Milspeak Foundation™ Programs developed and led by Milspeak Founder Sally drumm

MILSPEAK FOUNDATION™ Programs

Incorporated, 03 November 2009
501c3 pending

milspeak foundation programs are always offered free to participants. Sales of milspeak books, milspeak gear, donations and grants fund milspeak foundation operations and programs. At this time, milspeak foundation, as a start up organization has limited funding and no paid employees. All programs are staffed by volunteers, and not all programs are active but will be implemented in 2010. At present, only sales of the Milspeak anthology, Milspeak: Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience fund milspeak foundation operations and programs.

• MILSPEAK PROGRAMS ARE ALWAYS FREE TO PARTICIPANTS.
• MILSPEAK PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS ARE NEVER REQUIRED TO SHARE THEIR WORK.
• MILSPEAK PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS’ PERSONAL INFORMATION IS NEVER SOLD, AND IT IS NEVER SHARED OR OTHERWISE REVEALED WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND/OR PERMISSION.
• CHILDREN PARTICIPATE IN MILSPEAK PROGRAMS ONLY WITH PARENT OR GUARDIAN PERMISSION.

MILSPEAK CREATIVE WRITING SEMINARS (MCWS)™
MCWS is a creative writing program designed by military people for military people. MCWS began in June 2005 as an idea and began meeting September 6, 2005. Each seminar is given on-site or teleconferenced. Military people lead MCWS, and only military people participate in the seminar workshops. Writers either meet as a bonded class over a period of six-eight weeks, or as a more informal workshop group.

During a traditional MCWS, writers are guided in taking an idea for a true story about military life from first draft to second draft to final draft. Participants also learn to serve as readers for each other’s work. During Seminar Saturday (first Saturday), writers receive a craft talk and learn about the workshop method. On Second Saturday, or Guest Writer Saturday, an established author is invited to speak about the writing life. Following Second Saturday, writers submit first drafts to the workshop leader via email. The workshop leader distributes drafts to workshop members for critique. During Third Saturday, or Workshop I, critiques are discussed in a structured environment and suggestions for revision are offered. Following a break for revising, revised manuscripts are again routed through the workshop leader for critique. During Fifth Saturday, Workshop 2, critiques and suggestions for revising final drafts are offered. Sixth Saturday, Celebration Saturday, brings Milspeak Writers together with family and for a potluck breakfast and a read-aloud of final drafts. Milspeak Writers are offered the opportunity to post their final drafts in the Milspeak Writers Gallery, however this is not required for participation. The end result of Milspeak Writers’ hard work is compelling writing that captures moments in history and fosters greater understanding of military life. The true personal stories, or memoir, emerging from MCWS are helpful for both readers and writers. Writers better understand their experience and readers learn how another military person has successfully navigated both the challenges and rewards of military life. Workshops can be adjusted in length or designed to suit the needs of a particular group. In 2010, MCWS will hold workshops at Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, SC.

MCWS Workshop Groups are forming at Spartanburg Community College in South Carolina and at the West LA VA campus, outside Los Angeles California. MCWS Workshop Groups meet for an extended period, as long as writers want to participate. Participants are military people who write or want to learn to write creatively, who are seeking a safe zone to share writing among other military people, and who are seeking critique of their creative works.

MCWS will be made available elsewhere as workshop leaders are trained and requests arrive.

WORKSHOP LEADERS. Only military people who write seriously and who share Sally’s vision for MCWS - that it remains a free service whose participants’ writing must take priority over the workshop leader’s writing while MCWS is in session, that it teaches military people about the healing power and stress management benefits of writing and reading, and that it assists military people develop their creative potential - are eligible to become workshop leaders.

MILSPEAK MEMO™
An online literary journal, flagship publication of Milspeak Foundation, Milspeak Memo is dedicated to freedom of speech and devoted to providing a venue for creative works by military people. Milspeak first began posting creative works by military people during September 2005. Operating expenses in the future will include marketing, print production and mailing expense.

