Writers in Stuttgart
Business Meeting on April 6th, 2019
Attendees: Sarah Dressel (today’s chair), Andrea T. Ariman, Erica Applezweig, Barbara Gilchrist-Feyl, Jim Palik, Ellen Wulff, Max Kinnarney (new member)
Minutes takers: Andrea T. Ariman (task lists); Sarah Dressel (most everything else)
Task Lists:
Those members present at the April meeting listed the tasks that have to be taken care of by Writers in Stuttgart members so that we can continue to exist as a group. The tendency of that discussion suggested that distributing responsibilities among as many members as possible would help increasing more members’ personal commitment while avoiding overburdening any individual member with either too many tasks or too much responsibility. Instead of draining the strength of individual members, the general idea is to rotate or pass on responsibilities and distribute them among all of the members as much as possible. Agreeing to be responsible for any task may include delegating individual tasks to individual members. The member agreeing to take on responsibility for a specific task will then be held responsible for that task.
The idea is for all Writers in Stuttgart members to decide which one, two or three tasks they would like to commit to for 2019, so that we can hopefully dedicate more of our meeting times to writing and critiquing again for the remainder of this year’s meetings. Many of the monthly tasks can easily be rotated on a monthly basis, such as chairing a meeting, being the minute taker, etc. Members committing to organizing a public reading commit to this only for one specific reading.
In the table below, I’ve tried to put together all the information about tasks that need to be done by members of Writers in Stuttgart if we want to survive the present crisis. (Keep in mind that a crisis is always a point of new opportunities and growth.) I have attempted to make the information of the April meeting clearer to better inform new members and members who have not volunteered to take on (m)any responsibilities yet, as to what they are letting themselves into if they (hopefully) agree to contribute to the group soon by volunteering for specific tasks. Moreover, I have added some details that are my own suggestions.
I also think that if anyone decides to no longer be able to perform any of the tasks mentioned below, to renounce a WiS office they have volunteered for or have been appointed to do, they should inform the WiS President as well as the chair for the following meeting as soon as possible. They should also delegate their task(s) to another member until a new volunteer is found. Last but not least, they should inform the WiS President and the chair of the following meeting about that delegation as soon as possible, i.e., by CC-ing them in the respective email.
The WiS responsibilities known to me as of April 26th, 2019 include the following Job Titles (for individual responsibilities) as well as TEAM TITLES (in all capitals: for responsibilities of smaller groups of individuals).
The general idea is that each member should be part of at least one team and/or willing to do some of the monthly meeting tasks. Everyone can at least take the minutes once in a while, i.e., once every year; the President the Vice President, and the Treasurer are exempted from this task as they have so many other responsibilities.
I have tried to group them into certain clusters so as to allow a useful overview:
Cluster | Job Titles (individuals) & TEAM TITLES (in all capitals) |
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MONTHLY MEETINGS | 1. Meeting Organizer 2. Key Picker-Upper 3. Chair 4. Minute Taker 5. Writing Prompter |
PUBLIC RELATIONS | 6. PUBLIC RELATIONS TEAM 7. Webmaster 8. Newspaper Liaison (Public Relations Officer) 9. Liaison Dreigroschentheater 10. Liaison MERLIN 11. Liaison NEAT 12. Liaison Michal Hecht 13. Social Networker 14. Website Reviewer |
DESIGN | 15. DESIGN TEAM 16. Postcard Designer 17. Program Designer 18. Program Proofreader |
PUBLIC READING | 19. PUBLIC READING ORGANIZATION TEAM 20. Master of Ceremonies (MC) 21. Stage Decorator |
VETTING | 22. VETTING TEAM |
MANAGEMENT | 23. MANAGEMENT TEAM 24. President 25. Vice President (a.k.a “Verein” task force leader) 26. Treasurer 27. Vice Treasurer |
WRITING GROWTH | 28. Writing Workshop and/or Writing Retreat Organizer |
MEMBER PARTICIPATION | 29. Decision makers for readings 30. Decision makers for communication 31. Paying WiS Members’ rights and responsibilities 32. Ticket printer/cutter – has been decided against |
I hope that the above overview now helps you to scroll down to the specific task information list you are looking for. Obviously, these tasks lists are ‘working lists’ and may be adjusted to whatever works best at a given time. The main idea for those lists is to increase transparency among all WiS members as well as to make the lives of those who volunteer for jobs or TEAMS as little stressful as possible. Redistribution of individual teams within a team is also possible, as long as this is made transparent for all the team members and everything that needs to does get done.
