AGT meeting, February 7, 2019

The Authors Guild of Tennessee met on February 7, 2019 at Faith Lutheran Church, Farragut, Tennessee. The meeting was called to order by President Cheryl Peyton at 11:05.

The following members were present:

Present: Carol McClain, Russ Fine, Laura Derr, Don Pardue, Stephanie McElligott, David Curran, Tish Pritchett, Nadine Richmond, Cindy Leihkauff, Darlene Underwood, Denise Sherriff, Cheryl Peyton, Linda Fitzpatrick, Bobbi Chapman, Cyn Taylor, Tilmer Wright, Sam Bledsoe, Kaye George, Eva Wike, BJ Gillam, AD Asher, Jim Hartsell, Ray Strobo, and Randall Carpenter.

Guests present were: Jean Cutler (Gigi), Sherry Fine, Christina Eder.

January minutes. Walter Lambert’s name is not Doug. Stand as corrected.

Treasurer’s report; Outgoing treasurer Russ Fine gave year’s end report: As of 12/31/18, AGT had $230.47 in reserve. Present Treasurer Jim Hartsell advised that he is in process of getting check writing privileges. $247.29 has come in from retail sales. Checks will be sent to members after he is put on account.

President’s report (Cheryl Peyton) These members are being taken off the AGT checking account at ORNL for the year 2019:

Barbara (Bobbi) Chapman, outgoing president

Cindy Leihkauff, outgoing secretary

Russell Fine, outgoing treasurer

Sam Bledsoe, former president.

Going on the checking account:

Cheryl Peyton, newly elected president

Jim Hartsell, newly elected treasurer

Vote taken: The ayes were unanimous

Brief updates from the following Committee Chairs

Directory and By-laws Chair/ Retail Chair (Bobbi Chapman) Retail is meeting after this meeting. New directory distributed. Addition to by-laws: members must recuse themselves from the nominating committee if nominated.

Events Chair (Danielle Asher) 9 events between now and June that have a deadline in Feb. She will send out three emails with three events each. Chocolate Fest was held last weekend.

Library Chair (Laura Derr) Nothing new to report.

Marketing, website, training (Sam Bledsoe) Linda working with committee on branding. Working on promoting genres.

Tonight we will change the password. Email Sam if you need the password.

Membership (Kaye George) Got one application. She has not gotten a reply from him.

Publicity Chair (Cyn Taylor) Sent out 9 press releases. Asked papers if they wanted book reviews. Only one gave a positive response: Historic Union County. No AGT members responded to her invitation to participate. Cyn was asked to resend to all members.

Announcements

Walter Lambert has nearly completed his first podcast titled, “My Unexpected Lives.” Should be available soon.

Kaye George announced a local Sisters in Crime is forming. They will meet in Bearden Library in the afternoon on the 23 of Feb.

Kaye had several short stories published this month.

Jody Dyer said Knox County Library has classes on social media.

Strang Senior Center has them, too.

Program: Cheryl Peyton spoke on the topic: “The Glamour of Grammar.”

Grammar is the rules of language that have become the standard.

Correct grammar clarifies your meaning, and enhances the flow.

What are the greatest problems in our writing?

1. The apostrophe. Three uses: possessives, omission of letters, certain plurals of lower case.
2. They indicate a pause is needed. Note: Purdue Univ.’s OWL (Online Writers Lab) website is a good source help. Commas separate independent clauses with FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Use a comma after introductory clause. Items in a series use a comma, including the Oxford comma (after the last item before the conjunction).
3. Quotation marks. Put commas and periods within quotation marks. Colons and semicolons outside. See handout.

Quiz on the above punctuation marks handed out and completed by members. Answers then distributed.

Meeting adjourned was adjourned at: 12:19. Next meeting: March 7^th.