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Post by jennifer on Feb 17, 2013 15:59:05 GMT
Literary Journal Minutes/14th February 2013
In Attendance
Claire Alexander
Gemma Auld
John Campbell
Jennifer Carr
Jenna Couston
Kathleen Coyle
Marissa Dacey
David Finnighan
Laura Forsyth
Kerry-Ann Kerr
Anthony Lydon
Edan McKenzie
Callum McSorley
Michelle O’Donnell
Melissa Reid
David Rush
Cheryl Scott
Group Discussion
Fundraising/Marketing Team:
- Michelle explained that there was no concrete news on the possibility of using the “Broadcast” bar as a venue yet, but she confirmed that we might have the possibility of taking advantage of an event at the Ramshorn Theatre on Friday 22nd February – “Big Bang Night”, a big band music event. She suggested that we set up a cake stall in the venue, or run a competition with a prize (Guess the number of sweets in a jar, guess the teddy bear’s birthday) in order to raise our funds.
- She also explained her intention to start sending local clubs and event-holders our details so that we could set up fundraising events more easily/frequently . In the meantime, the team will look for other events that we could attend to raise funds.
- Michelle also requested volunteers for poetry-reading events in March, which will also go towards raising funds. This will be addressed at a later meeting.
- There were also suggestions of having class members do video presentations of reading stories that will go in the journal, but this will need further discussion as to whether it is possible and/or a good use of our time.
Design Team:
- Melissa talked about Sunday 17th being the deadline for finalising a logo for our journal, which will then be agreed upon in class on Monday February 18th. We should also discuss whether we will use colours and/or quotes in the journal.
- We discussed the idea of having a “contributors page” at the end of the journal, in which each contributor to the journal submits a 40-word informal piece about themselves and their relationship to writing.
- We then discussed the possibility of having a teacher from the university writing the preface for our journal, agreeing that we should have a proper vote on it at our next meeting and consult with the teachers under consideration.
Action Points
- Claire looked into the various costs of publications, citing last year’s literary journal “Valve” as inspiration.
- We discussed how many copies of the journal we will need and how many pages long it will be, agreeing that we should sell, on average, around five copies each.
- Gemma inquired as to how many copies we will need for our launch night, with the general consensus being that it should be around 150-200.
- I suggested that each class member should start taking “booking lists”, inquiring among friends and family as to who would wish to purchase a copy of the journal upon completion. This would guarantee that a certain number of copies would be sold.
- Again, we agreed that each member of class will contribute £20 to start the fund for fundraising events and advertising costs.
- David Finnighan suggested that we compile the best submissions for the journal before taking them to the printers in order to hopefully secure a printing guarantee.
- Gemma and Michelle suggested that we contact Rodge Glass, a writer who previously worked at Strathclyde University, and Mark Buckland to inquire about publishing contacts.
- Finally, we agreed on a possibility of having a “practice launch” before the actual launch event sometime around Week 10, where we will introduce the journal and read aloud some excerpts.
Timeline
18th February: Class members enter first submission of written material to editor, who will look it over and return it with advice on how it can be improved, before sending it on to the chief editors on the 27th. Also, decide on logo.
22nd February: First fundraising event.
15th March: Class members enter second submission of written material to editor, with checked version sent to chief editors on the 20th.
20th March: Music gig at “Broadcast” to raise funds.
25th March: Presentation of written materials.
30th March: Final submissions.
3rd/4th April: Further fundraising event.
12th April: Journal finalised.
Sorry for missing some of the stuff, guys.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 20, 2013 20:43:47 GMT
Minutes for Literary Journal/18th February 2013
In Attendance
Claire Alexander
Gemma Auld
John Campbell
Jennifer Carr
Jenna Couston
Kathleen Coyle
Marissa Dacey
David Finnighan
Laura Forsyth
Kerry Ann Kerr
Rachel MacDonald
Callum McSorley
Michelle O’Donnell
Katharina Prokopp
Melissa Reid
David Rush
Cheryl Scott
Dean Turner
The class began with a presentation from Ewan Morrison, a writer for the Guardian. We followed this with telling Lucy our thoughts on taking external submissions, with the general consensus being that there was no longer enough time and we couldn’t afford to pay contributors. Next we had a presentation from the design team, with Dean Turner and Melissa Reid showing us the designs they have come up with for a logo. We also discussed which fonts would probably work best, agreeing that it shouldn’t be something too bold. We agreed that we will select our five favourites and then put them to a vote. The class concluded with workshop, reading aloud and analysing submitted materials.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 22, 2013 21:28:41 GMT
Minutes for Literary Journal/21st February 2013
In Attendance
Claire Alexander
Gemma Auld
John Campbell
Jennifer Carr
Jenna Couston
Kathleen Coyle
Marissa Dacey
David Finnighan
Kerry Ann Kerr
Anthony Lydon
Rachel MacDonald
Callum McSorley
Michelle O’Donnell
Melissa Reid
David Rush
Cheryl Scott
Dean Turner
Goals
David Rush and Jennifer Carr began the meeting with a request that we come to a resolution on some subjects that have been brought up a number of times in past meetings such as external submissions and events. We agreed that we should use the forum from now on to discuss previous topics.
