Pratricia Dunson Boverhuis joined the WRWA in 1989 and became a member of the Board of Directors two years later. She won a Jade Ring in 1990. “We occasionally had different categories than we do now,” she recalls. “My story won in the Mystery Short Story category.” Her first additional duty as a Board member was as chair of the Florence Lindemann contest. She also took on running the Book Fair. “We also had what we used the call the Non-Book Fair. Actually, I made up the name myself because we didn't tout it like we do the one at the fall conference, but we wanted to give the members a chance to sell their books.”

Patricia became Secretary when Don Ollie took over as Treasurer. “I was late to the Board meeting and when I arrived, I found out I'd been nominated and voted in. It was a different job then as hardly anyone had online access.” That meant a lot of mailing.

She held the secretary job until Elayne Clipper Hanson retired as president. “We'd all assumed that Kathy Voigt would move from Vice President to President, but she wanted to retire from the board, too. So I was in California when Elayne tracked me down and told me there was no one else, I had to do it. (Out of the room again.) I really didn't want the job as I was beginning graduate school that fall and thought it would be too much. But I'd worked very hard for WRWA and knew I had to step in and so I did. Unfortunately, I lost most of the experienced people with retirement. There was no one to plan conferences and so, even though I'd never done it before, I had to take that on as well.” This illustrates the old adage, “If you want to get a job done, give it to a busy person.” Patricia served as president for five years, including three years while she was in grad school. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in July of 2001 from Vermont College in Montpelier, VT.

Patricia notes that during her tenure the Board tried to streamline some of the jobs and bring the organization, “kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. We centralized the registration, and I tried to bring someone along to take over conferences so it wouldn't be the job of the President when I retired. The web site was established, we got the newsletter out of the kitchen and made it a respected publication around the country. I say we because I had a tremendous board who all worked very hard. I could not have survived as President without the help of Donna Potrykus, who was Vice President and then Information Coordinator. She kept me informed when I was at school in Vermont and ran interference for me when I had to be elsewhere.”

The job took its toll. She had not missed a conference in 14 years, and her husband, Ralph, wanted her to get her life back. So she picked a date and announced her retirement. But getting away wasn't going to be that easy.

“During my presidency, we'd tried to modernize and simplify the job of Membership Chair with no success. There we many problems that I'd complained about for years. It was time to put up or shut up. As soon as I retired from the board, I took on the job of Membership. I must tell you, it was a nightmare, but after about six or eight months, I had it under control. I promised to do the job for two years, which I did, and was thankful for Robin Butler to step and take it over. I'm sure he'll do us all proud."

“I've always felt that the most important thing I've gotten out of WRWA was the wonderful people I've met; they made all the work worthwhile. I'm still really overwhelmed by the honor and I feel especially honored to be nominated with Elayne Hanson.”

Elayne Clipper Hanson joined WRWA in 1967 and the WFOP in 1969. Her life in the two organizations has been parallel in a way. Poetry is her first love and it continues as she writes mostly poetry and essays.

Through the years the Writers at the Portage have hosted WRWA conferences in Portage at least a couple times-both of which Elayne chaired. These were years ago when the local clubs were more or less responsible for the program as well as the accommodations, meals, meeting places, and so on.

Elayne became a member of the Board of Directors of WRWA in 1969, just two years after she joined. She chaired the Florence Lindemann contest and was on the Nominating Committee for several years. She was elected President In 1992 and served for the next seven years. Elayne is proud of the fact that, during her tenure, the WRWA became financially healthy, even establishing savings accounts, which gave the Board a great feeling of security.

Also during her tenure, the Board discovered that the WRWA's incorporation had lapsed. In order to remain tax exempt, The Association had to re-incorporate. Ferreting out all the necessary information, meeting with attorneys in Portage and Madison, dealing with the IRS, drawing up numerous papers, took a long time and was almost a full time job for her. A lot of anxious hours, phone calls, trips, etc. were required. Elaine credits WRWA member Don Ollie for all the help he gave and says, “We couldn't have done it without him either. We became bosom buddies and are to this day-both he and Phyllis.”

