SALA writers’ group newsletter

Hello Everybody!

On Friday, June 12th, SALA met at Cafe Caffeine as planned. We had a very productive meeting.

Present were Denny Bolton, Lester Morris, Gary Kent, & myself – Francois Pointeau – Gail Folkins made a very brief visit.

Until Gabrielle comes back, I volunteered to be the secretary & thus takes notes. Gabrielle! Hurry back! I don’t think I’m very good at this

So what I’ll attempt to do here, is give a more or less accurate description of what happened during our meeting. I’ll outline the major points covered. However, please realize that we didn’t go from point A to point B and then to point C … we kind of meandered around, eventually finding our way to a few answers, decisions, and realizations. We also listened to several entertaining tales by our friend Lester. Ask him about that special sacrificial rock in Stonehenge.

We wanted, at least I insisted on this, to figure out what SALA is about? To give ourselves a bit of direction, so that we all know what our goals are as an organization.

We came up with three principals:

1) Selling our members’ books;
2) A constant professional exchange of information;
3) And finally: Encouragement!

Denny, who’s been at the Farmer’s Market every single week, let us know that the peeps at the Market will no longer let us sell Go Local cards. This a bit of a problem. Go Local donates 20 cards per month that we can sell at 10 bucks a pop, and thus raise 200 buckaroos to pay for the booth at the market. The market costs $280 per month or $70 for two tents each week. Go Local will still donate 20 cards per month, but now we need to find a different place / venue to sale them.

Go Local’s myspace: www.myspace.com/golocalaustin
Denny, do they have a regular website?

Denny will not be going back to the Farmers’ Market until the fall. We will however keep receiving the GL cards. We should think of ways to sell these cards to raise funds for SALA.

Which brings me to the second major point of Friday’s meeting! Why do we need to raise funds?

Answer: So that we can keep the promise of our Three Principals!

We brainstormed on how we could sell our members’ books more effectively. I mentioned that throwing a party is always a good thing. If we bring all of our social resources together, we can probably throw a huge bash. Mixing mediums, as in having our books and us reading from our books, sure, but also live music, stand-up comics, performance artists, jugglers, et cetera, as well as refreshments such as beer, wine, and finger food. We thought that maybe having one big event per year would be a good idea. One huge SALA event that will become a yearly happening.

We need to raise funds so that we can organize events! So that we can continue to have a presence at the Farmers’ Market and / or other such venues where it costs MONEY to have a booth so that we can sell YOUR BOOKS.

We talked about possibly attaching ourselves to an existing festival, such as a movie or music festival that already has a following, and starting a small lit festival for and by SALA.

Anyway, that brings us to the next point: Monthly Dues! 5 bucks per month starting in July 2009. The money will go to organize events so that we can sell books.

We stressed the important point that we need to think OUTSIDE the box, here. What I’m trying to say: Ideas welcomed! Please comment! Write back! Send ideas!

Gary discussed his upcoming book: “Shadows and Light, Journeys With Outlaws In Revolutionary Hollywood” to be out July 15th with a big party at Book People, and an after-party at Gary’s place.

You can learn more about Gary here: http://www.garykentfilmmaker.com/ or about his publisher here: http://www.daltonpublishing.com/our_books/shadows-and-light/.\

Personally, I can’t wait to read Gary’s book!

Gary talked about his experience getting published. The journey with the small publisher, the distributor, and the frustrations thereof as well as the positive notes.

We need two more volunteers:

1) Treasurer – your duties would be to manage the money, collect the dues, deposit them into SALA account, balance the budget. You need to be able to ad and subtract and keep books for this position.
2) Event Organizer – your duties would be to … you figured it out: organize events! This calls for a social person with an ease in making connections, an attraction to organizing great parties, a knowledge of local venues, bands, et cetera.

Last but not least, we are going to buy a booth at the Texas Book Festival. That’s a cost of 600 dollars! Who wants to be at the Texas Book Festival? If ten of us go, that’s 60 dollars per person. If 20 of us go, that’s 30 bucks per person … and so on. Please send Denny an email on whether or not you’re interested.

Thanks!