Burlington Writers Workshop Annual Meeting Minutes, May 21,2023*

*Approved 7/17/23

Meeting convened at 7:04 PM

Attendance: Janet Mckeehan-Medina (Co-Chair), Katie Lazarus (Co-Chair), Dick Matheson (Treasurer), Millie Eidson (Secretary), Sam Fenner (Managing Director), Jon Fenner (Comms Team), Julie Hay (Board member), Jane Nevins (Board member, Fundraising), Amy Place (Programs & Comms Teams), Mary Chaffee, Ashley Hajimirsadeghi (MSR), Nancy Kilgore, Skip Keith (member),

Greetings and General Overview from the Current Board of Directors: Janet McKeehan-Medina and Katie Lazarus

Last year

• 12 new workshops added this year
• 5 special events
• 8 master classes, 2 part of BCA
• Started contributing members program
• Conflict of Interest Committee started
• Poetry Path
• Green Mountain Book Festival
• Cabot Library Series

Next year

• Poetry Path again
• Ethics Committee in planning process
• Google for promotion
• Authors’ page
• Vision statement to direct strategic plan
• Evaluating platforms to streamline event registration and other processes

Nominations and voting on new members of the board.

• Candidates: Millie Eidson, Julie Hay, Dick Matheson introduced themselves (bios were available online)
• No questions for the candidates; all approved.

CLA update: Janet McKeehan-Medina

• Only open to members, many submissions workshopped with BWW
• July 9 launch of 2023 edition at Hotel Vermont, authors will read
• 2024: submissions will start in the fall

MSR update: Ashley Hajimirsadeghi

• Growth in submissions through twitter and other announcements; acceptance rate barely 1%
• Opened submissions all year
• Everyone gets paid if accepted
• Cap on free submissions, and increased paid submissions
• Rebuilding team members, new managing editor
• Nominating for Pushcart Prize to increase author visibility

Discuss and Approve updated Bylaws.

• Available online.
• Questions—none
• Approved

Strategic Plan review

Building Resources – Sam Fenner

• Clarifying task roles, documentation—ongoing
• Recruiting new volunteers, training
• Consider adding advisory board and ethics board
• History project: to get the history in writing, timeline, lessons learned, can be helpful with grants
• Vision statement to clarify focus for strategic plan, what members want, where we’re headed

Finance and Fundraising – Dick Matheson and Jane Nevins

• Operating grant was submitted for funding to possibly replace EventBrite
• One year Zoom licenses for workshop hosts who needed them: Zoom Pro to buy 10 or more, at 50% discount (nonprofit special)
• Training new volunteer for Finance Committee
• Need third trusted and qualified volunteer for Finance to provide separate oversight and reduce risks of improper management
• Approval to open brokerage account for conservative investments
• Members can donate appreciated stock and bonds without paying capital gains taxes
• Approval of discounts on master classes for contributing members to promote that level of contribution
• Need to build up redundancy of function and knowledge
• Some smaller tasks for others who aren’t on the teamBuild up additional rewards for contributing members
• Possible improved methods of donations: PayPal takes a large cut of small donations

Communications – Jon Fenner

• More security
• Clean up logins
• Increasing membership
• Increasing outreach, including social media
• Expansion of website, stabilize it, eliminate errors
• Improve workshop support
• Possible replacement for EventBrite
  • Analytics
    • 75% come to website from US but many other countries represented
    • 123 members before website update; 319 members after new website; now ~900 members signed up in database (now required to be a member to signup for a workshop)
    • 709 members logged into website at least once, 400+ in last month
    • Reduced problem of trolls
    • Demand for closed workshops that are full

Programs – Amy Place

• Want to create a diverse offering of programs that support creativity and craft excellence
• Asking for feedback from members what they’re seeking
• Started poetry workshop, self-care workshops, and craft workshops, small closed workshop for polishing pieces for publication
• Events and opportunities for members to get work in front of the public: poetry reading at Hotel Vermont last spring; Poetry Path again (members submit their poems, 15 panels last year)
• Supported Green Mountain Book Festival: authors presenting and reading at the Lampshop
• What’s Happening page on the website: members make suggestions of events to share
• Cabot Library presentations
• New survey recently sent to workshop participants
• Develop paths to publishing, help our members get published where they want to; more small group workshops to work toward getting an agent or self-publishing
• Provide more events for readings; send them to Sam Fenner
• July 9 is CLA book launch
• Blogs or vlogs or podcasts being considered
• Consider more contests like Poetry Path, to include other types of writing
• Library readings could become traveling event to other libraries
• Plan to participate again in 2023 Green Mountain Book Festival

Strategic Plan approved.

Discuss and approve the Budget

Comparison was presented for 2022 budget, 2022 actual results, and 2023 proposed budget

• 2022 balanced budget of $16,530 income balanced with same amount of expenses
• Large one-time donations now included in Sustaining Donations
• 2023: $13,454 balanced budget for income and expenses
• Net profit: subtracting expenses from income, then increases resources available for member services to be used at any point
• The plan is a break-even (balanced) budget
• Unpredictable factors: LT decisions, # of MSR manuscript reviews done, grants received, # of Master Class tickets sold, additional expenses on member services or overhead
• Income is reduced if received through mechanisms like PayPal
• Money raised through fundraising is included under donations categories but can break it out for a campaign by looking at donations during the time period of the fundraising. In the past, we haven’t specified reasons for donations, but can going forward.
• Total balance of other accounts in savings is also available but not presented in detail
• In 2022, CLA and MSR expenses exceeded income (not including costs for website, etc.) but not by a huge amount

Budget approved.

Members Forum: What questions and ideas do you have?

• All members are welcome to participate in monthly Leadership Team meetings, schedule posted on calendar
• Several members expressed their appreciation for the new developments, the Admin Team of Sam and Jon, and the LT
• The History Project will be interesting
• What would you like to see added that is not a workshop?
  • An expansion of our publishing arm, beyond CLA: an in-house agent/publisher for poetry chapbooks, etc. Challenging to achieve consensus on the direction.
  • Paid director: requires sufficient budget
  • Open mic for more than poetry; however many literary journals won’t publish anything with a record online of publication or presentation; could share pieces already published and would have advantage of marketing/promotion
  • Book Club: 1 book per meeting to discuss; could focus on Vermont and BWW authors
  • Could have monthly gathering  to share progress; also start workshops a bit early and have time at end for this
  • Email additional ideas to Sam Fenner

8:19 pm meeting officially adjourned

Summary of separate meeting of the Board

Members:

• Permanent MSR seat: currently shared by Ashley and Rebecca
• One year remaining on two-year term: Katie, Janet, Jane
• Two year term starting at this meeting due to election: Millie, Dick, Julie

Co-chairs: Janet and Katie nominated, approved

Secretary: Millie nominated, approved

Treasurer: Dick nominated, approved

Board Meeting adjourned 8:25 pm