The membership of the Romance Writers of America (RWA) have elected a new Board of Directors who will begin serving in September of 2020, right after the organization’s annual convention ends.
After a year of upheaval exposing racism and inequalities on the board and within its membership that resulted in the entire board resigning in 2019 and a new “emergency” board being elected in February of this year, this new board hopes to be the sign of a new direction for the organization.
According to the RWA Newsletter, the newly elected Board is:
President: Avery Flynn
President-Elect: LaQuette
Secretary: C. Chilove
Treasurer: Laura Alford
Director-at-Large: Seressia Glass, Siera London, Nikki Sloane, Jessa Slade, Amy Quinton, Beth Yarnall, Leslie Hachtel, Elizabeth Schechter, Kelly Garcia, Clair Brett, Elf Ahearn, and Antonia Cyn
Chapter Advisor: JoMarie DeGioia
PRO Advisor: Catherine Stuart
New Board President Flynn had this to say about the elections and her hopes for the coming year, ”RWA still has much work to do to regain the trust of its members (both current and former) as well as the Romancelandia community. Next year we will be implementing required DEIA training for leadership upon election and members upon renewal, increasing our proactive advocacy efforts, and creating an equal playing field for romance authors within our organization, in publishing, and on bookshelves.”
She added, “In addition, we are reviewing member benefits with the goal of making significant increases to the value of membership for unpublished and published authors. We are far to go, but we are determined to make RWA 2.0 an organization that our members will value and be proud to be a part of.”
Due to the pandemic, this year’s annual convention will be held virtually from August 28-30th for three days of inspiring speakers, enlightening workshops, and energizing networking—all from the comfort of home.
The deadline to register is August 26th. To see what’s on the schedule and to register, please visit www.rwa.org/conference.