Greetings Fellow Guildlings

First of all, I know we would all like to thank JoAnne and Andy for the use of their beautiful home for our Christmas Pot Luck--Party. I'm sure that everyone who attended had a great time. Good food, good stories, great presents, good company, and the decorations were fantastic! With two people counting, we had either 23 or 25 attending. I am NOT touching that one.

The following are the dates for the next four meetings, so please, mark your calendars:

All dates are on the 3rd Thursday and the time is 7:00 PM. The place is the: Bob Rudd Community Center, Room 'B'.

The contest for the best Coffee Can prompt was won by George Strickland. Five dollars will be awarded to George at our next meeting. Winning the $5 should be an incentive to everyone to complete a story for each prompt. The title for this prompt was: "What Happened to the Coffee Can?" The can didn't show up at the November meeting, thus the idea. I didn't contribute to the contest, but I was the only person who knew where it was. Sitting in my office, on my desk, and it forgot to make it to the meeting.

Stories were also read for the contest we ran this last time around. I missed who won, but Andy told me it was Susie Tolladay. Twenty five dollars isn't too shabby. The $25 will be awarded to Susie at the January meeting, also.

Both stories for the contests were voted on and passed.

Congratulations to both of the winners.

Then.....We partied. Course, I forgot my thimble so JoAnne could not open her bottle of saki.

Hope to see you all at the Thursday meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Ha! I bet you never thought you would see this one. I'm just full of surprises.

The meeting for November was called to order by Steve Johnson.

Steve Johnson--------------------President

Andy Alberti-----------------------Vice President

JoAnne Butterweck-------------Treasurer

Nancy Wertsbaugh--------------Secretary

Allison, Lula, Judy and George, Bob, Erline, Linda, Alysha, Betty and Lesley

The minutes of the last meeting were approved. Motion to accept was made by Nancy and seconded by JoAnne. Motion was voted on and passed.

Treasurer's Report: $508.79 Checking Account

Andy moved and Nancy Seconded the amounts be accepted. Voted on and passed.

We reviewed the dues for this year: Due NOW.

$28.00 per one person

16.00 Associate Member

Andy has been plugging the Guild on his TV program. Our meetings have been listed in "The Mirror", and "The Mohave News".

The $25 contest was discussed. Stories should not be over 1000 words, and turned in by the deadline of 12-12-06. We will read them at the party on 12-21, and vote on the winner that night. The prompt for the contest is: "It's Hopeless, but Not Serious". At this time, we have five stories turned in for the contest. There is still time for non-members to enter the contest.

Steve informed prospective members about the stories for "Parasol" based in Parasol, WY, in the 1800's. Each additional story should not be over 5000 words.

JoAnne handed out forms for the Christmas Pot Luck. It included: Who wants to bring what, and she and Andy's address and phone number, so we might RSVP.

The Guild's by-laws will be reviewed by Steve, Andy, JoAnne and Nancy.

Nancy reported that we need a new Agent for the group and should be turned into the Sec. Of State of NV. The amount for the change is $60. Also, we need to send in $5 for a list of New Officers from the above department. It was tabled till the January meeting.

There was discussion about our Guild's web site being moved back to Pahrump. Bill Lopez has done a terrific job on this site, but we really need to have everything pertaining to the Guild in one location. No decision at this time.

Steve brought up about software for our PC's...The name of the program is: "New Novelists".

Judy announced the poetry spot being held at the library, the 1st Saturday of each month. Time is 10:00-12:00. This includes the reading of poems and very short stories.

Judy and George asked that their stories and poems be taken off the web site. Nancy will contact Bill, and as soon as she hears from him, she will let George and Judy know.

Andy was contacted by Dorothy, from the Pahrump Arts Council. He thought we might get together with other organizations. We can look into it and decide from there.

Andy also reported that Laura has been published in "The Mojave News", and won a contest for a story she sent into a Christian's magazine. The check is in the mail, Laura.

Paschal will be signing and selling his new book at the library on Saturday, 12-16, from 10:00-12:00.

Nancy will send out dates for January-April, 2007 meetings in the next summary.

A motion was made by Andy, and seconded by Nancy to award $5 for the best Coffee Can story each month. A deadline will be set each month. An amendment to this motion was made It states that if no one writes a story for a particular prompt, The $5 will roll over to the next month. Then the amount will be $10. The motion and amendment were discussed, voted on and passed.

Drum roll, please..............

The 'Coffee Can' prompt for next meeting and contest is:

"What Happened to the Coffee Can?"

Deadline is: 12-11-06.

See you at Andy and JoAnne's in December. Remember: PARTY!

The motion was made, seconded, voted on, and passed to adjourn the meeting.

Alysha, JoAnne's granddaughter, who is 13, recited the words from a song she wrote. It is entitled: "The Sands of Time". Very good job Alysha.

