WiS Meeting Minutes – January 16, 2021

Meeting Time 10:00 – 13:00

Meeting Place – Zoom

Chairman:  Andrea

Minute Taker:  Jim

Attendees:  Andrea, Jadi, Barbara, Erica, Jim, Ayo, Cindy, Danielle, Michael, Katherine, Irene

Conversation:

  • We had an animated discussion about the live stream reading for Dark Monday.
  • Jadi read the email below sent from Charles Urban:

“Hi Jadi,

It is so good to collaborate with a team of reliable, creative, and talented people who are able to autonomously plan and organize a DARK MONDAY event. 

Offering the January date on the NEAT agenda to the WRITERS IN STUTTGART has proven, time and again, to be a good decision and I am very happy to continue this wonderful annual tradition, which I know is looked forward to by many members of our regular MERLIN audience. Most years, I travel to the USA in January but always make it a point to leave after the WRITERS’ performance! 8 ))

So far, I have not watched streamed cultural events. The experience with the WRITERS was my first time sitting still and observing people perform on my monitor.  What I noticed about Monday night’s show was that those of you who had a neutral background fared best. The spectrum went from Barbara’s monochrome white wall to Cindy’s highly colorful background of live oak trees. As in so much of life (and on stage), less is more. 

Also, one must obviously be very aware of how close to come to the camera. Seeing the reader’s neck and slightly more seems „natural“ in comparison. It is basically the same as when working with a microphone in the studio; keep a distance. The built-in microphone of your notebook is very sensitive and will pick up your voice; no need to get too close…

The lighting is something that also needs to be considered. I have, in the meantime, found out that people who give online lessons often use a „Ring Lamp“ which distributes light on their faces more evenly. The combination of lighting from above and looking down into the camera isn’t ideal. The easiest way to discern what can be improved is to watch yourselves in the YouTube video. You’ll quickly realize what can be done differently next time.

ALL of you read very well. There was a good flow to your presentation! And it was a very nice touch to acknowledge the viewer with a smile and „Thank You“ at the end of the text. Your collective waves and faces full of joy/relief at the end was also very nice to see. WELL DONE!

I will let you know how MERLIN produces the first streamed online DARK MONDAY for NEAT in February; I’m sure we can all learn a lot from their experience! 

You are absolutely right; the reading by the WRITERS did inspire me and when MERLIN offered me the technical means the very next day, I started imagining how it might be possible to organize a NEAT internet reading. The list of options gets longer by the minute. Let’s hope that it all works out for the best until we can all meet to laugh and hug and enjoy each other’s presence once again.”

The meeting started at 10:20

The prompt: 10:40 – 11:00  The prompt was proposed and explained by Barbara: Emily Dickinson’s last words were in a note to her cousins that read: “Dear cousins; called back.” Prompt was “called back.”

Readings for critique/practice for January 11:00 – 13:40

  • Erica read a memoir piece which was critiqued, entitled “Sackcloth and Ashes” followed by a discussion about differences in writing in the genres of memoir and fiction

Business:

  • Our annual (mandatory) meeting will be the next regular meeting on February 6, 2021.
  • Jim floated the idea of putting together pre-recorded and edited readings so we have a chance to present a more professional, glitch- and risk-free product. Most members did not embrace this as too time-consuming. The final consensus was that we could try doing one.
  • Jim volunteered to do the editing for youtube.
  • Jadi will chair the annual meeting.
  • Ideas for the annual meeting were added to the chat. They will be accumulated and provided to Jadi for the agenda. 
  • It was mentioned that in the future, readers need to keep their stories to ten minutes.
  • Any additional ideas must be sent to Jadi prior to January 31.
  • Andrea requested that members who are not reading, participate in the planning and fulfilling various tasks needed in putting together our Future readings.
  • Danielle feels that we need an email listserv with all members pre-installed. She suggested that a lot of discussion and planning could be done with listserv emails. Danielle volunteered to set up the listserv as soon as we know our members.
  • Cindy suggested that we should use only one way to post comments.
  • Meetings in Zoom should all have the same link so no-one needs to be the moderator.
  • Andrea feels that we need a moderator for live readings.
  • Katharine and Irene supported a separate writer’s discussion. 
  • Ayo created a Writers in Stuttgart youtube channel.
  • Ayo, Katharine, and Jim agreed to set a time for a technical meeting to share and support maintaining the website.
  • People need to be more involved in running the monthly meetings and readings.
  • Shared responsibilities among all members were again discussed. This will be an agenda item for the annual meeting.
  • It was agreed that we spend too much time at our regular meetings going round in circles.
  • Jim “wanted to” suggest that this was because we had no agreement on a pre-determined agenda but we ran out of time.
  • Jim volunteered to help anyone that wanted it with doing the virtual background.
  • Last but not least, as of this meeting, there have been 409 views of the youtube reading.

The meeting finished at 13:15

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