Open Call for Board Members

By: M.B. Partlow

Are you driven by curiosity? Do you want to know how things work?

You can delve into the deep inner workings of Pikes Peak Writers, let your voice be heard, and make a difference!

Five PPW Board positions need to be filled in September. Two have incumbents running, but the rest are wide open, waiting for someone with the interest, skills and desire to be part of the group that steers the course of Pikes Peak Writers.

THE PRESIDENT is the public face of the organization when possible. This includes at events and conference. The president organizes date/time location for quarterly board meeting, along with the agenda (VP often assists), while facilitating communication among board members when a topic must be discussed (and potentially voted on) via email between board meetings. With the Secretary, they organize the annual election slate.

The President answers the PPW Google Voice number (traditionally forwarded to the President’s personal cell phone), and reviews, negotiates and signs all contracts not explicitly tied to a single conference.

The President appoints each year’s conference director and the Zebulon Contest Coordinator. He or she also appoints committee chairs and approves committee members. In addition, he or she attend committee meetings when possible, and is a de facto member of each committee.

For bonus points, the President may participate in awards committees and/or the scholarship selection committee for each year’s conference.

The job is currently filled by J.T. Evans who is running again.

THE TREASURER is the money person. The Treasurer keeps tabs on the bank accounts and PayPal account, and reconciles bank records and credit card records each month, with an established QuickBooks account. The treasurer is responsible for handling cash and records for the bookstore, the conference and for NCE events. In addition, he or she files quarterly taxes, files with the Secretary of State, and works with the accountant to get annual Federal taxes completed. The treasurer presents a general statement of income and expense at each quarterly board meeting. The treasurer also checks the PO Box, located in the Briargate area of Colorado Springs, near the Chapel Hills Mall.

Shannon Lawrence has done a wonderful job as treasurer, but needs someone else to take the job.

THE SECRETARY attends the board meetings, takes the notes, compiles and cleans up the notes after the meeting and gets them out to the rest of the board. Needs to track motions, seconds, votes, passage or failure of motions, too. If bylaw changes are made, the official documents need to be updated and filed accurately on Google Drive.
He or she also works with the president to put together the slate of nominees each year for the September elections and disseminating the slate and attendant documents to the board.

The job is currently filled by Stacy S. Jensen who is running again.

NCE DIRECTOR (Non Conference Events) is in charge of monthly free Write Brain programming, as well as additional free and for-fee programming throughout the year, such as Write Your Heart Out in February.

The NCE Director plans events, contacts the speakers, locates venues and caterers (if necessary), and runs the events the day of. He or she also keeps an eye out and coordinates some outside relationships with other groups, such as PPLD, the BAC, Friends of the PPLD, and other writing groups. In addition, the NCE Director handles coordinating advertising and outreach for NCE, and answering questions that may arise. [come to them]
You don’t need to have a database of Colorado authors in your brain to do this job. We have a proposal portal that will help you find interested presenters, as well as an NCE committee that helps with planning and execution. This job can easily be shared by two people who want to work together, but only one will sit on the board.

Jennifer LaPointe has been doing an excellent job with NCE, but needs to relinquish the position to focus on her duties as Conference Administrator.
 
MEMBER AT LARGE  The MAL role represents the general membership of PPW at the board meetings. This is a great position to get acquainted with the board and how it works. It offers the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects. MALs are generally expected to take on at least one other role, such as heading up a committee to accomplish a specific goal.

ALL BOARD MEMBERS are expected to attend quarterly board meetings, which typically run 2-3 hours, usually on a weekday evening, at a public location. We try to avoid weekend meetings, but they do occasionally happen. We also sometimes have a longer, half- to full-day board meeting to catch up on board business, but this occurs every 12-18 months.

Everyone is expected to participate in the board mailing list. Volume of email can fluctuate from a few to a lot, depending on what is going on. Not every email requires a response from every member, but every member is expected to read them. 

If you are interested in becoming a board member, we ask that you submit a 1- to 2-page letter of interest to the president (president@pikespeakwriters.com) no later than Sept. 19, 2016.  The letter should include

·       Why you are interested in this position

·       A summary of your history with PPW

·       A summary of any PPW volunteer efforts

·       Any non-PPW volunteer experience that are applicable

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact JT Evans via email: president@pikespeakwriters.com.

About the Author: MB Partlow tries to inject her off-center sense of humor into everything she does. She writes mostly in the speculative fiction world, with forays into mystery and women’s fiction. Her first paid writing gig was for the A&E department of The Independent. She has also written a parenting column for Pikes Peak Parent and spent years writing restaurant reviews for The Indpendent and The Gazette. She’s a longtime volunteer for PPW, having done everything from stacking chairs to Conference Director to serving on the board, currently as the Vice President. She reads voraciously across genres, and thinks making up stories for a living is the greatest job in the world.