business meeting. JB acknowledges that she can. Vote to close business meeting passes by majority vote.

John adjourns business meeting and opens general meeting.

Meeting adjourned: 7:29 PM.

9/07/22 General Meeting

Visitors: 1

• Natalie

New Members: 1

• Sarah

Book Reviews: 1

• John Bartell reviewed Ain’t Nobody Nobody by Heather Harper Ellett.

Rejections:

• Rachel – Pitched article that got rejected.
• Karen – Had flash fiction piece rejected.

Submissions: 3

• Sarah – Agent submitted her picture book and a graphic novel.
• Dana Swift – Sent out more queries to agents.
• JB Sanders sent out some more queries.

Acceptances: 0

Announcements:

John announced he got an email regarding a movie screening. If anyone is interested in attending a movie screening on 9/13 please reach out to him for information.

Rosemary announced details for her upcoming Writer’s Bloc. Writer’s Bloc will be held on Sunday 9/11 from 1 PM – 3 PM. Writer’s Bloc will be on how to prepare a pitch for your book.

Colin Holmes announced there is need for volunteers for the DFWW Conference. Multiple positions open.

Carolyn Rae asked if there will be a sheet to pick the agent to pitch at the Conference. Colin said yes, there will be forms up online next week. Carolyn also let everyone know her email was hacked so if you receive a weird email from her please disregard.

John reminded members of the Workshop that there will be a party where there will be agents attending.

Time adjourned:  7:40 PM

8/31/22 DFW Writer’s Workshop

General Meeting Minutes

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Helen Dent

Vice President of Events and Programs:  Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: Allen Crowly

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Grant Gargagliano

Conference Chair: Collin Holmes

Officer(s) absent: - Charlie Hilliard, Grant Gargagliano, John Bartell

Members attending: 44 via Zoom

Total Members: 171

Time Meeting called to Order:  7:02 PM

John opens the meeting.

Guests:

• Mary O’Hara

New Members:

• Kathy Garland
• Graham

Rejections: 3

• Dylan Larkin
• Katie Bernet
• Kent

Submissions: 5

• Sandra Daniel
• BJ Sloan
• Candice W.
• Katie Bernet
• Bobbie Robertson

Acceptance: 2

• Bobbie Robertson
• Rachel Hermon

Book Reviews: N/A

Announcements:

Helen read Charlie Hilliard’s announcement about Writer’s Bloc with Rosemary Clement on how to pitch an agent. Writer’s Bloc will be on Zoom 9/11 from 1 – 3 PM.

Colin Holmes announced the latest regarding DFW Con. Dates 10/8 & 10/9. Special cocktail party for members. Con tickets include a free pitch session with an agent. For more information visit the events page on DFWWW and find the member link to register with the member discount.

Helen Dent announced that COVID numbers are down and we will have hybrid meetings on 9/7 and 9/21. In-person meetings on 9/14 and 9/28. Please see email announcements. October onward all meetings will be in person only. Helen also announced the decision Officer’s made regarding continuing Zoom meetings. DFWWW will sponsor/fund to start a new sister group organized by Kimberly Moravec to provide members a Zoom option that is structured like DFWWW. This sister group will serve members while Officer’s look into what changes to structure/bylaws would be necessary if we want to absorb the sister group into DFWWW. Please reach out to Kimberly Moravec for additional information.

Henry will be speaking at the Dallas Mystery Writers group this Saturday.

Meeting adjourned: 7:22 PM

August 28, 2022, DFWWW OFFICER’S MEETING MINUTES

Date:  8/22/2022

Time:  7:06 p.m.

 Attendance:

John Bartell, President

Charlie Hilliard, VP of Events and Programs

Brian Tracey, VP of Social Media

Leslie Lutz, Treasurer

Paola Lastick, Secretary

Colin Holmes, Conference Chair

Allan Crowley, VP of Outreach

Grant Gargagliano, VP of Infrastructure

Helen Dent, VP of Membership

Brooke Fossey, Advisory Board

Kimberly Moravec

David Jones

General Housekeeping:

John Bartell opens meeting with a poem: Courage by Anne Sexton. John said that it takes courage to put on a conference and take on the topic of making changes with Zoom. John mentioned the Advisors are joining the meeting to listen to the proposals on how the Workshop should add Zoom. John said he will not be present at this week’s meeting. John mentioned he spoke with the lawyer about the bylaws and there are several items that should be fixed and will be taken up as an item after conference. John noted that the fixes are nothing major.

Treasurer’s Report:

Treasurer Report - June 2022

Date of report: August 28, 2022

Prepared by: Leslie Lutz

Monthly Statement

Workshop account ending in 32: $97,122.36

Con account ending in 40: $8409.38

Paypal account: $740.67

CD: $10,457.59

Total: $116,730.00

Membership income into Paypal: $270 

Membership income into Authorize.net: $1450

Total membership since August 1: $1720

Con Ticket Sales

Con Tickets sold since August 1: $7260

Con Tickets sold in the last 90 days: $19,002.42

Con Tickets sold since we opened registration in May of 2022: $27,463.42

Con Expenses

Expenses: Con refunds:

DFWCon Refunds since Aug 1: $2628

DFWCon Refunds since 90 days ago: $5380

DFWCon Refunds since January 1: $5569

Expenses: Con 

Payment to Hurst Conference Center: $22,230

Expenses: Workshop

Quickbooks yearly charge: $975.39

Zoom: $15.99

Security: $150

Writer’s Bloc Speaker fees: $300

Nationbuilder: $930.00

Bank charges: $59.21

Workshop expenses: $2430.59

Conference Chair Report:

Colin Holmes mentioned the conference dates as October 8 and 9. There will be a Saturday lunch – BBQ Buffet. Colin updated the Officers on Delilah Dawson. Delilah will not be coming to conference. Delilah requested strict COVID requirements enacted by a conference in California. DFW Con will not be using those restrictions and therefore will most likely not attend as speaker. Colin mentioned we have an alternate: Julie Murphy. DFW Con has sold to date 160 attendees. Conference room holds up to 390. Traditionally sales ramp up the closer we get to the conference date and there is expectation that more tickets will be sold. Colin mentioned that there are agents attending virtually. We still need volunteers at check-in, wranglers, and other positions. Please reach out to John Bartell with questions on volunteer positions if interested.

VP of Events and Programs Report:

 Charlie reported that she leveraged ads for the Writer’s Bloc and paid $1/day for 5 days to promote Rosemary Clement’s Writer’s Bloc. Charlie reported the ad had 300 views and 8 people signed up that are not current members of DFWWW. Charlie mentioned because she used the $1/day ad we got a discount promotion we can leverage for another Writer’s Bloc. Charlie asked Brian to please post Writer’s Bloc on social media. Brian agreed to update the social media channels to include the Writer’s Bloc event. Charlie also mentioned there will be a Halloween-themed workshop in October. Charlie is going to reach out to Sally to see if she is still available to help decorate the center for that workshop meeting.

