Greetings to all you writers and
illustrators in our wonderful Western Washington chapter!
As some of you
know, after serving all of us with great enthusiasm, intelligence and
creativity, Jaime Temairik, Kim Baker, and Joni Sensel will all be
taking a much deserved step away from responsibility to SCBWI WWA.
Luckily for all of us, they will remain on the Advisory Committee in
other roles. Jaime and Kim will join Emily Russin as the WWA Blog Team.
Joni will continue as published member liaison and go-to gal for
guidance for the new Co-RAs.
Speaking of whom, Brenda
Winter Hansen has stepped forward from her role as Assistant Regional
Advisor to join Dana Arnim as our new Co-Regional Advisors. Dana
Sullivan was kind enough to allow himself to be drafted as the new ARA.
(To minimize confusion, Dana Arnim will be known as D1, while Dana
Sullivan will have to make do with D2.)
Both our
leadership teams and the Advisory Committee have decided that along with
the change in “management” there will be a shift away from our
traditional programming. The Regional Teams of the last several years
(RAs & ARAs) have created world class programming for our region.
The Professional Series Meetings, Annual Conference, Retreats, Inside
Story, and more, have enriched all of our professional lives and
provided unmatched opportunities for networking and community building.
However, as an all-volunteer organization, these activities took a heavy
toll on the lives of those dedicated volunteers. Although none of the
Advisory Committee members wanted to lose any of those events, some
reorganization and downsizing was necessary for us to continue the
region in a sustainable manner that’s in keeping with the guidelines
from SCBWI.
We reviewed comments from our membership,
analyzed the structure of our many offerings, and considered how to
maximize the benefits to our members while streamlining the workload for
our volunteers. In so doing, we’ve come up with a different kind of
yearly programming. Instead of a set of structured meetings for which
our local SCBWI members sign up in advance, this upcoming season will
consist of a variety of the popular events you’ve come to expect – our
Fall Agent meeting at SPU, the Weekend on the Water Writer’s Retreat, a
number of Kid Lit Drink Nights, our two Inside Story events, The Great
Critique, (taking place in the summer), and of course, our Annual
Conference in April. We’ve also come up with some new events – an Art
Show for our illustrators at the Washington State Convention Center, at
least one Open Mic Night, a joint Illustrator retreat with the Oregon
SCBWI chapter and an alternative style, additional, kind of writer’s
retreat. So, although some of you may miss our regularly scheduled
monthly meeting series, we think you’ll like our new, exciting and
sustainable season just as much!
[A clarification: Some
of you have considered the purchase of your Professional Meeting Series
Passport as a kind of “local SCBWI membership”. Actually, it was never
more than our local programming, not “membership” per se. Membership in SCBWI means joining the organization that is international and
based in Los Angeles. So, any of you who partook of our regional
programming without joining SCBWI International were not members. If you
want to join SCBWI or renew your membership, please go to
www.scbwi.org. ]
We’re looking forward to participating with all of you in the coming events!
Brenda Winter Hansen
Dana Arnim
Dana Sullivan