Hi, as your new CWG secretary I will be posting the 3rd Friday of every month to let you know about the latest happenings at our officer’s meetings. (It’s a little late this time because Dave asked for a proofread. –Karina)  Here are the highlights from the latest meeting:

    Update on new website: Unfortunately, we missed the grant deadline and will have to wait until June before we can apply for a grant to get the new website built. However, we are talking with a developer we hope to use to finalize our requirements and get an exact quote for the development cost.
    Total Funds for Writers: We had some difficulties last year with this members benefit but these have been worked out and members will now be able to download new issues in the download section of CWG site.
      Membership dues: Dues have gone up this year to $30 and we are working on getting all our site links updated to this new rate.  New members are being charged the higher rate.

 

    Possible Contest: We had an exciting proposal from a small Catholic publisher to work with him on a contest. Once details can be ironed out, we will be posting more information.
    Forum Changes: Based upon membership and committee chair feedback, we will be completely modifying our forum on Monday, Jan 23. Old content will be archived and hopefully the new organization will be easier to follow.
    Annual Online Conference: Work is ongoing with our annual online conference, which is scheduled to take place March 17-31, 2012. We are still looking for presenters though.
    Seal of Approval: We are in the process of completely revamping our Seal of Approval process to make it both easier for our evaluators but also more transparent for book applicants to know exactly what is expected and when you can expect to hear whether or not you have received a SOA. Stay tuned for the official announcement.
    Catholic Arts and Letters Award: Unfortunately, we have decided to postpone our CALA awards for this year but will allow books published both last year and this year to be eligible for the CALA awards in 2013.
    PR Committee: We are actively looking for members to help out with our PR committee and for someone to take over the committee chair responsibilities.