Job Titles & TEAM TITLES (duration of responsibility) Relevant info if applicable. | Tasks | respon-sible member 1 | respon- sible member 2 | volun- teering member 3 |
Meeting Organizer (appointed on a yearly basis) Digital Monthly Meetings Shared Responsibilities Grid; available via email from Andrea; possibly soon also via WiS website. | – makes sure the monthly meetings run smoothly, by making sure each meeting has a key picker-upper, a chair, writing prompter, and a minute taker – maintains a table of who did what and when so as to make sure that the minute taker rotates properly (Making sure a fair distribution of all meeting tasks amongst all members.) – reminds Jim Palik via email to update the minute taking, meeting chairing, and writing prompter grid on the WiS website to be transparent as to who has already taken minutes throughout the calendar year – checks update of monthly meeting grids online prior to next meeting |
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Key Picker-Upper
(appointed on a yearly basis: the DAZ employees like to personally know the person picking up their valuable key) DAZ office hours: Tue-Fri 9-13 & 14-17 herzan@daz.org buettner@daz.org pyka@daz.org | – send an email to the DAZ employees Pia Herzan, Kathrin Büttner, and Christiane Pyka ideally 7-10 days prior to the next monthly meeting, suggesting a key pick-up time. – pick up the key as arranged (ideally between Tuesday and Friday prior to the next meeting) – personally return the key the week after the meeting (ideally between Monday and Wednesday after the meeting) – delegate pick-up and/or personal return of key to willing other member if necessary. NOTE: the key must be handed in personally to a DAZ employee and the return of the key must be signed into a specific list by a DAZ employee. Stay to observe them sign the key back in! | |||
Chair
(appointed on a monthly basis) Suggested Meeting Schedule: 10-10:30 prompt by 10:30 critiques sign-up with chair 10:30-11:30 first round of critiques 11:30-11:45 break 11:45-12:00 organizational stuff 12-13 second round of critiques | – to chair a monthly meeting means you lead through the meeting; making sure to allow enough time for all relevant activities and tasks, i.e., timing of the critiques – creates a list of agenda items for the meeting; gladly incorporates members’ wishes if mailed to the chair up to one week prior to a meeting (If sent out later, agenda items may be forwarded to the next chair to be incorporated in the following meeting at chair’s wish.) – the members present at the March 16th meeting came up with a possible schedule for future meetings (see left column); additional info: Organizational stuff (includes group voting on relevant issues; asking the teams to report on their work and needs; if need be: distribution of (new) tasks to (more) members etc.) – any chair may adapt the suggested meeting schedule according to group needs while generally adhering to the concept of each monthly meeting containing a writing prompt, critiques, and organizational matters – at beginning of the meeting (or by 10:30), asks who has brought work to be critiqued & plans enough time for each writer | |||
Minute Taker
(rotating on a monthly basis) | – takes the minutes during one monthly meeting (about once a year à rotates among members who attend meetings) – may email minutes to all members in attendance for proofreading / additions / corrections, ideally within three days after the meeting – emails possibly adapted minutes to Jim Palik to have them put on the WiS website for all members to access as soon as possible, ideally within one week after the monthly meeting | |||
Writing Prompter (rotating on a monthly basis) | – prepares and brings a writing prompt for the following monthly meeting – delegates this responsibility to another willing and attending member as soon as writing prompter realizes not to make it to the upcoming meeting after all – if delegation of the job is impossible, mail detailed description of the writing prompt to the member chairing the next meeting so that the chair can lead the writing prompt | |||
PUBLIC RELATIONS TEAM (appointed on a yearly basis: Web-master & reviewer; Newspaper & other Liaisons; Social Networkers) | – should contain at least three members, ideally for the duration of one calendar year, includes: – a WiS website webmaster – a newspaper liaison – two or more active Facebook members – establishing a Writers in Stuttgart mailing list (possibly get previous list by asking Cindy, Valerie, O’Brien Browne via email) | Jim Palik | O’Brien Bowne | Barbara, Harish |
Webmaster (on a yearly basis; PART OF PR TEAM) | – keeps our latest website up and running and up to date – adds new dates and events on a monthly basis or, if necessary, more frequently (i.e., rehearsal dates etc.) – receives minutes from each months’ minutes taker and uploads them on the website – communicates at monthly meetings as well as via the website itself if questions or difficulties concerning the website arise – sets up and regularly updates a minutes taker grid as well as an overall responsibilities and tasks grid, so as to promote transparency among all paying and active WiS members | Jim Palik | ||
