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PERDITA HUSTON PURPLE STAR FISH AWARD Art Gallery at UNEIn attendance were B. Cecilia Zapata, Carol Kessler, Susie Steadman Rachel Talbot Ross, Cally Gurley, Yirgalem Madie, Victoria Mares-Hershey and Anne Zill, serving as chair. After a quick review of Perdita Huston’s life and her papers at the Maine Women Writers Collection (MWWC), everyone introduced themselves and offered a little background and context for their participation. Zill reviewed the progress of the Planning for an Annual Award to date. There was general enthusiasm expressed for the Award Title, “Purple Star Fish Award”. Yirgalem also endorsed the concept of mentors, which she asserted was as important as the money itself. The whole idea is that this is a nurturing award for a young emerging leader, with no strings attached, so that if she ends up in corporate America, so be it. The notion of a simple nomination process by filling out a form to be found on the ME Women Writers Collection web site was also supported. In order to get the word out we will need a list of organizations such as the Maine Women’s Fund, the Institute for Practical Democracy and many others around the state. Rachel noted the importance of the statewide rather than simple a southern Maine focus. This list of organizations, Cally noted, will become part of the MWWC data base for future year operations. The list of mentors is perhaps the same as the list of nominators, or at least there may be considerable overlap. It was agreed that a brochure would be desirable to have as soon as possible. Everyone liked the idea of meeting in Stonington in September, and it will be necessary for everyone to bring a list of at least five mentors/nominators as well as organizations to be notified about this proposed Award. Suzie and Anne will work on the award statement (that lists the criteria) to be submitted to the larger group in September as well. As the Award Announcement is circulated among orgaizations there will also be a press piece for media circulation. Victoria observed that involving community groups early will be an empowering experience, and an early gathering of them will be a chance to get everyone vested in the purple star fish concept, the award for nurturing an emerging special person. The group reviewed the time line and made two suggestions. The first is that the committee reviewing the nominations will want to meet with the top 3-5 candidates during the month of March. The second is that the Award may be announced in April but the event will be scheduled for May in the late afternoon in order to avoid weather challenges and have the greatest chance of broad attendance. The ideas of a visionary talk by the recipient and some readings from Perdita Huston’s papers were supported. If additional appropriate entertainment can be found, that would be great. Some time was spent on whether or not the recipient should write a report. On the one hand this would documentation would be useful for attracting other funders of the program. But it would violate the group’s intention to eliminate any onerous requirements for the recipient to meet. The group agreed that there should be some kind of accounting. The group might interview the recipient a year later. Or receive her photographs, story, something. Her mentors might be interviewed. There would be some accountability in a fashion that was most comfortable for the award recipient. Rachel suggested two names of mentors/nominators, Rhea Cote-Robbines, U ME Orono, and Gail Sochabasin, Wabanaki Center. Anne suggested Tom Ewell, formally ME Council of Churches. Keep thinking everyone! |
