WLA Reader's Section Business Meeting Minutes
Thursday, November 6, 2008

Present: Gary Warren Niebuhr ( Greendale PL ), Katie Schulz ( New Berlin PL ), Laurie Freund (WCFLS), Maureen Welch (IFLS), Ellen Jepson ( Appleton PL ), Stacy Lunsford ( Whitewater PL ), Trish Iaccarino (SCLS), Elizabeth Eisen ( Appleton PL ), Jennifer Einwalter ( Slinger PL )

Old Business

Minutes from the 2008 WAPL Conference business meeting were approved.

New Business

News: Niki Maher is now handling the READ newsletter. She replaced the outgoing editor, Mary Dunn. Trish mentioned that the READ web site was down for a while but it is now up and everything is fine. The Literary Awards section needs to be updated on the website. The committee decided that the older bibliographies should remain on the website. The “Member at Large” position title is now “Director at Large.”

2008 WLA Programs: Gary said that the book discussion the previous day went well and suggested moving the book discussion out of the conference schedule and to publicize the title well beforehand. Discussions continued regarding possible time slots such as a Wednesday, 6:30 pm, a one book/one conference theme, and other ideas on how to better advertise the book title.

A Reader's retreat was brought up and discussed with the possibility of having it away from the WAPL conference and inviting genre authors and a Wisconsin author to come and speak. Another idea discussed was offering a “genre bootcamp” for a WAPL or WLA pre-conference program. Gary and Jenny will investigate these ideas further with special consideration as to the costs, possible speakers, and a book discussion component. They will look into offering a program for a 2009 or 2010 WAPL Conference.

Respectfully submitted,

Laurie Freund, Reader's Section Secretary