At our fall conference on Saturday, October 20, DJ Young asked to be released from the office of president. The OCW membership voted to grant his request and to have Mary Hake, whose term as program coordinator/vice president was ending, fill out the year remaining in the current presidential term, until October 2008. The annual planning meeting previously scheduled for November 17 had been postponed until January.

The results of the election held at the conference business meeting are as follows: Maxine Marsolini, program coordinator (vice president); Sue Miholer, membership and corresponding secretary for a second term; and Pamela Rosales, recording secretary. Dawn Hill is our new critique group coordinator and Pat Wilhelm publicity coordinator.

Thanks to all who have served and who continue to serve OCW. We are a volunteer organization and can always use our members’ help. Let one of the officers listed below know if you would like to become more involved. We especially need an assistant for the webmaster, since overseeing the OCW website is quite time-consuming.

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We have had an increase in membership the past few months and are almost at the 450 mark. The list of interested people, recent former members and those who have attended and/or presented at a conference adds another 250 to our mailing list.

From time to time I receive a challenge from a Christian writer concerning the different types of markets I include in the market guide. That happened recently and I thought this was a good opportunity to share some of the personal philosophy that feeds into the development of the Christian Writers’ Market Guide.

I had an email from a loyal market-guide user that suggested I shouldn’t include publishers that also published New Age or other religious philosophies that were not consistent with evangelical Christianity. I answered her query as I have often answered it in the past. It is my belief that if these publishers are open to material written from a Christian point of view (I don’t include them unless they are)—along with whatever other points of view they include—then we are missing the opportunity to spread the gospel to readers who are looking for answers. I understand that not all Christian writers are called to such a mission field, but I know from experience that many are and they appreciate these opportunities.

I also read a review of the market guide this week from a reviewer who claimed the market guide was not Christian because the Resources Section included references to general resources. My belief is that because the process of being a writer and honing our skills is the same for those in the Christian or general market—only the message is different—we can benefit from whatever resources are out there. Whatever your take on these issues, I hope you find the market guide meets your needs overall.