MILSPEAK BOOKS™
Publishing imprint dedicated to publishing creative works by military people and resurrecting out of print creative works about military life, to include but not limited to MCWS anthologies, MCWS Embed anthologies, Make-A-Book anthologies and literature for military children, MCWS(AFRH) anthologies, combat correspondent anthologies, collections of poetry, nonfiction and fiction written by military people, and military art books. However, it should be noted that participants in Milspeak Foundation programs are never required to share their writing via publication. Participation in publication is a means for Milspeak Writers to share their stories with other military people and to broaden civilian understanding about military life. Publication is always voluntary for Milspeak Writers, and only happens with their explicit consent. MILSPEAK BOOKS will launch as an eBook publisher during the 2009 holiday season. Two novels by Richard Reynolds, Averil, My Anchor and Mayhem in Mazatlan, and an abridged version of Milspeak: Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience (Press 53/Jul 09), will be the first three titles in Milspeak Books’ list. Four books are scheduled for print and/or eBook release during 2010. Operating expenses include book production, marketing, and payment to authors.

SCARS ON MY HEART:
MILITARY LIFE IN THE WORDS OF THOSE WHO LIVE IT™
This theater production/community outreach/community education program designed for colleges and civic organizations brings the Milspeak message to communities throughout the US. This program is especially important for use as a communication tool to open dialog among civilian students and students who are veterans at colleges and universities that will see their veteran population increase dramatically due to benefits offered through the Post 9-11 GI Bill. Through the SCARS program, Milspeak Foundation leader and playwright Sally Drumm guides drama students or theater groups through creating a script excerpted from the anthology Milspeak: Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience. These excerpts are woven together into a conversation that spans a period of time from the Korean War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and presents an overview of military life and the challenges presented to military personnel and their families. SCARS began in 2009, and is expected to grow in 2010. Operating expenses include marketing, travel and expenses to participating educational institutions, and partial production expense.

MaKE-A-BOOK (MAB)™
Literature written specifically for military children or young adults that relates to the experiences of the military child is missing from corporate publishing. Military children and young adults need stories they can relate to. What’s it like for military children to move so often, to have mom or dad, brother or sister, go off to war? What’s it like to wake up as a child in a military hospital surrounded by wounded warriors? How does it feel to never have a home town> What’s it like to have mom or dad come home wounded by wartime service? MAKE-A-BOOK gives military children and young adults the opportunity to write their stories and to share their stories with each other. MAKE-A-BOOK is designed to take military children through the creative writing workshop process. Younger children create storybooks about a particularly challenging or rewarding aspect of military life to share with other military children or with deployed parents. Young adults create short stories, poetry, essay or memoir about the military life. Military children in hospital write about their experience, which helps them accept the reality of their illness and empowers through communication. Sharing their stories with others is entirely voluntary and is not required for participation. Milspeak Foundation also seeks to encourage the work of military people who write children’s literature and to publish literature written by civilian writers for military children. Through Milspeak Books, the foundation hopes to establish a military children and young adult list of titles. An extension of MCWS, which began in June 2005, MAB became a Milspeak program in 2008, and is expected to grow during 2011, if funding becomes available. Operating expenses include marketing, travel and expenses for workshop leaders, and materials for participants. Additional expenses might include voice-activated software and computers for children who do not have use of their arms or cannot write or draw because of physical limitations.

SIED BOOKS™
This program provides free copies of MILSPEAK BOOKS and Milspeak: Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience (Press 53) to military people. Thousands of dollars worth of books have been distributed. This program began in 2009 with delivery of books to troops in Iraq and to Wounded Warrior Battalion East. It will continue during the 2009 holiday season with delivery of books to Walter Reed Medical Center, and, upon publication, with free downloads to troops of the eBook version of Milspeak: Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience. Operating expenses include purchase of books and shipping.

MCWS EMBED™
This Milspeak Foundation program carries MCWS to the troops wherever they are, including active theaters of operation throughout the globe. MCWS Embed is designed to reduce combat stress and stress related psychological wounds through creative writing and sharing experiences in a structured environment. MCWS EMBED, an extension of the MCWS program which began in June 2005, will launch in 2011, if funding becomes available. Operating expenses include marketing, travel for workshop leaders, meeting space, and materials for participants, including production of the MCWS Embed Handbook and the MCWS Embed Workshop Leader’s Handbook.

