Writers Guild of Acadiana board meeting minutes of Tuesday, March 31, 2026.
Board Meeting began at 5:00 pm at South Regional library, Lafayette, LA.
Current Board Members are
- President John Comeaux
- Vice President Chris Fontenot
- Past President John Francois
- Secretary Edward Gauthier
- Treasurer Beth Davis
- Newsletter Brandon Russell
- Webmaster Andre Guirard
- Publicist Jade Landry
- Historian James McDonald
Absent from this meeting: Jade Landry, Brandon Russell
Our next Writers Guild meeting will be Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at South Regional Library in Lafayette, LA. Meetings start at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will feature John Comeaux, Chris Fontenot, and Edward Gauthier speaking on the topic of self-publishing.
1st item: Jade Landry has offered to do a bit of free advertising for those authors selling their books at the Farmers Market at Moncus Park. She asks that you send your picture, an ad you may have created or have been using (if you have one), a picture of your book’s cover, and a short bio to her at jwlandry@excaliberpublishing.com
2nd item: Writers Guild is looking for speakers for May and / or for later months. We also need another board member, a “Program Chairperson,” who would diligently seek and find speakers.
3rd item: Our ‘Treasury’ anthologies, both volume 1 & 2, are available at Amazon and at Ingram Spark in both paperback and hardcover. These consist of stories and poems written by Writer’s Guild authors.
4th item: We are now in planning for Treasury volume 3, which has opened for submissions on January 1, 2026. Beth Davis will head it up. Vana has been added to that committee. The board may consider Pre-Orders for this volume.
5th item: The board has begun developing a quality standard for all written submissions to the guild. This criteria will be applied to all submissions to the Treasury, and to other future writing projects the guild might take on. This criteria list as currently developed will be displayed on our website and will be sent by email to our members. IF a member or non-member submits a written submission that does not meet the criteria, the submission would be tactfully returned to the author.
What is published in our treasury reflects on the quality of writing our guild produces and represents. If you’re interested in contributing to development of this criteria, please contact a board member.
6th item: Our NEW Website is now live at WritersGuildAcadiana.org. Andre Guirard is in charge of the website and is handling ongoing improvements. What we might expect soon: Our membership list, board of directors meeting minutes, a new criteria for all writing submissions accepted by the guild, and possibly a new store to sell our Treasuries and Anthologies. Any board member or regular member can consult with Andre Guirard concerning posting information onto the website. (763-458-6897) or webadmin@writersguildacadiana.org
7th item: Rules of our writing competition: Members must be the author of the piece and must be present to read their submissions. The author is allowed one submission only. The reading time limit is 5 minutes (strictly enforced). The writing prompt must be stated within the text of the submission. There is a limit of 500 words, and the word count should be stated on the printed copy. Participants must bring a printed copy which the guild may keep. Reading from a cell phone or computer is NOT allowed. After all submissions have been read, our members vote to decide the winner.
Those authors submitting and reading are not allowed to vote. The winner will receive a prize, usually a cash card from a local big box store. Non-members are welcome to read their work after the competition.
The 1st and 2nd place winners of Writers Guild creative writing competitions may have their work published in a booklet anthology in the future. Authors are responsible for accuracy, grammar, spelling, and all final editing.
8th item: Sales at Moncus Park Saturday morning farmers market occur on the second and last Saturday of each month. Spring weather has arrived and sales have held steady. The weather has warmed from winter, is usually sunny, and sales have been good. This is an excellent chance to vend your book to customers. Keep in mind that the booth fills up quickly.
Members and Non-members will need to contact our secretary, Ed Gauthier to schedule a date for vending. He sends out an updated schedule about every 10 days, or more often. Writers Guild is responsible for vetting the books sold at Moncus Park, therefore, questions will be asked about the content, theme, plot and characters within your book.
9th item: WGAcadiana Critique meets online using Google groups and Google Meet. Of late, attendance has averaged four to six members. These meetings occur on the second and fourth Thursday evening of each month at 7:00 pm. Our purpose is to assist writers in discovering the strong and weak points of their writing styles. If you need and want assistance on a piece you are writing, we can advise you. We have plenty we can teach in that area. Genres eligible for critique are chapters of a novel, short story, poetry, fiction or non-fiction, memoir, and others. Our critique group follows a careful format to develop trust amongst its members. IF interested, contact our secretary by text (337-945-5718) or send email to eggchess@gmail.com. Joining this group will require that you have an active Google account, which is free.
10th item: The Lafayette City Art Walk continues to occur on the second Saturday of the month, every month, and so far Winter has brought brisk sales. If you wish to vend your books at Art Walk, free space is available. This occurs on Jefferson Street, from the underpass to the corner of Lee Street and Jefferson. It begins around 4:00 pm and goes to 8:30 or 9:00 pm. (Or until you are tired) Ed Gauthier recommends setting up on the sidewalk in front of a store that is out of business, or that doesn’t charge a fee. There is plenty of walking traffic, lots of customers. Basically, no one will oversee your location.
This is available to anyone, whether a member of the Guild or not. Ed sets up near the science museum. Come by. Text Ed and he’ll give more explanation. (337-945-5718).
11th item: The Writers Guild has developed a policy and philosophy about the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence. Generally speaking, our Writers Guild recommends writers and authors NOT use AI to GENERATE any of their written material. AI GENERATED writing and text will not be accepted for submission to our guild for publication or competition. If you wish to see the Writers Guild AI policy, it is posted on our website – WritersGuildAcadiana.org
12th item: Writers Guild is still looking for grant writers to assist us in receiving grant money.
13th item: The guild is interesting in receiving member suggestions about what they want to see occurring at the Writers Guild meetings. Do you have a writing exercise? Could you present a workshop on a writing topic? Have an interesting prompt? Know how to create effective ads? What topics would you like to see covered? Send suggestions to our president, John Comeaux at 337-257-8665 or by email at president@writersguildacadiana.org
14th item: The Boulet administration (of Lafayette) has put out a call for acts of service and pride to commemorate America’s 250th birthday, coming this July 4th. Officials want to tally 250 acts of service to mark the occasion. Any members willing to take this on or make a contribution, contact a Writers Guild board member.
Motions Tabled for further discussion and later decisive action.
None.
End of Motions Tabled
Board Meeting was adjourned at 5:55 pm. The members meeting began at 6:00 pm.
Number of members attending the 3-31-2026 regular meeting: 19 people
End of Board meeting minutes.
Ed Gauthier, Secretary
ADDENDUM to the Official Minutes. Results of the meeting.
Decide on the fun activity. A breakout room is available.
We did two activities: solo writing an unusual first line of a story, and pair-writing a story alternating authors. Each was read aloud at the end of the 15 minute period. Some were quite enjoyable.
April will be a speakers panel on self-publishing, with Ed Gauthier and John Comeaux.
The Anthology for 2024-25 has arrived from Mixam printers. The cost per copy is $ 3.74 . Ads have paid for the entire 50 print run. $ 186.94. Each author and each advertiser gets a free copy. The final story by Madison Flor was inadvertently printed without the last few paragraphs. A new printing will be made with the correction. WGA apologizes for the error.
John Comeaux asked attendees what they want/expect at these monthly meets. There was a suggestion to have more people participate in the writing exercise. A full table of people who contribute to the story. Other people did not want to continue this exercise. It was agreed to only do it occasionally.
End of Addendum. John Comeaux, president WGA