VP of Outreach:

Allen did not have anything new to report.

VP of Infrastructure:

Grant did not have anything new to report. John mentioned to Grant that he would like him to start sending out the weekly meeting email and will email Grant the instructions on how to send out that meeting notification. John asked that if Grant has any questions on the instructions to please reach out to him for clarification and he can walk him through the process.

Charlie asked John if we were going to discuss the criteria on how to get back to in-person meetings. John mentioned past criteria and stated we need to look into understanding new criteria as the old criteria was used when COVID first started and was much more severe. Brook suggested using the county code. John mentioned he will look into it. John mentioned that first meeting in September will be hybrid. Leslie offered we look at number of cases per 100k or percent of hospitalizations. John committed to looking into what all the numbers mean and come with suggestions on what criteria we should look at to assess going forward.

John opened the presentation on exploring Zoom options for the Workshop. John said we had looked at it a few business meetings before and decided to end Zoom meetings at the end of September, but as we near that date others have stepped up with proposals to be considered. John opened the floor for Charlie Hilliard and Kimberly Moravec to present their proposals for voting.

PLEASE SEE ATTACHMENT for proposals presented.

Prior to vote there was a healthy debate with questions, things to consider, consequences to each proposal. Vote was taken and majority of Officers voted to support (with modifications) Kimberly’s proposal.

Details of Kimberly’s proposal will be discussed at next meeting.

Meeting Closed: 9:30 PM

8/24/22 DFW Writer’s Workshop

General Meeting Minutes

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Helen Dent

Vice President of Events and Programs:  Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: Allen Crowly

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Grant Gargagliano

Conference Chair: Collin Holmes

Officer(s) absent: - Leslie Lutz

Members attending: 43 via Zoom

Time Meeting called to Order:  7:04 PM

John opens the meeting.

Guests: 2

• Jeff Antonson
• Mary O’Hara

Rejections: 5

• Dana Swift
• Kendall Furlong
• John Bartell
• Paola Lastick
• Shawn Rogers

Submissions:

• Brian Tracey
• BJ Sloan
• Dana Swift
• JB Sanders
• Kendall Furlong

Acceptance: 1

• Lauren Danhof

Book Reviews: 0

Announcements:

John Bartell said we will be on Zoom only next week and then resume the hybrid schedule. John also mentioned we have a conference on October 8 & 9. There will be a party for members of the DFWWW.

Brian Tracey said we have the conference announced on social media and there is a page where all the agents, classes, and teachers are announced. Brian mentioned we will have Julie Murphy, author of Dumpling, joining up on Saturday. Brian also mentioned there is a discounted rate for DFWWW full members.

Helen announced a former member is looking for an editor for an 80k word manuscript. Please reach out to Helen if interested.

Charlie reminded members and guests of the Writer’s Bloc with Rosemary Clement on How to Pitch. Writer’s Bloc will be held on September 11 from 1 – 3 PM CST.

Meeting adjourned: 7:12 PM

DFWWW Officer Meeting

August 14, 2022, 7:00 pm, by zoom

Attending: John Bartell, Leslie Lutz, Brian Tracey, Helen Dent, Grant Gargagliano, Charlie Hilliard, Allen Crowley

Officers discussed whether to resume in-person workshop meetings for the rest of August. Because Collin County has reached 50 per 100,000 covid cases, the workshop will be held exclusively on zoom for Wednesday, August 17th and probably the rest of August.

The CDC has changed its Covid recommendations, so officers also discussed changing the metric of deciding to meet by zoom from Covid numbers to available hospital beds, since the hospital bed number will show both severity and extent of the variant. Research on hospital beds as a usable metric will be done before the next meeting, and the results of that research can be emailed to the officer group. If this change is made, workshop participants will be informed in advance.

Charlie Hilliard presented a proposal for a trial period of continuing the zoom group under the DFWWW umbrella when hybrid meetings end. Discussion on this proposal included whether the in-person and zoom groups could stay unified for the long term; if the $100 fee would seem fair to online participants and whether there would be an eventual (possibly damaging) split; potential liability and bylaw issues; officer burnout in overseeing a separate group; and members’ desire to remain part of the workshop even if they are not able to attend in person. Allen Crowley suggested that the zoom group could meet on a different night, allowing members to attend both, if they wished. John Bartell will develop an alternate proposal, and officers will vote on this topic at the next officer meeting (which will take place at the end of August to avoid conflict with Labor Day weekend).

8/10/22 DFW Writer’s Workshop

General Meeting Minutes

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Helen Dent

Vice President of Events and Programs:  Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: Allen Crowly

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Grant Gargagliano

Conference Chair: Collin Holmes

Officer(s) absent:  John Bartell

Members attending: 42 via Zoom

Time Meeting called to Order:  7:03 PM

Helen opens the meeting.

Visitors: 1

• Rita Phillips

New Members:

• Barbara Barnet
• Matthew Patton
• Desiree Patten
• Dan Burns

Book Reviews: 0

Rejections: 2

• Dana Swift
• Matthew Rollins
• Charlie Hilliard

Submissions: 2

• Dana Swift
• Meredith St. John

Acceptance: 2

• Meredith St. John
• Colin Holmes

Announcements:

Charlie reminded members and guests of September 11^th Writer’s Bloc on Pitching Effectively.

Colin reminded everyone of the DFW Con. Dates October 8 and 9.

Brian Tracey mentioned that all classes, courses, agents, list is almost complete. Brian directed members to DFW Con inner circle facebook group for more information.

Helen mentioned Officers will be meeting to discuss COVID numbers and Zoom. Matthew Patton asked if in-person meetings would be the only way to meet. Helen said there will be hybrid meetings until the end of September. Brian Tracey said meetings will be 100% in person after DFW Con. Leslie reiterated that no Zoom or Hybrid will be available after conference.

Meeting adjourned: 7:20 PM

8/03/22 DFW Writer’s Workshop

Business Meeting Minutes

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Helen Dent

Vice President of Events and Programs:  Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: Allen Crowly

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Grant Gargagliano

Conference Chair: Collin Holmes

Officer(s) absent:  John Bartell

                                Brian Tracey

Members attending: 29 via Zoom

Time Meeting called to Order:  7:06 PM

Helen opens meeting due to John Bartell being absent. Helen gives the membership report at 160 members.

