December blog for SDWG newsletter
Every few years, we change up the leadership of Straw Dog Writers Guild. It’s healthy for the organization, bringing new ideas and approaches. It also offers an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, and where we want to go next. We’re at such a crossroads now, with two new members of the Board of Directors, Stephanie Shafran and Rick Parr. Elli Meeropol is stepping down from the president role as her term ends, and the Board of Directors have appointed Macci Schmidt to that position.
The organization has grown enormously in the past two years as we welcomed our administrative director Laura Stone and an unprecedented number of new members. We have established two additional monthly open mics, the Patchwork Writing Residency, workshops at the Northampton Center for the Arts, an ongoing program of social justice events, the publication of our first poetry anthology, Compass Roads, and — coming soon — the Emerging Writer Fellowship.
There are some very exciting new opportunities as well, such as the possibility of working with CoLab, the co-working space in Eastworks, to provide members with writing space as requested at the annual meeting in September. We have been approached with an opportunity to write with vulnerable elder members of our community, another request that arose from that meeting. These possible new projects will take more volunteers, more vision, and more energy from our members. If you are called to one of these projects, let us know!
We invite you to become more involved with the Straw Dog Writers Guild community. It benefits us and can benefit you as a writer and a literary citizen. Please consider becoming a member or renewing your membership. Join a committee. Make a financial donation. Volunteer at a program. Start a writing group. Straw Dog Writers Guild is healthy and strong, and we’d love to have your ideas and energy as we continue to grow.
Elli Meeropol and Macci Schmidt