Any mistakes in punctuation, spelling, and vocabulary, are entirely my PC"s fault.

Respectfully submitted,

The September 21 meeting was really great. We had ten, count them, ten members present. Welllllll, this included a guest who dropped by. John Knapp regaled us with story titles he has made up over a period of time. Very funny. Too bad he is moving to Nebraska.

The treasurer's report was given, and we are doing well.

We tabled the publication for the next meeting. Nancy will bring copies of our past publications, so the group can see what has been done in the past.

Officers were voted on, and are as follows:

President: Steve Johnson

Vice President Andy Alberti

Secretary: Nancy Wertsbaugh

Treasurer JoAnne Butterweck

We took care of a lot of new business...Motions were made, seconded, discussions followed, voted on and passed. They are as follows:

1. Due to increasing costs, we decided to raise our yearly dues.

Single membership: $28.00

Associate Membership: $15.00

2. We are having another writing contest. All stories have to be in by 12-01, and should be 500-1000 words long. The prompt for the contest is:

"The Situation Is Hopeless, But Not Serious".

The stories can be e-mailed to:

Or typed and sent to our post office box:

Oasis Writer's Guild

Pahrump, NV 89041

First prize will be $25.00, second, third place, place and honorable mention will receive certificates. The last one did so well, and if we can obtain some more new members like last time, we will really be cooking. (I mean writing) Dan and Steve will put the information in the "Pahrump Valley Times", "The Mirror" and "The Mojave News". Along with this, they will also put in our meeting nights, time and place. Dan will be in charge of publicity, with help from Steve, if needed.

3. We decided to have our Guild Christmas dinner on 12-21, in place of our regular meeting night. JoAnne and Andy have graciously offered their home for that night. I might drink that saki yet. It will be a Pot Luck Dinner, and we will have more on this at a later time.

4. Two checks were written. One to Nancy for $25.00, which she paid out of her pocket. This covered the late fees toward the Guild's license by the Town of Pahrump. It was their mistake, as we paid it with-in the 10 day grace period. They returned it to the Guild. The second one was to The State of Nevada. The amount was $25.00, and was included with the list of new officers, so we might do business as a non-profit organization.

Two e-mails were read on the same subject: The NV Country Music Association. They are looking for material to include in its monthly newsletter. Offerings can be anything relating to the old west and or country music. Short stories, poems, biographies of famous country music stars, et cetera, are welcome. We have two addresses to choose from:

In the subject line, please add: Re: For Country Notes

Also, you can send the material directly to:

Steve told us about the "Story base" program for PC's. Apparently he has talked to a man about selling the program to each Guild member for a price of $69.00, through 10-31. To order, use e-mail address: storybase.net

In the subject line, include: Re: 89048

Steve said, there is an order form that will pop up. Uh huh. Steve, if I've gotten this wrong, please send it to the group so it will be clearer than mud.

I mentioned to Steve that the president usually sends out the summary of the last meeting. He figures it is the secretary's job, and I heard murmurs in the back-ground that agreed with Steve. Well....Dang. Here I thought I was getting out of doing it. So, please, bear with me for another year, even if I'm tad late. Like the present summary.

I have a sneaky feeling I've been railroaded once again.

New prompt for the next meeting is: "I Had a Hard Week at Work, and That Was Just Today"

Next meeting will be held on 10-19, 7:00, Room 'B', Bob Rudd Community Center.

Happy writing everyone!

Secretary (Thank you, I think)

Our meeting on the NEW third Thursday of the month, was fantastic. Six of us were in attendance, but also, a guest showed up. Ms Cassie Wells. I knew she was going to try to attend, and I was very glad she could make the meeting, as was everyone else .We bombarded her with questions about finding agents, getting published, etc cetera. Cassie will be in town next month during our next meeting, and plans to attend. She has graciously agreed to read five pages, double spaced, of our stories, and give us any comments from an editor's point of view. More on this later.

We didn't have a treasurer's report, as we kept Cassie pretty busy. I'm here to tell you, we are still in good shape.

We are tabling our publication discussion at this time, but will pick it up in the next two meetings. We really need to get busy on it.

We did have nominations of officers for this next year, as follows:

President: Nancy Wertsbaugh

Vice President: Steve Johnson

Treasurer: JoAnne Butterwick

Secretary: Susie Tolladay

Dan made a motion, seconded by Andy, to close nominations. The motion carried. Susie, don't feel badly about not having a choice; JoAnne left the room at the wrong time and look what happened to her.

We had three motions made, seconded, and passed. They are:

1. We will send Cassie five pages, double spaced, of our stories we would like to have her look at, and she will comment on them, either by e-mail, or at our next meeting. Please get in touch with Andy or myself for her e-mail address.