Treasurer’s Report:

Leslie - Treasurer Report - August 1 2022

Date of report: August 1, 2022

Prepared by: Leslie Lutz

Monthly Statement

Workshop account ending in 32: $97,127.56

Con account ending in 40: $31,151.56

Paypal account: $493.50

CD: $10,457.59

Total: $139,230.21

Membership income in July (yearly subscriptions): $800

Membership income in July (monthly subscriptions): $320

Total membership in July: $1120

Conference:

Con Ticket Sales since 5/1/22: $19,804

Refunds since 7/1/2022: $2,074

Refunds this year to date: $2,642

Conference Chair:

Collin reminded members that there is a discount for DFW Con and reminded everyone of the dates: October 8 and 9. Members asked how to get the discount and Leslie said members need to log into the DFWWW and there is a link for members to use to purchase tickets at a discounted rate.

VP of Outreach Report:

Allen said there is nothing to report. He is reading through the emails BJ Sloan sent him with information, organization contacts, etc. Carolyn told Allen to reach out to her since she has contacts for the Holtom Library.

VP of Education & Programs:

Charlie reminded members of the September 11, 2022 Writer’s Bloc with Rosemary Clement. It will be via Zoom on Pitching Effectively.

VP of Infrastructure:

Grant Gargagliano was presented as the officer in charge of infrastructure.

Helen asked that if anyone has any events they would like to promote to please send them to Brian Tracey. Rosemary reminded members of how to find contacts on DFWWW website.

Helen mentioned that Officers will review in mid-August the COVID numbers to see if we should continue via Zoom or hybrid with in-person.

Meeting adjourned: 7:15 PM.

8/03/22 General Meeting

Visitors: 1

• Matthew Patton

New Members: 2

• Desiree Patten
• Kelsey Eggebrecht
• Kent

Book Reviews: 1

• Shawn Rogers

Rejections: 0

Submissions: 1

• Dana Swift

Acceptances: 4

• Marilyn had poem accepted
• Leslie – Signed contract for 2^nd book
• Kimberly Moravec got job as comic book colorist
• Carolyn accepted for Zoom interview to discuss how she became an author

Announcements:

Helen mentioned someone contacted her about tracking sales on book baby. Helen will look into.

Charlie reminded members of Poetry Night and reminded everyone there is a separate form to register for the poetry room.

Time adjourned:  7:31 PM

August 1, 2022, DFWWW OFFICER’S MEETING MINUTES

Date:  8/1/2022

Time:  7:01 p.m.

 Attendance:

John Bartell, President

Charlie Hilliard, VP of Events and Programs

Brian Tracey, VP of Social Media

Leslie Lutz, Treasurer

Paola Lastick, Secretary

Colin Holmes, Conference Chair

Allan, VP of Outreach

Grant , VP of Infrastructure

Helen Dent, VP of Membership

Absent Members:

Brian Tracey, VP of Social Media

Collin Holmes, Conference Chair

General Housekeeping:

John opens meeting by welcoming Grant and Helen as new Officers and asks that they be set up on Nation Builder to run read lists and perform their respective officer duties. Leslie asks for the new officers to provide their cell phone numbers for emergencies that may come up. John will provide an excel spreadsheet where the new officers can type in their cell phone numbers. John recommends that new officers get with the prior officers in order to get information on duties and ask any questions they may have. Allan said he got an email from BJ Sloan with details on position. John asked if Helen had spoken to Rosemary about her position and Helen replied that she had spoken to Rosemary. Grant asked if he would be required to sit up front now and John said yes. John said it was important for the members to know who leadership is. John also mentioned that the time to disagree with other officers is in the officer meetings and not in front of the entire workshop.

John moved on to discuss the database download of conference data. John explained there was an unauthorized download of names and email addresses from the conference database. It is not considered a data breach. There were no financial information or passwords downloaded. Charlie expressed discomfort with not sharing information about the breach. Leslie stated that it was not a data breach, but rather an illegal incident. John said he is definitely going to tell members about the breach but would like to wait until he’s present at the next meeting in case there are any questions. John stated he will not be present at the August business meeting.

John moved on to discuss the conference. We need wranglers for the agents. John also stated we need to check the mailbox. We have 7-8 agents so far attending in person. Looking to secure 13 or 14 more. Leslie said there was a nice mix of agents with variety of interests. Leslie also mentioned she was going to start purchasing plane tickets for agents. Leslie also said she would need to be primary for credit cards in order to make the purchases necessary for the conference. John agreed that Leslie is approved as primary on Chase Bank credit card. Allen asked if there was agents for poetry and non-fiction. Leslie said she does have agents that are interested in non-fiction, but she can’t find agent for poetry. John said there may not be interest in poetry at the conference. Leslie asked if anyone was interested in having an open mic? Leslie said she could pitch to committee, pitch an editor and will check for interest. John said conference should be #1 priority. John also said Writer’s Bloc was great and moved to VP reports.

VP of Events and Programs Report:

Charlie said the next Writer’s Bloc is with Rosemary. Needs author photo and bio from her and permissions. Charlie said she created a QR code for DFW Writer’s Workshop. If anyone wants it please let her know. Allan asked when the next writer’s bloc is and Charlie responded with the date (September 11). Charlie said the Writer’s Bloc will be on how to pitch. Charlie also said she would like to have a page on website to post the event and have people sign up through it. Leslie said she ran a Zoom writer’s bloc once and had Mike help her. Leslie said she remembered people registered through link, Zoom webinar. But doesn’t remember quite well enough because it happened a while ago. Charlie said she will reach out to Brian and ask for help. John brought up Halloween and Charlie said she could get Sally to help her decorate the workshop for the meeting. John said we would reassess Zoom in the middle of August and see where we are at with COVID then. John moved to Treasurer’s Report.

Leslie - Treasurer Report - August 1 2022

Date of report: August 1, 2022

Prepared by: Leslie Lutz

Monthly Statement

Workshop account ending in 32: $97,127.56

Con account ending in 40: $31,151.56

Paypal account: $493.50

CD: $10,457.59

Total: $139,230.21

Membership income in July (yearly subscriptions): $800

Membership income in July (monthly subscriptions): $320

Total membership in July: $1120

Conference:

Con Ticket Sales since 5/1/22: $19,804

Refunds since 7/1/2022: $2,074

Refunds this year to date: $2,642

During treasurer’s report John brought up the need to raise membership dues and would like to do it when the officer’s create the 2023 budget. Grant asked if there was any discussion of selling T-Shirts with the DFWWW logo, perhaps bumper stickers, etc to help raise money. John and Leslie agreed to look into all options. Leslie will look into getting a sales tax number for Texas which is what is needed in order to sell merchandise at the conference. John said a good opportunity to sell shirts would be at DFWWW next anniversary.