Michelle O’Donnell will use the logo as a letterhead for procuring events. Melissa Reid will email it to her over the course of the weekend. The design team will also be working internally on advertising (stickers, posters, etc.)
Melissa pointed out that Strathclyde should be the main target audience for our fundraising events and that we could advertise such events within the Union (posters on the stairwell, in the lift, etc.)
Kathleen Coyle of the IT team has stated her intention to use social media (Facebook and Twitter) to advertise events. She has also been looking Weebly and Wordpress.
At the moment, the team has been using a temporary logo, but it, as well as a font, will be agreed on by next week.
Dean Turner reminded the team that we must be sure of the final details of events before making them public.
Rachel MacDonald of the Fundraising/Marketing team talked about creating theme nights. David Rush asked about whether or not we should say they are fundraisers for our journal. David Finnighan felt it should be ambiguous but Dean said it would give us better publicity. Claire Alexander came up with an idea for a slogan – Support the Arts for Flux.
Dean also said we should create a template poster for such an event before the weekend. We agreed that it should be about A4 in size with basic information, to save on costs.
Michelle raised the topic of how much we should charge for entry to events, with the general consensus being that it should be around £3.00. David Finnighan suggested we have a donation box at the events. Claire and Rachel said that we should all try and procure a prize for a raffle and we agreed that we should charge £1 per strip of tickets.
External Submissions
Jennifer brought up the point that we seemed to agree on Monday’s class on reasons as to why the submissions idea should be passed over, but the topic regained momentum.
Dean felt that there was no reason why we shouldn’t accept submissions if they were of a good standard, but agreed that it may still be too late.
Claire felt that it would be useful to our cause and help bring in more money, which would also help us to establish the journal as a society in the Union, which would be good for next year’s students taking this class. David Finnighan agreed that it would be beneficial both to us and future classes.
Gemma Auld pointed out that third years may be too busy with essays and exams at the moment to help us, but that we could ask other year groups as well as teachers.
Michelle said it would be crucial to get this information out, that if it helped us to get a grant it would be useful and if it proved fruitless, we could forget the submissions and just focus on our own material.
Gemma said that we should keep the project central to Strathclyde students and that involving other universities would be too time-consuming.
By this point, the idea of external submissions was becoming popular again. David Finnighan said it would be silly to turn away good material that could improve the quality of the journal.
Gemma raised the idea as to whether we would be allowed to talk to English and Creative Writing students about the journal in their lectures, to see if they want to submit material or attend an event. If they thought it was worth their while, Claire would be the one to contact. We agreed that we should make it clear to those submitting external submissions that not all material would make it into the journal.
David Rush agreed to advertise events and external submissions in the Strathclyde Telegraph, of which he and Melissa are Arts and Features editors respectively.
We agreed to ask about getting notifications on Myplace to advertise external submissions to 1st-4th year English and Creative Writing students.
With this all said, we agreed that we will take in external submissions, dividing them up between the editors, rather than pre-assigning them to specific people. The deadline for submissions will be March 22nd.
Printing Costs
We agreed that if we raise enough money from our first two fundraising events, we should have enough money to commence printing. After further discussion, we agreed that our journal should be around 112 pages long, if we get enough high quality external submissions.
Claire raised the point of setting up a bank account with the Union, with David Rush suggesting setting up a Paypal account for class members to pool their donations into, in order to keep the class in funds for the time being if creating an account through the Union isn't possible. This would also be useful for placing orders.
Action Points
- Design Team: Design posters for events, finalise logo, look into ticket design and posters for external submissions.
