Nuts and Bolts
While AmLit is a pretty casual organization that is a lot of fun to be involved with, we do have some structure to our group. Here is the basic AmLit information.
Meetings
General meetings take place once a week on Tuesdays at 8pm. These meetings are held in order to plan out the magazine, coordinate events, brainstorm ideas and general socialization. They can be raucous and loud, and are ridiculously joyful unless it is finals week. Meetings usually last about 45 minutes.
Additional meetings are sometimes held during the week as well. These meetings are usually just for editors, designers or general staff assistance, if necessary. Such meetings are scheduled as-needed.
Editors
AmLit editors are the movers and shakers of AmLit. The editors commit their time and dedication to the magazine for at least one whole term, complying with a plethora of emails and calls for help from the Editors-in-Chief.
Editors-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief=AmLit God. Enough said. No, in truth the Editor-in-Chief is pretty much the Mafia boss of AmLit. They oversee all of the editors and are in charge of communicating with all the various bureaucratic aspects of being a major campus organization. They also run meetings and are extremely professional, serious, curt, and to the point during these meetings.
2011-2012 Editors-in-Chief: Morgan Jordan & Kaitie O’Hare
American Literary Editorial Board Descriptions
AmLit’s editors are the movers and shakers of AmLit. The editors commit their time and dedication to the magazine for at least one term, voluntarily complying with a plethora of emails and calls for help from the Editors-in-Chief. Editors are chosen at the beginning of each semester by the Editors-in-Chief. The positions are not paid. To apply for an editorship, applicants must have at least 1 semester of experience on the AmLit general staff. Applications for editorships will be passed out at the first general staff meeting of each semester. The application includes a questionnaire and free-response questions.
Genre Editors
There are four sets of genre editors—Poetry, Prose, Photo, and Art. Genre editors oversee all activities relating to their respective genre including (but not limited to) moderation of review sessions, serving as primary contacts for submitters, layout and creative decisions, and magazine production.
Design Editor
The design editor is an imperative nut/bolt in the AmLit machine…and hopefully they are well oiled. The design editor is responsible for packaging the content of the magazine in an aesthetically pleasing, original, breathtaking way. This position requires time management, as design must be completed under a strict deadline, as well as a complete and sturdy knowledge of design software. The design editor must be infinitely patient with all the volumes of word documents and jpegs that come hurtling towards their Macs.
Copy Editor
The copy editor is the AmLit Mom. This editor goes through the entire magazine and its proofs, checking for typos, grammatical flaws and any other errors that need correction prior to publishing. They keep a fine tooth comb in their back pocket in order to meticulously go over every letter in the magazine. Basically, they are our built-in spell-check, grammar-check, and does-that-make-sense-check for the entire magazine. The copy editing team is also responsible for distribution so that people actually, you know, read the magazine we worked so hard on.
Web Editor
The web editor is a tech-savvy individual who is responsible for keeping the website (www.amlitmag.com) up to date at all times during the semester. They must consistently fine-tune the website and fix any glitches that may arise. The web editor is also responsible for promoting events and upcoming issues on the site. They must additionally continue to maintain the AmLit archive by scanning physical archives to make a digital archive of the life work of AmLit, and making these scans available online.
Public Relations Representative
The public relations representative is in charge of all marketing and public relations activities related to the magazine. This includes (but is not limited to) advertising on-campus and magazine-related events and planning such events, creating advertising literature, managing the Twitter and Facebook accounts, and keeping in contact with other on- and off-campus organizations. The PR rep’s biggest responsibility is providing assistance in planning the release party for the magazine at the end of each semester, which is a big extravaganza at the end of the year where we joyfully toss our finished magazine at all of our friends, family and professors.