Every year around this time, I evaluate the writers groups/organizations to which I belong especially those that require membership fees. Belonging to a number of writers groups can become quite costly. Individually, the fees don’t seem like so much. When I run a report though that shows how much I paid in group membership fees in a year, I’m always surprised. The total for the writers groups I belonged to came close to $200.00 this year. Did I get $200.00 worth of service from these groups? When I break it down individually, I realize it varies from group to group. Some groups have a better return on investment than others. Isn’t that how we should judge our memberships? The groups always tout their potential benefits. Potential is the key word here. If due to location, money constraints, or other obstacles, a potential benefit isn’t available to me personally, I don’t think I should include it as a benefit. What if what one considers a benefit, I actually find determental to my work? Do I have to consider it then? I don’t think so. So as I begin to weigh these issues, I become less and less enamored with the groups I’ve joined.
One of the national groups in which I have a membership has a fairly active Yahoo group that allows members to discuss issues and share good news. I used to be fairly active in this group often contributing to the discussions and trying to both share what I’ve learned and learn from others. After awhile, I realized this group’s discussions had become a distraction and that they were making me feel uninspired and, at times, even bad about myself. Since support for fellow writers is a big part of this group’s mission, I became disheartened with the group. I put them on “digest” and scanned the headlines every few days. My writing output soon increased, my work gained some attention, and I began to feel good about my writing again. This seems a clear signal there’s something about this group - at least the Yahoo portion of it - that doesn’t work for me. I’m left wondering how that reflects on the group as a whole. Many of its members are on the listserv. In the past few weeks, as I’ve mulled over my memberships, I’ve started reading the digests a bit more often and a bit more closely. I’m beginning to feel that same mental distraction and judged attitude that I felt a year ago when I put them on digest. And I’ve not even commented on the group since last January according to my sent items box! How can I feel judged and criticized when I’m not even posting anything? I’m torn. This group has a really good reputation, and that could be useful to me. On the other hand, why should I continue to support a group that I don’t feel supports me? I didn’t even share my good writing news with the group this past year. I guess I still could, but, honestly, I doubt very many of the members would be happy for me. It saddens me to feel that way.
Another group to which I belong, let’s call it regional, provides little for me. I receive an occasional bit of information about happenings I can’t attend. They will publish my “good news” if/when I submit it to them. . I keep forgetting I’m a member of this group. I’m not so sure it’s worth it for what I pay in membership fees. I’ve looked for ways to be more involved with this group, but I really feel the only thing I get from my membership is “the potential for” but not the actuals.
Another group to which I belong is an easy decision at least for now. There are meetings, albeit, a bit inconvenient because of the distance, but it works okay. They provide nice bits of information about things happening in the general area and provide some opportunities for promotion. I’ll keep this memberhship.
There’s one more group under consideration at the moment. It’s a long distant group of which I was an active member before my move to Oregon. It’s not a very active group, so the membership benefits mostly consist of their newsletter and occasionally online discussions. I’ve not made a fnal decision, but I’m leaning toward keeping my membership here for one more year.
A couple of other groups to which I belong aren’t currently under consideration for different reasons.
Evaluating what a group does for you is always a tough chore. Especially when you know the “potential” even though the potentials never seem to become actual whether due to the group dynamic, your own personal goals and attitudes, or to the group having lost its way somewhere along the line.
Even writing this blog hasn’t helped me make a final decision on the group that’s creating the biggest dilemma for me. Guess I’ll just have to think about it some more.