President's Corner

DECEMBER 2007

NTRWA President, Jen FitzGerald

Dear Chapter Mates,

As this year winds to a close, I’d like to look back. It was a year filled with many highlights and a few challenges…

~ Book sales: We’ve had a tremendous year of book sales, many ‘first sales’, but also quite a few subsequent sales, as well. Not to mention the eleven chapter members who will be part of the NT/The Wild Rose Press Anthology. So another hearty *congratulations* to each and every one of you who sold a book this year.  I know that many more of our fellow chapter members are on the cusp, so 2008 looks to be just as exciting, if not more so. Keep up the writing everyone.

~ Book in a Year: Getting people writing is one of the chapter’s main focuses. To that end, the Book in a Year program was started, and has hopefully been a helpful incentive in getting more of you writing on regular basis. I hope to see even more members get signed up for 2008. And as we wind down toward the end of the first year of BIAY, we need to be thinking ahead to the next, and deciding what kind of incentive we want to have. The charm bracelet was a one-time special deal in honor of our twenty-fifth anniversary. If you have any suggestions, please contact any board member or the new BIAY Coordinator, Wendy Watson.

~ RWA National Conference in Dallas: My first RWA conference was an interesting experience. I’d like to thank Chris Keniston and Marty Tidwell for taking me under their wing – and to Chris for opening her home to me, as well.

~ Silver Nuggets Contest/The Wild Rose Press Anthology: Being selected for the Silver Nuggets anthology was pretty exciting, I must say. The editor assigned to my story was very complimentary of my writing and her kind words have encouraged me to keep writing.

~ Getting to know fellow chapter members: We had quite the turnover in board members & committee chairs this year. But despite the challenge of refilling positions, it was a great opportunity to get to know even more of you. Many thanks (again) to Regina Richards and Kisha Jordan for taking on vacant board positions. Gina Nelson was given a chance to shine by stepping in and taking on the Writers Roundup, and shine she did. Had she not stepped up, we might not have had a Roundup. I really enjoyed sharing a room with and getting to know both Gina and Wendy Watson a little better. It was also fun to visit with Micqui Miller and Barb Woodward while getting them up to speed on the chapter contest. And thank you, Shelley Bradley, for sharing your experience, expertise, and knowledge with me over dinner in regards to e-publishing vs. print.

~ Chapter growth: Many new friends joined our chapter this year. And the one thing I hear over and over is how warm, welcoming, and helpful our chapter is. But the real challenge is how to get more of our long-standing members to attend more often. I know we’re all busy, but we want to put faces with the names on our membership roster and offer each and every member possible the best encouragement and support we can . If we’re not offering the types of workshops you need, please let the board know. Chances are, someone else will be interested in that same thing, too.

~ Chapter status: As most of you know, due to an oversight on my part, our chapter was temporarily dissolved and we were advised to not hold our meeting on October 20, 2007. The Monday (the 22^nd) following, Angi Platt, our treasurer, called the Secretary of State’s office and we were back in business in less than twenty-four hours. (Thanks again, Angi!) Even the woman on the phone said it happens often and wasn’t really that big a deal since we jumped to get it rectified ASAP.

It has been a great opportunity to serve as president this past year.

Here’s to a great 2008 with many words and pages written, and many more published authors within our ranks.

A very Merry Christmas to one and all. God bless ~

Jen