Prairie Hearts Minutes

November 10, 2007 Meeting

Present: Robyn Bielawski, Lynn Crandall, HiDee Ekstrom, Angie Long, Lisa Raymond

Old Business

• Just Desserts – Seven entries received and distributed to members.  Scores should be emailed to Lisa by November 30.  Judging comments can be mailed to Lisa or brought to the Christmas luncheon to be returned to the author.  Members present agreed that 1^st ($15) and 2^nd ($10) place will be awarded.
• Bylaws/P&P Manual – HiDee is in the process of updating Prairie Hearts bylaws.  Lynn suggested that we wait until Bylaws are completely updated before we tackle our P&P Manual.  Bylaws discussions: The number of meetings guests may attend before being required to join RWA and Prairie Hearts is three.  We discussed membership levels and decided against having a Charter membership (HiDee is the only member who would qualify).  We will amend suggested RWA Offices to reflect those offices that we have, including Webmistress.  Members agreed it did not make much difference if our Fiscal Year runs November 1 to October 31 (as RWA’s does) or if it runs by calendar year.  HiDee suggested leaving it as calendar year, and will provide a financial update of 2007 at the January 2008 meeting for members to review.  We discussed committees. 
• Website – Robyn requested that we set the date for our Christmas luncheon so she can add that to the site.
• Newsletter – HiDee would like to have each issue available by the middle month of the quarter (February, May, August, and November).  Submissions are welcome.   Lisa and Angie will work on articles for 2008.  HiDee reminded members that muse postings can be shared on the Newsletter Editor loop, where they can be forwarded to other chapter email loops or reprinted in chapter newsletters.  All members are encouraged to send muse postings to HiDee if they would like to share them.  You can share as many or as few postings as you would like.  Remember that anything picked up by other chapters can be used as publishing credits, and it gets your name out there!  Think Reprints!!!
• Chapter Awards – Lynn passed out ballots and requested that members who had not yet voted do so. 
• Christmas Luncheon – Due to conflicts on December 1, members present voted to hold our annual Christmas Luncheon and Book Exchange at Kennedy’s on Saturday December 15 at 3:30 PM.  We hope everyone can make it!
• Market Research – Lynn Dick was not present.
• E-notes – Prairie Hearts will be the Spotlight Chapter in the July E-notes.  We discussed ways that we support each other. 
• Workshop – Lynn suggested having a members only workshop. Tentatively planned for April or May.  More discussion will follow.  

New Business

• Elections – Currently held every 2 years; the next election will be in November 2008.
• Golden Heart – Angie entered the Golden Heart.  We all wished her luck!
• Writing Updates – Lisa had an article published in Dollar Stretcher about the “Hang Factor”.  We enjoyed hearing about the article!  Robyn is busy with NaNoWriMo.  Angie is editing her Golden Heart entry.  Lynn submitted her manuscript to Harlequin Intrigue.  HiDee has been reading and working on chapter bylaws.
• Promoting Prairie Hearts – HiDee suggested planning something to celebrate the chapter’s 20^th year, which will be 2009.  Comments/suggestions welcome.  HiDee also suggested something to promote the chapter and keep our name out there – members present agreed that bookmarks are always a good idea.  HiDee will explore printing costs and Lisa has offered to design them.  Robyn suggested placing an ad in the Daily Illini. 
• No one brought pages for critiquing.