Storymakers Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, 4 January 2022
Present:
Shelly Brown — Chair
Crystal Liechty — Chair-Elect
Loralee Evans – Secretary
Lori Parker – Finance Chair
Emily Huey — Whitney Awards President
Rebecca Carlson — Membership Chair
Cassie Cook — Conference Chair
Wendy Jessen — Conference Co-Chair
Cindy Whitney — Communications Chair
Tara Allred — At Large Representative
Cindy Bennett —At Large Representative
Absent:
Traci Abramson — SMIAH Conference Chair
1—OPENING
Shelly welcomed everyone and began the recording and made a motion to approve the
minutes from the last meeting. Crystal seconded.
2—CHAIRMAN& CHAIRMAN ELECT, Shelly Brown & Crystal Liechty
The lawyer did talk to us today about the changes to Storymakers but not with anything
super solid.
3—SECRETARY, Loralee Evans
Will create a post with everyone’s names, titles and contact information on the google
files to make sure such information is up to date.
4—FINANCE CHAIR, Cindy Bennett and Lori Parker
Be careful about what money you’re spending. There will be some expenses because
the conference is coming up. That is to be expected. Just let Finance know about
things.
5—WHITNEY CHAIR, Emily Huey
Whitney’s would like to continue to have their own separate mailing list. Approved.
Ballots will be sent out soon.
6—MEMBERSHIP CHAIR, Rebecca Carlson
More guild applicants that usual this time of year. Should we consider our requirements,
or clarify our requirements for what constitutes “traditional” publisher. Some of the guild
applicants wanting to join have publishers that seem to be on the line as far as
qualifying per our requirements for traditional publishers. Should we make the
requirements more specific? Right now, one of the rules is the the traditional publisher
needs to publish 3 books a year. But how long have they been publishing, and is it an
average, etc? Discussion on the topic doesn’t lead to changes made in bylaws or rules.
7—CONFERENCE CHAIR & CO-CHAIR, Cassie Cook & Wendy Jessen
Registration this month. Scheduled for the BOD to pre-register. We will very likely fill up
fast this year. Registration will go out to the other Storymakers on the 25th. Lots of
announcements going on, which will be going on all month. The scholarship page could
sure use some attention to give out scholarships to deserving people.
8—COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR, Cindy Whitney
Our website is looking really good. The bylaws will be updated soon. A request for
headshots for members of the BOD for the website. We will be also trying to figure out
how to do Storymakers University. We will add that to the website, so that guild
members can access the storymakers university.
Some of the BOD are not getting the monthly emails. Also, gmail truncates the
newsletter.
9—SMIAH CONFERENCE CHAIR, Traci Abramson
Not present
10—AT LARGE CHAIR,Tara Allred
The guild seems to have two purposes. Education side like with the university, and
community side building community with authors. But which should we focus on more?
Discussion is good but doesn’t lead to any particular change.
Communication on facebook seems to get lost, but if we can use the website to
communicate about specific topics that different individuals in the guild want to pursue,
that would be fantastic.
Figuring out how to get the platform usable for guild members is #1. #2 Do I need to get approval from the board to get someone to present in storymakers university. We will have a guild committee to approve of that.
Does the person presenting need to be tied in with storymakers? No, they don’t but they
need to be able to get into the facebook page. Very few presenters have not been
storymakers. Those who have been have been closely associated with the guild if not
members.
11—MOTION TO ADJOURN
Shelly motionsed to end the meeting Cindy W. seconded to adjourn.