Possible locations include your house, public park, an open classroom, or anywhere else you can meet and converse without disturbing others.
Word of mouth: Invite friends and acquaintances, and ask them to spread the word and bring their friends! Talk openly and excitedly about your club: your enthusiasm will help draw the interest of others. It’s a good idea to invite very broadly to begin with: the people who are truly invested in your club will show up and stick around. Posters and fliers: Design a cool flier and post it around school or your workplace! This is a nice way to draw attention to your club. Social media: For example, you can create a Facebook Event for the first meeting and share it widely with your friends!
If you do decide to ask someone to be your advisor, be considerate of their time and respectful when making your request. Sending them an introductory email explaining your plans (in as much detail as you can) will allow them to make an informed decision. It is also courteous to offer to meet in person or talk over the phone/Skype so that they can ask any questions they might have before they make their decision. Advisors can be involved in a variety of ways, and this should be a conversation that you have directly with your potential advisor. Will they attend meetings? Will they offer guidance from afar? These are questions that are best to ask early on.
This is related to possibly need an advisor: some schools require an advisor’s signature on club registration forms. Once again, just be sure to research your school, university, or organization’s requirements.
You can choose an icebreaker that is relevant to the theme (if applicable) of your club, or you choose something entirely random. The point of this activity is to lighten the mood and help your members get to know each other and feel more comfortable opening up and sharing their work. Classic icebreakers like “Two Truths and Lie” (where everyone shares two true facts and a lie about themselves, and others guess the fabrication) and the “Name Game” (where each person has to find an adjective to describe themselves that starts with the same letter as their name) can be great simple options. [2] X Research source
Write about an animal of your choice. Open up a dictionary, pick a word, and write what it means to you. Create a poem or story that starts with “Hello. " Write a piece that’s inspired by a conversation you’ve recently overheard. Write about something you dread or fear.
If voting proves too messy (this might be the case, especially if you have many members), an easy and neutral online tool that may help you decide when to hold meetings is doodle. com (or other similar scheduling applications).
Is your main goal as a group to spark new writing ideas together and actually practice writing during the meetings, or to critique and improve one another’s written works? Alternatively, you may want to operate as more of a social/support group for writers, where you talk about your craft and hold one another accountable for your personal writing goals. Decide your focus together, and build that into your mission. [4] X Research source
Bringing a large sheet of paper and pens (or whiteboard markers if your location has a whiteboard) can be a nice way of involving members in this process. Members can take turns suggesting and writing ideas. You can keep this piece of paper as a reminder for future meetings, or you can take it, type it up, and print it and share copies (or a combination).
It is helpful to bring a notebook to meetings so that new members can share their e-mails and/or phone numbers, and so that you can then add them to any groups or lists.
It’s a good idea to start an e-mail list, a Facebook group, and maybe a group chat so that you can add members and keep them informed and up to date on club meetings and activities. It’s all up to you, but clear communication will help your club flourish.
If you do choose to have writing partnerships be a part of your club structure, you may want to consider assigning writing partners randomly as well as have people change partners periodically. It’s a good idea to try to prevent cliques from forming for many reasons: so that no one feels left out, so that members are receiving feedback on their work from multiple perspectives, and so that people are establishing many connections with many different members of different style, backgrounds, and personalities. Give members ideas of how to connect with their writing partner. Suggest accessible practices such as, “After you’ve written your piece, share it with your partner via Google Docs so that you can read each other’s work. Then, coordinate a time to meet and discuss one your work in person. " Encourage members to do whatever feels most comfortable to them.
One way to do this is creating and sharing the link to a standing Google Form that is specifically designed for feedback. Creating an anonymous Google Form (or whatever type of digital survey works best for you) will encourage members to voice their opinions. It’s good to establish protocol for how this feedback will be dealt with, early on: will you (as the leader) check the responses regularly, and will suggestions be discussed at meetings? Another way to gather feedback is to designate an allotted amount of time during meetings to open up the discussion for feedback and suggestions. If you and your members do decide that you want to discuss feedback weekly (however you choose to gather it, whether electronically or during meetings), you may also want to discuss the format of this discussion. Will it be an informal discussion? Will people vote? Will it depend on the feedback? These are good points to consider early on when determining club guidelines.
Let members know what they should bring to the next meeting (i. e. laptop, notebooks, pens, etc. ). Ideally, set at least a loose agenda for your next meeting, before you wrap up your first one. Your goal should be to get right down to writing and club discussions in your subsequent meetings, now that you’ve set some ground rules and expectations. [6] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC’s on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source
