Minutes from the meeting of April 29, 1996:

9 pm, Writers House
Compiled by Shawn (final/testing plans) and Alex (notes on meeting)

Each semester, our speaker/activities buget(s) are divided into three equal categories:

A: Formal grant proposals

Calls for proposals are advirtised each semester, with a specific deadline and guidelines. The hub collects the grant proposals and decides on which to sponsor. All hub meetings are open to the public.

B: Rolling grant proposals

Similar format. For those in the University community who miss the deadline but still want to be considered. Reviewed at once-monthly hub meetings.

C: Contingency Funds

Discretionary funds which the hub discusses at meetings/over listserv, etc. Included in order to give the hub freedom to make semi-last minute decisions as things come up.

Question: I am the editor of _Mosaic_, and we have a great idea about a reading series for next spring. I am not a part of the "hub," but I think this would be a very valuable thing to do. How can I get help?

Answer: Apply for funding. (application soon to be available on our homepage and in various locations) We'll help you pay for it, you do the leg work.

Question: I am not a member of any group, and I missed the deadline, but I would like my favorite author, who will be in town next month, to come and read and give a seminar on a weekend. What do I do?

Answer: Apply for some of our rolling funding. Our application proceedure is available on our homepage, or you can take one of these. We'll consider this on the meeting of such-and-such a date, which you are welcome to attend.

Question: I am a member of the hub, or I am not a member of the hub, but I know that so-and-so happens to be in town next week and would stop by the Writers House if we made appropriate arrangements. You don't have a meeting until next month. What do I do?

Answer: We have some funds set aside for last-minute decisions like this. Let's write a proposal to the hub and see what they think.

Question: I was not able to come to such-and-such a meeting. However, I am very interested. What do I do?

Answer: All minutes are posted to the hub and open to discussion. If you miss them there, you can always find them on the homepage at

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~wh/proposal/staff.html

Alex:

thank you to marcy zipke for bringing bags of books to the writers house. if anybody knows any graduating seniors who want to ditch books/furniture, etc. please let shawn know.

deciding on speakers, and getting speakers for the house events

(dialogue rather than complete answers. sorry if this is disjointed.)

• problem: limited budget to get speakers. how do we decide who to bring, and how do we as a group determine who will come?
• idea: joint sponsorship. problem with that: other magazines/organizations have barely any money, etc. We may take care of the money to pay speakers brought in by other groups.
• what kinds of events do we sponsor? what kinds of categories do we need, and what responsibilities do we have to the organizations?
• local writers events would fall under our limited budget.
• how do we enable someone to decide (or propose) a speaker to come? under what auspisces or organizations? (philo, WH, a certain mag with a vested interest?)
• possibly earmark some of our speakers budget for open suggestions from the community? call for proposals for sponsorship of writers events of any kind. part of the criteria could be, perhaps, participation in the writers house. then we have a summit meeting and decide. that makes a series. with the rest of the money, we have discretion to do what we want.
• perhaps a rolling (read: open) deadline for proposals for events or speakers could be created too, one that keeps our minds/money open for unexpected (but wonderful) opportunities.

events for fall

• 2 night a week open house?
• friday night speakers.....readings by high school students.
• we _all_ need to start thinking about what we want to do for fall. all ideas for events/series/seminars should be articulated to shawn.
• professor reading/roundtable series?
• maybe a rough set of guidelines for proposals (roughly what it would cost, why its interesting, etc.) for both us and others to consider while proposing ideas (big and small) to the WH board.
• shawn will be putting up a calender on the web for events. people refer to it for their ideas, and to learn about upcoming events (hardcopy in house)