Writers Group Meeting Protocol and Etiquette

Greetings!  We are a group of aspiring writers, some of whom have had works published in various venues. Our writing groups are designed to help us improve our skills and to share our creativity with one another. We hope to get more people excited about expressing their ideas in interesting ways.

All of our writers expend time and effort crafting a story each month for our writing group assignments. Everyone who has done so expects to receive valuable feedback and suggestions on what they've written. Sometimes we have many people attending and time is limited, so it is imperative to allocate our time wisely.

Therefore, we ask that all who attend the meetings follow these guidelines so everyone can get the attention they deserve for all their hard work.

All members - please do your best to arrive ON TIME. We start promptly at 1 PM at Plotters Ink and at 6 PM at the Monday Writers Group.

Remember to turn off or mute your phones and other devices.

If you are a first time attendee, please arrive at least 10 minutes early so we can introduce you to our members, deliver the welcome speech and explain how we conduct meetings. Upon arriving at the library, all you need to do is ask any of the staff where to find us. We typically congregate downstairs before meetings to chat and socialize.

While we strive to maintain an informal agenda, we usually structure meetings this way:

1- Greetings to all, and announcements.
2- Whoever is the first writer in the queue distributes copies of his/her story to the rest of the group, then reads the story aloud.
3- Members are encouraged to comment about style, imagery, content and technical matters. We ask everyone to stay ON POINT and not digress, because the focus should be on the writer's story, and nothing else.
4- After all comments have been made on the first writer's story, all the rest of the writers get their turn.
5- At the end of each meeting, we often chat about forthcoming projects and ideas for future writing assignments.
6- Anyone who wishes to have their story published on one of our blogs should email it to Whitesboro Writers.

Thank you for your cooperation. Any suggestions for improving our groups are welcome. Hope to see you soon.

 ---CJ Alexander, Blog Host and Editor