Thanks to First Vice President Mike Montreuil's tireless efforts, a long-time goal of the Executive Committee has been realized: HSA now has an online store, where members and the general public can purchase T-shirts, caps, mugs, and notebooks that proudly display our logo. Take a peek:

Portions of the proceeds of every sale go directly into the HSA bank account. So, in case you're looking for a holiday gift for a fellow poet or admirer of haiku, please visit our store.

Also, by now most members should have received their free copies of the 2015 members' anthology, wonderfully edited and designed by Catherine J. S. Lee: A Splash of Water. The books were mailed during the past two weeks, so if you haven't received yours yet, expect it soon. If you have seen it, you know that this year's anthology is a special, high-quality publication with wonderful water-themed haiku. This book, in addition to the HSA 'swag' now available online, would make a lovely gift. If you purchase it directly from the CreateSpace store, around two dollars goes into the HSA coffers. If you're more comfortable purchasing it from Amazon, around one dollar goes to HSA. Here are the links.

CreateSpace store:
https://www.createspace.com/5809785

Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/nj8ttaf

As you'll note in the election results (above), 65.5% of voters indicated their approval of the proposed fifth amendment to the HSA by-laws: to no longer send out the membership list, along with contact information (e-mail and home addresses), to all members. The EC, which proposed this amendment, unanimously felt that in this age of spamming and identity theft, we see no reason for all members to have this information. We would have happily put any member with a legitimate request in touch with any other member, or group of members. And for those members who would like to send a haiku-related message to everyone else, we would have allowed them to do so via the online newsletter. This was our plan, but our amendment didn't pass.

According to the HSA by-laws, an amendment requires 2/3rds approval by those who vote. That would be 66.6%. The vote in favor, according to ElectionBuddy, was 66.5%. Therefore, the amendment failed by the narrowest of margins.

This means that we'll be sending all members the file containing names, e-mails, and home addresses, later this month. However, since a lot of you voted for the measure, we want to give you a chance to opt out of including your information in this file. If you'd like to keep both your e-mail and your home address private, simply send me an e-mail within one week (deadline: December 12th) with the subject line: 'Remove my home and e-mail addresses--HSA members' list.' If you'd like to share your e-mail but not your home address, the subject line should say: 'E-mail only--HSA members' list.' Send this to me at: david1gerard@hotmail.com. Thanks!

Now that the votes have been counted, I'd like to congratulate our newly elected and re-elected HSA officers, and I thank all who ran for office, because the willingness to serve is in itself a service.

This late-breaking news from the Mountains Region: We had no nominee for the ballot, but recently a member from Idaho, Steve Tabb, has agreed to serve. The EC has therefore authorized a special election that will be decided by members in the mountain states. Steve has already started an e-mail discussion of haiku matters with members in his vast region, and at least one face-to-face meeting of poets has resulted from his reaching out. I thank Steve for offering to serve as the Mountains RC.

One last note about the election. According to ElectionBuddy, our voter turnout was 32%, up slightly from last year's 30%, but a bit lower than the previous year's 38%. Online voting has improved participation; the year before, with paper ballots, our turnout was only 17%. However, we could do better. I hope that anyone who didn't vote this year will make a mental note to do so next November.


Chris Thorsen reports that James W. Hackett died  on November 9th, just a few months after the passing of his beloved wife, Patricia. Chris notes that Jim's poetry can still be accessed and enjoyed at Hacketthaiku.com.

As Jim's literary executive, Chris, who can be reached at ct@quantumedge.org, wants HSA members to feel free to contact him if they have any questions about the work of this pioneer of English language haiku. We will miss him.

This is it: my last message to EC members as your President. I said my formal goodbye in the recent (and final) issue of Ripples, so I won't repeat all that here. I'd just like to say that I appreciate all the help that I've received from you, the members. I feel blessed to have met so many of you in my travels; I've learned so much. The other day I ordered a T-shirt with the HSA logo from our online store, and I'll wear it with pride and happy remembrance of three productive and interesting years.