By Robin L.L. Allen
(From the October 2004 issue of the Update.)
Guess what? All RWA chapter meetings are not the same.
Okay, so you knew that already. So did I, honest. I was still surprised when I attended the Desert Rose Chapter meeting in April, in Tempe, Arizona.
The officers and members of the Desert Rose Chapter were very gracious and hospitable-and, judging from the permanent slot on the agenda to introduce visitors and new members, always are. The meetings are held in a local Mexican restaurant that closes down to the public for a few hours one Tuesday a month. The general format is:
5:30 p.m.—Arrive/mingle/used book sale/signing table
6:00 p.m.—Dinner/Table Topics
6:30 p.m.—Meeting 7:05 pm Raffle
7:15 p.m.—Short Program
7:30 p.m.—Guest Speaker
8:45 p.m.—Adjourn
I found the “Table Topics” a fascinating concept. Since they eat dinner at the meeting, they’ve developed a system where each month, volunteers offer to moderate various topics (there was one on Punctuation when I was there, for example), and two tables in the main dining area are set aside with tent cards listing each topic. Anyone who sits at these tables participates in an ongoing discussion on that subject during the meal.
Also pre-meeting, a table is set up for an author with a recent release who wants to bring copies to sign and sell.
The meeting itself is a formal “Roberts Rules” affair. Minutes of the previous meeting are distributed, the officers present short reports and everything is formally approved, seconded, and voted on. Any chapter business, such as financial matters, is approved and voted on by the membership.
In addition to the introductions of visitors, each month they present silk roses to those who have just sold a book (any book-not just first sales, and not just romance), and quills to those with an achievement in the field to announce-it could be a mention in a magazine article, a new book tour, or the launch of a website. From the conversations, I gathered that vases of quills and roses are quite the popular desk decoration among the membership.
The meeting then gives way to a “short program"-a topic presented by a chapter member. Vijaya Schwartz presented a session on Dialog the night I was there. These sessions are not only to present information to the chapter members, but are also geared to provide public speaking experience in front of a friendly audience. After the short program, a “Guest Speaker” is introduced, to speak for 60-90 minutes on a topic. My visit featured a woman from the CSI lab of Phoenix, who talked about DNA evidence, techniques, and some fascinating recent investigations.
The other interesting thing about attending this meeting was that they were as intrigued by my description of our meetings as I was with theirs. “All day on SATURDAYS? Does anyone go?” “How can you “not do” minutes every month?” “Wow! Not having to vote at every meeting? I could like that . . .” vs. “Not getting to vote at every meeting? Hmm, I don’t know about that . . .” And “How can you not have it in the same place every month?”
The Desert Rose Chapter does a number of monthly fundraisers for literacy charities. They have a “floating used book sale"-boxes of books that are available on an honor system for five for a dollar (non-romances are free).
The $1 per ticket monthly raffle collection goes to literacy as well. Anyone who wants to donate something brings in an item. They draw as many tickets as they have items. There’s one “perpetual” item: a basket of “stuff”, and the person who chooses it has to refill the same basket with whatever she chooses and bring it back next meeting. The day I was there, there were probably fifteen items up for raffle.
“Mentoring” is available for $10 (for literacy, of course, minus mailing costs). When you are ready to send a book to an editor or agent, you can get matched with someone published in that genre who will “review it like an editor” as a final pass. It’s a one-shot deal per book and per mentor, which encourages participation.
They bring permanent name tags in plastic holders to each meeting. They have stickers for published authors (a heart), other genre published (a star), and their RWA Chapter Service pins attached to the holders.
If you’re interested in attending a meeting somewhere else, let me make a couple of suggestions. First, contact them ahead just to be sure guests are allowed and what the procedures are, if any.
And, second, keep in mind my geography “duh” of the month: I learned that the Greater Phoenix Area is much like the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area—it’s all suburbs. Without the invitation from my friend from my critique loop, it never would have occurred to me to check a map to see how far the Desert Rose meeting site actually was from my hotel—I just assumed that since it was listed on the RWA Chapters website as being in Tempe, it wouldn’t work with a meeting in Scottsdale. It turns out I had less than a 20-minute commute “through” Phoenix.
I really enjoyed branching out and seeing how other chapters work. I made some new friends and expanded my network of professional contacts at the same time. It also livened up some travel that hadn’t started out being “writing related.” Next time you travel, consider being a bit more adventurous, and contact the local RWA chapter as well as the local bookstores.
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Robin L.L. Allen is the Program Coordinator for WRW. She’s working on a contemporary romantic suspense novel that is a finalist in the 2004 Maggie Contest, and hopes to soon add Georgia Romance Writers to the list of chapters she’s visited.
