Welcome
to the following new members of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets who have joined since the last Museletter issue.

New member inquiries should be directed to Peter Piaskoski,the credentials chair. Join us!

In Memoriam

Marjorie Pettit
The WFOP lost a long-time member on August 11, 2003. Marjorie Pettit passed away at the age of 81. Marjorie was born in Pardeeville, Wisconsin, graduated from college at Stevens Point and taught high school English for several years. Marjorie served as secretary and president of the WFOP during her long tenure with the organization. Lenore Coberly reminisced about Marjorie: “When I first joined WFOP, Marjorie was secretary. She would mimeograph the Museletter and I addressed them by hand!” She was active as a volunteer, playing piano for adult day care centers, retirement homes and giving poetry readings to these places as well. She traveled extensively, including trips to the Galapagos Islands and Easter Island. Marjorie is survived by her son, Perry.

John Faragher
John Faragher, founder of the www.spondee.net website and friend of the WFOP, died on October 16, 2003 at the age of 81, the result of complications from heart bypass surgery. John grew up on Milwaukee’s near south side. After graduation from South Division High School, he served in World War II. He was involved in a glider crash where everyone else in the glider was killed and he was far inside enemy lines. He managed to find friendly forces in German territory. After the war, John earned a degree in English from Marquette University. He taught science and literature at Pilgrim Park in Elmbrook until his retirement. John had a strong interest in computers which led him to his interest in the internet and the creation of www.spondee.net. In his retirement, John taught poetry at the old LaFarge Institute for Lifelong Learning. John is survived by his wife, Billylu, his seven children, Mary, Michael, Patrick, Peter, John, Thomas, and Robert, and grandchildren.

Edith Nash
The Mid-Central Region will greatly miss Edith Nash, who died on November 9th at the age of 90. Edith was not only a wonderful poet but was also one of Wisconsin Rapids' most dedicated supporters of the arts and a cherished friend to the poets in her region. She was the founder of the Riverwood Round Table, the local writers’ group, and a member of the Wisconsin Humanities Committee. Edith loved attending Norbert Blei’s workshops in the summer, and her most recent book, Practice the Here and Now was published in his series. Together with her husband, Philleo, Edith was active in the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, when her husband served as lieutenant governor in the late 50s. They returned to live in Washington, DC and Edith helped found and direct one of the first integrated schools in the DC area, the Georgetown Day School. She served as director from 1961–1975. After her husband’s death in 1987, Edith ran the family cranberry business until she sold it in 1992. She spent the rest of her life devoted to the arts and philanthrophy in and around the Wisconsin
Rapids area.

Controversies in the Fellowship
      I’d like to open debate on topics that generated heated discussion among the Fellowship’s Board and members. I’ll introduce the subject, and offer my opinion/approach. In some cases, members with other points of view reply. I invite all of you to join the discussion—either through letters to the Museletter editor, or by contacting your regional vice-president. We will be discussing these at the Board and General Membership meetings in the near future.

Poets’ Calendar Dates
      A number of our members have noticed that recent issues of the Fellowship’s Wisconsin Poets’
Calendar have only Christian and secular holiday dates. At the last spring conference, the Board adopted a list of dates recommended for inclusion in the Calendar. We intended to be more inclusive. The list includes, among others, Kwanzaa, and important Jewish holidays.
      Unfortunately, the 2004 Calendar was too far along in the publishing process to implement these changes. When the Calendar was released, it did not contain the expanded list of dates. Several members took offense.
      On behalf of the Board, I apologize for the confusion surrounding the adoption of recommended dates so close to the release of a Calendar that did not conform. My apology comes with the following qualifications:
      The list of dates is recommended. The Fellowship has traditionally left essentially all of these editorial decisions to the Calendar’s editor. Selection of poems, layout, artwork, typesetting, proofing—all of these are the editor’s prerogative.
      It’s hard to find an editor (or editors) who are both qualified and willing to take on the task. I routinely make a dozen or more calls before finding someone able and available. The editor is unpaid, except for direct expenses such as postage. The broad editorial discretion they enjoy is small payment
for many hours of work.
      Editorship of the Calendar is an honor reserved for Fellowship members who have a proven record—both as published poets, and as astute judges of others’ work. With the honor comes the curse—the long, thankless, and often-controversial job of receiving over a thousand submissions, winnowing them down to a manageable collection, preparing them for publication—and fielding the compliments and complaints that always follow.
      The finished Calendar is more the editor’s work than the Fellowship’s. We, as publisher, are not endorsing a particular set of holidays any more than we are endorsing the content of the individual poems. Frankly, if we had a Muslim editor who wanted to include only Muslim holidays, I’d consider it an interesting variation on the theme and welcome it. The Fellowship would still get its primary values: a venue for our members’ work, and a source of income.
      My policy has been to stand back and let the editor(s) show us what they can do. I worry that if we impose too many restrictions and regulations, we will not find editors of the quality we’ve grown used to. Nor would we get the rich and varied editions of the Calendar that we’ve enjoyed (and in some cases, cursed).
      If asked, I would advise an editor to take one of three approaches in picking holidays: none at all, legal holidays only, or The-List-and-Then- Some. But then I’d finish by saying “You’re the editor. It’s your decision.” I think it needs to stay that way.

