by Nancy Ward, Coordinator of Committees
Many of our CWG Committees are making changes this season:
Blog: Kathryn Cunningham and Dennis McGeehan – Dennis reports that the blog is humming along with increased requests from those who would like to post when openings are available. Kathryn put out the call again for “guest bloggers” among our members. A roving editor will edit the guest bloggers, which will benefit for those who are posting their own blogs without benefit of an editor. She is updating the writer/editor assignment list as well as the calendar of posts.
CALA (Catholic Arts and Letters Award): Carol Ann Chybowski – has only two volunteers, the third has stepped down for family reasons. Therefore, we could use another volunteer.
CWCO: Ann Lewis, Karina Fabian and Laura Lowder –
Laura reports a couple of changes in the Catholic Writers Conference Online planning. First of all, we’re re-scheduling for the first weekend in March (4-6) because the second weekend Daylight Savings resumes, which can be confusing. The following two weekends are Palm Sunday and Easter. So we’re bumping up a weekend earlier.
The registration fee is $40 for the entire conference, with a 20% discount to CWG members. Presenters will be contacted this month as we work toward coordinating the schedule.
CWCL – Ann Lewis and Ellen Hrkach – The live conference went well. We had more people than we have had in the past, 110 overall, including volunteers.
Facebook- Karina Fabian – Our FB private group continues on and is doing fine. Michael Fraley took over the book blasts and may split his duties with Larry Peterson. I’ll be asking a couple of people to help moderate the FB group.
Membership: Maureen Smith – Membership is pretty consistent and going well.
Newsletter: Barb Szyszkiewicz – The Newsletter is done and will go out after editing. It contains a due-diligence announcement and a last call for the October retreat.
Retreat: Ann Lewis and Margaret Rose Realy – They report that our minimum of 13 was met, with 15 signed up for the retreat and room for more.
SOA: Erin Cupp – On Sept 29 the Seals of Approval were awarded for qualifying books.
The SOA application process will be taking a hiatus for 1st Quarter 2016. This means that we will be closed to submissions for January 1, 2016, with an anticipated reopening date of April 1, 2016. During this hiatus, we will be implementing a new training process for our evaluators as well as tweaking some submission acceptance methods. If you are interested in becoming an evaluator for the SOA, please contact the SOA Committee at soa@catholicwritersguild.com. See Dennis McGeehan’s hilarious announcement on the blog: Seal of Approval Hiatus for First Quarter of 2016.
Volunteer Committee: Nichole Latif – Contact her to volunteer on one of our fun committees and get the most out of CWG networking.
Zenit – Dennis McGeehan – The Zenit Committee selects posts from the CWG Blog to submit for publication on Zenit.org. They could use one more person on this committee.
CWG Non-Fiction Critique Group has two new members. Contact Nancy Ward or Connie Rossini.
For other concerns and suggestions about our fabulous committees, contact Nancy Ward, Coordinator of Committees.
Nancy Ward
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.