40 Years: The Jasmine Award

(As stated in the RMFW Policy and Procedure Manual: [The Jasmine is] to be awarded to an individual providing exemplary leadership and service to RMFW over a period of at least three years.)

By the time anyone has been to the awards banquet of a Colorado Gold Conference, they know The Jasmine is RMFW’s most prestigious award. Though the wording in the Policy and Procedure Manual states the bare bones of how possible recipients are to be evaluated, nothing is said about how the award came to be. So, a tiny history lesson, this time focused on Jasmine Cresswell.

If you’ve been reading the history articles so far this year, you already know the organization was founded by Pat Dalton in 1983 as a chapter of Romance Writers of America. That fledgling organization of fewer than fifteen had among its founding members Kay Bergstrom and Carol Caverly, both of whom are well known to current members. Jasmine Cresswell became a member during that first year when her husband was transferred to Denver. These four women were the core leaders during that first couple of years, often working behind the scenes as much as in elected office. The welcoming, education-focused culture that is so much a part of RMFW today began with these leaders.

Jasmine, who was multi-published when she moved to Denver, became an invaluable mentor, sharing her knowledge of writer’s organizations from other places she had lived. She willingly lent her expertise and lessons-learned to the organization. She had publishing connections that helped the organization have a Harlequin editor in attendance at its first ever conference in 1984, a successful event that attracted subsequent long-term members (I was among that group) and was profitable.

During the six years that Jasmine lived in Denver, she tirelessly worked for the organization in almost every elected office and non-elected office the organization had, including president, secretary, newsletter editor, hospitality chair, and conference chair. She spoke enthusiastically on behalf of the organization on both the local and national stages, always with a generous can-do attitude that was meant to bring notice to others and RMFW rather than herself. She fostered recognition of the organization with other local and regional groups and encouraged shared events. Jasmine was often the first person to greet others and ensure they were welcomed. In a word, she was Encourager-in-Chief.

Being in critique group with her was an education, and many writers from that era (including me) credit Jasmine with providing them with the kind of education in fiction writing they could have never gotten anywhere else. At the same time, her own writing career was thriving as the romance genre was thriving. She was generous with her insider’s knowledge, often making suggestions to her fellow writers that a particular editor or a particular publisher could be interested in the story they were working on.

I was president of RMFW in 1989 when the announcement came that her husband’s career was taking him and, by extension, Jasmine, to Cleveland. I can tell you there was a moment of deep concern about the organization when the Board of Directors began to assess all the ways in which Jasmine had been a pivotal member. Her contributions were huge. In Jasmine’s classic (not to mention classy) way of being, she insisted we would all be just fine and that the organization would move onto even greater things. Of course, she was right. That same year (1989), RMFW disaffiliated from Romance Writers of America to make way for all the non-romance writers who had found the organization as their home for the continuing support and education. Once more, that original vision of being welcoming to all and focusing on education was alive, well, and thriving.

Still, there was also a strong desire to ensure that Jasmine remained an integral part of the organization. Hers was the first lifetime membership to be awarded, which the Board of Directors unanimously recommended she have, but that seemed not quite enough. And so, a service award was created in her name. The Jasmine Award was meant to honor the long-term service of individuals to the organization in the spirit that Jasmine exemplified during her years in Denver—service, not a desire for self-aggrandizement or recognition. Without exception, that has been the case for every single recipient since the first one.

That first award recipient—Jane Anne Caldwell—is the one who created a financial system for the organization that ensured we were no longer amateurs operating out of a Girl Scout Cookie box with a haphazard method of meeting our financial obligations. Jean Anne Caldwell took our fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants finances into a formal bookkeeping system with responsible reporting and sound fiscal policies. She is representative of all the Jasmine Award subsequent recipients, whose talents and contributions have enriched the organization.

The Executive Committee (the elected officers) of RMFW are entrusted with the difficult task of choosing the annual honoree because they are in the best position to know which individual goes above and beyond the call not just for a year, but for three or more; who says yes (often without knowing the full extent of a request); and who exemplifies that level of service Jasmine gave to the organization during her years in Denver. The word honoree is accurate. This isn’t a contest that can be won (there are no Jasmine Award winners), but rather a means to acknowledge and honor the dedication and commitment a member has to the organization over a period of years. Traditionally, the name of the recipient for this award is kept secret until the announcement at the Awards Banquet. The person presenting the award has the fun of dropping ever more specific clues about the recipient until that final “Ah! This year the award goes to …!”

This award, like Writer of the Year, serves as inspiration for every single member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. One person can (and did) make a positive difference whose ripples continue to expand ever outward.

Jasimine Award Recipients:

Sharon Mignerey has been a member of RMFW since 1984. She has served as treasurer, newsletter editor, president, contest co-chair, bylaws chair (1990-2017), administrator of RMFW University, and conference co-chair (5 times). She is the 2000 Writer of the Year and a recipient of the Jasmine Award. She is the author of 12 novels, and currently has two more under submission. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.