President’s Message:
The Best Is Yet to Come

I don’t recall when it first crossed my mind that there ought to be a Tanka Society of America. Perhaps it was a dozen or more years ago. I always thought someone should start such a group, but the years went by and it never happened. But in early 2000, I decided to start the group myself, calling together people who attended the Global Haiku Festival in Decatur, Illinois, for a formation meeting. (You can read more about that meeting at http://www.millikin.edu/haiku/global/tankasociety.html [no longer works; go to https://brooksbookshaiku.com/MillikinHaiku/global/tankasociety.html].) At that time, my vision for our organization was to model it after the Haiku Society of America, and for the most part, that is what we have done, except that we do not have quarterly meetings and have not adopted formal bylaws. In addition, we are not a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, and do not have a poetry journal separate from our newsletter. I am sure these things will happen, in the fullness of time, or our group may choose to take a different path from the HSA in shaping unique practices and traditions. Whatever may happen in the years ahead, the future for the Tanka Society of America looks very bright.

Though already five years old, the TSA is about to go through a significant transition. This is my last president’s message, as I will soon be handing over the reins to Michael McClintock as the new president—pending the TSA election, of course. It has been a pleasure for me to serve TSA members as president since I founded the organization on April 14, 2000, and it has been exciting to see our membership grow and stabilize, and for our newsletter to blossom as it has. I believe our annual tanka contest has quickly become the central and perhaps the most prestigious tanka contest in English. We have a useful and informative Web site that helps us attract new members, an annual members’ anthology, and we have an enthusiastic membership that contributes to the growing body of tanka literature both in and beyond the organization. We’ve already come a long way, haven’t we?

I am very grateful to each person who has served as a TSA officer over the years, to contest coordinators, our webmaster, and everyone else who has helped out however they could-and also to each member simply for believing in the organization. I’m particularly grateful now to be handing over the reins to Michael McClintock as the new president, to new officer Jeanne Emrich as vice president, and to an’ya and Kirsty Karkow who are continuing in the positions of editor and secretary, respectively (with Kirsty adding the duties of treasurer). For the first time, the 2005 TSA board will have no officers who were part of the original board when the organization was founded nearly five years ago, so this is surely a sign of change.

Let me talk for a moment about the evolution of organizations and how I see this evolution applying to the Tanka Society of America.

A friend who used to be a founding board member of another organization (unrelated to tanka) recently shared the following two lists of characteristics with me. When a group starts, she said, the founding board of officers often has the following characteristics:

• • • The board is the organization.

    • Strong sense of ownership; power shared by board members; consensus leadership.

    • Informal, consensus decision-making; sometimes “rubber stamping.”

    • Small group; few committees.

    • Passion for mission.

    • Composed of individuals with close ties to the organization’s mission.

For the most part, these characteristics have been true of the TSA board since its founding. We have had an amazing amount of consensus among officers in making decisions. For better or worse, some of these decisions have been “rubber stamping” (obvious things to do that we all agreed upon). Though I have modeled TSA decision-making, procedures, and much of our structure around the example of the Haiku Society of America and its bylaws, thus far the TSA has operated without its own bylaws. Unlike the HSA, which was founded in 1968 and now has a more complex leadership structure, we have been a small group of officers, with few committees. All TSA officers have been committed and passionate, not just regarding tanka, but about the TSA and its direction. We have had our growing pains, but I believe we’ve made excellent strides in an overwhelmingly positive direction. The best part is that I believe tanka poetry in English is better off for it, and we couldn’t ask for anything better.

As the group grows, though, and its officer roles and duties evolve, it is natural that the organization should change. As the founding board of officers matures, it transmogrifies (or sometimes should transmogrify) into having the following characteristics of a governing/managing board of officers (this is the second list my friend shared with me):

• • • Assumption of responsibility for well-being and longevity of the organization.

    • Balancing of power between staff or volunteers and the board.

    • Formalized decision-making process; increased reliance on staff, volunteer, or member recommendations.

    • Focus on policy, planning, and oversight responsibilities; focus on building management systems and structures; micromanaging often becomes a problem; beginning to embrace fundraising responsibilities.

    • Committees become more important; more delegation of work to committees; add board members.

    • Passion for mission decreases with focus on building internal capacity.

    • Recruit board members who are specialists in management, computers, finance, publicity, and so on.

