The HSA has been needing an official logo for a long time. Last September at the HSA quarterly meeting in Evanston, we asked our Electronic Media Officer Randy Brooks and Lidia Rozmus to create a process that would enable us to have our logo before the end of 2014. Rather than running a contest, Randy and Lidia decided (and the Executive Committee agreed) that the best way to proceed would be to create guidelines and then approach professional graphic artists, offering an honorarium of $500 for the artist whose work would ultimately be chosen. The artists were given a deadline of June 1st for conceptual sketches, and a September 1st deadline for final files. The goal was to have a striking, scalable design that looks good both small (on the spine of a book, for example) and large (as on a shopping bag). I'm happy to announce that the EC has approved the sketches of one of the artists who participated, and that we plan to unveil our new logo later this month, at the joint meeting of HSA and the Cradle of American Haiku Festival (July 25-27 in Mineral Point, Wisconsin).

If you'd like to attend the unveiling, there's more information about the meeting on our website: http://www.hsa-haiku.org/quarter-mtg.htm
Otherwise, expect to see our logo in the summer issue of Ripples. By the way, this issue will be coming out a bit late for a very good reason: our editor, Adrienne Christian, contracted a severe illness during a recent trip overseas, but, thankfully, she's now on the road to recovery.

The editor of this year's members' anthology, Gary Hotham, reports that 280 members submitted haiku for the book. He is now deep into the process of poem selection and page layout.

A few members have contacted me, wanting to make sure that Gary received their submissions (which were due by May 31st), so I asked Gary about this. He tells me that, although he didn't acknowledge receipt of poems, he plans to contact everyone in August, letting them know which haiku he has chosen.

In the meantime, if you are feeling any anxiety about whether or not your submission made it safely to Gary's inbox, you can check with him directly at hsaanthology2014@aol.com.