2.Steve will be setting up a web page, which will be like a bulletin board, for us to send in our stories on our prompts. Everyone can read them a couple of weeks ahead of the next meetings. We can download them and if we have any comments on them, we will make them at our next meeting, or e-mail each other. (Hopefully, I'll be putting a new roster together, so we may have each other's addresses, etc cetera.) This way we won't have to take the time to read them at our meetings. Best of all, we will all be prepared ahead of time. The site is for members only. The URL is: www.storybaseinfo/oasis PLEASE, do not confuse this with our web site that Bill Lopez has set up, Coffee Can Stories

3.Steve made a motion and it was seconded, to install Cassie Wells an honorary member. The motion passed with all thumbs up. Cassie was delighted.

I took care of obtaining our business license for this next year, for the good ol' "Town of Pahrump". Hey, we're legal until next year..

Note: Andy has invited Cassie to be a guest on his TV show, "The Andy Alberti Show", Channel 30, Wednesday, August 30, 6:00 PM.....so try to watch it. He will give her a DVD of the taping. She's never been invited to do something like this, and said her mom will be thrilled to see the DVD.

We decided to go with the prompt from the last meeting, once again: "The Day I Disappeared"

Mine is finished, so you all get on the stick, pencil, pen or PC.....whatever the case may be.

Another Note: Be sure to watch the show, "Animal Atlas", on FOX, Thursdays, 12:00 PM. Cassie produces it and writes it. Ought to be fun, from what she told us about it.

We were given lists by Steve and Cassie for web sites and books that are helpful. I do have a few of the books, and you are welcome to borrow them. You can get more of the info at the next meeting.

Don't forget to mark your calendar for our next meeting...September 21, 7:00 PM, Bob Rudd Community Center, Room.'B'.

The motion was made and seconded to close the meeting, and we all went on our merry way, truly enlightened.

I remain, for one more month, your ever-multi-tasking president (and not too late this time),

Yep, I'm late once again. Maybe the month of August will be different. Welllllll, we can only hope.

First of all I'd like to apologize for having to cancel the meeting in June, due to illness. Four of the newest people we want to bring into the group did make it, though. They didn't get the word. My fault again. It was reported to me by three of them that they had a great time getting to know one another.

What a fantastic meeting we had this month. It was wonderful to look out from the president's chair and see so many in attendance. Think we'll make it after all.

We gleaned two new members and a possible third. If we can talk Steve's wife, Dorothy, into joining. We pretty well knew Steve would be joining, but the newest member is Dan Schinhofen. Hey, ROBIN, we want and need you back, also. Andy announced he may have two more people interested. Yippee!

The treasurer's report was given, and we are in good shape to put out a new and better "Pseudonym". We'll be discussing that at the next meeting. Surprise!!

We really didn't have any OLD BUSINESS, but as far as NEW BUSINESS goes...We had a motion and a second made on changing our meeting nights to THE THIRD THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH. It passed, so from now on, you've got it, we'll be meeting the 3rd Thursday of each and every month. Still at the Bob Rudd Community Center-Room B.

Another motion was made, seconded, and passed regarding: Instead of everyone reading their story from the prompt, to choose two different ones at the meeting to read theirs. Trying to limit each one to ten (10) minutes each, but still 500-2000 words. (I'm looking back here...It was always fun to see how many ways we could come up with a story on the same prompt.) Don't forget to hang on to the stories you don't read, as we will need them for the publications.

One thing I failed to mention, (I'm still on the two meetings a month schedule) at our next meeting there will be nominations of NEW OFFICERS. Please put on your thinking caps. We need nominations for: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.

It was brought up to send your short stories into "Better Homes and Gardens". Who knows, you may get published.

I think that was it, but if anyone knows of anything I have overlooked, let me know ASAP, and I'll shoot it off to Bill Lopez and he can update the web site. Come to think of it, the web site address is: www.jbmailroom.com/oasiswriters/

Click on the "Pseudonym", then click on 'Coffee Can Stories'. (upper left hand side) Wait till they come up and scroll down. Please, send Bill any comments, suggestions, or stories you have written for the prompts to:

Steve Johnson gave a talk about attaining a copyright for all of your writings. Very informative and interesting. For any of you who missed it, you can check out all of the info on: www.copyright.gov

Mark your calendars for the next meeting: 08-17-06..7:00 PM at the Community Center--Room B. See Ya' all there.

We closed the meeting, more or less.

And now...DRUM ROLL PLEASE...the prompt for the next meeting is: THE DAY I DISAPPEARED...

Then we moved onto the fun part of each meeting, which is the reading of any stories from the last prompt...It was 1970.....

Steve Johnson was the only one who had anything to read: From a soldier's view...Entertaining, funny, and somewhat sad at the same time. What our guys have to go through is a little un-nerving. I did tell him he should have contacted my husband. He would have sent him ammo for his M14, or was it an M16?

