Attending: Valerie, Jadi, Sarah D., Erica, Ellen, Katharine, Rupert, Mohammed, Vlora, Andrea, Michael H., Cindy, Jim.

The meeting began with critiques.  Jadi read the first draft of a travel story called “Such a Beautiful Chin”; Sara read a one-page play called “Hostage,” and a poem called “Shape of Shame”; Erica read two short poems that were untitled; Katharine read two short poems, “Christmas Love,” and “First Snow”: Andrea read a poem titled “Rosa Maria.”

In the course of the critiques, Andrea mentioned that a variety show to benefit abused women and children, to be presented by NEAT on Feb. 18^th; Jadi said the deadline for submissions is Jan. 24^th.

Another deadline mentioned by Valerie was for the one-page plays requested at our December meeting by David Burmedi. due by Feb. 8^th.

After the break, Valerie announced that she would like to start meetings henceforth with the critiques, and focus in meetings on critiques and writing in response to prompts.

Jim, who has taken over as webmaster for the group, gave a presentation on the new website, which is not yet finished, but can be easily accessed on a range of devices including smartphones.  There has been a change of servers.

The new address is: www.writersinstuttgart.net

At the time of writing, member e-mail addresses were accessible to the public on the website, but Jim said he would take them off the public area of the site.  The public area will include information on readings and meeting dates; the private are will include the minutes of the meetings, in addition to our individual e-mail addresses. Jim said he plans to make it possible for members to set their own passwords, and he added that we will probably have to buy an app that would make it difficult for passwords to be set by “bots.”

Another feature of the site, Jim said, would be the ability for interested members of the public to opt in to a mailing list for future readings.  With this feature, Jim said, we would not need to have members of the public sign a release form.  Cindy pointed out that members, however, would need to sign new release forms if images of them appear on the website.  Towards the end of the meeting, Jim asked if there was interest in having a space on the website where members could share and comment on each other’s work, and the consensus was that this would be a good idea, even if it is not used by all members.

After Jim’s presentation, Valerie said that she and Jim and Cindy had talked before the meeting about the need for new structures for Writers in Stuttgart, in keeping with discussion in previous meetings on the need to form an “eingetragener Verein” or registered organization as per the German legal definition.

There is to be a an executive board consisting of Valerie, who was elected president at the December meeting; Jadi as vice-president; and Cindy continuing as treasurer.  Other functions include webmaster, design, publicity, and a “vice-treasurer.”  Jim has agreed to serve as webmaster, Sarah D. will handle design, and two people were mentioned as possible publicity directors: Michael O. and Sarah F.  Cindy commented that the publicity director will have to keep track of the different needs of various media outlets, in particular with respect to timing before readings.  No one has yet been named vice-treasurer.

It was agreed that it would be a good idea to have more than the minimum number of  members – seven – needed to form a Verein. The reason is that if the number of members falls below seven, and a new member is needed, we would have to have the change notarized.  Katharine said she had agreed in earlier meetings to be a founding member, and both Michael H. and Vlora indicated an interest in being founding members; Glenda was also mentioned as a possible founding member.

Cindy collected WIS membership dues from several members at the meeting, and Valerie reminded everyone that dues must be paid by Jan. 20 by those who wish to remain members in good standing. [Note from the taker of the minutes: Cindy sent an e-mail earlier this month regarding payment of dues, which can be accomplished via bank transfer.]

Valerie  said that there would be a discussion at the next meeting regarding the dates, themes, and format of future readings.

Katharine said she was thinking of organizing a writing “staycation” in the week before Easter, similar to the idea of a writing retreat that has been discussed in the past.  She will discuss the idea with other members and get back to the group via e-mail.

The writing prompt was the sentence, “There are so many ways to switch things off.”

Valerie closed the meeting by asking those present to think before the next meeting about “moving forward,” and to be ready to talk about new things they would like to see in connections with WIS, and/or things they would like to see changed.

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