Twin Cities Sisters in Crime

A local chapter of the international organization for mystery writers, Sisters in Crime

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Meeting Minutes 1/6/15

MINUTES FROM TUESDAY, Jan. 6, 2015, 6:30 PM at the Edina Art Center

Twin Cities Sisters in Crime

ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING

There were 15 in attendance.

AGENDA ITEMS: Goals, Committees, Online Calendar, Newsletter/Website, 2015 Proposed Budget

GOALS (and possible action steps below) discussed at the meeting include:

1) Increase membership

Having members invite at least one fellow author/reader to join

2) Increase member involvement

Meeting attendance

Asking members to commit to attending a few fellow sister readings or launches a year

Creating a New Member Involvement Think Tank

There was discussion about formalizing an after meeting gathering at Tavern on France. Also there was interest in having a new member Think Tank that might take place another day at a coffee shop as an avenue to discuss new members’ interests and offer an opportunity to share peoples’ projects.

COMMITTEES

Committees will consist of a committee chair, board member, and secondary member. To keep it open members are limited to 2 committees. The exception is if there is a call out for volunteers on certain projects. If you have an idea or would like to head something up, contact the committee chair (first person listed), who then gets in touch with the appropriate board member.

The Events, Field Trips & Publicity Committees need volunteers. Are you available/interested?

2015 Committees:
1. Guest Speakers – Rhonda Gilliland, Christina Glendenning

Note from Rhonda: If you have an idea for a monthly guest speaker, email me directly at whipitupmn@comcast.net. I don’t go into the gmail acct.

  1. Events – Rhonda Gilliland
    3. Workshops –Mickie Wowchak Turk,Michael Kelberer, Barbara Deese.
    4. Field Trips – Cathlene Buchholz, Timya Owen
    5. Publicity/ENewsletter – Kristin Lerstrom
    6. Panels – Mickie Turk, Michael Kelberer, Susan Koefod.
    7. Website – Michael Kelberer, Michael Allan Mallory, Doug Dorow.

CALENDAR

This year TCSinC will put more events on the website calendar. In addition to TCSinC events, workshops, meetings, panels. TCSinC will also add member authors’ launches & readings, national mystery conferences, and other events of interest to regional mystery authors. Please send your author events to Michael Kelberer.

TWITTER

Timya Owen has revived our TCSinC Twitter account, @TwinCitiesSinC. She noticed that there are many SinC chapters that use Twitter very effectively, and now we will too. If you have a Twitter account, please follow @TwinCitiesSinC, and we will follow you. It is another avenue to raise awareness/promotion of our group, authors, and events & happenings. If you have no idea how to use Twitter, Timya shared this link on our FB page:

http://www.momthisishowtwitterworks.com/

WEBSITE

A member brought to our attention that the website still lists OUAC bookstore as our monthly meeting site. Steps are being taken to correct the web page.

Also, there is money in the proposed budget for a website update. Look for more information and discussion about this in the coming months. A few ideas have come forward: It would be good to have a members’ only section of the site to share information like regional library and bookstore contacts’ lists. And there is some interest in highlighting our group in the context of our setting – that we are the Twin Cities or Minnesota chapter of SinC and that many of our books reflect this unique region of the country.

WORKSHOPS

There were several times during the meeting that members proposed workshop for the coming year, including: Public Speaking, Using Social Media, and Avenues for Self Publishing.

BUDGET

The group reviewed the 2015 budget proposed by Treasurer Michael Kelberer. There were no objections, and members were pleased to see TCSinC’s financial health. We have about $1,600 in the bank. There was a brief discussion that these funds could be used in the future to sponsor a larger mystery writing event.

Notes from the Treasurer

  1. Moved money from the last year’s “Brochure” budget to “Web Makeover” in 2015 per the decision of the execs last year that we’d be better served with website improvements than a paper brochure
  2. Website Prepay is also a carry-over: we will switch to a hosting service with an easier user interface, and save money by paying 3 years at once
  3. I proposed $100 for a new newsletter (for a little professional design work) – see below

NEWSLETTER

The newsletter’s revival would be as much an outreach vehicle as internal – meant for people on our mailing list who are potential members or are library/bookseller staff who might be interested in our panels. Carry news of new books by our members, info on speaker’s bureau, member events, and one or two items of interest to fledgling crime writers. We have a target date of March 1st for the first issue. The newsletter will be put out quarterly by the publicity committee.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday, January 22nd – Noir at the Bar

Bent Brewstillery

1744 Terrace Drive, Roseville, MN 55113

A night of Cocktails and Crime! Come see master wordsmiths ply their craft! Authors Kristi Belcamino, Kent Gowran, Daniel B. O’Shea, Jeff Shelby, and Frank Wheeler Jr will be telling tales of bad people doing bad things.

 

Saturday, January 24th – Festival of Crime Library Panel

Princeton Library

100 4th Avenue South, Princeton, MN 55371

Festival of Crime Anthology discussion & signing on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 1 p.m.

 

Saturday, March 14th at 10:00am – Author’s Studio

Edina Art Center

4701 W. 64th St.
Edina, MN 55435

Come local authors talk about their work with local author Colin Nelson. Mickie Turk, Christine Husom, Michael Allan Mallory – Editors for “A Festival of Crime” -anthology of local crime writers.

 

NEXT MEETING

TUESDAY, February 3, 6:30 – 8:00 PM at The Edina Art Center.

Author Spotlight – Sheyna Galyan – Strength to Stand

Guest Speaker will be announced soon.

 

Thanks to all the Sisters and Brothers in Crime who make this an active, supportive group!

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