We are extremely pleased to announce that Welsh and Welsh-American authors at this year's Left Coast Eisteddfod have been invited to appear and speak at the Portland, Oregon Wordstock festival.

Welsh authors Niall Griffiths, Chris Keil and Peter Griffiths and Welsh-speaking American author Harrison Solow have been invited to present a panel discussion at Wordstock tentatively titled, "Welsh Identity in Literature Dylan Thomas to Dr. Who: " Wordstock is the Pacific Northwest's largest literary festival and features local authors and publishers, as well as authors from around the world. It is the Northwest's equivalent to the Hay-on-Wye festival in Wales and will be held this year at the Oregon Convention Center ( see picture below ) and other sites around the city. The festival attracts around 15,000 visitors annually.

This will be the second year at the Left Coast Eisteddfod for Niall Griffiths and Chris Keil. Niall Griffiths is the author of seven novels and a number of works of non-fiction, He is currently working on a new title in the Seren 'New Stories From the Mabinogion' series. Chris Keil is the author of The French Thing and Liminal and is a lecturer at Trinity, St. David's. Chris is currently working on his third novel due to be published later this year. Peter Griffiths' is the author of Tongue Tied , now in its fourth printing with Y Lolfa and very popular with Welsh-American audiences. Harrison Solow is a multiple award winning writer, university professor, former Writer in Residence at the University of Wales. She was awarded the prestigious Pushcart Prize for Literature in 2008 for her non-fiction work, Bendithion, about Wales, Welshness and Timothy Evans. Her latest book, Felicity and Barbara Pym, published by Cinnamon Press, launches this month in Cardiff and London.

Left Coast Eisteddfod events are scheduled from Monday, October 4, 2010 through Saturday, October 9, 2010. Wordstock runs from Thursday, October 7, through Saturday, October 10. Watch the Left Coast Eisteddfod's site for more information.

It is with regret that we announce that our final ranking in the Chase Charity Community Giving contest was 205. Unfortunately we missed the top 200 by only 5 places. During validation we rose 4 places from position 209 where we finished last night and it appears that none of our votes were disqualified in the process. Effectively, another 70 or 80 votes would have won it for us.

We would like to thank everyone who supported us and voted for us. We would particularly like to thank the small group of volunteers who have worked on this unstintingly for the last four weeks and who have made real sacrifices in terms of their time and efforts. The contest was open to every registered charity in the US, with over 80,000 organizations receiving votes in the competition. If we were finally denied success it is largely because a great many organizations went into this better prepared than we were. Most had prior experience of last years contest and knew exactly how rough things would get in the last few days. We did not! We were aware that we would have to work harder as we drew closer to the finish line but underestimated the degree of competition that we would face. Consequently after struggling to stay in the top 200 for 27 days we were finally knocked out in the last 24 hours. This is a bitter pill to swallow but we did make rank 205 out of more than 80,000. We did everything we could to stay in the running and WE'LL BE BACK. Next time we will know exactly what we have to do to win.

This result will not affect our pre-existing plans for this years Left Coast Eisteddfod but unfortunately a program of expansion which was contingent upon our receiving this funding will not now go ahead. Although, of course, we are not giving up on finding other sources of funding. We will be making new and exciting announcements about the LCE in the days to come.

Once again...a thousand diolch's to all our supporters. CYMRU AM BYTH!

• VOTING HAS ENDED, WHY HAVEN'T THE WINNERS BEEN ANNOUNCED YET?

  Don't worry, the winners are coming! We appreciate your continued support and participation in Chase Community Giving. As a reminder, ourLeaderboard simply reflects the current standings of each charity andnot the final results, which will be announced around noon on July 13,2010.

  Unfortunately, during the program, we detected some isolated incidents of improper voting activity.

• Per our program rules, these votes will be disqualified and votes will be removed before the winnersare announced. To help us with these decisions, we've been working withFacebook and enlisted the expertise of an independent third party whoseresponsibility is to review Chase's process and criteria used toidentify fraudulent and other improper votes.

• Please note there are also instances where charities may be removed from the program because they do not meet the eligibility criteria orother requirements of the Image()).src ='/ajax/ct.php?app_id=162065369655&action_type=3&post_form_id=148b237e113055146eab870d034a610b&position=3&'+ Math.random();return true;">Official Rules . Thanks again for yourhelp and support of local charities across the country and check backaround noon on July 13th to see if any of your favorites are winners.

From our mates at WelshIcons. Please circulate:-

Help Prove Paul the Psychic Octopus Wrong

Our Welsh mates in theStates are at 195 out of 200 in a big competition which could win them $20,000 If they fall out of the top 200 then they get nothing. The contest finishes on Tuesday morning.

>Here are the latest ranking announcements ( see below ). There are only 36 hours to go and the race is becoming fiercely competitive. We need another 50 on the board by 3 pm (PST) 11 pm (UK time). It's doable Please keep contacting people directly and individually . It might also be an idea to encourage them to join Welsh and Celtic groups and post appeals to vote, together with our voting urls, on group walls?

Current ranking 182 with 1200 votes.....1220 on the board. Another great effort overnight but the pace has picked up and we need to redouble our efforts. We have stayed in this race for 27 days but everything hangs on what we do in the next 24 hours. Lets starts our sprint to the finish line now!! PLEASE VOTE NOW, POST APPEALS ON WELSH AND CELTIC GROUP WALLS, ASK A FRIEND,( BEG IF YOU HAVE TO ) ASK ALL YOUR FRIENDS, POST TO YOUR WALL OR USE YOUR GIFT VOTES!! WALES CAN DO IT! CYMRU AM BYTH!

EMERGENCY...we need to make 1300 votes very very rapidly PLEASE VOTE NOW, POST APPEALS ON WELSH AND CELTIC GROUP WALLS, ASK A FRIEND, ASK ALL YOUR FRIENDS, POST TO YOUR WALL OR USE YOUR GIFT VOTES!! WALES CAN DO IT! CYMRU AM BYTH!

We apologize for broadcasting about this for the umpteenth time but the simple fact is that there are 32 hours to go and we're still in the pack but holding on by the skin of our teeth. We need to put on another 50 votes before 3 pm ( PST ) 6pm ( Eastern ) 11 pm ( UK time ). Thats when the next ranking takes place. If you havent voted please vote now. If you have please call a friend ( or 2 or 3 ) and ask them to vote too. If you're feeling adventurous you could try using your gift vote. You'll find directions here:-

http://americymru.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-use-gift-votes-on-chase

This can result in two extra votes if you exchange with someone else who's going to vote for us as well. You could also use some of your votes on other charities ( please pick charities in the top 100 who we are not in direct competition with ) and leave a message on their comment wall.

Something like this:-

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Here's another one from Meriwether Lewis! I'll send more people your way. Please return the favor! Let's both win $20K!

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/263243673-meriwether-lewis-memorial-eisteddfod-foundation

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If you do this don't forget to add the whole message above including the url. This method has proven quite effective in getting new votes.

All in all we hope you'll do all of the above and keep doing it for the next two days. WE ARE SO CLOSE BUT IT COULD COME DOWN TO LITERALLY ONE VOTE BY MONDAY. WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN DO IT