New Year Letter from Booranga President, David Gilbey

Dear Booranga Members and Friends,

The good news, as you will read elsewhere in this newsletter, is that Booranga has received a grant from Create NSW for its 2018 program and infrastructure. This means our excellent part-time staff, Kathryn Halliwell (Creative Director) and Sandra Treble (Office Manager) can continue and will be paid. And that our proposed program of writers-in-residence will proceed …

At our recent Committee meeting, we identified a number of strategies to bolster our profile and our ongoing financial security. In particular we decided to make a concerted effort to attract more/new members. With this in mind we thought we would promote a couple of new inducements for members only:

·        with each visiting writer, we would make available a number of one-on-one consultations/mentorships

·        at the beginning of each writer’s residency we would have a special ‘members only’ meet-the-writer evenings at Booranga

At the end of 2017 there are around fifty paid-up members. Membership begins each new year (or at the fourW launches in November if you’ve already signed up). If we can increase our membership base we can underwrite more projects and secure all of the funding for eg. fourW, and undertake new and more extensive regional writing activities. We also want to increase the funding of the Booranga prizes to $500 each, so more memberships would help with this.

Towards that end, for 2018, membership and workshop attendance fees have been increased:

·        full membership with fourW: $50

·        membership without fourW: $30

·        student/concession (no fourW): $20

·        workshop attendance: $10 for non-members

Already we have cut some of the costs of producing fourW and we are implementing a small submission charge for entries to the 2018 Booranga Prizes – and of course, inclusion in fourW twenty-nine. Submission costs will be: $5 per poem and $10 per short story – this seemed to us comparable with similar submission charges by other journals/anthologies/competitions. This will allow us greater security in continuing fourW into the future.

We are planning to have some fundraising activities in 2018 – a literary dinner and a trivia night have been discussed – if you are interested in being involved in the planning and/or implementation of these, please contact us.

Booranga Writers’ Centre is a unique and culturally significant presence in this region. We link local writers to national and international writing communities. We work with other arts and writing groups to foster creativity in our home paddock. We know we have a significant effect on the lives and amenity of writing-interested people and actively encourage writers in various styles. We need to take, and be seen to be taking, some responsibility for our financial security, above what we receive in grants and in-kind from NSW Government, Wagga Wagga City Council and Charles Sturt University.

Sooo, please do join us – and encourage any other people you know who might be interested in supporting Booranga Writers’ Centre through membership and attendance/participation.

On behalf of all of us at Booranga I wish you and yours all the very best for the Festive Season. I look forward to catching up with you in the New year.

david

David Gilbey
Editor, fourW; President, Booranga Writers' Centre
Adjunct Senior Lecturer in English
Charles Sturt University
Locked Bag 588, Wagga Wagga
NSW, 2678, Australia