The Society of Professional Obituary Writers does not yet have elected officers. Alana Baranick is director of the organization. She can be contacted at alana.baranick@obitwriters.org.

An Interim Board serves as the governing body and is in the process of working on the SPOW mission statement, bylaws, organizational structure, 2009 convention, 2009 awards and other topics. The panel will present most of its decisions to the membership for approval.

Members will likely be asked to vote for the people they want to lead SPOW sometime in 2009.

SPOW Interim Board members are Alana Baranick (Cleveland Plain Dealer), Larken Bradley (West Marin Citizen), Bob Chaundy (freelancer, formerly with BBC), Sandra Martin (Globe and Mail), Kay Powell (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Connie Sexton (Arizona Republic), Amy Rabideau Silvers (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Gayle Ronan Sims (Philadelphia Inquirer) and Jade Walker (Yahoo! News).

SPOW members, who are interested in serving as officers or contributing their talents in other ways, should let the board know by writing to members@obitwriters.org or by telling any member of the Interim Board.