VP of Outreach –

Allen said he’s reading through BJ’s email to get caught up. As of now there is nothing he can report on. Allan said there were sci-fi conferences he could connect with. Leslie said there is a gamin convention coming to Dallas that may be a good idea to check out. Grant said that as a writer he could potentially find a job in the gaming industry as these games require scripts, etc. John stated we need to do everything we can to keep published members. Charlie said she did not think this was the year to play favoritism as there has been too much drama already. John stated that wanting to do everything to keep our published members is not playing favorites as unpublished members can benefit from the knowledge these published authors have. Allan stated there are different needs for different level of writers/published authors and said we need to help and serve the membership. Leslie said published authors leave because we are geared towards helping unpublished writers get published and re-iterated we are not playing favorites. Charlie thanked everyone for the clarification as she misunderstood on the published authors. John said that what he meant to say was we need to retain our published members.

VP of Membership –

Helen stated there are 160 current members. Helen said Rosemary is helping her with Nation Builder and found where people had reached out, some people had reached out years ago and asked if she should reach back out to them. John said to reach out to the more recent ones.

John said that he has shared the confirmation for the Zoom meetings with Helen for the next two weeks. John went on to say that for the next two weeks Helen will run meeting as President since he will be out. Charlie said she will send the read list to Leslie and Helen. Allen asked if he can log into Zoom with email. Charlie asked if we need a sign on the door. Leslie said Matt Craig has resigned as chair for the bylaws committee. Leslie said that Rosemary, Daryl, and Steve Manning need to decide when they will meet regarding the proposed bylaw changes. As of now there has been no activity, no response regarding the proposed bylaw amendments. Leslie said the ball was in their court.

John said his action items include getting the spreadsheet over to all officers to put in their cell phone numbers, get Grant on Nation Builder. Leslie will do the breakout rooms but does not make the read list. Charlie said she and Grant will do the read list.

 Meeting Closed: 8:17 PM

7/20/2022 General Meeting

2022 Officers:

John Bartell, President

Paola Lastick, Secretary

Leslie Lutz, Treasurer

Rosemary Clement, VP of Membership

Charlie Hilliard, VP of Programs

Brian Tracey, VP of Social Media

BJ Sloan, VP of Outreach

Dylan Larkin, VP of Infrastructure

Attendance: 26 attendees via Zoom

Meeting opens at 7:04 PM

John opens meeting. John states that COVID is back and did not have any officers available to set up. John mentioned Officers will meet on Sunday to discuss how we will meet going forward until COVID numbers are down again and asked to watch for communication regarding meetings.

Book Reviews – 0

Rejections – 1

                     Charlie Hilliard got a rejection from Poetry Magazine

Submissions – 0

Acceptances – 0

Announcements –

John mentioned his only announcement was about COVID and already covered it.

Colin announced he did a podcast with publishers who have rights to his audio book and will air on August 1^st. Colin mentioned his book will be serialized and asked to reach out to him for more information or go to Camcaton Wrapped. Colin also gave update on conference. Colin mentioned that Mishner will be part of the conference this year. Colin gave history of the Mishner Center for Writers and stated he is still finalizing things and talking to graduates, faculty, and others. Colin mentioned Katy Burnet doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

John adjourns meeting at 7:12 PM

7/13/2022 Business Meeting

2022 Officers:

John Bartell, President

Paola Lastick, Secretary

Leslie Lutz, Treasurer

Rosemary Clement, VP of Membership

Charlie Hilliard, VP of Programs

Brian Tracey, VP of Social Media

BJ Sloan, VP of Outreach

Dylan Larkin, VP of Infrastructure

Attendance: 16 via Zoom/15 In-person – 31 Total

Meeting opens at 7:13 PM

John opens meeting by stating that DFW Writer’s Workshop is a community where writers come together and many great things have come out of the workshop. John mentions that the library is full of books written by workshop members. Carolyn Rae said she believes there are over 310 books in the library that were written by members. John mentions some books are being made into movies. John states that before going into old and new business or discussing hybrid meetings, he would like Leslie to give her treasurer’s report.

Treasurer - Leslie Lutz presents the Treasurer’s Report (please refer to Officer’s meeting for full report). Leslie presented a power point on the breakdown of the expenses for the workshop to give members a better understanding of how the monies are allocated for full transparency. Leslie discussed that with the recommendations from the Advisory Board of having 3 year’s expenses set aside the workshop has limited operating funds and actually has a shortfall. Rosemary wanted clarification and asked if the overage was one-time expenses. John stated shortfall is operating expenses.

John moves Officer’s Reports.

VP of Membership – Rosemary reported there are 160 members as of 7/13/2022. Membership is down a little from last month.

VP of Social Media – Brian stated he does not have anything to report at this time, but please reach out to him if there are events members want to share.

VP of Programs – Charlie reminded members and guests of the July 23^rd Writer’s Bloc with Russell and Sarah on the pros and cons of self-publishing. Any questions please reach out to Charlie.

VP of Outreach – BJ reminded members and guests of Colin Holmes at the Granbury Writer’s Block on July 25^th. BJ mentioned Harry Hall and Carolyn Rae will also have dates they will be at Granbury Writer’s Block in September. Brian Tracey will be posting dates, times, and location on website and social media.

John moves to discuss hybrid meetings. John said he has been working to set up hybrid since the beginning. John acknowledges the help of Mike and Matt in getting everything set up. John mentions he has been setting up the hybrid meetings most of the nights. John also mentions there was an Officer’s Meeting in which a vote was taken and it was decided that hybrid meetings should end. John moved on to say there are positive and negatives aspects of running hybrid meetings and mentioned it is hard to form a sense of unity through Zoom than you can with in-person meetings (breaks offer opportunity for discussions and getting to know each other). John also mentioned that it is very taxing on the members who volunteer to set up the hybrid meeting, as there are few members willing to help with the set up. John also brought up that in the bylaws Article 10, Section C it states that members shall assemble weekly at a time and place as directed by the officers. Daryl and Don stated they did not agree with ending hybrid meetings and believe it should be brought to the membership to vote on. Don suggested we pay someone (preferably a student) to come set up and take down the equipment for the hybrid meeting. Dave mentioned that because of changes in home life he may not be able to attend meetings in person and would prefer hybrid stays in place, however, he understands that keeping hybrid is putting burden on people and that is not fair. John stated that he does not believe he could find anyone to come to set up for $20 and even if they did agree to a low price, someone will have to come early to let them in and stay late to close up after they are done. John also does not know who would be coordinating and finding this person. Charles suggested we should discuss and come up with ideas to make hybrid work and offered as an example raising prices to those that are remote. Brian stated this sucks and said no one wanted to admit this was coming, but we all knew it was coming as Zoom was started as a way to keep meetings going through COVID. Brian stated it is tough on those who volunteer to come set up and is not that straight forward of a process. Brian stated that the in-person experience is suffering and stated that of all options hybrid was the worst. Rosemary stated that the workshop has been an in-person workshop for the past 44 years and in order to cover the costs of having someone come set up and dismantle every week could cost the 17 people who currently are attending via Zoom about $611 per year. But more importantly, Rosemary said, it’s not about the money it’s about the workshop resources. Rosemary also mentioned that Zoom was never said to be permanent and stated that people who say it’s not a big deal aren’t there to set up. Rosemary also stated that if anyone wants to do things differently they should run for the board. Charlie asked if it would be possible to do a Zoom version. John stated that people don’t need the workshop to do Zoom and can coordinate it outside the workshop. Rosemary mentioned that in the past they did have a satellite group but it didn’t work. Don stated that it is ironic that a couple of years ago we were so packed we were trying to get more room and asked why take this technology away. John reiterated that it’s in the bylaws Officers decide how we meet and where. JB stated you can always bring up bylaw changes to have membership vote on. Alex stated to cut the crap and reminded everyone that ending hybrid was announced months ago. Alex mentioned this is a volunteer organization and went on to note that no one currently on Zoom has brought viable solutions to the board to keep Zoom going. Daryl stated this topic should be an open discussion and mentioned how do they organize if they don’t have emails to members. Daryl stated he would like to know how many people would participate online. Kendal said he can’t disagree with ending hybrid if he can’t contribute and is okay with whatever the board has decided. Rosemary called motion to end discussion of hybrid. A member 2^nd the motion. Majority voted to end discussion.

