Please note that 2012's President's Newsletter
and Finalized 2012 Calendar will be posted soon!
Happy New Year, Poets:
I hope this letter finds you all well and ready to start a new year of poetry reading and writing. This time, after all of the holiday hustle and bustle, is a productive time for me personally to write. “Emotion reflected in tranquility” as Wordsworth so aptly phrased it.
You will see from the calendar at the end of this letter, another full year of PSOV events has been scheduled. We need more volunteers, however, to help with arranging these activities. Who will be Workshop Chairman for the May Luncheon/Workshop? That means scouting out a nice place within our budget to meet and selecting the menu; it also entails asking three members to be readers and possibly finding a critic. What about arranging the Summer Festival or helping with the typing of all of the poems for The Mountain Troubadour? (We do our own typing, if poems are not sent electronically, to save on costs.) And the list of small tasks goes on . . .
Early next fall we will need a nominating committee that will prepare a slate of officers for election at the October meeting. In that regard, I do not plan to run for president again. I have loved the ten years I have served as PSOV president, but I feel it is time for someone new. Sally Reisner has been a wonderful vice-president, but she has made it clear from the beginning of her terms that she did not want to take over the presidency. She will, however, take over affairs of PSOV until my return in May. Please contact Sally by email Sallyreisner@madriver.com or snail mail at P.O. Box 1299, Waitsfield, VT 05673 if you would like to chair the May meeting. I am mentioning this in early January because we need to hear from you. We want to keep PSOV alive!
At the May meeting, we will vote on changing the PSOV By-Laws to have only two types of membership. Several years ago we eliminated the difference in dues between Active and Associate members. Now the Executive Council recommends eliminating the Active and Associate membership labels altogether and just maintaining members and student members.
In May we will also vote on Changing the By-Laws to omit the Jeremiah K. Durick Memorial Award and include the Chris White Memorial Award. If you have questions about these changes, come to the May luncheon half an hour early so there can be discussion.
For those of you who paid the $3.00 dues to become members of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, you have been enrolled as of December; you should begin receiving communications directly from that organization in 2011.
Remember to send your poetry submissions to The Mountain Troubadour before February 1. Specifics for entries are in all previous Troubadours and also on the web site. When your poem(s) is selected to be included in the 2011 issue, please let editor, Inga Potter, know if you can submit the poem(s) electronically to our prepublication designer, Linda Tyler.
There will be a poetry reading again at Borders bookstore in Burlington in April for poetry month. Nancy Brunelle is handling the arrangements. Please let her know by mid March if you would like to read. The finalized date of the reading will be announced on the PSOV web site and in the First Call for the Spring Workshop. Nancy’s email is vtkrista@aol.com and her snail mail address is 19 Valley View Drive, Milton VT 05468.
I look forward to seeing you and hearing or reading your poems throughout the year. Keep reflecting and writing!
Sincerely,
Jane Stewart Wollmar
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