MWSA 2012 Conference Information
MWSA 2012 Conference Information
The 2012 MWSA Conference is set for Thursday, September 27, through Sunday, September 30. The venue is the Holiday Inn Dayton/Fairborn I-675 (2800 Presidential Drive, Fairborn, OH 45324 (937) 426-7800 and (937) 426-1284 (Fax). Our secretary, Pat Avery, negotiated a terrific deal for us – $111.38 per night inclusive of taxes, a breakfast buffet, Wi-Fi, and parking. We are guaranteed the same pricing for three days before and three days after the conference if you would like to spend more time exploring the area. Be sure to get your reservation at the hotel as soon as possible, especially if you have special needs since those rooms are limited. This eases their planning and ours. To get our special pricing, make sure that you make your reservations in the Military Writers Society of America room block. Here is a special number to make that reservations: (937)431-4613.
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The Holiday Inn on I-675 in Fairborn, OH
For example, we are near the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force base. On Thursday afternoon, there is time for you to take a free tour from 1:30 to 3:30 pm. (You will need to find your way there and back.) However, if you want to stay later, the tour is available every day at 1:30 pm. Also, the Wright Brothers archives at Wright State University, which is right across the street in walking distance from the hotel, is a place where you might want to linger.
Conference fees this year are a little more. However, they include all of your meals. For the full three days, the fee is $290. For Thursday alone, it's $155, Friday alone, $175 -- and Saturday is $195. Guests and/or spouses who attend all three days and join us for all the meals will be $160 (Thursday only is $32, Friday only, $56 -- and Saturday only, $82.)
To pay your fees, download this spreadsheet. After filling it out, send to Jim Greenwald at leanstofar@aol.com. If you are paying with a credit card, he'll either invoice you from Paypal or take your information. If you are paying with check, send the appropriate amount to MWSA, PO Box 264, Bridgeville, PA 15017.
A more detailed schedule of activities will be available next month. However, let me share with you some of what we have planned.
- From Thursday morning until Saturday night, we will have coffee, sodas, and snacks in the Glenn Room which is our Hospitality Suite. Plan on relaxing with old friends, meeting new ones, and sharing great stories with each other there. On Thursday as you check in at the registration desk of the hotel and then register for the conference at the MWSA desk (there will be signs), stop back to the Glenn Room to meet the officers and get the run down on what's to be seen and done in Dayton.
- Thursday evening we will have an orientation and get to know each other Pizza Buffet in the Lindberg Room. Then, in the Amphitheater, we'll have a speaker from Wright State University Library Archives. He'll discuss the materials in the archives (including Wright Brothers artifacts – pictures, diaries, notes, personal libraries, etc.) and how to make use of such materials when researching historic people, places, and events. As you see in the link, there's a lot you can do on their website too.
- On Friday, after breakfast in the main dining room, our programming begins at 9 am. There will be events all day in either the Amphitheater or the Lindberg Room. The two meeting rooms are just across the hall from each other and right next to the bathrooms as well. At lunchtime, we'll have a buffet that includes sandwiches, drinks, and dessert and a speaker in the Amphitheater. Sign up for Open Mic that evening with Mike Mullins. We'll have a cash bar while you share your work with friends. Immediately after Open Mic, we'll have an Italian Buffet and then move on to the Buckaroo Auction.
- Saturday morning we start our programming right after breakfast. We'll have Mexican food for lunch along with a speaker in the Amphitheater. We'll break a little earlier in the afternoon so that you can all get ready for the Banquet and Awards Ceremony.
- Sunday morning during breakfast we'll have a business meeting/state of the organization in the restaurant. Everyone is welcome. We left the rest of the day open for those of you who have flights out and for those who might want to take in the Archives or tour the Air Force museum.
Speakers include Jack Woodville London (Author of the Year, 2011), Leila Levinson (President's Award 2011), Louis Intres, Sandy Lawrence of Perceptive Marketing, Mark Kozak-Holland, Sandra Beck of Military Mom Talk Radio, Paul Bruno (The History Czar), Joan Schaublin, Del Staecker, Carolyn Poling Schriber, Sandra Miller Linhart, Christopher Wyatt, and a representative from Veterans Family Network to name a few. We are working to get a speaker from the Air Force Museum as well.
Topics will include:
The Great Escape
Scrivener
The Next Generation of eBooks
How to be Found by Search Engines
Successful Amazon eBook Strategies
Being a Writer
Healing Through Writing
Co-Creation Cafe
Book Marketing 101
And more...
Volunteers and reviewers get a discount on their conference fees. If you would like to volunteer to help at the conference, please contact me or Jim Greenwald early as this will help us know what resources will be available to us.
The Hotel has donated a night's stay (applicable for the Conference stay) for our Buckaroo Auction on Friday night. That's always a hot item.
Don't forget to submit a piece of your writing for the Anthology. This year's theme is "Silent Battlefields." If this will be your first time at the conference, we use our anthology as a kind of year book/autograph book. Everyone gets a copy in their registration bags, and then we spend the conference meeting our fellow authors and getting their signatures in the books. They then become keepsakes of your time with us.
Finally, we will announce the nominees for this year's book awards in August. However, you'll won't learn who are winners until the Awards Banquet. I look forward to meeting all of you.