The beginning of a new year is a time for renewal, rejuvenation, looking forward...but I believe it also creates an opportunity to reflect on the previous year and to express gratitude for all who have lent their helping hands. Elsewhere in this bulletin you'll find the official election results posted by HSA Secretary Mollie Danforth, and you might note that some officers have completed their service (for now). I hope that all members will join me in saying 'Thank you' to outgoing officers for their service to HSA: Paul Miller (Treasurer), Sari Grandstaff (2nd Vice President), Naia (California RC), an'ya (Oregon RC), and Chad Lee Robinson (Plains & Mountains RC). We are also grateful for Charlotte Digregorio's service as Midwest RC, but we're happy not to lose her just yet, as she will now bring her energy and organizational talent to her new role as 2nd Vice President. And while we're on the subject of newly elected officers, I thank Bill Deegan for agreeing to fill Paul's big shoes as HSA Treasurer; Debora Kolodji for filling in as California RC; Julie Warther for stepping into the role of Midwest RC; and Shelley Baker-Gard for agreeing to serve as Oregon RC. And while I'm thanking our officers, I would be remiss to leave out those stalwart souls who've agreed to continue in their roles for another year: Mike Montreuil (1st Vice President), Francine Banwarth (Frogpond Editor), Adrienne Christian (Ripples Editor), Randy Brooks (Electronic Media Officer), and Mollie Danforth (Secretary).

I'd also like to thank all the volunteers without whom HSA could not exist. Thank you, Terri L. French and Tom Painting, for helping me to organize our meeting in Atlanta last March. Thank you, Gayle Bull, for generously welcoming HSA as a co-host of the Cradle of American Haiku Festival in July. Thank you, Rita Gray, for putting together the September HSA meeting in New York City. Thank you, Robert Ertman, for organizing our final meeting of 2014 last month in Washington D.C. Thank you, Ignatius Fay, for regularly and professionally putting out e-bulletins such as this one. Thank you, Christopher Patchell, for designing our wonderful new logo. Thank you, the 25 anonymous, expert poets who generously offered to serve as mentors to less experienced poets last year (btw, we need a few more mentor volunteers!). Thank you, Thomas Chockley, who responded to our call when the HSA Secretary needed help with mailings. Thank you, Julie Bloss Kelsey, for suggesting and then setting up the new HSA Twitter feed (more on this below). Thank you, Nominations Committee members Naia, Ce Rosenow, and Jim Sullivan. Thank you, Gary Hotham, for editing a beautiful members' anthology and ensuring that copies would reach our hands in time for Christmas. Thank you, Lidia Rozmus, for providing the fine illustrations and cover art for that book. Thank you, all the judges of all the HSA's contests held in 2014. Thank you, volunteers who upon request served as ad hoc judges for the Financial Times haiku contest. Thank you, Mike Blottenberger, Susan Burch, Tim Mize, and Mike Kozubek for volunteering to judge the city-wide haiku contest for high school students held last spring in Lawton, Oklahoma. Thank you, Bruce Ross, Randy Brooks, Jim Kacian, and Robert Ertman, for representing HSA at last year's American Literature Association meeting. Thank you, all HSA members who voted (though our participation sagged a bit compared to the previous year, it's stil more than double the percentage that voted before we began online elections). And thank you, all members of HSA, for supporting all that we do annually with your membership dues. (If you haven't yet renewed, please make this one of your New Year's resolutions).


If you've visited our website recently (http://www.hsa-haiku.org/), you may have noticed that the second installment in our ongoing series of members' profiles is now posted, featuring Washington State member Tanya McDonald--written by Angela Terry, Washington State Regional Coordinator, and posted by Randy Brooks. This 'Meet HSA Member' series is a first step in a push to increase HSA visibility and membership by thoughtfully managing the message that we put out on our website and through other means, including Facebook and our new Twitter feed. By putting human faces and personal stories on our website, front and center, we believe that visitors will gain a clearer idea of we are about in our mission to promote English-language haiku. This is only the beginning, so be looking for more improvements in our media outreach throughout 2015. And if you have ideas or would like to serve on our new Media Committee, let me know.

Our plan going forward is to invite each of the Regional Coordinators to choose members from their region for profiles to be changed on a monthly basis. We hope to present a lively mix of beginning and more seasoned members, representing the full range of HSA membership. If you'd like to nominate a member for a future profile, contact your Regional Coordinator.


