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Who wants a Summer Residency?

Monday, March 17, 2008

After last year’s Fall Conference, I was stopped in the Hawthorne Inn parking lot by a group of Network writers who had attended the 2007 Elizabeth Daniels Squire Summer Residency at Peace College.

They had heard a rumor that the Network wasn’t going to hold the Summer Residency again in 2008, and they weren’t happy about it.  They even suggested that we could pay for the Residency by installing cameras in the rooms and pitching it as a new reality series.

I did not and do not want to know what goes on in those rooms that would make for good reality TV (if that’s not an oxymoron), but I appreciated these members’ passion for the program.  Some people had suggested eliminating the Summer Residency, but I don’t want to touch any Network program that inspires that kind of reaction from our members.

We are, however, planning some changes to this program.  We are shortening the Residency from five days to three, and those three will be a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  We’re doing this to make the Residency more affordable to more writers, and to make it more accessible to writers who work full-time jobs during the week.  Last year’s Summer Residency cost members anywhere from $750 for “commuters” to $950 for a room to yourself ($850 if you shared a room).  We should be able to trim those costs a bit this year.
We are also planning to move the Residency from Peace College to Queens University of Charlotte this year, and then to move it to other venues around the state, as we do the Fall Conference.  Again, our goal is to give more writers the opportunity to attend.

Here’s where we stand: Queens can host the Elizabeth Daniels Squire Summer Residency on July 25 - 27, 2008.  We need to reserve our rooms soon, though.

So here’s our question: How many of you are interested in attending the 2008 Summer Residency?  We don’t need firm commitments (after all, we don’t even have the fees or the faculty confirmed yet), but we do need a good idea so we can make a non-refundable deposit with a clear conscience.

Please let us know, as quickly as you can, whether you’d like to attend the conference, and whether you’d like to stay on the Queens campus or “commute” to classes each day.

You can either leave a comment on the White Cross School blog, or send me an e-mail at ed@ncwriters.org.

Thanks.

- Ed

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What Happened to White Cross School?(Or, More Precisely, What Was Inside)

Monday, March 10, 2008

I first saw the White Cross School in 1994, just a couple of weeks after I graduated from college. I had gone to Carrboro to visit a friend who was interning with a documentary filmmaker, who at that time was sharing the School with an organization I’d never heard of, the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Being an aspiring writer myself, I made a mental note to check out this Network.

Little did I know.

On January 31, 2008, I found myself leaning unsteadily from a stepladder, power drill in hand, taking down the NCWN signs from the brick walls at White Cross. What little furniture, equipment, and supplies were left inside would be gone by the next day, along with the Network’s almost two-decade-long residence in the historic schoolhouse on Highway 54.

Of all the work I faced when I became the Network’s executive director – fundraising, budgeting, programming – the only job that daunted me was summed up in a question I kept asking myself: “What in the #$%^& are we going to do with all this stuff?”
I wasn’t concerned about chairs and desks and dividers. I was worried about the Network’s history. Our wing of the White Cross School was filled with past newsletters, conference programs, author biographies, board minutes, budgets, and books: too many to keep in my small house, too valuable to be disposed of.

I can’t remember if I called Marsha Warren first or if she called me; either way, she volunteered to come by White Cross School and give me a tour of exactly what was to be found in all those boxes, filing cabinets, and bookshelves.
Marsha was the Network’s executive director from 1987 to 1996. When she started, the Network had one box of files and three boxes of books, all of which fit inside her coat closet. Everything that had been saved in the White Cross School since then represented what Marsha calls “23 years of services, competitions, conferences, support . . . the amazing story of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.”

She gave me my tour, and then she volunteered more. She rolled up her sleeves (literally; I saw her do it) and began sorting through the written – and tape recorded and photographed – record of what the Network had done through the years. Then she volunteered to call together a team of other volunteers, people who have long cherished and served the Network: Linda Hobson, Coyla Berry, and Debra Kaufman. They spent a couple of days sifting, organizing, boxing, and labeling.

Then Marsha contacted Tim West with the Southern Historical Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library. West agreed with us that the Network’s materials needed a permanent home where they would be kept safe and available to anyone interested in seeing them. On February 1, 2008, 39 boxes from the North Carolina Writers’ Network entered the archives of the Southern Historical Collection.

“The NCWN has made a significant contribution over the years to the literary life of our state,” West said. “Its history is therefore eminently worth documenting, and the SHC is honored to preserve these records and make them accessible.

“Once they are processed – likely within the next six months – they will be available in the SHC search room, on the fourth floor of Wilson, to anyone with a valid picture ID from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Saturdays. Copies of items for personal use may be made with digital cameras supplied by the SHC or brought by researchers. A finding aid will be produced by staff and made available on the SHC website.”

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