Pencils! Welcomes 2009 with Important Announcements!

JANUARY 27 MEETING.

For the January 27 meeting, we'll be attending a SPECIAL EVENT at the NORWALK PUBLIC LIBRARY in South Norwalk to support member John Palisano as he reads from his latest work as part of the 2009 Author Series. Copies of the anthologies in which his most recent work appeared will be available for sale, and proceeds will benefit the Friends of the Norwalk Library.

THE EVENT RUNS FROM 6:30 to 8:30. Please join us! For more information, visit John's website here and click on the link at the right of the page.

NEW FOR 2009 -- MEMBERSHIP DUES.

As you know, over the years, Pencils! has grown -- we've gained and lost members, and many times the subject of charging nominal dues has come up. Dues will not only help us lessen the financial impact of events and other incidentals (printing, mailing, the domain name for the web, etc.), but will help our members strengthen their commitment and put us more in line with other professionally-oriented writing groups and associations.

For 2009 and beyond, we're introducing membership dues for those who attend meetings.

We've set the cost of dues at $24/year due on January 31 of each year (that's not much more than $1/meeting). This amount will also make it easy for us to pro-rate members who join later in the year. New members may attend a maximum of three meetings before deciding whether or not they wish to join.

Carol McManus is the Treasurer and will open our first official Pencils! account. Please send your $24 membership dues as close to January 31 as possible to Carol.

Have a wonderful few days and I'll see you all on January 27!

Kaye