Carol Yoho (D1), Duane Johnson (D1 and 2020-21 State President), and Tracy Million Simmons (D2 and 2022 State President) finally managed to meet in person to celebrate a second successful virtual convention. (Click here for highlights from the 2021 Convention.) Missing: Thea Rademacher (D1).

News for the 2022 Convention, to be held in person in Lawrence, Kansas, with a virtual component, is pending announcement... soon. Meanwhile, members can go ahead and reserve a hotel room and purchase advertising in the convention program.

Each year, members are asked to nominate those who deserve special recognition for service to the club, for work on a special accomplishment, or for achievement in writing. 
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Letter of Nomination:

It was a painful decision for each member of the 2021 Convention Planning Committee to pull the plug on their plans to host a live convention in Topeka. For more than a year, I sat in on many of their planning sessions. I was impressed by the energy and attention to detail as they planned their marketing strategy and put together what I think you will agree is an impressive lineup of speakers and workshop presenters. Multiple times, some members of the committee met with the director of events at Ramada Inn, or simply wandered through on their own, to examine the facilities and make sure they understood what would happen where.

Because this is a virtual convention, you can never have a full appreciation of how much work went into planning those aspects of the convention that had to be scrapped. For a year, they planned for a live convention under the cloud of uncertainty created by COVID, knowing that much of their planning might be of no avail. Then, in early spring, as numbers of cases and deaths dramatically dropped and the pandemic appeared to be running its course, they voted to forge ahead full speed with their plans for a live convention.

The emotional roller coaster they then endured as the Delta variant heated things up again made it all the more difficult for them to cancel the live portion of the convention. But it was clear as they discussed their decision, that what they dreaded most was the thought of feeling personally responsible for some of you becoming sick or even dying as a result of infection at the convention.

Because this is a virtual event, you can never have a full appreciation of how much work went into planning those aspects that had to be scrapped. I could sense their disappointment as each one raised his or her hand to vote to torpedo much of their own plans. Through their determination to bring you and me a high-quality convention, these individuals serve as role models for us all. We can learn from them how to pivot and persevere when confronted with circumstances we cannot control.
I hope you will give them a thumbs up as we call out their names.

Members of the committee are:

District 1:
Fred Appelhanz
Audrey Bosley
Max Dunavan
Reaona Hemmingway
Ruth Maus
Anne Spry
Janet Jenkins Stotts
Barbara Waterman Peters
Carol Yoho

District 5:
Connie Rae White

  
Nominated by: Duane Johnson

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kansas Authors Club during the first weekend in October broke new ground when it hosted its first ever virtual writers convention.

The oldest statewide writers organization in the United States (chartered 1904) has held an annual writers convention almost every year since 1905. War intervened on two occasions. Disease now threatened to do the same.

Typically, the site of the convention rotates between KAC’s seven districts. This year’s convention, “Writing Across Kansas . . . A Sense of Place,” originally was planned by District 7 to take place in Colby.

“Instead, we met in the comfort of our members’ homes,” Duane Johnson, KAC president said.

As the deadly disease spread across the United States, Johnson realized in May that the convention might need to be cancelled.

“I was in close contact with convention planners, so I knew how hard they had worked to put together an impressive lineup of speakers and workshop leaders,” Johnson said. “I knew I would be letting them and the rest of our 250-plus members down unless I found an alternative.”

The solution—video-conferencing the event—Johnson said, was obvious. Figuring out how to do it was not.
He spent a month reading online articles and watching Zoom webinars on webinars. Then he assembled a four-member “zoom team” to host the convention. The team, Carol Yoho, Curtis Becker, and Tracy Million-Simmons, met each week to strategize, rehearse, and role-play. A mock webinar was held with as many of the workshop leaders as could attend. Team members then met with workshop leaders, who had various levels of experience with Zoom, in blocks of two or three to make sure everyone knew what to expect and were up to speed. They even hired a videoconference specialist from The WebiNerd.

“We were pioneering unfamiliar terrain, and we had to get it right the first time,” Johnson said. “No Mulligans allowed.”

All the while, they coordinated their efforts with the convention committee and contest managers.

A normal Kansas Authors Club conference consists of 12 to 15 workshops, some presented two or three times; keynote speakers; presentation of awards for children’s writing contests, adult writing contests, and newly released books in several categories; a state board meeting; annual members meeting; and an awards banquet.

“For the better part of two days, multiple events are going on simultaneously,” Johnson said. “How the devil were we going to duplicate that with a video-conference?”

The solution: purchasing not one, but two webinar add-ons to the group’s Zoom account. During the convention, the team split into two two-member teams on each webinar.

“We had to ditch the banquet and postpone the board and members meetings to the next weekend, but we got everything else in,” Johnson said. “We even set up a virtual bookroom for members to sell their books and a silent auction.”

The WebiNerd specialist recommended direct cable-to-computer connections to guard against the instability of Wi-Fi, and head-sets. As a result, each zoom team member had out-of-pocket expenses to go with the hours of time they contributed. At least one team member also had to purchase a web-cam.

Johnson said the convention, which featured Kansas Poet Laureate Huascar Medina and Academy award-winning playwright Kevin Wilmott, experienced a few minor glitches, but everyone seemed pleased with the outcome.
“My most terrifying moment came during Rich Hawkins’ “Writing for Radio” workshop when the lights blinked off for a second and I lost my connection,” Johnson said. “I went into panic mode until I realized that Carol was still supporting the webinar on her end. When I reconnected five minutes later, everything was fine. No one even knew I was gone.”

He said the best part of the experience for him was the bond the four zoom team members formed with each other as they trained each other.

​“We laughed a lot,” he said. “I think we all had a good time as we taught each other how to do something KAC has never done before. I look forward to when we can get together over a six-pack. And corn chips. And M&Ms. That’s an inside joke.” 

Sept. 15, 2020 - President Duane Johnson is pleased to announce that the Kansas Authors Club was selected as a recipient of The Literary Arts Emergency Fund grant, awarded by by the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazine & Presses, and the National Book Foundation. Johnson applied for the grant when it became apparent that, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the in-person, annual convention would not be able to take place as usual.

Johnson spearheaded a committee of four to train to host the convention online. With Curtis Becker, Tracy Million Simmons, and Carol Yoho, the organization's October convention will take place virtually, via Zoom webinars, for the first time.

Kansas Authors Club was one of 282 literary organizations that received funding from this grant. The funds are provided to support the software licensing, support services, and training the committee has undergone to bring the convention to members throughout the state of Kansas and beyond.

More about the award can be found at The Literary Hub.