President's Corner

MARCH 2007

NTRWA President, Jen FitzGerald

Dear Chapter Mates,

We have an awesome chapter and I’m glad to be a part of it. And I’m glad you’re a part of it, too. Without you, I’d be out of a job!

There was a request on the chapter president’s loop for presidents to share the benefits of being members of their particular chapter ~ we had, by far, the most benefits. Of course, I added everything I could think of to the list.

While there are a lot of great things about our chapter, every board strives to make it better. If there are things you’d like to see us do, or things we do that you don’t think are so great; speakers or topics or types of hands-on workshops you’d like to see, please let any board member know – call us on the phone, shoot us an email, or talk to us at a meeting.

In February, we officially announced the Silver Nuggets Contest. I gave you the guidelines last month and they can be found on page 16 of the newsletter and have been posted to the NT loop. I’ll also upload them to the files section of our Yahoo Group. I would encourage every member to enter this contest – it’s 25 pages & $10. That’s it. A chapter’s worth of words, but the prize is oh, so sweet. The Wild Rose Press will e-publish the top ten stories. That’s right, a chance for ten members to become published! The contest is open to all members, so competition will be fierce. I’ve already started my story. Have you?

And once you’ve written that short story, are y’all ready to work on completing that Book In A Year? Many chapters offer this program with various incentives or prizes. We’ll begin Book In A Year in March, with the first prizes to be awarded in April. In celebration of our 25^th anniversary, the prize will be a charm bracelet, given out piece by piece. The bracelet will be given out first and then the charms each month as participants meet and exceed their writing goal. We hope this’ll be a great incentive and encouragement to each of you in the coming months. The guidelines are available on page 15 and have been posted to the files section of our Yahoo Group.

Entered any contests lately? Our chapter has. Our Web site and Newsletter have both been entered in RWA’s contests. Winners are usually announced at the National Conference. I have a feeling we’re going to do well in both contests this year. Keep your fingers crossed.

Speaking of the National conference, NT is once again raffling off a national conference fee, so purchase your tickets at the next meeting: $1 each or 6 for $5. The winner will be chosen in May. I’m looking forward to my first conference and I hope you’ll all be there to make it especially memorable. I’ve been told that you can’t really get the full conference experience unless you stay at the hotel, so I’ll be there.

Also in June is our annual Roundtable Critique. Each year many of our PAN members volunteer to do critiques for those who choose to submit the first ten pages of a manuscript. We hope all our pre-published authors will take advantage of this awesome opportunity. There will probably be a submit date shortly after May’s meeting so that the PAN members can have time to read the submissions they are given. Tara Waldie, our VP/Program Director, will have all the information available soon.

This past month, I spoke with a tech from an IT company and he said he could definitely help us with our .com issue. We’d be charged no more than $100, which we have allotted in the budget under Web Site Maintenance. He did say that it might take some time, several months, or more, in fact. Dealing with that nebulous World Wide Web takes a bit of time. But I’ll continue to keep you posted.

Well, I sure hope you can attend March’s meeting – not only will Lori Wilde’s presentation be great, but we’re having birthday cake, too.

Sincerely,

Jen