News from the President

HSA/HPNC

AT SANTA ROSA

Last month I was happy to participate in a joint meeting of HSA and the Haiku Poets of Northern California at Santa Rosa, hosted by Carolyn Hall. After lunch at a nearby restaurant and a tour of the Paradise Ridge Winery organized by Fay Aoyagi (including, for many of us, a wine-tasting), everyone was in fine, high spirits for the conference, held on Carolyn's poolside patio. We began with an HSA Business Meeting. I reported on the upcoming elections and announced that the Nominating Committee consists of myself, Angela Terry, and Jim Sullivan. I also announced that five of the eight officers on the Executive Committee plan to step down after this year, leaving the following posts vacant: President, 2nd VP, Frogpond Editor, Newsletter Editor, and Secretary. I added that the Nominating Committee had already identified candidates for three positions: Aubrie Cox, Frogpond Editor; Ignatius Fay, Newsletter Editor; and Sondra Byrnes, Secretary.

When I asked for nominations, only one was made: Debbie Kolodji to continue in her role of California RC. She accepted this nomination.

Although it may seem that the meeting produced little results, it was in fact enormously successful, since it encouraged HSA members in attendance to talk among themselves in the days that followed, and to convince a well-respected, talented member of HSA and HPNC to consider running for the presidency. A week later, Fay Aoyagi accepted the nomination of her peers, and convinced Patricia Machmiller to run for 2nd Vice President. Now we have at least one candidate for each position on the EC. 

If you'd like to nominate yourself or some other member for any position on the EC or for the post of Regional Coordinator for your region, let me know, and I'll share this with the Nominating Committee. We plan to have nominations settled by September 30th, so that the online ballot (with candidate bios) can be prepared in October, with the online voting taking place the first three weeks of November.

The Business Meeting in Santa Rosa continued with a discussion of the possibility of reducing required HSA meetings from four to three per year. The EC plans to discuss this proposal during our August conference call and, if we approve it, add it to November's ballot so that all members can vote on it.

The proposal originated at our previous meeting this year, in Orlando. A member suggested that we should move to thrice-yearly meetings, in light of the fact that the EC's monthly conference calls have lessened the need for physical meetings to conduct business. However, at the Santa Rosa meeting, a member noted that four meetings each year, scattered across geographical regions, makes possible more personal contacts among poets; she said that she would hate to see our meetings dwindle from four to three. I replied that members would probably still have at least four meetings to attend each year, if they like, thanks to regional meetings. I pointed at recent joint meetings in Atlanta and Orlando that would have happened anyway, even if national HSA had not co-sponsored them. Another member observed that reducing the number of required meetings will make life easier for the next HSA president. I encouraged members to continue discussing this among themselves, and, in November, to vote for whatever they feel will be best for HSA. I offer this same encouragement to you.

An interesting topic then came up: Does Twitter own the haiku that we tweet? Could a "Twitter Anthology of Haiku" be published one day, without recognizing the rights of the poets? I was skeptical, but we decided that we had better make sure about this, especially since we're preparing to tweet (with the permission of the poets involved) selected haiku from past Frogponds, thanks to volunteer Dianne Garcia. I hope that one of our legally informed members will clarify this for us and put our minds at ease.

The meeting continued with a featured reading of haiku by Susan Antolin, and my "Write Like Issa" workshop (its sixth incarnation). A dinner and party followed.

RE-DRAWING THE HSA MAP

A member in Nebraska asked the EC to consider re-drawing our regional map in accordance with the U.S. Census Bureau, so that Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas would shift from Mountains and Plains to the Midwest region. Recently, I polled the six current members who live in these four states. So far, five have voted to move to the Midwest region. I'm waiting to hear from the other one. I also favor this change; the EC will be discussing it soon. If you have strong feelings about this, one way or the other, let me or another EC officer know.

In an effort to drum up more interest in the HSA in Nebraska, I plan to feature Omaha member MaryLouise Knight later this year in our "Meet a Member" profile on the website. When this profile appears, I hope to use social media to spread the word about HSA in the state. There's no reason for HSA to have only one member in the great city of Omaha (where I grew up). This must change!

Footnote: People are selected for the "Meet a Member" feature on the HSA website by the Regional Coordinators. If you would like to see one of your region's members profiled, contact your RC.

50-YEAR ANNIVERSARY PLANNING

So far, the Planning Committee for HSA 2018 consists of me (Louisiana), Angela Terry (Washington), Julie Warther (Ohio), Amy Losak (New Jersey), and Rita Gray (New York). We plan to begin our work in the fall. If you have ideas about meetings, publications, and special events that we might plan to honor HSA's fiftieth anniversary--or if you'd like to join the Committee--let me know.

THE NEWSLETTER

GOES MONTHLY 

The EC has decided to make the HSA newsletter a monthly publication. Earlier this year, we decided that the newsletter should be 100% online, saving the expense and hassle involved in sending hard copies to a handful of members. As I have mentioned in previous bulletins and in the last newsletter, if a member has a disability that prevents access to e-mail and the Internet, we'll find a volunteer to print and mail hard copies of the newsletter to that person--but this will no longer be the responsibility of the Newsletter Editor.

Thanks to Ignatius Fay, professional-looking e-bulletins have appeared like clockwork on the fifth day of each month, making much of the content in Ripples

start to seem redundant. The EC would like to transform our existing e-bulletin into a monthly newsletter, which will require some reformatting and, perhaps, the assistance of a volunteer Associate Editor, who would contact RCs on a regular basis, asking for reports. We explained this idea to Ignatius and asked him to consider running for the post of Newsletter Editor, given the fact that Adrienne Christian decided to step down after this year. Ignatius enthusiastically agreed to run. Expect monthly news from HSA starting on January 5, 2016.

COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR VIRGILIO WINNERS

An HSA member has pledged to donate $500 each year, for the next three years, toward scholarship money for the Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku Competition. I told this individual that I would send an appeal to members: Would anyone else

like to donate to this cause for the next three years? It would be great to offer a first prize of at least $1,000, and perhaps smaller scholarships for second and third places.

If we have other interested and willing donors among us, I can imagine that the already successful Virgilio Competition would attract even more students and their teachers, which in itself would be a victory, since those teachers would be likely to consider the HSA approach to haiku, breaking out of the 5-7-5 straight jacket. If you think this is a good idea and would like to contribute tax-deductible gifts for young, college-bound poets (and potential future HSA members), contact me. Thanks!

David G. Lanoue

HSA President

david1gerard@hotmail.com