The January issue of our newsletter, The Writer’s Life, included information about the Guild’s participation in the President’s Volunteer Service Award program. If you haven’t already read about it, check it out here:

https://sdweg.org/blog/13043606

One reason the Board of Directors agreed to participate in the PVSA program is we recognize that the Board needs assistance from members to maintain the member benefits the Guild offers. For example, without members to serve as reviewers, the Guild could not maintain the Manuscript Review Program. Similarly, member to staff tables at festivals, the Guild cannot represent you, our members.

Over the course of the past few years, it has become clear that the ten members elected to serve as the Board of Directors need assistance with projects and ongoing tasks to avoid burning out. These needs will be the topic of discussion during the half hour from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. ahead of the Monday, January 23, membership meeting. (Note that January has five Mondays this month. Our meeting is on the fourth, not the last, Monday of the month.)

Sometimes we come across a discrete task that we'd like a volunteer or two to tackle. For example, we'd like to invite a member or two with an interest in history to go through old newsletters and meeting minutes to write up one or more articles about the history of the Guild.

Other needs are ongoing, though not in themselves time consuming. For example, whenever we hold a membership meeting, we need to download the recording, edit it to eliminate any dead time at the beginning, and then upload the edited version to YouTube. Once that is done, we need to delete the Zoom recording so we don't exceed the available storage space Zoom provides. Current or former Board members are available to provide training for this task. Tasks related to hosting Zoom meetings, launching the evaluation poll at the end of the meetings, and downloading, editing, and uploading videos to YouTube have been added to the SDWEG Member Volunteer Opportunities Worksheet and are waiting for someone to step up to take on these tasks. If you sign up for one of the slots on this worksheet, please send a message to president@sdwritersguild.org to be sure the Board knows to reach back to you.

A final reason for implementing PVSA is that we know the Guild will need more volunteer support from members to implement new member benefits planned for 2023.

Watch for information in the newsletter, blog posts, and Friday roundups about the Guild’s plan to implement a mentoring program. This program will need member volunteers with specific skills and experience.