LVW Virtual Winter Program & Annual Meeting February 20, 2021
This virtual program is FREE. Please register and attend the annual business meeting between speakers, because we need to have a quorum for elections and voting.
Virtual meeting details for sign-in will be emailed about a week before the event starts.
Full-Day Schedule
Pre-Program: 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM - Log-in and check your tech
9:15 AM - 9:30 AM - Opening remarks - Program starts
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM - Speaker, A.Y. Berthiaume "Don't Try This at Home:" Surprises and Other Sh*t I didn't Think of When I Self-Published
10:30 AM - 10:45 AM - Break/get your lunch/giveaway #1
10:45 AM - 12:00 PM - Business meeting
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - Speaker, Sharon Darrow What I Wish I’d Known When I Started Writing and Publishing
1:00 PM - 1:15 PM - Closing remarks/giveaway #2
Post-Program: 1:15 PM - President will stick around for informal Q&A with members
Agenda for 2021 Annual Business Meeting
10:45 - 12:00 PM
I. Call to order
II. Vote on Approval of 2020 Annual Meeting Minutes
III. Treasurer’s Report
IV. President’s Report
V. Committee Reports and updates
a. Membership/Programming/Marketing updates
b. FREE Book-group meetings
c. FREE Open mikes
d. Book Festival 2022 with BWW
e. New high-school writing contest with Northern VT University
f. Revamping critiques
g. Call for newsletter staff
VI. Nominating Committee Report
a. Presentation of new board member nominations
b. Floor nominations
c. Election of board members
d. Presentation of slate for officer nominations
e. Election of officers
VII. Presidents address
VIII. Adjournment
Slated for the LVW Board of Directors
The Winter Program will feature our annual business meeting and vote on the slate for Board of Directors. As such, we would like to share with you the individuals who are nominated to join the Board of Directors. We would also like to thank the members of the Nominating Committee, Kathleen McKinley Harris, Paula Diaco, and Jerry Johnson, for reaching out to the following individuals slated for the Board of Directors:
The candidates to fill At-Large positions with three-year terms are:
Second term At-large to hold executive position
Amy Braun
At-Large to hold executive position
Sean Holcombe
Lori Rivers
At-Large
Margery Sharp
Candidates nominated to hold officer positions include:
Shawn Anderson - President
Amy Braun - Vice President
Sean Holcombe - Secretary
Lori Rivers - Treasurer
MORNING PRESENTATION:
"Don't Try This at Home:" Surprises and Other Sh*t I didn't Think of When I Self-Published by A.Y. Berthiaume
In 2020, against the backdrop of a global pandemic, an economic downturn, and political tensions, Berthiaume kept a promise to herself and a client. She published her first work of memoir (Dear Universe, I Get it Now) and her client's part memoir, part business book while leading two teams of people to do it. (Yes, she's both an overachiever and a masochist.) In this keep-it-real, frank but humorous recounting, Berthiaume will share the surprises and other sh*t she didn't think of along the journey to publication, promotion, and selling. You'll want to be present for this truth-bearing presentation to hear the details you'll want to consider before you try this (self-publishing) at home.
About A.Y. Berthiaume
A.Y. Berthiaume (also known by Alyssa in some circles and Ally in others) is a professional writer and author of Dear Universe, I Get it Now: Letters on the Art and Journey of Being Brave and Being Me. She's a prior LVW president and board member, a native Vermonter, practicing feminist, a small business owner, and a mom who’s pretty sure she’s “just winging it”.
Berthiaume holds an M.F.A. in creative writing and believes in emotionally compelling, honest, and powerful stories that are told in an authentic voice, come straight from the heart, and celebrate bravery, grit, and hope. If you can catch her not doing all the things, she's probably drinking Maple Lattes in a coffee shop, getting lost in a bookstore, or binge watching something on Netflix in her sweatpants while she eats ridiculous amounts of movie-theater-style popcorn.
AFTERNOON PRESENTATION
What I Wish I’d Known When I Started Writing and Publishing by Sharon Darrow
I’ll talk about some of the things I wish I’d known about the writing life when I began to write seriously, publish my work, and teach writing. I’ll add a few things I’m glad I didn’t know, things I’m sorry or glad to see change, and some ideas about PR and social media in the age of coronavirus. Also, I’ll add some ideas about flexibility, hope, and frustration in these times.
Discussion: What do you wish you’d known or not known in your writing life? What do you see for the future? Are you flexible? Hopeful? Frustrated? What can we do to help and encourage each other during this strange time in history we are living through?
About Sharon Darrow
Sharon Darrow writes for all ages. She is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults and her poems, short stories, interviews, and personal essays for adults have appeared in several literary journals and anthologies. Her most recent works are Worlds within Words: Writing and the Writing Life and Now in a Far Sky: Vermont Poems. The Darrow Lecture Series, named in her honor, is held annually in Montpelier, with lectures delivered by distinguished authors who are graduates of Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program, of which she was a faculty member for over 20 years. She holds the MFA in Writing from Vermont College and also taught at Columbia College Chicago. She lives in Sutton with her husband and cat, Thisbe Thistledown.