Elayne was president at the time of the WRWA's 50th Anniversary, and was involved in printing the 50-year history and all the events of the celebration. She says, “It was a wonderful (and frustrating) year.”

Elayne is a charter member of the Writers at the Portage, 1966, the Pauquette Wordcrafters 1990, and the August Derleth Society, 1978.

“Though I have always written, my writing life really began with the formation of the Writers at the Portage in 1966. It was then I learned of WRWA and WFOP and most everyone in our local clubbed joined WRWA, some the WFOP. We all took writing classes from the late Al P. Nelson, who traveled to Portage with his wife and held classes in the city hall I believe. Robert Gard visited in Portage many time and was one of our first speakers at the Zona Gale Center for the Arts where I was on the Board for 19 years-just retiring from that position last year. I organized a series of Brown Bag programs at the Center and many of the members of WRWA and WFOP gave programs for me during the Brown Bag series.”
Elayne has written two books, the first a poetry chapbook (So This Is Me, 1970), the second a collection of her columns and poetry (The World According to Clipper, 1996). The second is over 200 pages. Both sold out and she produced a second printing of the 1996 book.

For ten years she wrote columns for three local publications: The Observer, Portage, the Portage Daily Register, and Mature Lifestyles, out of Madison. The columns were titled “Bits 'N Pieces,” “The World according to Clipper,” and “From My House t o Your House.” She believes that columns are her real forte. “I truly enjoyed writing those columns but after ten years I felt I had written everything there was in my head and heart. That is also the reason I do not enter a lot of contests-because everything I write has been published someplace so it isn't eligible.”

Elayne has been published in many magazines and newspapers-Portage Daily Register, The Observer, Nature Lifestyles, Milwaukee Journal, WFOP Poetry Calendars (almost all of them from their onset in 1967), two WFOP poetry anthologies (New Poetry Out of Wisconsin 1969, edited by August Derleth and a later one which she can't locate, but believes was called just Poetry Out of Wisconsin. She is also published in The Viking, Lutheran Digest, Scope magazine, two volumes of Country Poet edited by the late Edna Meudt, Writers Showcase, FREE VERSE, Wisconsin Writes Home-Stories to Remember from the Yarns of Yesteryear Project, August Derleth Society Newsletter, Lutheran Brotherhood Bond magazine, Tea and Sunshine magazine, Up-stream-Downstream, 2 anthologies of the Writers at the Portage and am listed in the International Who's-Who in Poetry in 1974-75. She says there are more and that “Some day I must write them down.”

Elayne organized the “Writers Write” column in the Portage Daily Register, which features a Portage writer each week in an essay. A couple years ago the Writers at the Portage invited the Pauquette Wordcrafters to join with them in this endeavor and there are now about twenty writers who are published in the column.

Elayne has placed in several Jade Ring contests in several categories, but laments that she has never won the coveted Jade Ring. “It is probably my fault,” she says, “because I don't enter very often. And, as I tell everyone else, you can't win if you don't enter.” She has also placed in the Al P. Nelson feature article contest, won first place in the Yarns of Yesteryear contest, received the Northward Award in l990 for “The Trunk,” and later placed again for “My Road Wrapped in Plain Brown.” The latter was published in The Country Day paper out of Eau Claire. She also won the coveted Golden Crow Award eight times-an inter club contest of the Writers at the Portage. Elayne says “The old crow sits on the refrigerator at this time.” She won first place, Trophy Poem contest, WFOP, 1982.

Elayne produces two newsletters-Writers at the Portage and Museum at the Portage, and for years did the newsletter for the Portage Center for the Arts, Inc. She was the first lay person named to the Editorial Board of the Portage Daily Register-a rotating position they continued for two or three years, each of us serving about six months.

The WRWA is proud to have members such as Patricia and Elayne, who has given so much of their time and energy to the Association. We welcome them to the elite community of Life Members.