Comments on: About volunteering for SFWA

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:11:01 +0000

Michele and Jessica: Thank you so much for volunteering! There are loads of things for non-members to do, much of it from home.

Would you mind filling out that questionnaire and emailing it to me? It’s easiest for me to sort volunteers that way.

Thanks again!

By: Jessica Russell

Jessica Russell — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:04:35 +0000

I’m with Michele. What can I do to help. I’m not a member, but I would love to help the organization.

By: Michele Lee

Michele Lee — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:14:09 +0000

I am good at making lists. I can stuff envelopes. Perhaps there might be more. What can a non-member, stay at home mom with no car and no long distance do to help?

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:30:38 +0000

Caryn, thank you for proving my point so beautifully.

By: Caryn Cameron

Caryn Cameron — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:56:20 +0000

Amen. I’ve been volunteering doing author websites for SWFA for years. Yes, it feels a bit silly being a volunteer for an organization that I don’t qualify to join, but it’s fun and (at the risk of sounding selfish) enhances the rest of my web work life by giving me places to play where the client -doesn’t- get to direct what it looks like. My play space. Not to mention I’ve dreamed of joining SWFA since I was a teenager.

Volunteering feels good.

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:31:00 +0000

Thanks. I need all the help I can get.

By: Jim C. Hines

Jim C. Hines — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:20:59 +0000

I’ve linked you from my LJ.

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:52:33 +0000

Nancy: You don’t need to be a member to volunteer for anything except those things that involve voting, such as running for office or chairing a committee.

Chris: Thanks. I’ve been pleased with the response thus far.

By: Chris Gerrib

Chris Gerrib — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:34:05 +0000

Congratulations (or condolences) as appropriate for deciding to volunteer for SFWA. You’re absolutely correct – the place won’t change unless the people who are active decide to change it.

By: Nancy Fulda

Nancy Fulda — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:21:50 +0000

Mary, do I need to be a member to volunteer?

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:16:25 +0000

> At its core, SFWA exists to promote and aid Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers.

let me go out on a limb here – it is why it existed, it is why it should exist.

David: Let me give you an example of how SFWA is aiding writers, right now. The work that Griefcom does is active and ongoing. The volunteers there spend up to 20 hours a week resolving member’s grievances. SFWA is still doing good work, but I’ll totally grant that it is only slowly facing the fact that this is the 21st century.

But like any volunteer run organization, it will naturally cater to the people who are actively involved. The only way it will be relevant to new members is if new members are active and vocal.

So that’s why I think that people who have a vested interest in what SFWA should be, people who want to be involved in promoting and aiding SF & F writers, should volunteer.

By: David de Beer

David de Beer — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:51:33 +0000

I sent you the mail, but I’m a lot more despondent since Friday.

>These are good things that volunteers accomplished.

see, this is a problem. Accomplished. Past Tense. George Martin seems puzzled that younger writers are asking: “what can the SFWA do for me?”, as if it’s a selfish question. And then he makes some JFK stirring quote.
But it’s not a stupid question at all. It’s not meant to be a one-way street, it’s meant to give something to the writer and the overwhelming perception right now is that SFWA rests on what has been accomplished, and brings little to nothing to the table to help writers in the new millenium, to face the future.
Martin and others can dismiss it, make pretty stirring quotes, but the questions is valid and needs to be addressed.

> At its core, SFWA exists to promote and aid Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers.

let me go out on a limb here – it is why it existed, it is why it should exist. But inherent in the skepticism of the question that Martin and others dismiss is this very belief taking shape: that SFWA is precisely not doing this.
This is I think what all of us want to believe; and it’s the disillusionment when we begin to get the perception that it’s not doing these things, it is not promoting and furthering the growth of science fiction and fantasy.
More than that, I would like once and for all for the SFWA to take an official stand on whether they stand only for America, or whether they mean to represent the world.
Perhaps this is one more irrelevant question to most, but to me it is important.

Anyways, I sent you the mail. Now we’ll see what we will see.