We don’t have a “staff,” of course, so not all of this list fits. Most of the list seems applicable, though, and should give us ideas to ponder. As a result, I feel that we as an organization and/or as officers need to a) have bylaws to formalize our decision-making process, b) be wary of micromanaging, c) formalize our traditions and purposes, and d) consider relying more on the work of committees to accomplish specific goals. I don’t yet think we need to add more board members, provided the work is being done efficiently for the size of our membership (as is currently being done), but as we grow, I can see the value of judiciously adding more board members, and that these positions be filled by dedicated people with increasingly specialized skill sets.

With the above thoughts in mind, I sent email to current TSA officers in mid October 2004, proposing three specific goals, the third of which was a stretch goal. The following are excerpts of my message:

I’m glad this roster of [2005] candidates is in place, and I’m delighted to see the growth and direction that TSA is taking. . . . As I head off into the tanka sunset (ha!), I’m confident that TSA will be in excellent hands. In addition to whatever goals Michael and the rest of you set for yourselves as 2005 officers, here are three tasks that remain to be worked on, each of which I’d like to set as a goal to be completed in 2005:

1. 1. Establish TSA bylaws (I’d like to help finish this task, working with current/incoming officers and perhaps past officers and other volunteers).

   2. Finish tanka definition (Pamela Miller Ness and I remain on this committee, with much academic and poetic input).

   3. Consider establishing a tanka journal published by the TSA, if a suitable editor can be found, and if a restructuring of TSA dues can accommodate it.

I think the time has now come that TSA consider publishing a tanka journal-something I deliberately while we focused on building a strong organizational foundation for TSA [a task that I believe we have now accomplished]. I strongly recommend that . . . TSA work on a plan to establish its own new journal, with its own history, paid for under a revised dues structure. . . . Whether this journal is quarterly or perhaps twice a year (at least) will need to be decided, but, if it’s decided to do this, I would encourage working out a plan in 2005.

I believe with a steady continuation of our newsletter, contest, members’ anthology, and other benefits, we can continue to maintain and build membership and therefore support and promote the writing and appreciation of tanka poetry for decades to come. I’m delighted to have had your support thus far, and am very thankful to each of you for your individual contributions to the success of this organization. But even better things lie ahead! As a former boss of mine used to say at each company meeting, “The best is yet to come.” Let’s make it happen!

Of my three proposals, the idea that we start a new journal received immediate and spirited discussion (that passion is one of the things that I love about our officers!). My vision for TSA all along has been to have both a newsletter and a tanka journal, but that we should not start a separate journal until we could afford it. Michael McClintock suggested, though, that if it would cost quite a bit more money for a separate journal (which would also entail finding someone able to edit and produce it), why not just open the newsletter to unpublished poetry, beyond what appears in the “Tanka Café” column, and make it more like a journal? I’ve had my vision for TSA so long that this idea initially didn’t sit well with me, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think it makes sense—at least as a transition. It won’t require us to raise dues significantly to fund a separate journal, and we can enlarge the scope of what we do using our existing officers. It remains to be seen how the newsletter might specifically change or expand, but I have the good fortune of trusting this job to the incoming slate of officers, and I have every confidence that they will do good things. In the meantime, why not write to the TSA officers and tell them what you think about this idea. This is but one way that the best is yet to come, and I look forward to seeing how it will transpire.

In the meantime, don’t forget to vote in the TSA election and to renew your dues for the 2005 calendar year (a ballot and renewal form are enclosed with this newsletter). And then, once you’ve voted and renewed your membership, dig into this newsletter, which has a great selection of content once again. This issue is chock full of the usual columns, including the ever-popular “Tanka Café” and “Poet and Poem” columns, the “Favorite Tanka” selection (this time provided by Beverley George), the final installment of the “World Tanka” column by Alison Williams, and the usual announcements, book reviews, and news. On a sad note, one news item is the passing of 96-year-old English-language tanka pioneer Neal Henry Lawrence, who specialized in tanka poetry for three decades, and published four books of tanka. On a more intellectual or inspirational note, special items in this issue include an extensive discussion on punctuation by Zolo, Jane Reichhold, Donna Ferrell, and Naia, plus the concluding third part of Patricia Prime’s interview with Sanford Goldstein. All good stuff, and it shows what a vibrant community of tanka writers we are. Isn’t it great to be part of it?

In all, I am confident that you will enjoy this newsletter, and continue to enjoy future newsletters and other TSA activities under the leadership of the 2005 Tanka Society of America officers. Please give each officer your support as the society reaches new heights in its transition to maturity. Your support has helped the organization succeed thus far, and it will surely take it much farther. It is only because of support and enthusiasm from each TSA member that the best, indeed, is yet to come!

—Michael Dylan Welch