John moved on to mention there are elections tonight for open Officer positions. JB confirmed we do have a quorum to vote on open positions. There are 33 people total in attendance and we have 160 members. There is a Quorum of officers. Harry read the open positions and the candidate running for said position: Helen for VP of Membership, Allan for VP of Outreach, Grant for VP of Infrastructure – all running unopposed. Majority voted new officers into office. John thanked the previous officers in those positions: Rosemary Clement, BJ Sloan, and Daryl Larkin. Charlie stated she will help Helen or Grant run the read list.

John closed Business Meeting at 7:58 PM.

7/13/2022 General Meeting

John opened General Meeting at 7:59 PM.

Guests – 0

Book Reviews – 0

Rejections – 1

                        John got rejection on poem he submitted.

Submissions – 1

                        Kendal submitted a short story.

Acceptances – 1

                        John won the popular prize for a poem through the Poetry Society of Texas.

Announcements –

John reminded members and guests of the Granbury Writer’s Block on 7/23/2022.

Meeting adjourned at 8:01 PM

7/6/2022 General Meeting

2022 Officers:

John Bartell, President

Paola Lastick, Secretary

Leslie Lutz, Treasurer

Rosemary Clement, VP of Membership

Charlie Hilliard, VP of Programs

Brian Tracey, VP of Social Media

BJ Sloan, VP of Outreach

Dylan Larkin, VP of Infrastructure

Attendance: 11 via Zoom/20 In-person

Meeting opens at 7:11 PM

John Bartell opens meeting. Please be advised we are watching COVID numbers closely. If you feel sick or have been in contact with anyone sick, John asks that you please consider staying home and joining online.

Guests – 1

               Melody joins tonight as guest. She moved to Dallas from NYC.

Book Reviews - 0

Rejections – 0

Submissions – 2

                        Colin Holmes submitted sci-fi novel to publisher.

                        John Bartell submitted 1^st chapter of novel to contest, also submitted some poems.

Acceptances – 0

Announcements –

Carolyn Rae announced she has the cover for her novel that is coming out this Fall.

John Bartell announced that business meeting is next week. We will have elections for open officer positions.

Brian Tracey announced Write Club has started and gave details for submissions. From July 1^st thru July 31 each contestant submits a 500 word short story which are to be anonymous and are voted on. Winner of the Write Club contest will be announced at the DFW Conference and winner will get a ticket to the 2023 conference.

Charlie Hilliard reminded members of Writer’s Bloc on July 23^rd from 4 – 6 PM. Dos and Don’ts of Self-Publishing. Please visit the DFW Writer’s Workshop for details or reach out to Charlie directly.

John closes meeting at 7:18 PM.

6/29/2022 GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Rosemary Clement

Vice President of Events and Programs: Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: BJ Sloan

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Dylan Larkin

Conference Chair: Colin Holmes

Officer(s) absent: BJ Sloan

Meeting opening: 7:00 PM

Active members: 166

Attendees: 16 Remote/27 In Person

Visitors: 4

            Rachel Harmon

            Tracy Hoffman

            Ace

            Mary Madjeski

New Members: 0

Book Reviews: 1

            David Jones reviewed “Thunder Road” by Collin Holmes.

Rejections: 1

            Lauren Danhof got a rejection

Submissions: 0

Acceptances: 1

            Lauren Danhof “got an offer bitches.”

Announcements:

John Bartell states we are watching COVID numbers. If you feel sick please stay home.

Steve Manning mentioned that a long-time member of DFWWW named Del is in the hospital. Del fell and broke his hip. Mentioned if anyone is interested in visiting please reach out to him. Del is at Baylor.

John mentioned another member, Charles Norman, passed away recently. Family has asked in leu of flowers donations be sent to the Jewish Family Services of Ft. Worth. Please reach out to John Bartell with questions. John said DFWWW will be sending $100 as a donation from the group. John also mentioned that in situations where a member passes away he’d like to start the tradition of dedicating a meeting to them and read from their work.

Charlie Hilliard – Reminded members and guests of the Writer’s Bloc July 23^rd. Details are up on the DFWWW website as well as a dedicated Facebook page. Charlie also mentioned poetry night is July 13^th. Please register accordingly.

Collin announced that the DFW Conference is going well. Please email him at [email protected] if interested in working with the agents to drive them to and from places, must have car with insurance.

Carolyn Rae said that is how she sold book to agent she drove around at a conference once.

John Bartell also mentioned 3 different writers participating in Granbury Writer’s Block. Brian will post information online.   

Leslie Lutz reminded members that DFWWW is moving to a new merchant payment processor called Authorize.Net and if any monthly member would like to move to annual they will get a discounted rate. Please reach out to Leslie for details.

Time adjourned: 7:20 PM

June 27, 2022 DFWWW OFFICER’S MEETING MINUTES

Date:  6/27/2022

Time:  7:00 p.m.

 Attendance:

John Bartell, President

Charlie Hilliard, VP of Events and Programs

Brian Tracey, VP of Social Media

Leslie Lutz, Treasurer

Paola Lastick, Secretary

Colin Holmes, Conference Chair

BJ Sloan, VP of Outreach

Dylan Larkin, VP of Infrastructure

Absent Members: Rosemary Clement, VP of Membership

General Housekeeping:

John opens meeting discussing the recent passing of one of DFWWW long-time member, Charles Norman. John mentions that Charles’s family has asked that in leu of flowers donations be sent in his name to Jewish Family Services or Meals on Wheels.

Brian mentioned another member who passed, Dick Hoffman. Said he would reach out to the family and get a card to have everyone sign. It has been a while since Mr. Hoffman passed but Brian feels it’s better to do something late rather than never. Leslie and Charlie agreed.

