Hey all!

Anne Melfi just sent me the minutes of the last meeting, which she called ‘planning meeting’ and I think is absolutely what it was.

Our primary goal of the meeting was to decide how to spend the remaining budget before the end of the fiscal year, which is at the end of May. We definitely want this to go toward the next conference, so we discussed a few ideas:

– making canvas bags like the ones we had last year, but with next year’s info and art

– getting a bunch of pens that say New Voices so you all have one and can remember that this conference happens every year

– paying for student center rooms (or whatever it is they charge) so we can get more than one panel going at a time

These are all excellent ideas, and we threw around several others, all great ideas.

Here is the bag for last year’s conference:

Mary Grace did a really good job snagging us a great deal. This year, we are going to do something similar, with new art, and of course, the new dates.

A friend of mine is sending us a couple of choices, and Deborah is also asking a friend. If any of you know people (or are people) that would be willing to contribute their vision of the theme “Monsters, Villains & Aberrations,” please send them my way.

We need all art contributions before the 16th of May (that’s a Wednesday).

Speaking of the 16th – that is the date of our next meeting:

May 16th 2012 11:30AM@ Java Monkey in Decatur

We will be making final decisions on the CFP, the art for the bags and other posters, the new new voices logo that Anne Melfi is creating for us, and the location for the actual conference.

Sometime early next week, a few of us will be headed down to the Student Center to see if we can get a few rooms in order to run multiple conference presentations at once. Our hope, again, is to expand the conference a little each year – and hopefully one day get national recognition. Fingers Crossed! We’ll need plenty of faculty support to pull this off, so make sure to mention New Voices often in your classes this summer and next Fall.

So to all who are interested – please join us at our next meeting. We’ll be having lunch together, or just coffee, if you’re not into sandwiches and salads. Feel free to email us @ newvoices11@gmail.com if you need directions or if you have questions.

Have a great summer! Good luck to those who have Maymester courses. And may all your grades be A+!

V-