Group Reminders

Just a few quick reminders about the group:

Group members are responsible for reading submissions BEFORE each meeting.

• Submissions are due by the 2nd Thursday of the month. Generally submissions will be emailed out to the group the next day. That gives everyone a little less than a week to check their email and prepare for the meeting.
• Group members should print out or bring an electronic device on which they can access the submissions. Printed copies are preferred so that you can give your edits and revisions to the writer at the end of the meeting.
• Going forward there will not be extra copies of submissions available at the meeting.

Out of respect for the time of your fellow group members, please only submit for a meeting if you will be in attendance.

• While we understand that emergencies happen, if you submit for a meeting it is expected that you will be in attendance.
• If you miss a meeting that you submitted for, please get in contact with Kelly (monroviawriters@gmail.com) regarding your submission. If we do not have a lot of submissions we may be able to move it to the next meeting, but it will be at the bottom of the list. Your submission will not be automatically moved to the next meeting.

Discussion of submissions is to be treated anonymously. The writer should not participate in the discussion and group members should not directly ask the writer questions or otherwise engage the writer.

• It is very important that these meetings be comfortable and non-confrontational. If the writer interjects or is otherwise engaged in the discussion some members might feel the need to hold back during feedback.
• To that end, going forward all submissions will be anonymous. Please help me out by not including your name on the work. Obviously, over time we will get to know one another's writing styles and content. But we will still treat each work as anonymous and only acknowledge the author after EVERY group member has had the opportunity to speak at least once. I will know who submitted what and will know to skip over the writer.
• At the very end I will ask the writer of the piece if he/she would like to respond to anything that was brought up during the group discussion.

These rules are not meant to be harsh or rigid. Rather, they are important for us to function in an orderly and respectful manner. So far things have been going very smoothly. These guidelines will ensure that things continue to go well in the future.