John also mentioned he’d like to do something special for members who pass away and offered dedicating a meeting and reading from their work as a suggestion.

John also mentioned that elections were coming up. Helen Dent will run for VP of Membership, Allen Crowley will run for VP of Outreach, and Grant will run for VP of Infrastructure.

John raised the question if VP of Infrastructure had been voted on to be made into a position and Leslie stated that it was added to the bylaws and was voted on in response to COVID making meetings go online via Zoom.

Colin jumped in and mentioned he remembered Mike and himself trying to figure out Zoom and deciding they needed the position of VP of Infrastructure. Brian also mentioned he remembered the position being voted on a year after it was filled.

John stated he would like to better define the responsibilities of the VP of Infrastructure and offered possibilities of website, set up, etc.

Colin brought up moving away from Nationbuilder as a potential project for VP of Infrastructure to look into.

John asked if the read list could be done by Helen as VP of Membership. Charlie stated this is something she is doing now and would walk Helen through the process.

Leslie offered that the VP of Infrastructure could also periodically maintain the laptops (perform updates as needed, etc) and take inventory of DFWWW assets.

John agreed with Leslie’s suggestions of having VP of Infrastructure do inventory and wondered if the first week there is no Zoom meeting could be a good time for that.

Colin suggested transferring the read list to one of the lap top computers for Helen to run the list on. Brian brought up that pre-Zoom Eric was doing the read list on the workshop laptops. Charlie mentioned there is more to the read list like know guests before meeting starts.

John moved on to discuss new attorney and stated he received a contract that is in review. Once contract with new attorney is reviewed John will present to the officers to be voted on. The approximate cost of services for the new attorney are $1,000.

VP of Events and Programs Report: Charlie gave update on Writer’s Bloc to be held on July 23, 2022. Charlie said promotions are underway. She has posted on Facebook page for DFW Workshop group and one for public. She is currently contacting universities and libraries to see if they would be open to her posting a flyer or other promotional materials. Asked if any officer is interested in helping promote the event they contact her and she will provide materials. Brian stated he has posted the Writer’s Bloc event on Facebook and Instragram. Charlie mentioned the speakers for the event are also promoting them on their own. John asked if the deposit to secure the venue would be refunded after the event to which Charlie replied yes. Charlie also mentioned that an inventory of assets would be good idea as she is in need of a microphone for the event and mentioned she’d like banners and other items for the event. Brian stated he believes we have a banner with the logo for the Writer’s Bloc and said it should be in the building. John also asked about the set up and structure of the event. Charlie ran through the logistics of the event. Others asked about moderators, structure of Q&A, etc. Harry Hall’s name was brought up as a possible moderator.

John moved on to ask about the logistics for how Zoom meetings would run/set-up every other week. Mentioned we had members upset with the decision to end Zoom and Leslie confirmed we had two members request pro-rated refunds. John and Dylan had a back and forth on how he would train Grant and John asked to be included in those training as a back-up option. Officers discussed the importance of making clear what dates there would be a Zoom hybrid meeting and asked Dylan to make it very clear on website for members. The idea of offering Zoom for online members only was brought up but quickly dismissed as the core structure of the DFWWW is an in-person workshop and stated that nothing prevents members from contacting each other and seeing if they would like to do online Zoom workshops on their own, but DFWWW as an organization would not be involved in those or be part of them in any way.

Treasurer Report - June 2022 – Leslie Lutz

Date of report: June 27, 2022

Prepared by: Leslie Lutz

Monthly Statement

Workshop account ending in 32: $96,645.06

Con account ending in 40: $29,132.43

Paypal account: $173.05

CD: $10,457.59

Total: $136,408.13

Membership income in June (monthly subscriptions): $300

Membership income in June (monthly subscriptions): $600

Total membership in June: $900

Expenses:

          Writer’s Bloc Rent: $387

Simmons Center Rent for the next 12 months $5100

          Reimbursements, misc.: $15.99

Bank Charges and fees: $117.45

Mystery charge: $418.91

Security: $450

Con refund: $379

Total expenses for June: $6,868.35

During Treasure’s report John stated he would like to be added to the bank accounts so that there are two signors for the accounts in the event something should happen to the Treasurer the workshop’s President would have access. Brian stated that adding John to the bank accounts would not be a change in policy, but rather an adherence to policy as this has always been the case. There are always two people on the accounts. Leslie also mentioned that in the event something happed to her all John would need is a death certificate and the articles of incorporation to be granted access.  

Conference Chair Report – Colin gave a report of the number of tickets sold for the event (154 total/31 of those are new registrations. The rest are registrations from 2020. Colin also mentioned he has email drafted and ready to be sent out to those registered for the conference and stated he was reviewing registrations to make sure no one has asked for a refund before he sends out. Colin stated we are in good shape for the conference. Leslie asked if we wanted to align ourselves with literary fiction as she has a professor she worked with that has a book coming out and may be interested in speaking at the conference. Colin asked Leslie to direct her old professor to the website and fill out the application for speakers. Leslie also asked if DFW Conference would be selling merchandise and the officers discussed how it could work and the necessary steps to get a tax ID number as sales tax would be collected and needed to be paid to the appropriate agency. There was also discussion of who would man the booth if there was merchandise and possible hours open for sales were brought up as was the idea of pre-ordering merchandise.

VP of Outreach – BJ Sloan discussed the Granbury Writer’s event and mentioned the dates are the last Monday of the months of July, September, and November. Colin is in July, Harry is in September, and Rosemary is in November. BJ also mentioned poetry writer’s group is seeking support (possibly to include sponsorship) for young poet events. John stated he would be interested in supporting the young poets and asked if she would get from the group what they are looking for in terms of sponsorship and we can be included in next year’s budget.

VP of Social Media – Brian had nothing new to report.

John inquired as to the number of members currently and was given the number of 166. John expects these numbers can drop once Zoom is phased out. Dylan asked if membership dues would be increased to which Leslie suggested announcing the possible increase after the DFW Conference. Colin brought up the importance of educating the membership about the true state of the finances as there appears to be the misconception that the workshop has a lot of money, however once you account for the recommended 3 years of expenses saved and routine expenses that amount of money isn’t as much as it appears. Adding to that the cost of everything has gone up.

VP of Infrastructure – John stated Dylan had done a great job so far in the position. Dylan stated he has been working on a procedures document and will pass it along to Grant as well as walk him through how to start the meetings, set up the meetings, etc.

Leslie – congratulated Paola on her recently published short story.

Colin brought up The Right Club and stated that if anyone is interested in being a reader for the slush pile to go to their website or reach out to him to ask more details. The slush pile is for submissions to an online contest where the work receives votes and are done anonymously.

John closed the meeting as there were no other items to discuss.

