Committee Chairs

The Haiku Foundation Committees are the vehicles through which most of our projects are realized, including planning, short- and long- term strategies of implementation, funding and maintenance. They are staffed by volunteers with a special interest and expertise in the topics they address. We are seeking volunteers for a number of committees. Read More »

Thomas R. Borkowski, Treasurer of The Haiku Foundation, is chairperson of the Budget & Finance Committee. He is a domestic and international pilot with a major U.S. air carrier. He served two terms as Treasurer for the Haiku Society of America, and has had previous financial experience in managing a minor-league tennis association.
Mark Harris chairs the Touchstone Awards Committee, and also serves on The Haiku Foundation’s board. He is a specialist in the maintenance and display of art museum collections. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
Gene Myers, editor of our blog Troutswirl, is a poet & journalist. His column, The Joy of Life features interviews and articles on whatever interests him, but especially the music scene. He resides in New Jersey.
Melissa Allen is our Digital Librarian, which follows logically from her position as an Archives Digitization Assistant at University of Wisconsin Archives/University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center. She is also the editor of the Haiku Society of America News Bulletin, and has recently become a board member with the American Haiku Archives in California.
Jim Kacian, besides serving as President of The Haiku Foundation, chairs the Publications Committee. To date the Foundation has produced one volume, Montage: The Book, edited by Allan Burns, which has successfully served as an incentive premium for donors. Additional volumes planned include the annual findings of the Hall of Fame Committee.
Allan Burns oversees the Hall of Fame Committee. Plans are to announce the Hall’s protocols in 2012, and to seat its inaugural class of inductees on National Haiku Poetry Day, April 17, 2013, which will mark the centennial of the publication of Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Métro” poem, arguably the first fully-realized English-language haiku; and also the jubilee of the publishing of the first journal in English dedicated to haiku, American Haiku.

The Education Committee chair remains vacant, and we are seeking candidates.