Rethinking National Writing Organization Memberships

I am a member of the Romance Writers of America. When you look at the title of this post, you might think that I am reconsidering that membership. That is 100% false. I am a firm believer in being part of a larger national organization that focuses their attention on the genre of writing I represent. I am bringing this up because I do believe there are many authors out there who need to reconsider joining again.

I am not going to get into the "politics" and "social messages" that revolved around so many individuals leaving the RWA or the writing chapters that broke free. What I want to focus on here is what so many have lost.

When individuals were members, they received direct information about publishing and direct contact information to publishers, agents, contests and workshops. If they chose not to use it, that was their individual choice. They knew it was a matter of a few clicks on their computer and they were into a database of great information. They knew, when they went to the national conference, or even regional conferences, that people were there supporting romance and women's fiction. 

Chapters also had a lot of benefits. Their conferences were advertised in locations beyond their closed circles on social media. Their contests, which were big money makers were also advertised nationally and internationally. 

But then individuals and chapters left. In their minds, they still had everything. Their groups still met. They could still have their individual conferences. They justified not having the national conference because of costs.

And yet, I think they might be seeing that it was not all there.

Now, let me add that there was an additional variable that showed up here. The Covid-19 Pandemic did isolate a lot of people. I get it. However, things were already on a downward slide.

Recently I just received notice that a contest I have been judging for so many years was not being run due to low numbers. In fact, that is not the first contest I have seen go under. Why? These chapters were operating in a closed system. The only people who knew about the contests were those who were directly connected to the chapter. 

Another example of this would be the number of writers I have seen winning contests in their own chapters only. You don't see them winning anything outside of their chapters. Why? They are disconnected.

Chapter membership has also decreased. I have presented at several chapters and as I get ready to present and talk to the coordinator, I hear the same thing, "Our numbers just are not what they used to be" and "We generally get around 10 and maybe 15 showing up."

Has this had an impact on the RWA? You bet it has. In an effort to keep their memberships open, they have started offering a lot of programs for authors that focus on things other than romance and women's fiction. They don't even have a national contest. Now, they have said it was due to issues with judging and complaints (there is a part of that I agree with but they really never addressed the issue). But without a chance to be recognized nationally, writers left. 

It might be time for writers and chapters to look at where they are at now, look to where they were and reconsider. It might be time to put aside the complaints that some understood and some just followed like lemmings.