 Meeting Closed: 8:30 PM

Meeting minutes taken by BJ Sloan (Paola Lastick, Secretary, absent)

Meeting was called to order by President John Bartel at 7:03.

New Members-  One new member Rachael, who just moved to the area Friday originally from Chicago found DFWWW on line, joined and came to read tonight. She is interested in screen writing.

Rejections- LeAnn had a short story rejected 

Acceptances- no acceptances

Announcements-

     Dana had a fan tell her “she was her favorite author,” at a book signing and that made her day.

     LeAnn ask if anyone needed a carpool buddy from Little Elm area to attend weekly meeting and if so please contact her.

     John Bartel announced the Fort Worth Poetry Society web page had poems from John Bartel, Charley Hilliard and Helen Dent.

     Long time member Charles Norman passed away from surgery complications on Monday. His funeral will be tomorrow 9:00 in Fort Worth.

     Harry Hall announced he has the roster for the new people running for office to replace the membership office and outreach office.

     Call for 2 monitors- 3 reading rooms with 16 readers

6/15/2022 GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Rosemary Clement

Vice President of Events and Programs: Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: BJ Sloan

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Dylan Larkin

Conference Chair: Colin Holmes

Officer(s) absent: John Bartell/Rosemary Clement stepped in to run meeting.

Meeting opening: 7:00 PM

Active members: 167

Attendees: 16 Remote/31 In Person

Visitors: 1

            Sandy Harris was a member back in 2000 and came back. Writes sci-fi, mystery, and novellas.

New Members: 1

            Stephen Watson                                 

Book Reviews: 1

            Jim Barrow reviewed Christopher Moore’s book.

Rejections: 2

            Lauren Danhof got two rejections

            Matthew Rollins got a rejection

Submissions: 1

            Charlie Hilliard submitted a poem.

Acceptances: 1

            Lauren Danhof got two acceptances to read her manuscript.

Announcements:

Charlie Hilliard announced Writer’s Bloc on July 23^rd. For details on location please email her.

Russell Connor announced the lost of a member’s son. For details on the funeral please reach out to him.

Harry Hall announced he is looking for volunteers for the VP of Membership and VP of Outreach positions. Harry also mentioned he will be at Archer City for a writer’s critique where participants read in advance and receive good feedback. Harry also mentioned that you can find agents to query by reading an author’s acknowledgement page.

Rosemary Clement stated she found her agent by reading the acknowledgements of an author’s book.

Leslie Lutz announced she is doing some work on changing over from PayPal. Leslie mentioned we have a lot of members on monthly payments through PayPal and asked if anyone is interested in moving to an annual payment to receive a discount please reach out to her.

Don Eggspuehler questioned the decision of going back to in-person meetings and stated he disagreed with ending Zoom meetings.

Rosemary Clement stated the decision was discussed by the officers and the board and the decision was made that since COVID numbers were at safe levels the DFW Writer’s Workshop would go back to pre-COVID meetings which were in-person meetings.

Don Eggspuehler voiced his opposition to ending Zoom.

Rosemary stated that there was nothing in the bylaws that would indicate a vote to be taken to end Zoom meetings and reiterated that the decision was made in the best interest of all members. Zoom meetings, Rosemary stated, drain resources – not just monetary but volunteer time to set up and asked if Don still has questions to contact President John Bartell directly.

Time adjourned: 7:23 PM

6/15/2022 GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Rosemary Clement

Vice President of Events and Programs: Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: BJ Sloan

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Dylan Larkin

Conference Chair: Colin Holmes

Officer(s) absent:

Meeting opening: 7:00 PM

Active members: 167

Attendees: 8 Remote/14 In Person

Visitors: 1

            Chris Foley

New Members: 0                              

Book Reviews: 2

            Harry Hall reviewed Russell Connors’ book

            John Bartell reviewed Colin Holms’ book “Thunder Road”

Rejections: 0

Submissions: 0

Acceptances: 2

            Russell Connors

            Alex Martinez

Announcements: John Bartell announced COVID numbers still down. If sick please don’t come. John also announced there are positions coming up for election. Harry Hall will reach out to members to see who wants to run for open positions. We need VP of Infrastructure, VP of Outreach, VP of Membership.

Harry also announced he will be attending a writer’s retreat.

Time adjourned: 7:10 PM

6/1/22 DFW Writer’s Workshop

Business Meeting Minutes

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Rosemary Clement

Vice President of Events and Programs:  Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: BJ Sloan

Vice President of Digital Media: Vacant

Infrastructure:  Dylan Larkin

Conference Chair: Steve Manning

Officer(s) absent:  Leslie Lutz

Members attending: 14 via Zoom/29 In Person

Time Meeting called to Order:  7:05 PM

John opens up meeting. Last business meeting we did not have a quorum and could not vote on proposed amendments. We have a quorum in today’s meeting, and we will pick up where we left off which is voting on the proposed amendments.

Matt – Chair of Bylaws Committee walks through a power point presentation on how to make motions, etc. JB Sanders is not in attendance tonight. JB is the expert in Roberts Rules. Matt states that everyone is here for the good of the workshop and the Officers want to make sure that every member who has something to say is heard. We will do our best to follow Roberts Rules, but acknowledges he is not an expert in them.

Rosemary asks to be recognized and brings forth the motion of bringing back the proposed bylaws to committee to be worked on further.

LeAnn seconds Rosemary’s motion.

John states the goal of bringing back the proposed bylaws to committee is for them to continue to be worked on and reach consensus before they are brought back to the floor for a vote. 

Carolyn asks if the bylaws committee will include a lawyer.

Rosemary states once we have a consensus on the proposed bylaws we will run them by a lawyer, but does not expect a lawyer to meet with them until the proposed bylaws have been revised or reworked.

Vote is taken on Rosemary’s motion to bring back the proposed amendments to committee.

John announces – Majority vote passes, and proposed amendments will be brought back to committee.

John moves on to new business to discuss and announces there will be 3 open positions for the Officers.

Harry Halls goes up to the microphone and reads the open position. Harry mentions will have 3 new positions open: VP of Media, VP of Outreach, VP of Membership. If interested please let us know.

VP of Membership Report – There are 167 members.

Conference Chair – Collin states the DFW Conference will be held October 8 and 9. 35 people took advantage of the early bird registration pricing. Deliah will be the key note speaker.

John gives Treasurer’s Report due to Leslie’s absence:

Treasurer’s report for May 2022

Prepared May 30, 2022

Workshop account ending 7532: $100,646.29

DFWCon account ending 7540: $22,698.44

CD: $10,457.59

PayPal: $980.01

Total: $134,762.33

DFWCon ticket sales in May: $8461.00

DFWCon total sales in 2022: $8461.00

Workshop year-membership income in May: $700

Workshop month-to-month subscriptions in May: $370

Total membership income in May: $1070

Total May expenses: $815.55 ($750 of this is security)

VP of Education – Charlie announces Writer’s Bloc to held on July 23. Russell Connor and Sarah T. will be presenting at the Writer’s Bloc. Topic of Writer’s Bloc is Dos and Don’ts of self-publishing, and it is free to the public.