- IT Team: Look into Myplace notifications. Setting up links on Facebook and Twitter for submissions and events details, research web design. Send Kathleen logo for promotional use.
- Possibly contacting Ewan Morrison to write a preface for the journal, but only once it is starting to take shape.
- Sending drafts of the journal around teachers for comments.
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Post by michelle_mod on Feb 25, 2013 12:44:39 GMT
Just wanted to give my apologies - I will not be attending on Thursday
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Post by jennifer on Feb 28, 2013 21:53:54 GMT
Okay, guys, sorry this is a bit late, I've been really busy with an essay for another class, but here's the minutes for Monday's class, sparse as they are. Today's to follow.
Minutes for Literary Journal/25th February 2013
In Attendance
Claire Alexander
Gemma Auld
John Campbell
Jennifer Carr
Jenna Couston
Kathleen Coyle
David Finnighan
Kerry Ann Kerr
Anthony Lydon
Rachel MacDonald
Edan MacKenzie
Callum McSorley
Michelle O’Donnell
Katharina Prokopp
David Rush
Cheryl Scott
We first had a talk from Adrian Searle, about designing and editing a literary journal, while also showing us a selection of Gutter magazine. Afterwards, Lucy Burnett held one-on-one meetings with each student to inquire about their progress and how they are handling the course. In the meantime, we had an informal discussion about the design team’s progress on designing posters for our fundraising events, the I.T. team’s efforts to establish the journal on Facebook and Twitter and looking at Gutter magazine for printing research.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 28, 2013 21:54:35 GMT
And here's today's  Minutes for Literary Journal/28th February 2013In AttendanceClaire Alexander Gemma Auld John Campbell Jennifer Carr Jenna Couston Kathleen Coyle Marissa Dacey David Finnighan Laura Forsyth Rachel MacDonald Callum McSorley Melissa Reid David Rush Cheryl Scott Reassigning of roles David Finnighan raised the issue that the workload has become uneven and that we will need volunteers for other jobs to step things up, specifically bloggers for Twitter and Facebook and extra designers for advertising. Rachel MacDonald said that she had a friend that could help with poster design. Gemma Auld raised the point that the posters don’t need to be too complex and extravagant, which everyone agreed on. We will need each class member to pay about £6.00 each to help cover the font for the posters. Group base fund We have established a bank account with the Union, under the heading of our literary journal being a society. Before March 19th, each class member must pay £20 in for a pool. Claire Alexander and David Finnighan will be having a meeting at the Union with Kwaku Adjei on Tuesday 5th March on how to get financial help from the alumni. David Finnighan produced information on the printing company Bell & Bain. They can do a short run of 250-300 copies, 120 pages each with an original cover and three colours, though we still need to estimate how much this will cost. On the web The I.T. team have been asked to update the “Flux Journal” pages on Facebook, to give more information about external submissions, because it is a bit sparse at the moment and there has been a glitch preventing English and JCW students outside our group thread participating or being able to have a look. In the meantime, Kathleen Coyle will continue work on the website and Melissa Reid will send her a new version of the finalised logo, but this time with a changed font. Book reading events and teachers’ materialIt was noted that we need more students to go to book readings, not only to represent the journal, but also to help out these events, as the lack of numbers is threatening their funding. Michelle O’Donnell, who was not present at this meeting, will be asked to post a list of these book-reading events on the forum, so we can properly organise who will go to them and go, at least 6-7 people for each one. Following on from this, we discussed whether we should begin asking Creative Writing teachers, past and present, from Strathclyde University if they wish to write some material from the journal. We have decided to make inquiries to the following people: Ewan Morrison Lucy Burnett Beatrice Colin Bryony Stocker Rodge Glass Doug Johnstone David Kinloch Kapka Kassabova Editing materialThe deadline for submitting the first round of material was Thursday 27th February. This will hopefully be looked at and finalised by David Finnighan and Claire by Monday 4th March. Only pieces that have gone through a sub-editor and then the chief editors will be accepted for the journal. Action Points- Find quotes for printing costs. - Rachel MacDonald: Help to design posters for events. - Kathleen Coyle: Post up more detailed information on external submission on the “Flux” Facebook page. - Contact teachers about submitting material. - Submit donation to Union bank account. - Jennifer Carr: Bring in “2013 Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook” for extra research. |
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Post by melissa on Mar 1, 2013 0:02:13 GMT
Looking good. Just to say the font I used for the Submissions poster which I made up only cost £6 and I bought it myself, so people don't need to put money in. I'll just put £14 into the fund instead of £20 to cover the cost |
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kat
Junior Member
Posts: 94
