On July 21, G. Karl Kumfert received the California Writers Club Jack London Award in appreciation and gratitude for his many years of exemplary service to Tri-Valley Writers (TVW).
Karl started volunteering as Tri-Valley Writers’ webmaster almost as soon as he joined in late 2012. A technology entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Computer Science, he picked up WordPress quickly, and has kept the digital face of Tri-Valley Writers working smoothly, efficiently, and consistently ever since.
When TVW members struggled with mounting expectations of social media, he started a social media critique group to help members find their voice on Facebook and Twitter. He also created a WordPress plugin for the branch to showcase the social media links of its members. When TVW wanted to start a biennial conference, he set up the registration and payment pages, including private pages for conference organizers to see registration statistics in real time. When the branch had issues with official email and asked how to archive information for when chairpersons rotate in and out of office, he found a solution for that too. Karl got the branch a non-profit subscription to Google’s G-Suite and set up policies and procedures for all the leaders to have official email addresses and ample network storage for branch archives. When Karl isn’t being a tech guru, he writes epic fantasy and young adult fiction.