The State of IWC

After two years as president of Indiana Writers' Consortium, it is time for me to step aside and turn the helm over to someone with different talents. Yes, I know that's a cliche, but I'm a sailor so you'll have to put up with the nautical terminology.

IWC is a young organization that was incorporated just over four years ago. New legal entities tend to go through a series of stages on their way to maturity. The first is the formation stage, which is often led by someone with entrepreneurial gifts. In our case, that was Sharon Palmeri, who was instrumental in bringing IWC into being.

The second stage sees the entity setting up the legal policies and financial systems that will carry the organization into the business world. That has been my primary contribution.

When my term started in January 2011, IWC had no budget, a static website, a logo that couldn't be enlarged without losing the resolution, a Facebook page designed for an individual rather than a corporation, and none of the Board policies that the IRS looks for when it audits Section 501(c)(3) entities. As my term ends, all of those issues have been resolved.

During my term, I drafted a number of legal policies. Several conform to IRS guidelines, while others are simply good business practice. In particular, the Board adopted policies dealing with committees, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, gift acceptance (donations), recordkeeping, and whistleblowing. The Board also approved officer and director job descriptions and amended the membership policy.

Under my leadership, IWC adopted its first budget. Although there was little financial history to work with, the 2012 budget proved to be a realistic one. We also created procedures for developing the 2013 and subsequent budgets.

During Sharon Palmeri's tenure as president, she enrolled IWC in Legacy Foundation's Great Lakes Award Initiative, which was designed to educate non-profits on running effective organizations. The benefits of her foresight carried over into my term.

As a result of IWC's participation in GLAI, Legacy Foundation assigned Dennis Banas of Praxis Strategies and Solutions to serve as IWC's mentor for approximately six months. With the help of Dennis Banas and his associate, Kate Bathon, IWC refined its logo and mission statement and adopted a brand statement, all shown at the top of this post.

IWC's participation in GLAI also qualified it for a grant to improve its communications with members and the public by redesigning the website. The Board hired DataMine to do the work, and the newly designed site went online in September.

I created a new blog and tied it into the website, and IWC is posting new material at least once a week. I also created a corporate Facebook page to replace the individual page that IWC had previously used.

Of course, I could not have accomplished any of this without the support and hard work of the officers and directors who served during my term: Katherine Flotz, Jacqueline Huppenthal, Janine Harrison, Thomas Spencer, Judith Whitcomb, Sharon Palmeri, and Cynthia Echterling.

The above litany only covers the new goals achieved during my term. There were also many ongoing events and programs that succeeded largely--or even completely--because of the efforts of others. I would especially like to thank the PoPP Committee (consisting of Katherine Flotz, Jacqueline Huppenthal, Judith Whitcomb, Sharon Palmeri, and Sandra Nantais) and the PoPP judges (headed by Thomas Spencer) for their contributions to our highly successful school program, Jacqueline Huppenthal and Janine Harrison for their work on the annual banquets, and Thomas Spencer for graciously hosting the annual picnic the last two years.

The third stage of a new, healthy non-profit organization is the one that sees it growing in funding, programs, and membership. These are not my strengths.

I will remain active as IWC's secretary and blog master. I will also share responsibilities for website and Facebook management. But I have completed the tasks that made me a good fit as president, and it is time to let someone else captain IWC through the next stage.

So join me in welcoming Janine Harrison to that role.

Kathryn Page Camp
Outgoing President

IWC is an IRS Section 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to inspire and build a community of creative writers.

Holiday Greetings From Indiana Writers' Consortium

Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or nothing at all, the holidays can be stressful. So take a deep breath, release it slowly, and feel the tension leave your body.Then concentrate on noticing and recording those big and small incidents that add spice to your stories.

IWC wishes you happy holidays and a great 2013.

The Perils of Writing Who You Know

by

Kathryn Page Camp

 

www.kathrynpagecamp.com



We've all heard the old adage: Write what you know. But have you ever had someone tell you to write who you know? Probably not.

 

Still, many of us do write who we know. Are you working on a memoir? Or writing one of those personal experience articles that keep Reader's Digest and Guideposts in business?

 

That's fine as long as you keep it truthful. But telling the literal truth isn't good enough. "Uncle Charlie sleeps around" may be true if he travels a lot, but that won't be how readers interpret the statement. So unless you are looking for a defamation lawsuit or an excuse to avoid family gatherings, watch your words.

 

Even fiction writers tend to write who they know. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you are a defamation lawyer), most of us create characters who are amalgams of different people rather than one recognizable person. But that isn't always the case.

 

Imagine yourself living in the glow that follows your first published book. Then the sheriff knocks on the door and hands you a summons. Your brother has sued you for defamation.

 

Oh, you say, that won't happen to me. I only write fiction, and everybody knows fiction isn't true. Besides, I'll have a disclaimer at the beginning of my book saying that any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.

 

That may have been what Andrew Fetler thought when he published The Travelers. If so, he soon discovered that he was wrong.

 

The novel revolved around a family very much like Andrew's family and an older brother with many of the same characteristics as Andrew's older brother, Daniel. But the fictional parts portrayed the older brother as a cold-hearted traitor. So Daniel sued for defamation, and the entire family took sides.

 

A federal appeals court held that Daniel had the right to try the case. The similarities were strong enough to let a jury decide whether readers would identify the fictional brother with the real one.*

 

I don't know how the story ended. Jury verdicts and settled cases rarely result in written decisions, and I couldn't find any newspaper articles about the outcome. But even if Andrew ultimately won the case, he had to bear the expense and stress of a lawsuit and live with the knowledge that his novel had divided the family.

 

So if you want to write about real people and situations in your fiction, change enough facts to disguise the characters. This requires time and creativity, but it could avoid hard feelings and a lawsuit. And your writing will be better for the effort.

 

__________

* Fetler v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 364 F.2d 650 (2nd Cir. 1966).





October is Closer Than You Think

Save the date of October 10, 2013 for Indiana Writers' Consortium's Fifth Annual Banquet, which will be held at Avalon Manor in Merrillville, Indiana. Karen Kovacik, Indiana's current Poet Laureate, will be the keynote speaker. She will enlighten and entertain you regardless of your genre.

Karen Kovacik was born in East Chicago and grew up in Highland, in Lake County. She's the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Metropolis Burning, and her work has received numerous honors, including the Charity Randall Citation from the International Poetry Forum, the Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize, and a Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis. In 2004, she was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant to Poland, and her translations of contemporary Polish poetry have appeared in many anthologies and journals, such as American Poetry Review, Crazyhorse and Southern Review. She's professor of English at IUPUI, where she directs the creative writing program. In 2010, her poem "Invisible Movements" won the Moving Forward contest and will be installed along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

More banquet information will be available as the date approaches.