With that, I remain your ever late, multi-tasking President,

Nancy

Hey, I'm only two days late this time around. Scary, isn't it?

As most of you know, we had to cancel the meeting on 05-17 and reschedule it for -5-24.

Four of us and then five us met at the Community Center. We were supposed to be six, but JoAnne had a slight mishap and couldn't make it. We had two, hopefully, new members attend and looking forward to a couple more for our next meeting in June. Boy are we cooking! The two in attendance were George Kelly and Steve Johnson. I think they would both be fine assets.

The treasurer report was given, and are we ever solvent.

Old Business: We sold our swamp cooler, and gleaned $150 for it. Even have the check in the bank. How does that grab everyone? We don't have to worry about it anymore and Gerry can finally get it out of her yard.

We have decided on a winner for our short story/poem contest we opened to the public.

And the winner is: LAURA BROADWATER for her story, "Shop Talk". This Saturday I will be presenting Laura with a check for $25 and the knowledge she will have her story published in our next 'Pseudonym'. Andy will take a picture of the presentation located at the Smith's parking lot. It goes along with her story and you'll know why we decided to it this way after you read her story in our next 'Pseudonym'. We plan to send the picture and info to Bill Lopez to put it on the web page. We want to put it in the Pahrump Valley Times. They were very kind to us with running our ad on the contest weekly. One thing we have added to this with all in agreement is, an honorary mention of ALYSHA WOGEE for entering her two poems, "The Sands of Time" and "My Soul". Personally, I feel this young lady could go places. She also does her own illustrations. The kicker is...She is only twelve years old. Go Alysha!

JoAnne and Nancy finally made it the bank to add JoAnne's name to the signature card. Gosh, we are good.

New Business: A motion was made and seconded and passed to write a check to Nancy for paying the post office box rent for one more year.

Steve Johnson has generously agreed to speak at our next meeting, about how you go about getting a copyright for your writing. He will explain the whole procedure to us. (I feel I'm as smart as the average bear, and I hope he will explain it so the average bear can understand it.)

Don't forget about the Library readings for June. The date will be Saturday, June 3, from 10 AM- 12 PM.

Our next meeting will take place on June 21, 7:00 PM, at Bob Rudd Community Center, Room B. Taking a comment from McGarrett (Jack Lord) from the TV program, Hawaii Five-O, "BE THERE!" Wellllllll, please, try.

Now, the moment we have all waited for, the next coffee-can prompt...

Drum Roll Please.............

IT WAS 1970...........

With nothing written from the last prompt, we didn't have anything to read. Sooooooo, we did the next best thing, we adjourned the meeting.

Want you all to know, I will be unavailable for the next couple of weeks. Les and I are running away from home. If you do need any answers or whatever, please get in touch with Andy or JoAnne. (Pay back time for insisting I have to have my picture taken tomorrow.)

My best to everyone.

I remain your multitasking president, but not as lagging this time around,

Nancy

Our last meeting was a little a little strange, but then, when aren't they? Ray and I showed up at the community center, but Andy didn't. I got on the horn and phoned him. "Where are you?" Needless to say, he wasn't at the meeting. He'd forgotten. He told us to come to his home and we had our meeting on the patio. (With coffee even.) I'm just glad ol' Roberts wasn't in attendance. We certainly didn't adhere to the 'Rules' of a meeting.

The meeting??? was short.

The treasury is the same, but will change as soon as JoAnne and I can get to the bank. As yet, we haven't written a check to me for the Christmas party, because we need two signatures. Now, the Guild owes me more, because I wrote a check for the post office box. Golly, I hope you all approve it. That way I'll have extra spending money for our trip this month. No, not to Ireland, but I can always hope.

Since last Friday we have received six short stories and two poems. Pretty good, huh? I will be making copies and getting a set to Robin to help decide who our winner will be. Andy suggested we ask Judy Strickland (who is still legally a member) to help us decide who it will be.

I've heard from Mae in MN, who is a little unhappy, because people back in her stomping grounds, keep asking her when our next publication will be out. We are doing our best Mae. We may get it out sooner than later.

Our next meeting will be held at the community center on May 17, 6:30. In the 'A' room this time around. We hope to have a few guests attend. That will be different. You all come.

We did discuss other things, but they included what Andy is doing in the yard. (Please, JoAnne, come home!) It is kind of distracting having a meeting outside, but fun. We even discussed the snow on Mt. Charleston.

I think we closed the meeting.

We have a Coffee Can story for all of you out there...soooooo, put your writing caps on.

Drum roll, please......................................................

A COUPLE ON THE BRINK OF A NASTY DIVORCE GET SNOWED IN TOGETHER DURING A BLIZZARD.

That should get the juices moving. With that, I remain your ever lagging, multi-tasking president. I think.

Nancy