Virginia Writers Club, Inc.

Promote Your Page Too

A Note from the President

In the dog days of late summer, preparations for fall already start to stir: football camps, back-to-school sales, lesson plans, and many other projects. The Virginia Writers Club begins to focus on its next Board of Governors meeting, to be hosted by Chesapeake Writers at a venue in their neck of the woods on Sept. 11th. On that particular day, I will be in Royal Holloway, England, a little bit west of London, delivering a paper to a seventeenth century conference on Cyrano de Bergerac’s early version of science fiction. It is a commitment I made over a year ago and one which obviously conflicted with the abilities of the host chapter in planning their event. However, it’s a good chance to show how the BOG deploys in depth to cover situations and insure the continued prosperity of our club. First Vice President June Forte will preside in my stead, as several important matters for the coming year are discussed and resolved. One of these is sthe annual meeting that will take place this November at Mount Vernon under the aegis of our Northern Virginia Chapter. I hope all of you will be adding that gathering to your calendar and will be able to share the elegance and distinction of such a historical meeting site. It will be an excellent opportunity for those of you who were unable to attend the Mechanicsville or Chesapeake meetings to pick up your Virginia Writers Club official pens, a little benefit of membership that has the practical advantage of helping all of us to create more writing.

By the time you read this message, many of you will have just participated in the annual Hanover Book Festival that all of us look forward to all year long. Others will be waiting to find out if their contributions to the Golden Nib Contest have won a prize or moved on to the statewide level. As each writer goes about his or her round of composition, editing, republishing, readings, contests, submissions, and preparation for publication, the Board of Governors at the state level is busy coordinating such activities and providing for its own process of maintenance and ongoing replacement. The Nominations Committee has been seeking out candidates for the next slate of officers, to help move veteran activists and talented newcomers into our state organization. I hope that all our members will keep in mind these sometimes invisible efforts (indeed, the better they work, the more invisible they usually are!). Especially in view of the collapse of several state writers groups in the abominable economic climate of the current depression, the ability to survive and grow is an important enough goal in itself to merit a good deal of commendation. One of the issues to be taken up at the Chesapeake meeting is the organization of one or more new chapters in the southwest part of the state. The Board of Governors has received messages from nascent groups in the Lexington, Blacksburg, and Abingdon vicinities and there are people in the southwest hill country eager to take advantage of inclusion in a larger statewide community. Already our Executive Director Linda Layne has been shepherding some of them in the organization of their first critique groups and other infrastructure improvements.

Keep the next few months of activities in mind as you make plans for the autumn, sharpen your pencils, refill your pens, start sketching out your newest ideas, and let’s finish the year with a flourish of activity.

Jim Gaines, President

Many thanks to our Virginia Writers Club

LIFETIME MEMBERS - $500.00
Sky Phillips Beaven - Alexandria, Virginia
A.B. "Bud" Feuer - Roanoke, Virginia
James F. Gaines - Fredericksburg, Virginia
G.M. Malliet - Alexandria, Virginia
Betty L.B. Marcum - Fredericksburg, Virginia
Paul Schutte - Williamsburg, Virginia
Barbara D. Smith - Newport News, Virginia

2009 SUPPORTING MEMBERS - $100.00
Sandy Boyd - Williamsburg, Virginia
James L. Doherty - Richmond, Virginia
James W. Morrison - Moneta, Virginia
Jennifer Stanley - Richmond, Virginia

2009 EDUCATIONAL FUND CONTRIBUTORS
Gerrie Beck - Virginia Beach, Virginia
Maxine Clark - Fredericksburg, Virginia
Andrew Torres - Virginia Beach, Virginia
Sarah Bird Wright - Midlothian, Virginia
Lauvonda Lynn Meade Young - Palmyra, Virginia

This site optimized for the Firefox browser.