Yes, Tokyo! HSA will co-host a joint meeting with the Meguro International Haiku Circle, a Tokyo-based club dedicated to writing English-language haiku, on Saturday, March 14th, 2015. Yasuomi Koganei, the Meguro Circle's leader, has kindly agreed to join forces with HSA for this special, unprecedented joint meeting. The meeting will take place at the Meguro Citizen's Center, 7th Floor, Room 3, starting with a morning session of talks that will feature three speakers selected by HSA (myself, Philip Rowland, and Shokan Tadashi Kondo), and three speakers from the Meguro Circle (Juichi Masuda, Simone K. Busche, and Masaaki Oka). After lunch, there will be an English Haiku Workshop followed by a short HSA business meeting. We have planned to cap off the day with a party that evening at Shoya Izakaya, a nearby casual pub. The next day, Sunday March 15th, we'll go on a Haiku Walk in Kamakura, gathering at 11:00 a.m. at Kitakamakura station (outside Exit No. 1) to Tokeiji Temple, where we'll visit the tombs of Daisetsu Suzuki and R. H. Blyth. Following lunch, the Walk will end at Jufukuji, Kamakura's oldest Zen temple. This will conclude the official events of our two-day conference, but anyone interested in further haiku excursions in the Tokyo area will be invited to join us to visit Shiki's last home/museum and Basho's hut/museum in the days that follow.

Why Japan? First, to enable our members there to attend, for the first time, an HSA meeting in that country; and more importantly, to introduce HSA (along with plenty of samples of Frogpond and our members' anthology) to a large, vibrant group of mostly Japanese poets who write haiku in English. I'll personally strive to recruit as many of them as I can to join our Association. In fact, my keynote talk in the first session will be titled, 'The Haiku Society of America: Our Mission.' When Harold Henderson and Leroy Kanterman founded HSA in 1968, their vision was "to promote the writing and appreciation of haiku poetry in English." To my mind, this implies no artifical boundaries of the sort that politicians draw and nations bicker over. I'm happy to reach out to promote English-language haiku poetry in Japan, the homeland of the genre, or anywhere else in the world.


The Second Quarterly Meeting, May 16-17, 2015, will take place in Orlando, Florida. Organizers Paula Moore and Terri L. French are planning a conference focused on the haiku of Jack Kerouac and the Beats, featuring a visit to the Kerouac House in the Orlando neighborhood of College Park, where Jack wrote most of the text for Dharma Bums. Paula and Terri already have a keynote speaker lined up, Stanford M. Forrester, and more treats are in store. For members with small children or grandchildren, come to the meeting and spend an extra day introducing the kids to Mickey Mouse.

The Third Quarterly Meeting, organized by the Haiku Poets of Northern California--including Garry Gay and Fay Aoyagi--is scheduled for July 19, 2015, in San Francisco. The main part of the conference will take place in Fort Mason from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., preceded by a brunch at Greens Restaurant. The planners are investigating sites for a haiku-writing excursion, possibly visiting a winery in Napa or Sonoma, or perhaps the American Haiku Archives in Sacramento. And our Fourth Quarterly Meeting for this year, led by newly elected Midwest Regional Coordinator Julie Warther, will occur the weekend of September 18-20, 2015, in Walnut Creek, Ohio, about thirty miles south of Canton.

Be watching for more details on all of this year's meetings in future e-bulletins, in the spring issue of Ripples, and on the HSA website.


This year, the HSA will continue to promote English-language haiku at this important academic conference. Our panel, this time, will focus on the haiku of Nick Virgilio. Participants will include Raffael  DeGruttola, Kathleen O'Toole, and graduate student Elizabeth Moser, who has worked with the Virgilio Archive at Rutger's University. The Chair for the session is still to be determined. We are excited about offering the first in-depth academic panel on Nick Virgilio--an idea that was born at our Fourth Quarterly Meeting in Washington D.C. last month, where Rick Black and Kathleen O'Toole presented the poignant documentary film, Remembering Nick Virgilio.


In our business session at the fourth quarterly meeting last year in Washington D.C., Julie Bloss Kelsey suggested that HSA should have a Twitter feed to keep members and the general public informed about events, contests, and other information conerning our organization specifically and English-language haiku in general. The members in attendance thought this was an excellent idea, and so now, thanks to Julie's technological assistance, we are proud to unveil @hsa_haiku. This month, I'll be sharing the access password with all Exectutive Committee officers as well as all Regional Coordinators, so that they'll be able to post news when appropriate. If you have information that you would like us to tweet, please send it to your region's RC. Our only ground rules are: (1) messages should concern the promotion of English-language haiku, and (2) messages should not promote the work or projects of individuals. Julie has already primed the pump by posting several tweets in December. Subscribe to @hsa_haiku and stay up to date!


Take-Out Window, edited by Gary Hotham, is our first members' anthology made available as a print-on-demand book. Last year, the Executive Committee decided to keep the cost as low as possible to maximize the number of copies that will be purchased and, once in circulation, will serve as an advertisement for our Society. Checking CreateSpace in late December, I saw that as of that date we had sold 48 copies, earning $60.96 in royalties that were automatically deposited into the HSA bank account. Averaging $1.27 in royalties for each copy sold, this anthology (and all future ones) will serve not only as a means of displaying the haiku of members; it will also raise money so that we can offer more financial support to worthy haiku-promoting events and projects.

Finally, I'm thrilled to announce the editor for the 2015 HSA members' anthology will be Northeast Region member, poet, and educator, Catherine J.S. Lee. Complete submission details appear below in this bulletin and will be posted on the HSA website.

Wishing you a wonderful and creative 2015,

David Lanoue -- 220 votes