Situations Vacant

by Rosemary Johnson

As ACW members who read their eNews will know, the ACW Committee is short on two posts:

• Competitions Manager
• Administrator

I am the outgoing Competitions Manager.  I have now taken on the Webmaster role and am struggling to do the two at once.  Trouble is I enjoy doing both, but a double role is not good for my sanity, the RSI in my hands, my husband or my writing (or lack of it).  So here is my pitch for the Competitions Manager.  This is what I do: 

• Develop an idea for a new competition, seek judges and promote the competition in Christian Writer and elsewhere.
• I collect entries over email, and after the closing date, send the entries to the judges.
• When judging is complete, I notify winners and unsuccessful entrants.  I organise book token prizes to the first and second placed winners.

The thing I most relish is the opportunity to interact with other ACW members, face-to-face at ACW Writers Days and electronically while processing competition entries.  Rubbing shoulders with other writers, particularly published writers, who are one stage along the writing road from me, has given me insights into the process of getting published - even though I’m not, yet.

The Administrator prepares agendas and takes minutes for ACW Committee meetings three times a year and books venues for Committee meetings.  He/she also coordinates the Annual Report for the Annual General Meeting and processes correspondence, either answering himself/herself or passing it to another Committee member.  

As members of the Committee, the Competitions Manager and Administrator have the opportunity to help shape how ACW fulfils its role to Encourage, Equip and Inspire.  With the way we write and the way we meet changing all the time and with the Jubilee starting next year, these are exciting times.  Do give it a thought.  I’m sure there’s a new Competitions Manager and a new Administrator reading this blog post this morning.  If you are interested, do contact me, Rosemary Johnson (webmaster@christianwriters.org.uk) or Fiona Lloyd (vice-chair@christianwriters.org.uk).

So, a short post from me this month.  As I wrote above, I am very very busy.  In addition to ACW, I’m liaising between our vicar at our church and a web developer who is building our church a new website.  Also, I’ve been sewing, making scrubs and – now – face-masks for the family.  Needlework is hard when you haven't done it for a while!  As for writing, even though I'm not doing paid work, I have no time.   It's getting to me.  I'm praying for writing time.

Rosemary Johnson has had many short stories published, in print and online, amongst other places, The Copperfield Review, Fiction on the Web, Café Lit and Every Day Fiction.  In real life, she lives in Suffolk with her husband and cat.  Her cat supports her writing by sitting on her keyboard and deleting large portions of text.