Newspaper Liason
(rotates on a yearly basis; PART OF PR TEAM) Digital documents available upon request via email from O’Brien Browne & Andrea. | – creates and mails out Press Releases & WiS photos & fliers to local newspapers, language schools and other places which would be interested in experiencing WiS readings and performances 1. Lists for print media & schools, 2. Sample press release in German and English, 3. Sample flier, 4. Sample WiS photo | O’Brien Browne | ||
Liaison Dreigroschen-theater | – keep in touch with Helen Pavel, i.e. via Facebook, to arrange public readings at Dreigroschentheater | |||
Liaison MERLIN | – keep in touch with MERLIN to arrange public January reading (as a guest of NEAT’s Black Monday) there | Jadi Campbell | ||
Liaison NEAT | – keep in touch with NEAT for possible future corporation, such as the One-Act- Play Festival and January Black Mondy | Jadi Campbell | ||
Liaison with Michael Hecht | – keep in touch with musician Michael Hecht in case WiS would like him to musically accompany future WiS readings | Jadi Campbell | ||
Social Networker (appointed on a yearly basis; PART OF PR TEAM) | – should include three members – uploads our digital upcoming events postcards on Facebook – invites all Facebook using WiS and NEAT members to frequently like and share the events they post – post featured readers bios prior to upcoming readings | Barbara Gilchrist-Feyl | Harish Srinivasan | |
Website Reviewer (appointed on a yearly basis; PART OF PR TEAM) | – visits WiS website at least once a month, ideally about a week prior to the next meeting – emails Jim Palik and CCs Vice President and next meeting chair if changes need to be made by next meeting | |||
DESIGN TEAM (including postcard designer, program designer, and Proofreader) | – should contain three members each time (includes postcard design, including ordering, distribution to members at monthly meetings, as well as program design, including writing, printing, copying, and bringing to the reading) – prepares postcards to advertise our readings ahead of time – asks for, sets a deadline (1 month ahead of the next reading) for and receives short bios for the program from members who will be reading at the next reading – receives line-up via email from MC (at least 1 week ahead of the reading) – designs the program for the next reading – proofreads the program once – double-checks the program for a second time – may decide to come up with a WiS logo and or suggest various logos and have members vote on during a monthly meeting – help with the design of the program for upcoming reading | Erica | Barbara | |
Postcard Designer (appointed on a yearly basis) | – designs advertisement postcard for upcoming reading – shows new design to group at a monthly meeting for feedback before sending to printing – possibly adjusts postcard design based on members’ feedback – orders postcard printing – distributes postcards to members at monthly meetings | Sarah D. | ||
Program Designer (appointed from one reading to next) | – requires reading members to mail bios and text titles to the Program Designer by a deadline the Program Designer sets up in accordance with Program Proofreader to allow enough time for proofreading – writes and designs program for the upcoming reading – emails program to Program proofreader | |||
Program Proofreader (appointed from one reading to next) | – proofreads postcard before the postcard designer shows it to the members at a monthly meeting – proofreads the program for upcoming reading – copies program to the reading – brings program to the reading – delegates any of these tasks to another WiS member if necessary | |||
PUBLIC READING ORGANIZATION TEAM (appointed for one reading) A WiS Reading CHECKLIST & TIMELINE is available to make organization easier. It can presently be requested digitally via email from Jadi, Andrea and Sarah D and / or may soon be found on WiS website. | – should contain three members each time (MC and stage decorator included or excluded) – is responsible for everything related to organizing the next upcoming public reading (delegation is part of the task!) – communicates with event locations about 6 months prior to reading (i.e. MERLIN, Dreigroschentheater, Theater am Olgaeck) to set reading dates via email, internet, phone or personally – distributes new WiS group photo and press release to event locations upon request, adhering to their deadlines – sets a date for the next public reading in agreement with all members present at monthly meeting and, possibly, via email – contacts DAZ at least three months before they go to press with reading dates (so our next public reading gets advertised in DAZ flyer and on the DAZ website) – sets a theme for the upcoming reading, i.e., by making suggestions, having members make suggestions, and holding a theme election during a monthly meeting – appoints a stage decorator, ideally a voluntary member, at a monthly meeting or via email & informs about the decision at a monthly meeting – communicates with members, locations and DESIGN TEAM – communicate possible reading dates to all group members – at monthly meetings or via the website searches for eight members willing to read at any one of the agreed upon reading dates – publishes upcoming reading roster to the webmaster to be accessible to all members on the WiS website – communicate with a musician if the group decides to have music for the upcoming reading – find and agree on an MC (this may be any member or, if nobody outside the team volunteers, must be one of the reading team members) – set up rehearsal dates and places – make sure readers have access to rehearsal locations (arrange additional DAZ times, including key pick-up / drop- off) or access to private homes of members) – make sure each reader attends at least one of the rehearsal dates as a prerequisite for reading publicly as part of a WiS reading – make sure there is a microphone as well as a reading stand at the venue | |||