MCWS(AFRH)™
A program designed to collect, through written and oral means, the military life stories of veterans living in Armed Forces Retirement Homes. This program, an extension of MCWS, is designed to be accessible to older veterans and to bring young veterans together with older veterans, is expected to launch during 2011, if funding becomes available. Operating expenses include marketing, travel and expenses for workshop leaders, and materials for participants. Additional expenses might include digital voice recorders and/or film equipment to capture participant’s stories.

ETX=MG2™
ETX=Milspeak Gear & Equipment™: mugs, t-shirts, calendars, posters, stickers, waterproof and weatherproof writing supplies, ETX (etcetera)! We’re hoping to launch our writing gear line in 2012. Operating expense includes design, production, marketing, cataloguing, sales and delivery.

MILSPEAK FOUNDATION INTERNSHIP
Partnerships with colleges, universities, and the Veterans Administration will allow students and veterans to receive on the job training in NPF management, marketing, public relations, IT, web design, and publishing. This program is expected to launch in the Beaufort, SC area during 2012. Operating expenses include training and supervision of interns, and coordination with associated schools.

MILSPEAK FOUNDATION reading series
This program, an extension of MCWS, will launch in 2012 in conjunction with the MCWS Guest Writer program. The first visiting writers in the series will be Ian Pounds (January 2010) and Atsuro Riley (September 2010), both hosted at Technical College of the Lowcountry. Operating expenses include travel, expenses and stipend for visiting writers, as well as event marketing.

A Note from Founder and President Sally Drumm
Since June 2005, when I presented my idea for a creative writing workshop for military people to Marine Corps Community Services, people have thought it would never work. There are many reasons for this assumption. In our world, anything offered free either has a hook or is doomed to failure because “free” equates to “junk.” Ten seminars and a whole lot of lessons learned later, I can safely say that Milspeak programs are not junk - the results for writers and participants are proven. The anthology has been well received. Milspeak Memo is read by THOUSANDS of people every day. I’m not making this up - the statistics prove it. The anthology is being sold all over the world - US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, South America. Milspeak is expanding, not shrinking. This isn’t because of marketing or huge amounts of money being spent on advertising. To this day, Milspeak is still operating without funding and without a marketing staff, a PR staff, an agent, or a business staff. Volunteers make Milspeak happen with an overhead expense to date under $2000 - most of that has been spent on books for troops! That’s a fact.

Milspeak is happening because its benefits are real. Some of the programs listed above have yet to launch. These programs are under development. I will continue to develop new programs as I see the need for them or as the need is brought to my attention. During the next year or two, as funding becomes available, the foundation will begin to hire staff, beginning with a webmaster, a grant writer, a full-time business manager, and an assistant for me! I promise Milspeak Writers, participants, and those who might be considering supporting Milspeak through donations or endorsement - I will never accept a salary as Milspeak Foundation president. Never. I have already been given more than I ever dreamed possible when I lay in my bed as a child listening to stock cars race the track near my home. I started this program because I wanted to give something back for all I’ve received from the Marine Corps and my country. The American Dream has come true for me and it doesn’t involve financial excess or greed. All that I have today, all that I am and all that I do is because I am an American, a citizen of a country where a girl who grew up next to a dump can take an idea and run with it, create a corporation because she sees a need for a service, and receive the smiles of those who are enlightened by the services that corporation provides. If the foundation and its programs are worthy, the public will support it. That’s winning in my book. That’s success. And it doesn’t have to involve greed, corruption, or dishonesty. In America, dreams still win. In America, ideas can still be realized. In American, Americans still know how to help each other, even when government fails us. If that’s not something to be grateful for, then try this one on. If not for the Marine Corps, I would not be alive today. If not for the men and women I served with in the Corps, I would not be capable of doing what I am doing with Milspeak Foundation. If not for Milspeak Writers, there wouldn’t be a Milspeak. Milspeak Foundation belongs to the people it serves, not to me. Milspeak Foundation belongs to America.

I am pleased to be able to continue to build Milspeak Foundation in the coming year. I am more than pleased to have had the privilege of working with so many writers during the past four years. And I am more than pleased to be able to continue to provide, at no cost to participants, Milspeak programs already launched or to be launched in the coming year. As long as artists want a Milspeak Foundation, it will continue to grow.

Happy Writing!