Category: Annual Membership Meeting 2024

Highlights of the 2024 Annual Meeting of the General Membership

11/10/2024

Our Annual Meeting of the General Membership was held on October 19, 2024, via Zoom. We had approximately 48 members in attendance! Following are some of the meeting highlights, as well as a full recording and minutes from the meeting at the end of this post.

Passed:

Voted into office:

Presented
2024 Awards of Merit for Service

Sandra Lou Taylor

Anne Spry

Sheryl Brenn

Presented
2024 Achievement in Writing

Cheryl Unruh

Presented
2024 Length of Membership Acknowledgements

Since 2009, Kansas Authors Club has recognized octogenarians who have completed at least 5 years of active and continuous membership as vital contributors to our organization. Recognized members are given the option of continuing their membership, dues free. This program, begun by Don Pady, KAC Archivist (2006-2015) has recognized 107 members since its inception. In 2024, we thank the following members for the time and words they share, and we look forward to many more years of fellowship and growing our organization for the benefit of writers like them:

Gretchen Cassel Eick (member since 2016)

Hazel Hart (member since 2007)

Barbara Waterman-Peters (member since 2004)

10-year members
Cheryl Heide
Nancy Lee Richard
Jan Gilbert Hurst
Sheryl K. Brenn
Connie Rae White
Duane Johnson
Jerry Fanning
Ann Christine Fell

15-year members
Paula K. Nixon
Victoria Hermes-Bond
A. Louise Click
Jolene Haas
Dixie J. Brown
Marilyn Hope Lake

20-year members
Anne Shiever
Barbara Waterman-Peters
William J. Karnowski

Presented
Member Recruitment Recognition

Sandra Lou Taylor
&
Mary-Lane Kamberg

2025 Annual Meeting Minutes

Watch a recording of the annual meeting on YouTube.

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2024 Member Recruiters of the Year!

11/10/2024

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At the Annual Meeting of the General Membership, held via Zoom on October 19, 2024, we recognized members who have recruited new members to our organization.

Member Recruitment Recognition
New Members (2024) to Date = 53
New Members (2023) = 64

The following members were listed on new member applications as the person who recomended membership in Kansas Authors Club in 2023/2024.

Angela Bates

Traci Brimhall

K.L. Barron

Micki Carroll

Laura Clifton

Robert Dean

Gretchen Eick

Judy Entz

Mike Graves

Jeff Guernsey

Beth Gulley

Deb Irsik

Mary-Lane Kamberg

Skylar Lovelace

Ruth Maus

Ronda Miller

Grant Overstake

Dan Pohl

Jim Potter

Kristine A. Polansky

Thea Rademacher

Ralvell Rogers

Julie A. Sellers

Lisa Stewart

Anne Spry

Sandee Taylor

Cat Webling

Connie White

Gloria Zachgo

As well, the following events were listed. It's notable to see our outreach efforts bringing recognition to our organization.

It is exciting to have such a wide and diverse group of individuals supporting and encouraging membership in our club. This year's Membership Recruiter Award went to Sandee Taylor (D5 President and 2024 Convention Chair) and to Mary-Lane Kamberg (a notable former member!)

Mary-Lane, we'd love to have you back on our member roster. Thanks for sending your youth writers our way!

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2024 Achievement in Writing: Cheryl Unruh

11/10/2024

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Cheryl Unruh began her membership in Kansas Authors Club in 2011, but her name in Kansas literature well predates her association with our club.

Cheryl Unruh was raised in the tiny town of Pawnee Rock in central Kansas. She graduated from the University of Kansas in 1981. She now resides in Emporia.

For 11 years she wrote her Flyover People column about Kansas topics for The Emporia Gazette. She has been a commentator on Kansas Public Radio. She has won awards from the Kansas Press Association and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. In 2016, because of her writing focus on Kansas, Cheryl was named one of Kansas’ Finest by Kansas! Magazine.

She has published two books of Kansas essays. Flyover People: Life on the Ground in a Rectangular State received the Kansas Notable Book Award in 2011, and Waiting on the Sky: More Flyover People Essays received the Kansas Notable Book Award in 2015. Walking on Water, poems, was published by Meadowlark Press in 2017. Her most recent book, a memoir, titled Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town, was awarded the 2022 Nelson Poetry Book Award and the 2023 Martin Kansas History Book Award by the Kansas Authors Club, the first time in the club’s history that these two awards were given to the same title.

Cheryl has been the editor of 105 Meadowlark Reader, A Journal of True Kansas Stories, since 2021. This popular Kansas publication has featured a total of 152 Kansas (and former Kansas) writers, representing 80 of the 105 Kansas counties, by setting of essay or author hometown, within the first eight issues of publication (Issue 8 will be available in November 2024). Cheryl created the position of and served as the first Welcome Wagon Chair for the Kansas Authors Club, pulling member introductory efforts into the modern age by giving new members the opportunity to introduce themselves to the Club via featured posts, created by Cheryl, on our website and on social media. Cheryl served in this position from 2021 to 2023.

Cheryl is a founding member of the Emporia Writers Group, an often informal, but sometimes ordered and structured meeting of writers that began with a handful of attendees in 2011. Today the facebook page for the group boasts 53 members, with somewhere between 6 and 20 attending the current monthly meetings. Cheryl’s leadership and cheerleading for writers across Kansas is unsurpassed. Her achievements as a wordsmith are to be commended.

