We have three new committee chairs and one in training!

CALA: Carol Ann Chybowski is our new CALA Chair for our prestigious Catholic Arts and Letters Awards for fiction books in several categories.

Membership: Maureen Smith is our new Membership Chair. She’s been helping CWG President Ellen Hrkach and is well qualified and well trained.

New Volunteer Committee: Nicole Lataif is using a survey for the Committee Chairs to collect the volunteer needs of committee chairs. She created a volunteer sign-up survey for potential volunteers. The results of these two surveys will feed into an Open Volunteer Positions (OVP) document listing all the open volunteer positions and their needs. She will post the OVP on our Facebook private group and a link on the CWG website. Watch for more details on this exciting new way to network.

Catholic Book News: Dawn Witzke is our new CBN Chair-in-training, assisting Ellen. Dawn reports, “I am glad I can be of help with the Catholic Book News. Ellen has been so great in getting me started. The April issue of Catholic Book News is in the works.”

Blog: Kathryn Cunningham and Dennis McGeehan, ”Many thanks to all our busy writers and editors.  Our new protocol of editing and publishing is working well. Any member who has an article or commentary on a topic that involves writing is welcome to post a guest post.  Contact Kathryn or Dennis and we’ll find a spot for you. Poetry Sunday has been expanded into a piece that will also inform us about the history, style and cultural influence of poetry. Keep an eye out for a notice recruiting prayer warriors to help out Mike Hays on Sundays. Karen Kelly Boyce has decreased the frequency of her blog from once a week to once every two weeks.”

CWCL: Ann Lewis and Ellen Hrkach remind everyone that Registration is open on the website for the live conference, July 22-24, 2015 in Somerset, NJ. The schedule and keynote speaker will be announced soon.

CWCO: Ann Lewis. No online conference this year. We need the new website and webinar software and hope to have an online conference in 2016.

Educational Outreach/Speakers Bureau: Dennis McGeehan sent e-mails to various dioceses to initiate contact between them and the CWG. This is the first step to alert the dioceses across the country that we have resources beneficial to them.

Facebook: Karina Fabian reports, “We have a new weekend feature, thanks to Dennis McGeehan. He will post all his non-time-sensitive leads every Friday in a special thread that we’ll pin most or all weekend. This gives folks more time to see the leads and keeps the news feed from flooding. Thanks to Ellen for sparking this idea. We toured Connie Rossini’s book for our Book Blast.”

Newsletter: Barb Szyszkiewicz has sent one newsletter out and is preparing to send the next, using Constant Contact.

Public Relations: Our Public Relations Committee has an opening for a co-chair. Contact Nancy Ward, Coordinator of Committees, if you are willing to put your PR skills to work for the CWG.

Retreat: Ann Lewis. Start planning now! “Your Word is my Delight,” 10-25-29, 2015, at St. Francis Retreat Center, DeWitt, Michigan.

SOA: Erin Cupp, our new SOA Chair reports, “It is with both bittersweet sadness as well as deep gratitude that the SOA committee says “thank you” and “farewell” to our long time SOA Chair, Sarah Reinhard. The current awarding period opened on April 1, 2015. We expect to evaluate at least 10 books this coming quarter. We ask that you direct all inquiries about the Seal of Approval to soa@catholicwritersguild.com.”

Zenit Team: Dennis McGeehan is happy to report that Zenit published Judy Klein’s article. Find it at http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/can-what-kills-us-make-us-stronger. The Zenit committee would welcome one or two more members.

Nancy Ward, convert, journalist, author, and speaker, writes from Texas about Catholicism, conversion and Christian community at NancyHCWard.com, JOYAlive.net, and other websites and magazines. Through her Sharing Your Catholic Faith Story workshops, retreats and DVD, she shares her conversion story in Catholic parishes and at conferences, equipping others to share their stories. She contributed to the award-winning The Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion, facilitates two Catholic Writers Guild critique groups, serves on the Guild’s Board, and speaks at national writers conferences.

3 Replies to “April showers of new volunteers!”

  1. Hello Janet, submissions for CALA will begin in the Fall. Deadline will be January 31st, 2016. All CALA entries must have a Seal of Approval so once your book is published, make sure you submit it for the Seal of Approval.

    Blessings,

    Ellen

  2. Thank you, Janet. I’m sending your message to Carol Ann Chybowski, our new CALA chair. You might seek the Seal of Approval by contacting the SOA chair, Erin McCole Cupp. Click on her name to send her an email.

  3. Hi, Nancy,

    If you had a moment, could you tell me the submission dates for the Catholic Arts and Letters Awards. The page on the site has dates for 2013.

    My novel Run has just yesterday finished its second round of editing, ready for the last steps of publishing (I’m self-publishing: Malapert Press, google the word, you’ll laugh, it’s perfect, ‘bold speech usually from a girl’) and I am going to follow the guidelines for submission for CWG approval. I do not expect to receive it, the novel promoting the traditional mass and in fact everything traditional. and also the idea that there can only be peace between Islam and the Church when both live their teaching, not by ‘modernization.’ Muslims are not unsympathetic characters in Run, and that idea is odious to many Catholics today. Some good Catholics want to go to war with them under the US flag. Nevertheless, I will submit the novel for approval, from respect for the work of the Guild. I have to try.

    Thanks for the CALA info if you can get it to me!

    Janet Baker

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