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Post by kat on Mar 2, 2013 0:10:24 GMT
I did a bit of 'networking' tonight. Was at the same political meeting as Alan Bissett, so took the opportunity to tell him about Flux! I said it would be great to get his support especially for the launch - he promptly asked for the details so he could come along, but obviously we haven't got that far yet! But I said I'd keep him in the loop. He also said he's sure Rodge would be more than happy to help us with the preface. When I went up to speak to him he was already talking to the President of the Scottish Pen - who said he'd be happy to help spread the word via social media etc for as well. He also said their organisation is hoping to start provide some sort of creative writing grant in the near future, so should keep in with them! |
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Post by David Rush on Mar 4, 2013 1:12:03 GMT
Excellent work, Kat! I told you you might as well go up and just mention it to him!  That's perfect. The more people who know about the journal the better. |
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kat
Junior Member
Posts: 94
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Post by kat on Mar 4, 2013 16:31:09 GMT
I know. And he obviously knew what it was generally about having done the preface for Valve! I was reluctant because we didn't have a tangible poster/flyer, but then I thought regardless it would be good for him to have already known about it when we invite him to the actual launch |
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Post by michelle_mod on Mar 5, 2013 11:01:09 GMT
If Kat could give out the details for facebook/ twitter I would be more than happy to help churn out posts, like appropriate writing groups and generally just do stuff. Pretty sure there is some way you can allow people 'Admin roles' on a facebook page so they can update as 'Flux Journal'. I am more comfortable working on facebook than twitter but if no one else want's to do twitter I'll put my two cents in.
I also haven't seen a link to twitter yet on the facebook page - we have only 16 followers on twitter and yet 124 likes on facebook.
I have shared the FLUX facebook page in both the English and JCW groups.
I believe Melissa had a pretty cool idea for making a blog about how the logo design came about and I reckon that would make an awesome first blog to give the social media accounts something to chat about.
Have we ruled out getting a 'normal' bank account then in order to set up paypal for online orders of the journal?
The book readings we are to attend are these the university ones? Further details on glasgow wide events are available in Fundraising and Events but if you wish I will start a new 'Networking' topic so the information is clearer and easier to find.
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Post by michelle_mod on Mar 5, 2013 11:15:13 GMT
Just checked on one of my own pages that to add an admin you need an email address - mine is liveiiwrite@hotmail.com.
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kat
Junior Member
Posts: 94
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Post by kat on Mar 5, 2013 12:24:36 GMT
If Kat could give out the details for facebook/ twitter I would be more than happy to help churn out posts, like appropriate writing groups and generally just do stuff. Pretty sure there is some way you can allow people 'Admin roles' on a facebook page so they can update as 'Flux Journal'. I am more comfortable working on facebook than twitter but if no one else want's to do twitter I'll put my two cents in. I also haven't seen a link to twitter yet on the facebook page - we have only 16 followers on twitter and yet 124 likes on facebook. I have shared the FLUX facebook page in both the English and JCW groups. I believe Melissa had a pretty cool idea for making a blog about how the logo design came about and I reckon that would make an awesome first blog to give the social media accounts something to chat about. Have we ruled out getting a 'normal' bank account then in order to set up paypal for online orders of the journal? The book readings we are to attend are these the university ones? Further details on glasgow wide events are available in Fundraising and Events but if you wish I will start a new 'Networking' topic so the information is clearer and easier to find. I'll add you as an admin today. Obviously it's part of me and Edan's job to run the twitter/social media anyway, unless you particularly want to post about funketing stuff and generally do more with it. |
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Post by michelle_mod on Mar 5, 2013 13:09:37 GMT
Reassigning of roles David Finnighan raised the issue that the workload has become uneven and that we will need volunteers for other jobs to step things up, specifically bloggers for Twitter and Facebook and extra designers for advertising. I was just responding to this section of the minutes from last weeks meeting as I wasn't there. I thought that as well as bloggers some more activity on the social media was also called for. Thanks for doing that. |
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Post by David Rush on Mar 5, 2013 20:45:16 GMT
Yeah, Michelle, the book events thing was referring to the author talks that the uni has. So the suggestion was made that if we come to those events, people will be more likely to come to ours. |
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