Nomination by members of Emporia Writers Group
Lindsey Bartlett, Angel Edenburn, Linzi Garcia, Mike Graves, Hazel Hart, Roger Heineken, Jerilynn Henrikson, Deb Irsik, Emilie Moll, Kerry Moyer, Kevin Rabas, Tracy Million Simmons, Brenda White, Michelle Zumbrum

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2024 Service Award: Anne Spry

11/10/2024

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At the Annual Meeting of the General Membership, held via Zoom on October 19, 2024, a Service Award was presented to Anne Spry.

Awards are presented to members for achievement in writing (A), service to the club (S), and special award for particular accomplishment (SP).

"Anne served as president of District 1, doing an exemplary job as Kansas Authors Club has transitioned to its present statewide focus. She produced an attractive and informative quarterly newsletter for District 1. In addition, she has live-streamed our Words in the Wind open mic event. Anne did all of the formatting and publishing of D1's 2023 anthology, All Over the Map.

"Anne was one of the committee who worked diligently to make sure our state convention in Topeka could be held virtually. All of this besides running her own publishing company and being part of Sweet Adolines Acapella Chorus. Now moving on to be state president of Kansas Authors Club, Anne has proven over and over again her devotion to Kansas Authors Club."

Nomination by Barbara Waterman-Peters

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2024 Service Award: Sheryl Brenn

11/10/2024

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At the Annual Meeting of the General Membership, held via Zoom on October 19, 2024, a Service Award was presented to Sheryl Brenn.

Awards are presented to members for achievement in writing (A), service to the club (S), and special award for particular accomplishment (SP).

Sheryl Brenn in attendance at the annual meeting. We will try to get a better picture of Sheryl with her plaque!

Sheryl Brenn has been the spark plug for Kansas Authors Club, District 7. Since joining the club in 2014, she has carried multiple offices, many times fulfilling the duties of Secretary, Treasurer, President, and Contest Manager all at the same time. She currently serves as District 7 Secretary and Treasurer, while also being the Representative to the State Board. Sheryl works hard to make sure that our western Kansas members are notified about meetings and events. She has coordinated countless meetings. To Sheryl, we owe a debt of gratitude for making sure our western Kansas members stay on the map of Kansas Authors Club

Nominated by Howard John Sanders & Tracy Million Simmons

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2024 Service Award: Sandra Lou Taylor

11/10/2024

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At the Annual Meeting of the General Membership, held via Zoom on October 19, 2024, a Service Award was presented to Sandra Lou Taylor.

Awards are presented to members for achievement in writing (A), service to the club (S), and special award for particular accomplishment (SP).

Nomination #1:
I nominate Sandee Taylor, District 5, for a Service to KAC Award. The reasons I feel she is worthy of this award are:
Sandee has given 300% to KAC and D5 since 2019, when D5 hosted the convention in Wichita.

During the COVID challenge, she worked hard to keep connections between D5 members alive, assisting with computer access to zoom meetings.

For two years she has served as D5 president, initiating new activities like small D5 retreats, and contacting and encouraging people into active roles in the group with gentle encouragement.

She started and hosts at least two critique groups every month.

She has represented D5 and the state Kansas Authors Club by hosting tables at writing events to promote our organization to others. She manned a table at the 2023 Wichita Local Authors event at the Wichita Public Library and at the first ever Local Authors Day at the Winfield Public Library.

Sandee is always ready to encourage other writers, and to promote KAC, and I think she deserves a service award.

Nominated by Ann Fell

Nomination #2
Sandee Taylor has led D5 with energy, ideas, people skills, and innovation. She restored this district post-Covid with recruiting new leaders to the executive committee, bringing younger people into leadership, organizing district writing retreats, generating and facilitating writers critique groups, and keeping the former leaders involved in new capacities while shifting them to playing new roles. This was gracefully handled and resulted in freeing up the top leadership positions for “new blood” while not alienating the old leaders who had been in place far longer than the by-laws called for. She found new roles for the former leaders and remained positive and helpful during what could have been a conflictual change. Sandee is utterly committed to KAC’s growth and to servicing members. Without her as president we would have faded to a group of cronies only. With her D5 is vibrant and growing and several writers groups are nurturing the writing skills of members in exciting, collaborative ways.

Nominated by Gretchen Eick

"Since 2019, I have explored more and more leadership roles in D5 and KAC. Yesterday, I was honored for my service to KAC. I want to thank my writing friends for being a part of my life and encouraging my writing journey. The authors in KAC bless me each month and at the annual conventions/retreats. Together, I look forward to what we as KAC members will be able to accomplish in 2025." ~ Sandee Taylor 10/20/2024

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Annual Meeting of the General Membership - October 19

10/14/2024

Please join us for the Annual Meeting of the General Membership

October 19, 2024
1:30 p.m.

Zoom Link will be sent to members via the state newsletter.

Zoom link also available on our member pages (sign-on required).

Program includes membership awards, membership recruitment recognition, and voting for your 2025 State Officers.

Highlights of the 2024 Annual Meeting of the General Membership

2024 Member Recruiters of the Year!

2024 Achievement in Writing: Cheryl Unruh

2024 Service Award: Anne Spry

2024 Service Award: Sheryl Brenn

2024 Service Award: Sandra Lou Taylor

Annual Meeting of the General Membership - October 19

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