Master of Ceremonies (MC) for public reading (appointed for one reading) | – set a deadline and inform all readers by when (deadline, about 1 month prior to next reading) they have to email the MC notes on their bio and pieces which they would like to have heard as an introduction to them and their work on stage (Readers are responsible for getting info to MC; MC may decide to only introduce a reader by their name if no other info has been handed in to MC by the deadline the MC has set on WiS website, via email or at a previous WiS meeting.) – organize the reading by putting the literary pieces into an order and mail the line-up to the DESIGN TEAM – communicate with the musician (Michael Hecht or other via email) informing the musician of the moods of each reading piece (if group has decided to continue having music be part of our future readings) – prepare a short general introduction to present the group and the theme of the reading to the audience – shortly introduce each writer and piece – welcome each writer on stage – end the show with concluding words, thanking the audience for attending and mentioning future WiS events and mentioning the WiS website to look up future events – ending the show by bowing with all the writers | |||
Stage decorator (appointed for one reading) | – according to the theme of the reading, the stage decorator comes up with a concept for stage decoration – informing the group about the concept and, if applicable, encouraging other readers to contribute – delegates bringing decorative items to the reading to other members if necessary | |||
VETTING TEAM (appointed on a yearly basis) | – receive emails from writers interested in joining the Writers in Stuttgart – read the texts of aspiring new WiS members – decide if aspiring new WiS members should be given the opportunity to attend three monthly meetings prior to deciding to become members of WiS or not | Barbara | ||
MANAGEMENT TEAM (appointed on a yearly basis) | – should consist of at least three members (president, vice president, treasurer) – solve group problems by making suggestions in monthly meetings and allowing all members present at meetings to vote on – may decide to allow members not participating in a specific meeting to vote via the website or via email during the meeting or within 3-7 days after a meeting or may decide that only members present at a meeting may vote on certain issues – possibly lead the WiS to becoming an official registered association (e.V. (=eingetragener Verein)) | |||
President (appointed on a yearly basis) A WiS ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT GRID can be digitally requested from Andrea via email and will probably be available on WiS website soon. DAZ contacts: pyka@daz.org herzan@daz.org (if necessary, refer to DAZ website for updated contact info) | – is CC-ed or otherwise informed by all TEAMS and officers about the state of affairs within their responsibilities on a timely basis – may have to ask TEAMS or officers about the present state of affairs – is the DAZ liason person, i.e., communi- cation about meeting dates & DAZ rooms – has the right to postpone events (i.e., workshops, public readings until someone volunteers for tasks that need to be done) – reviews the WiS website at least once a month to check that the online information is up to date. Works with the Webmaster to delegate updates if needed. – oversees that the minute taking responsibility is fairly distributed among the members, i.e., by checking the webmaster updates a minute taker grid on the WiS website once a month as soon as the minutes are uploaded online – oversees that no member is overburdened with any task – oversees and updates specific responsibilities over tasks by informing the webmaster to update a respective grid on the website (this way, amount of involvement and responsibility of indi- vidual members will become more trans- parent) – solves group problems; mediating between disagreeing members (?) – represents the WiS in public – once a year at a monthly meeting establishes a list of WiS preferred monthly meeting dates for the upcoming year taking into consideration the state school holiday schedule as several WiS members as well as the DAZ are affected by this – once a year emails the WiS preferred monthly meetings dates for the upcoming year to the DAZ employees Christiane Pyka and Pia Herzan – in 2019: work on making WiS an official German Verein (e.V.): Susanna Thielecke of NEAT is willing to pass on a copy of the documents she filed for NEAT: Contact her ASAP. (Get her contact info from Jadi.) – if needed, discuss with group a temporary closing period of about 3-6 months for aspiring new members – contact DAZ at least 3 months before they go to press with meeting dates (to have our monthly meetings in the DAZ flyer) – may suggest reading dates 6 months ahead of time. Encourages members to form a Public Reading Organization Team for this purpose and appoints members for that team or decides to postpone public readings until more members are willing to prepare them. – suggests writing workshops about twice a year and encourages members to organize workshops and/or writing retreat (Delegates workshop organization to volunteering members or postpones until there is more active contribution from members.) NOTE: is exempted from minute taking | |||
Vice President (appointed on a yearly basis) | – shares responsibilities with President – supports the President, and for 2019 leads a “Verein” forming task force that aides the president with that specific issue and respective paperwork – maintains a list of who has read and who has given up reading slots so that all members get the opportunity to take part in WiS public readings (Anyone who voluntarily gives up a slot gets priority at the following reading.) – reviews the WiS website once a month (just like the Website reviewer because four eyes see more than two) NOTE: is exempted from minute taking | |||
Treasurer (appointed on a yearly basis) | – collects WiS membership fees once a year – collects money from venues at or right after public readings – pays musician of public readings if group has decided to have a musician – pays workshop leader – documents all incoming and outgoing money – does the maths concerning money spent (i.e., for printing reading advertisement postcards; program printing and copying; money spent on writing workshops; costs that go to event locations or possibly an externally hired musician) – collects receipts and reimburses members for group investments (i.e., printing costs for flyers; possibly a WiS mike / reading stand; a video recorder to tape WiS readings etc.) – does the maths concerning money earned (i.e., membership dues, ticket sales from public readings) – gives input about pricing strategy for tickets (current system is the save 1€ star on the flyer) – collects suggetions for future investments from all members (i.e., our own WiS wireless mike; hiring professional writers for writing workshops etc.) – makes suggestions for future investments at monthly meetings – asks members to vote on any of these suggestions at monthly meetings – informs the WiS members about the present money situation once a year (ideally in December) NOTE: is exempted from minute-taking | |||
Vice Treasurer (appointed on a yearly basis) | – possibly shares responsibilities with Treasurer in agreement with Treasurer, such as: – check the documentation (the maths) that the treasurer creates – collects money from venues if treasurer isn’t present at a public reading – helps or takes over collecting and paying recipes – helps or takes over collecting annual membership fees | |||
Writing Workshop or Writing Retreat Organizer (appointed for duration of one workshop or retreat respectively) | – suggests a writing workshop to all members at a monthly meeting and/or via email or the WiS website – contacts possible workshop presenters – plans the workshop or retreat in detail – arranges with DAZ for room availability for workshop(s) by emailing to DAZ employees Pia (herzan@daz.org), Kathrin (buettner@daz.org), and Christiane (pyka@daz.org), or any other location – communicate dates and locations of next event to group during monthly meetings – invites members to participate – reports on the event at the monthly meeting following the event | Katharine | ||
Decision makers for reading | – decide on theme for upcoming reading(s) – Decide about music for readings – decide about Charles Urban filming our readings or not – decide about contract with musician Michael Hecht | ALL MEMBERS | ALL MEMBERS | ALL MEMBERS |
Decision makers for communication | – decide how to communicate most efficiently within the group between meetings (website, email, doodles? etc.) | ALL MEMBERS | ALL MEMBERS | ALL MEMBERS |
Paying WiS members’ rights and responsibilities | – have the right to attend every monthly WiS reading – have the right to volunteer for any task, any individual office, or any team whenever responsibilities are rotated or up for grabs (ideally let the person doing the job, the President, and the person chairing the next meeting know if you are interested in a specific task in the near future) – should be willing to accept a task if someone else would like to appoint them – have the right to have their written work critiqued at monthly meetings – have the right to sign up for participating in public WiS readings as soon as they have been members of WiS for at least three months (earlier if the PUBLIC READING ORGANISATION TEAM needs more volunteers for a specific reading) | |||
Reading ticket printer / cutter | NOT NECESSARY | NOBODY | NOBODY | NOBODY |