Storymakers Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, 2 March 2021
Present:
Chelsea Hale — Chair
Lindzee Armstrong — Secretary
Kara Reynolds — Whitney Awards President
Rebecca Carlson — Membership Chair
Melanie Jacobson — Conference Chair
Cindy Whitney — Communications Chair
Don Carey — SMIAH Conference Chair/At Large Representative
Paige Edwards — At Large Representative
Absent:
Shelly Brown — Chair-Elect
Lori Parker — Finance Chair
Cassie Cook — Conference Co-Chair
1—OPENING
Chelsea asked Melanie to start the recording and made a motion to approve the
minutes from last month. Don made a motion and Chelsea seconded it.
2—CHAIRMAN, Chelsea Hale
Lori found someone we can hire to do the books. We can discuss in the future if
we want to keep this person permanently, but it will be great to have moving forward to
relieve Lori.
3—CHAIRMAN ELECT, Shelly Brown
Shelly was not present.
4—SECRETARY, Lindzee Armstrong
Lindzee suggested amending the bylaws so the finance chair is a liaison position.
Chelsea agreed.
5—FINANCE CHAIR, Lori Parker
Lori was not present.
6—WHITNEY CHAIR, Kara Reynolds
Ballots will be sent April 8th and must be returned by April 15th. Whitney’s will be consulting with diversity, equity, and inclusion training to make
sure they are moving in the same direction as the conference. The Whitneys BOD
wants to create some procedures so that even when the president and committee
change, they’re moving in the right direction. Kara has a zoom meeting with her
tomorrow to explain how the Whitneys work.
7—MEMBERSHIP CHAIR, Rebecca Carlson
Nothing to report. Activity died down after the conference registration.
8—CONFERENCE CHAIR, Melanie Jacobson
Utah is currently in a nice downward trend with covid cases and we should very
easily get into intermediate transition in Utah county by the end of March.
It was suggested to make Storymakers masks with the logo because then no one
will have any excuses and it would be awesome swag. They liked the idea and will
discuss with conference committee. Discussion about the risk of putting 400 people in
an enclosed space. Overall the conference will make sure everyone takes responsibility
and is safe.
Discussion about whether the conference is religious or secular. There has to be
some unity—the conference represents the guild, so what does that mean? Martine
Leavitte’s keynote is brought up, where she said Storymakers is a place where she gets
to exist fully as a writer and a member of the church.
9—COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR, Cindy Whitney
Cindy said we will be trying to clean up the newsletter list. She was recently
made aware that some people are still receiving the newsletter who are not active
members.
10—SMIAH CONFERENCE CHAIR/AT LARGE CHAIR, Don Carey
Things are moving forward with the SMIAH conference. As they do their
branding, they’re working to include both Storymakers and Indie Author Hub.
11—AT LARGE CHAIRS, Paige Edwards
We had our last Storymakers University last week. It wasn’t as well attended as
we hoped, but people have been popping on there and reading the content.
12—MOTION TO ADJOURN
Chelsea said we’ll skip the BOD meeting in May, and have just one more in April
before the conference.
Chelsea made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Melanie seconded the motion. Chelsea adjourned the meeting.