Meeting Overview: May 15, 2007

There were many blue specks around the commons and theatre at Central Campus on May 15, 2007 from 3:30 to 5:oo PM due to the navy blue Magic Pens T-shirts and hoodies that were running around. Many of us came to our final end of the year meeting/party and had a great time. Chips, cookies, brownies, and muffins were brought and shared as we hung out and goofed off. After a while, Mr. Gifford came from the theatre and Randy started the actual discussion for our meeting, which actually only had one topic, the end of the year book.

1. End of the Year Book – Our area on the Word Ventures site is now up and running so we can now check up on the book and start submitting our pieces. Go to the home page, (www.wordventures.com,) then under the Parent & Student Area on the left sidebar, click on “Find Your Sponsored Book Project“. Afterwards, click on “Sponsored Book Projects,” at the top of the left sidebar and type in “Gifford” for the “Last Name of Teacher/Book Coordinator” box and the password you use to reach our blogs for the “Project Password” box.

Remember that we have until Monday, June 25, 2007, to submit our work, which is limited to 4,000 words. The assignment is to submit a fictional piece that includes an hourglass somewhere in it. This hourglass may be a minor part, such as sitting in the background, or a focal point of the story. Start working on your stories as soon as possible to get them in by the deadline! When you submit, be sure to use a valid e-mail address and follow the few guidelines set. We must have 15 submissions, or we will not get published!

After all of the submissions are collected, Word Ventures will create a review copy of our book and e-mail it to each e-mail address that was submitted with each piece, (so be sure to submit an e-mail that you plan to use and check.) After you receive your copy of the review copy, you have ten days to decide if you would like to pay and have your piece published in the final book. All payments are electronically done on-line with debit or credit cards. (If you can not pay through this process, please speak to Mr. Gifford.)

When the book is finally finished and published, the school will pay for one copy for each person that contributed. Make sure that if you are moving away, you leave a forwarding address with Mr. Gifford that he can use to mail your copy to you. Each person, (contributing or not,) can buy as many copies of the book as they want through websites such as Amazon, Borders, and even some local bookstores.

If there are difficulties with accessing the website, Mr. Gifford can print info off for anybody. Also, if money in general is an issue, scholarships are still available if you would like to contribute, but cannot. Please visit Mr. Gifford as soon as possible to discuss any problems or questions that you may have.

After our short discussion of the end of the year book and the clarification of questions, we joined in the theatre and spread our randomness. Be sure to check out Elizabeth’s blog and Melissa’s blog when they get their videos of the meeting up to see all the crazy things that went on including spinning in a wheelie chair, playing human catch, just running around, and even putting on a short skit of Whose Line is it Anyways?. If you weren’t at the meeting, you truly missed out!