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RECRUIT, REORGANIZE, REBUILD
On July 6 we reported about the need for Inkwell Awards volunteers and positions sought after an exodus of volunteers. Season 8 contained several departures, especially in the final 2-3 months prior to the big awards ceremony finale at Heroes Con. Three core committee members stepped down (including the assistant director) and multiple contributors left for reasons that included: simple resignations due to an increased ‘real job’ workload, disappearance, illness, and personal reasons, with a couple of members not departing but needing sabbaticals. So the Help Wanted press release went out this summer and I was happy with the results. Here is where we stand to date:
THE OLD GUARD
Mike Pascale and I are still the sole core committee members for the time being as no one has yet inquired about that. However, for Joe Goulart, season 8 was about transition as he resigned in the fall due to personal reasons but as those matters got resolved he eventually returned to the fold as a volunteer, then as a contributor and now a senior contributor. Joe and Mike now share duties for the position of AUCTIONEER (after losing our long-enduring former one), the most essential fundraising and overall obligation on our list. Mike also resumes his COPY WORK for press releases, EDITING and PROOFREADING and he assists with some graphic design work. Joe also volunteered to help with collecting donations at shows and coordinate with me the new SINNOTT INKING CHALLENGE SPOTLIGHT PROGRAM after the last coordinator departed.
THE NEW GUARD
After losing our WEBSITE MAINTENANCE member after two years of service we recruited Rhys Evans who reached out to the organization first. Rhys showed great ambition and enthusiasm and within his first few days as he promptly took care of all outstanding website obligations. And now he’s cleaning up and making the site more efficient. I just don’t have enough to throw his way!
John Dixon, an overachiever like Joe, decided to take on several duties. These include ongoing positions which are low-demand in nature like ADVERTISING (our first), the INKER RESOURCES and DATABASE sections of the site, SOCIAL MEDIA ASSISTANT, and the seasonal spot of NOMINATION COMMITTEE LIAISON. For that position he assists me with communications and tracking NomCom members as well as ongoing recruiting since our numbers of NomCom volunteers have been low.
Lastly, we have Dorian Sinnott, Mark’s son, which means that three generations of Sinnotts are now on the Inkwell team starting with Joe since our first year in 2008! Dorian will act as our first PRESS COORDINATOR to seek out more supportive press sites to send our announcements to, thus more exposure. Like John, he will also be a SOCIAL NETWORKS ASSISTANT and a COPY ASSISTANT to assist with PRs and proofreading should Mike need an assist.
We can still use another alternate Auctioneer, a Volunteer Coordinator, Convention Volunteers, several Nomination Committee members, an assistant for me for the annual Sinnott Inking Challenge, and someone proficient with setting up multi-tier membership programs. But the grass is looking much greener now! (If you are interested in joining our charity/advocacy please email me at dmralmond@gmail.com)
THE ACTIVE VETERANS
While I am enthusiastically welcoming aboard the above members to the Inkwell family I don’t want to slight the senior contributing vets that have been faithfully and actively doing their jobs regularly and for some time and haven’t bailed on us (yet, anyway). Mark Sinnott has been nothing but supportive as the JOE SINNOTT LIAISON with all things relating to his special ambassador dad since the very beginning. As has WEBHOST Tim Aslat. Damon Owens, a former Inkwell Forum Moderator, handles COMICARTFANS GALLERY MAINTENANCE and updates our gallery of donations before and after every eBay auction and has since 2008. Tom Schloendorn has acted as the main SOCIAL NETWORKS/PRESS member since 2009 and has assisted me on the Sinnott Challenge. Besides being a Heroes Con CONVENTION ASSISTANT, Ray Burke has also successfully overseen our MULTIMEDIA presentations since our live ceremonies debuted at Heroes Con in 2011. Jay Pillarella and Nate Machado have been diligent retailers in support of our FUNDRAISING & COMPLIMENTS PROGRAMS for the past four years. Artist Christopher Ehnot has been essential with GRAPHIC DESIGN work on our brochure updates and ceremony presentation cards since 2012. Writer/editor/publisher Enrica Jang has been doing the heavy lifting for our BOOK PROGRAM for two years. Alyn Bergstrom as been very productive with donation fundraising as a CONVENTION & MODEL ASSISTANT since 2013. Bob Shaw has been crucially crunching the numbers as our ACCOUNTANT ever since he returned to the fold in 2013. And Holly Black has been a COSPLAY VOLUNTEER since 2014 and since Heroes Con in June she’s been acting as our spokesmodel MS. INKWELL.
We couldn’t do it without you guys. Thanks, all! INKWELLERS ASSEMBLE!!!