E-Mail as a Means of Board Communication
      Between regular meetings, Board members often use e-mail to exchange ideas, request information, and propose agenda items for upcoming meetings. This practice has been around for at least the six years I’ve been on the Board. As president, I expanded its use to get Board members’ opinions and advice on a broad range of topics.
      These e-mail exchanges are conversations. We are not transacting Board business outside the regularly scheduled, face-to-face meetings. E-mail has proven a quick and inexpensive way to communicate routine messages, and develop consensus on day-to-day decisions.
      Several members have complained that this practice excludes Board members who do not have access to e-mail. There is concern that some of our Board may be left out of conversations they would have an interest in.
      My reasons for using e-mail are that it provides a very rapid, inexpensive forum for the great majority of Board members. We now routinely communicate on matters that previously would have been decided by one officer alone. The expense of conference calls, and the time lag of postal mail, make these media impractical.
      I feel the advantage of such quick, easy communication outweighs the disadvantage that it excludes those few Board members who are not online. I intend to continue using e-mail, but welcome comments and criticisms.

Methods of Delivery for the Museletter
      We’ve had a surprisingly vigorous debate over one Board member’s suggestion that the Museletter be delivered first-class, rather than by bulk mail. Here are the issues currently on the table:

1. Bulk mail can take as long as two weeks. This can make some time-sensitive news items (contests,
   conference registration forms, event dates) outdated before the Museletter arrives. The NFSPS Strophes is often outdated, since the NFSPS mails the Strophes to Chris Falk, who then packages them for mailing with the next edition of the Museletter.
2. Bulk mail is substantially cheaper than first-class. Our typical bulk-mail cost is about $100 - $150 per Museletter issue. We mail four issues per year. First-class for the same number of items and weight would be about $300–$400. The Fellowship’s finances are roughly break-even right now. This means that we’d have to find some way to cover the additional cost if we decided to use first class mail.
3. It is possible to publish the Museletter in .pdf format on our website. Online members could
   download it and print it for themselves, instead of receiving a hard copy via mail. This could cut costs.
4. Chris Falk, our Museletter editor, tells me it is not difficult to maintain multiple lists indicating members’ delivery preferences: online, bulk mail, first-class. The disadvantage is that it might increase administrative costs, and/or the possibility of errors.
5. Members who want the first-class option might be surcharged for the service. Again, this increases level of complexity and chance for error.
6. If enough members decided to receive the Museletter online, we might save enough in postage to cover the additional cost for those who want first-class delivery.
7. If the Fellowship chose to discontinue membership in the NFSPS, the savings (both in dues to national and decreased mailing weight without Strophes) might pay for everyone to get first-class postage.

    So—what do you think? I have no problem with receiving the Museletter as I do now. But then again, I’m prez and so most of the stuff is old news to me by the time it goes to press. I welcome your opinions and will do my best to develop a consensus on this surprisingly thorny issue.

Do We Continue Membership in the NFSPS?
    One way of controlling Fellowship expenses is by discontinuing our membership in the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. We pay $2 per member per year to belong to this organization. I think we should quit. Here’s why:
    There are two reasons to belong to NFSPS. First is Strophes, their newsletter. It has listings for contests, publications, and other poets’-interest contacts. Second is the annual poetry contest, which allows NFSPS members to enter up to 50 separate competitions at a reduced fee. Winners get cash prizes, some of which are pretty generous by poet standards.
    There are other benefits, as well—such as the annual convention and eligibility for chapbook contests and scholarships. For most members, though, the Strophes and the annual contest are the reasons to belong.
     Strophes is now available online at the NFSPS website. As far as I can tell, there’s no restriction on access. You don’t need to be a member to read it online. In fact, it’s more timely than our current mailing system (see above).
    Essentially all of the national contests can be entered by non-members, for an additional fee. I’m not sure how many of our members take advantage of this, but I suspect that, dollar-for-dollar, we’d be better off letting those members who want to enter, to pay the extra fee.
    I think our money is better spent supporting our local activities and contests. I suggest we not renew our membership in NFSPS.

