A Letter from PPW's Incoming President

Dear Reader:

A heartfelt thanks to the PPW Board of Directors for electing me president of such an

amazing organization. It is my sincere hope that together we can continue to move PPW toward a goal of being the premier writer’s organization for the Front Range.

This letter will convey to you four areas of focus for my presidency. While I have many more ideas for PPW, this first blog post will cover the four broad topics that most encompass who I am as a leader, and what I seek to do as your president.

First, I am a stickler for communication. It is my firm belief that poor communication is the root of most failings within any relationship, be that between two people or within an organization boasting more than 1,500 members. To open the lines of communication with you, our members, I invite you to reach out to me at president@pikespeakwriters.com with your suggestions and ideas for the organization as a whole. I cannot promise responses to every email, but I will take seriously your input and present viable ideas to the Board.

Furthermore, I will communicate with you with as much transparency as allowed by our bylaws. Decisions, opportunities, events, changes, etc. will be made public, if at all possible. You can expect our website and social media to reflect this.

Next, I hope to increase member engagement. Every component of our organization relies on members volunteering their time, talent, and resources. For PPW to thrive, we need a diverse body of engaged and committed people at all levels of leadership, management, and operations. Again, keep checking our website and social media for open volunteer opportunities ranging from assisting with monthly events to serving on the PPW Board of Directors to helping with our next conference. These will be posted soon and updated regularly.

Third, I seek to renew PPW’s commitment to promote its member authors. We currently have a way for you to let us know if you are holding an event (release, book signing, etc.) by completing the form found at https://www.pikespeakwriters.com/submit-an-event/. I will work with the Board to develop additional efforts, such as a regularly scheduled announcement of member authors recently published, be it traditional, self-published, anthology, periodical, or other medium. To make this work requires a combined effort from me, the Board, and of course, our member authors.

Lastly, as a fellow writer, I believe it behooves me to seek as much education, advice, networking, and promotion as possible. It would be hypocritical of me to not expect and endorse the same for you. With that in mind, I hope to partner PPW with other non-profit writing organizations in Colorado in the hope that we could promote each other’s events, recommend and share ideas, facilitators, workshops, and modus operandi, and in every available way combine forces to improve and promote area writers.

These are just four topics from a list of things I will be working with the Board of Directors to develop. I offer no guarantees.

Again, this is a volunteer organization and as such is only as successful as those willing to make it so. The PPW Board has consistently proven to be committed to making this organization the best it can be. Our volunteers are dedicated, amazing people, but we need more. If you are interested in committing your time and effort to PPW, send me an email at president@pikespeakwriters.com.

Thank you, Dear Reader, for being part of Pikes Peak Writers. I look forward to working with you."

Bowen Gillings

President

Pikes Peak Writers

About the Author:  Bowen Gillings lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, daughter, and dog.  He became a member of Pikes Peak Writers in 2015 and sits on the PPW Board as a Member at Large. You can catch him climbing the Manitou Incline or at Garden of the Gods Park, where he heads the school programs for area elementary and high school students. Or come listen to his overbearing voice as the emcee of Write Brain the third Tuesday of each month at Library 21C. He is screaming along the roller coaster ride of his first novel.