John – Talks about Zoom and hybrid meetings. Zoom was intended to be a temporary fix in order to continue meeting during the pandemic. It has been two years since the pandemic and the setup of Zoom for hybrid meetings is taxing on the few volunteers who offer their time to come in early to set up and can take up to 45 minutes. We are planning a to phase out Zoom meetings and will no longer be available starting October 2022. John asks that those who benefit from Zoom meetings volunteer to help lead the set up.

Rosemary asks those on Zoom to give in-person meetings a try. Rosemary goes on to say how beneficial it is for writers to form community in person.

Meeting adjourned: 7:27 PM.

6/1/22 General Meeting

Visitors: 3

            Walker – Grant’s brother

            Gaby – Walker’s girlfriend

            Sherice – New to Texas

New Members: 1

            Kathleen – Returning member.

            Hugh – new member.

Book Reviews: 0

Rejections: 3

• Charlie – 2 poems rejected
• Dylan – Agent rejection for his manuscript
• Shawn Rogers – short story rejection

Submissions: 2

• Charlie
• Colin’s book “Thunder Road” was accepted to a Texas book festival

Acceptances: 1

• Dana’s book will be published in German.

Announcements:

John – COVID is still out there. If you feel sick don’t come. If you have been near people that are sick don’t come.

Charlie – Next meeting is the poetry read. Please sign up accordingly.

Jodi – Writer’s Police Academy. Things are happening.

Time adjourned:  7:40 PM

June 2022 DFWWW OFFICER’S MEETING MINUTES

Date:  5/31/2022

Time:  6:00 p.m.

 Attendance:

John Bartell, President

Rosemary Clement, VP of Membership

Charlie Hilliard, VP of Events and Programs

Leslie Lutz, Treasurer

Paola Lastick, Secretary

Colin Holmes, Conference Chair

BJ Sloan, VP of Outreach

Dylan Larkin, VP of Infrastructure

Absent Members: Charlie Hilliard, VP of Events and Programs

General Housekeeping:

John opens meeting by telling those present the items for discussion at this month’s officer’s meeting. Items to discuss are advisory council suggestions, the upcoming vote at the business meeting on the remainder of proposed amendments, and the planned phase out of the Zoom hybrid meetings.

Matt – discusses how the voting at the business meeting will go. Matt plans to present a power point presentation on how to make motions, how to ask questions, etc to ensure all members have an opportunity to discuss and ask questions pertaining to the proposed bylaw amendments.

John – speaks of the importance of having operating procedures for each position the officer’s hold. John also mentions we need to create bylaw procedures for new proposals that are brought up.

BJ – States that she believes Brook said she put the binders together for all the officer positions.

Leslie – Suggests that there should be built in training with the accountant for the Treasury position.

John – Elections in July are for the following positions:  Treasury, VP of Membership, VP of Outreach, VP of Digital Media.

Rosemary states she will not run again this upcoming election. She needs a break to focus on items outside the workshop.

BJ – Not planning to run again either.

Brian is running again for current position he holds.

Dylan – Will be traveling a lot the next year and is unsure how he can continue to serve in his current position.  He is most likely not running again and has offered to help find a replacement.

John – Since Charlie is not at meeting, we can skip discussing Writer’s Bloc. Also mentions Collin is not present but did send update on conference. There are 37 registrations so far this year. 125 roll-overs from 2021.

Brian – Says there are 160 people registered so far. We are getting registrations. On the class front we are making some progress. For the agent side there are some conflicts this year. Agents are saying if they do not get paid they will not be attending. We are at 3 agents now. If we open Zoom for the conference we may get more.

John – opens the discussion on Zoom. Should we phase it out?

Rosemary – Would like to know the cost of hybrid meetings?

John – States the current cost is just the Zoom and the replacement of an amp. John’s daughter has been loaning her amp to the workshop but has asked for it back. John does not know how much an amp would cost. Plus there needs to be volunteers to take over the set up for Zoom meetings as this is time consuming and currently is being done only by a few people.

All officers are in agreement that Zoom meetings need to end by end of September. Dylan brings up that currently there are between 10 and 15 members that are always on Zoom. Brian brings up that we have 2 out of state members and we will lose them. John wants to understand the financial impact of stopping Zoom meetings. John is also concerned Charlie will leave. Rosemary is concerned people will leave and form their own DFW Writer’s Workshop as this name is not copywritten. John states we can’t stop anyone from leaving and forming their own group.

BJ – Colin will be speaking at Granbury Writers Block in July. We talked about Austin Book Festival in November. The cost for a booth is $825 but could be split between authors that want to participate.

Rosemary – states we do not handle the money for the book sales. All sales of books from participating authors will go through the authors as DFWWW cannot collect sales tax and is not in the business of selling books.

Leslie’s Treasurer’s Report -  

This is as of Monday, May 30. 

Treasurer’s report for May 2022

Prepared May 30, 2022

Workshop account ending 7532: $100,646.29

DFWCon account ending 7540: $22,698.44

CD: $10,457.59

PayPal: $980.01

Total: $134,762.33

DFWCon ticket sales in May: $8461.00

DFWCon total sales in 2022: $8461.00

Workshop year-membership income in May: $700

Workshop month-to-month subscriptions in May: $370

Total membership income in May: $1070

Total May expenses: $815.55 ($750 of this is security)

 Meeting Closed: 7:25 PM

5/11/2022 GENERAL MEETING MINUTES

President: John Bartell

Vice President of Membership: Rosemary Clement

Vice President of Events and Programs: Charlie Hilliard

Treasurer: Leslie Lutz

Secretary: Paola Lastick

Vice President of Community Outreach: BJ Sloan

Vice President of Digital Media: Brian Tracey

Infrastructure:  Dylan Larkin

Conference Chair: Steve Manning

Officer(s) absent:

Meeting opening: 7:00 PM

Active members: 164

Attendees: 23 online/17 In-Person

Visitors: 1

            Matthew Rollins – writes fantasy

New Members: 0                              

Book Reviews: 3

            Carolyn Rae – Castles in the Fog and Thunder Road

            Lauren – Russell Connors book Decay

            Kendall Furlong – Reviewed a book

Rejections: 2

            Matthew Rollin received a rejection

            John Bartell received a rejection

Submissions: 5

            Lauren

            Carolyn

            Dylan Larkin

            Charlie Hilliard

            Leann Robinson

Acceptances: 1

            Grant submitted and got acceptance

Announcements:

John Bartell has to leave right after the meeting is adjourned. Please help clean.

Time adjourned: 7:13 PM