Board and Members in Service
Nona Smith - Co-President
Leslie Wahlquist - Co-President
.jpg)
Catherine Marshall - Vice-President
Norma Watkins - Secretary
Ginny Rorby - Treasurer & Membership
Elizabeth Vrenios - Anthology Editor
Sharon Bowers - Member at Large
Ericka Lutz - Speakers
Naty Osa - Publicity
Phillip Regan - Website
.jpg)
Rob Hawthorn - Media
E-Mail contact for all - info@writersmendocino.org
Founding President, Molly Dwyer
Founding President, Molly Dwyer, invited local writers to her kitchen table in 2009. Her intention was to expand the network and opportunities for writers on the coast.
Molly's debut novel, Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein, was nominated for the 2009 Northern California Book of Year in fiction. Molly has been an educator for twenty years, facilitating workshops and critique groups. Molly coaches writers and edits manuscripts of all stripes, and is an English instructor at Mendocino College.
Jack London Service Award
A one-in-a-lifetime award bestowed upon one WMC member who has made extraordinary contributions to the Mendocino branch.
​2015
Doug Fortier
2017
Amie McGee
2023
Katherine Heiman Brown
​California Writers Club
Central Board
Officers and Appointments
Roger Lubeck
President
president@calwriters.org
Bob Isbill
Vice President
vp@calwriters.org
Elisabeth Tuck
Secretary
secretary@calwriters.org
Constance Hanstedt
Treasurer
​treasurer@calwriters.org
Sandy Moffett
​Executive Member-at-Large
director-at-large@calwriters.org
Joyce Krieg
Bulletin Editor
editor@calwriters.org
Bob Isbill - R.I.P.
Roger Lubeck
MRMS Systems Administrator
mrms@calwriters.org
Sandy Moffett
Membership Chair
membership@calwriters.org
California Writers Club Beginnings
The esteemed California Writers Club evolved in the wake of the Alameda Press Club and a small group of “break-off” members who met outside formal settings during the time that the Bay Area was experiencing a literary revival.
With degrees and scholarship from Oxford, West Point, and Harvard, members included George Sterling, Harold Lamb, Herman Whitaker, Kathleen Norris, William Lederer, Eugene Burdick, James Henry MacLaferty, Charles Keeler, Frank Soule, Julia Cooley Altrocci. Fiction chair Torry Connor held luncheon meetings at the Clairmont Hotel. Women dressed in formal wear.
The new club adopted the motto “Sail On,” from Joaquin Miller’s Columbus. The logo came from U.C. Berkeley Professor of Art Perham Nahl, who also designed the poster for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.
​
A core group enjoyed the sea and themes of the West. They published a collection “West Winds.” Honorary members, whose reputations lent a veneer to the club—and whose dues may have been waved - included the first state Poet Laureate Ina Coolbrith, Jack London, John Muir, Joaquin Miller, and Gertrude Atherton.
Drawn to the energy emanating from Berkeley, thirty-one Sacramento charter members formed the first California Writers Club “off-shoot” or branch on September 30, 1925. Guests from Berkeley included Henry Noyes Pratt, club V. P. Dr. Derrick N. Lehmer, and Mrs. Esther Birdsall Darling.
Writers of the Mendocino Coast Strategic Plan 2024-2027
​Vision
Within the next three years grow the Writers of the Mendocino Coast into a successfully run chapter of the California Writers Club with annual funding of $11,000, providing encouragement, skill building, publishing opportunities, social connection, and community for the writers and aspiring writers of the Mendocino Coast.
Mission: Writers of the Mendocino Coast connects writers with community, creativity, and craft.
Strategies—Implement over the years 2024-2027
1. Attract new members with improved marketing materials, networking with community partners, and outreach to diverse and younger populations.
2. Expand community participation by using social media, partnering with community organizations, and improving the website.
3. Build the organizational structure by clarifying the board member application process, defining volunteer opportunities, and organizing
committees.
4. Improve programs by providing more member networking, public readings, public writing sessions, and online prompts.
5. Grow the operating funds with revenue streams from the anthology, fundraising events, sponsorships and grants, and expanded club membership.
​​​
Action Plans—Implement over calendar year 2026
1. Add a WMC Information Page to the Anthology by November 30.
2. Promote member writing through at least two public readings, audio on the website, and radio spots by October 31.
3, Promote WMC through branded merchandise sales by July 31.
4, Revamp website by changing platform, adding member promotions, a donation button, and a PayPal button for membership fees, merchandise, and anthology sales by April 30.
5. Market WMC to Mendocino College writing students by regular communications with the instructors by August 31.
6. Redefine and implement writer scholarship program with high school participants by Jun 30.
7. Launch a program that provides WMC members with a regular writing opportunity over zoom or in person by April 30.
8. Offer time and space at monthly meetings for members to discuss and share their writing and promote their books by March 31.
9. Establish a system to track attendance at monthly meetings by including the meeting count with the board minutes starting February 8.
10. Recruit at least four volunteers as program “shadows” to assist with the delivery of Earth Day Booth, SmatchUp, Ekphrasis, and the anthology by March 1.
​
Objectives—what we will measure.
1. Increase operating funds to $10,000 by June 30.
2. Increase membership from 86 to 90 by July 1.
3. Increase monthly meeting attendance to a total of 300 by program year end November 30.