Southshire Roundtable has grown over the last three years and with that growth comes valuable lessons. We have wonderful members, who contribute both diversity and excellent writing. We look forward to great times ahead. However, we have found ourselves in need of concrete by-laws as we seek non-profit status and address issues which come up from time to time. They are as follows:
1.) Prospective members will be required to submit an admission form along with a sample of their writing: i.e. a short story, an except from a novel or work in progress, a series of poems or an essay. The piece submitted should be around 3,000 words. A little longer or shorter is fine. A membership committee will meet and review the applicant's material and vote to accept or decline the applicant.
2.) A yearly, non-refundable membership fee of $30.00 is required upon acceptance
3.)Guests who wish to attend meetings must be pre-approved. Please do not bring a guest without pre-approval. The Roundtable previews its members’ intellectual property and it is unfair to presume that ‘outsiders’ would be welcome by all.
4.) Members are expected to be working writers and committed to their craft. Those who have always wanted to writers are not suitable applicants.
5.) Southshire Roundtable is a critique group and does not provide writing classes or editorial services to its members. Editorial duties may occasional be provided in conjunction with a group anthology or writing project. Those duties will be limited to a coordinator who may also serve in the position of accepting or rejecting manuscripts from both Southshire Roundtable members and from community submissions.
6.) Members are required to attend meetings regularly. Sign-in sheets will be available at each meeting. If any member falls below a 66% attendance rate (more than 8 of 24 yearly meetings missed), he or she may be asked to resign from the group. If members cannot attend for an extended period of time due to personal reasons, illness, etc., he or she may invoke a six-month leave of absence, and renew twice. During a leave of absence, payments of membership fees are required.
7.) Members are required to read their original work to the group at least once every six to eight weeks. The work should be typed, double-spaced and 6-10 copies should be provided so that others may follow along and add notes and comments. Members are encouraged to e-mail their work a week or so in advance to other member. This often results in a more in-depth critique.
8.) Members are required to pay a yearly non-refundable membership fee of $30.00. Delinquent accounts of 90 days or more may result in membership termination. Payments are due as follows: For those who join between May and October, the fee is due in August. For those who join between November and April, the fee is due in February.
9.) Members are expected to behave in a cordial and respectful manner to each other. This includes polite behavior, not interrupting others, consideration for readers, which includes not commenting on the work until the writer has finished reading, and respect for each others’ intellectual property (not sharing, copying MSS and also returning MSS to authors). A rule of thumb might be to think of ourselves as guests in another’s home, and to behave accordingly. Our mission is to listen carefully and to comment cordially, truthfully and with respect. Members who continually disrespect these guidelines or behave in a disruptive manner may be asked to resign from the Roundtable.
10.) Guest memberships are available on an individual basis.
11.) Members are also expected to contribute to the blog once every two - three months.