The primary purpose of any conference is to bring people together to network and share ideas. Besides the attendees who come for information, fellowship, and inspiration, there are a number of other people who work long and hard to make the conference happen. If you’re thinking of attending in 2009, you might want to know the answer to these “Who” questions.
Who runs the conference?
A volunteer committee made up of people from KY and one from TN that meets year-round, once a month, to plan and coordinate the annual conference. Judy Sliger, 2009 Coordinator, was registrar 2007-08 and assistant coordinator in 2008. Advisory board consists of founder Kate Thomas, and former coordinators Constance Darnell and Karen Hart. Crystal Murray, also a past coordinator, is still on the committee as hospitality chairperson, and Barbara Wells, former faculty chairperson, will serve as mistress of ceremonies in 2009. Emily Akin (your humble blogger) is 2009 faculty chair and webmaster/blogger. New committee members are Patricia Vansant, registrar; Carlton Hughes, publications/publicity; Jay Jones, audio-visual; Carolyn Jones, secretary; Deborah Williams, treasurer; and Susanne Baetz, facility chair.
Who will be on the faculty in 2009?
We’ve already announced that Terry Whalin, author, editor, literary agent, and native Kentuckian, will be our featured speaker. I’m not the only one who’s excited about that! We are still working on the remainder of the faculty, but we plan to have a good mix of editors, writers, and agents in attendance to guide writers in their quest for publication. We currently have confirmations from freelance writers Ginny Smith, Dara Lehner, Lettie K. Burress, and Wendy Brown. Michael Brewer, pastor-writer; Jim Watkins, writer and editor for Wesleyan Publishing House and American Christian Writers Press; and Jim Stafford of Upper Room are also slated to be with us next June. We are currently evaluating proposals and planning the schedule, and we’ll keep you posted on new developments as they occur.
Who is our ultimate guide?
KCWC is a Christian writers conference, and the inter-denominational committee continually looks to God for guidance. The committee holds a one-hour prayer session before each monthly meeting. We invite you to pray with us that God will lead us as we prepare for conference 2009 and that we will all be effective tools in “publishing His glorious deeds among the nations” Psalm 96:3 (NLT). We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
1 comment:
Great post, Emily, and I agree that we need to let God be our guide, no matter what role we have in KCWC. If you're an attendee, you need to be open to what the Holy Spirit wants to do in you and through your writing. In the past I've been incredibly blessed by the speakers and their presentations, but I've also been incredibly blessed by the fellowship with other like-minded writers.
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