February 4, 2024

New NMS Stuff

At midnight on January 1, I became the president of the Norman Mailer Society. I’m not really the president type—preferring instead to work in the behind-the-scenes, like a true introvert. Apparently I had unanimous support during the Board meeting in Austin (I was not there, as Autumn gave birth to Max that same week). Maggie did such a great job, I need to try to measure up. I’ll do my best.

One of the first things I did was get a Google account for the Society: normanmailersocietygmail.com is our official new address. I have uploaded all the contacts (over 250) and started using Docs and Drive to organize conference proposals and other documents. I think since most folks have a Google account, this should be a good way to share resources to the various committees.

Likewise, I installed Listmonk to my server for email announcements to the Society. Sign up! When I first tested it by sending email to my MGA account, the M$ mail system (Exchange? Outlook? Office 365?) filed it as spam. C’mon, folks; it’s from Gmail. I hope it works better than the last listserv software I used. Email has become complicated because of the spammers and phishers. What else can I do?

I’m still working out the contract details with the Sirata Beach Resort for the conference in November. Another of my duties as president is to be financially responsible, and beach resorts are pricy. That's aid, most of the Board advocates “destination locations” for conferences, so people will want to come and we can get more family involvement. I’m hoping to get at least 50 at the conference. 60 would be nice.

I’ve Post our call for papers, and I will send it out as soon as I have hotel registration information. Stay tuned.