Okay, Now It’s Your Turn
    One of the joys of this organization is the way folks from so many different places, with so many different points of view, can come together and still treat each other as colleagues. The WFOP is my gold-standard for what fellowship is all about. We have some contentious topics here. I understand that there are good reasons to disagree with me. Not all of us will be happy with whatever decision is made. But let me know what you think. I hardly need to tell a bunch of poets this, but silence is consent. If you don’t make your wishes known, you’ve got no reason to gripe about the outcome.

Response from D.B. Appleton, WFOP Treasurer (received, as it would happen, following an email consensus-gathering discussion):
    Thank you, Peter, for taking the time to clearly present these issues, with which you've done a first-rate job. My thoughts (in no particular order) are as follows:

1)Re: delivery method for the Museletter, all I can offer is my own personal preference of wanting to get the Museletter in its current, hard-copy format—I would have no interest in an online version.
2) I too would recommend discontinuing NFSPS membership. The benefits are minimal, and WFOP withdrawal does not preclude any member from individually taking advantage of anything NFSPS has to offer. And the cost of NFSPS membership for the entire organization is nearly $1000 a year—I can think of a lot of other things on which we can better spend a thousand dollars each year.
3) Re: Calendar holidays—My gripe is not with giving editors latitude with the calendar. It is with publishing a calendar that is not a viable calendar to be used for those who purchase it expecting it to be such, and not just a collection of poetry. If we are just interested in publishing poetry, we could simply publish an annual collection, which perhaps should be a consideration. The bulk of our sales is undoubtedly from members whose poems are published in each edition, and they would most probably continue to purchase the same number of copies (or maybe even more) if it were simply a published collection, not a one-year-limited calendar. There would be a substantial benefit to publishing a straight collection vs. a calendar, in that it would not be chronologically restricted to a calendar year, and so could be sold as a viable collection well past the end of any calendar year, both to members and in bookstores, gift shops and other appropriate outlets. (And then editors could simply focus on poetic content and artistic considerations, over which they should indeed have control, and would not have the pressure or additional time & effort requirements of dealing with calendar dates and formats and proofing.) But if we put the collection out as a calendar, I think we owe it to those to wish to use it as such to make it a viable, usable calendar—otherwise, it’s sort of unfair to promote it as a calendar when it’s lacking the basic inclusions that you’d find in any (every?) other calendar on the market. When I buy a calendar to use, I expect it to have a reasonably complete list of major religious holidays, as well as pertinent info such as when Daylight Savings begins and ends, Election Day, and other dates that have been regularly missing, incomplete or incorrect. Inclusion of certain holidays, Jewish or otherwise, is of course not an endorsement of any particular spiritual viewpoint. It is simply being thorough and professional. Just go into any bookstore and look at any number of calendars at random, published by any organization you wish, and see what holidays they feel are necessary. I don’t think we have any particular insights that all these other hundreds of groups have somehow missed—the consistent inclusion of Jewish holidays, DST dates, Election Day, etc. are there for a good and time-tested reason, and it would seem incredibly presumptuous of us to think that they are superfluous in anything promoted as a usable calendar. We should have pride in what we publish as an organization, and it is not just the editors’ names that appear—the calendar is published first and foremost by the organization. If we are publishing a calendar of poetry, it should be well-edited poetry in a well-edited calendar. Otherwise, we should simply be publishing an annual collection, and not well-edited poetry in a sub-standard calendar; putting a first-class product in shoddy packaging does a great disservice to not only WFOP, but insults the poets whose work appears therein. Thanks for listening (reading?)—DB

2005
Poems for the 2005 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar are due February 28, 2004. All Wisconsin adult residents are eligible to submit. To ensure consideration, please follow these procedures:

• Submit up to three original, unpublished poems.
• Maximum of 20-25 lines. Seasonal or about Wisconsin.
• Poems should be sent without name or address; include cover sheet with title of poems.
• Include a three-sentence biography on a separate page.
• Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you would like to be notified.
• Poems will not be returned.

Co-editors are Mike Koehler and Gary Busha. Mail submissions to:

Michael Koehler
2011⁄2 N. Appleton St. #2
Appleton, WI 54911
(920) 378-1061

FINANCES
Third Quarter Financial Report

July 1, 2003 through September 30, 2003

Literary Fund Account:
Balance July 1, 2003 $1,277.83

Balance September 30, 2003 $811.62

General Account:
Balance July 1, 2003 $33,535.01

Balance September 30, 2003 $34,659.50

Calendar Account:
Balance July 1, 2003 $10,632.36

Balance September 30, 2003 $6,786.56

submitted by D.B. Appleton, treasurer