Without naming any names, I’m just going to say that several local and national writing groups are guilty of not updating their meeting/executive/conference/event information for 2009. One group in particular still has a list up of the executive members for 2007-2008, along with a list of their dates for meeting… between January and October 2008. Hmm…

Now, I understand that most writing group websites are run by volunteers. I know they’re busy people, and I can see how updating might fall by the wayside for a month or two… but for six months? Eight months? Longer than a year? And not only that… but I visited the aforementioned website last fall, and again just recently, and found that the layout had changed dramatically. That means that someone worked on the website in the interim, but didn’t bother to update the information. Or even check with anyone for updated information.

So, how are local groups like this going to grow their membership in the future, and continue to thrive? Without current information, how are curious new-to-the-area writers, or writers looking for a national-level support group, going to find the information they need to join? Don’t these groups want new members?!?

But let’s be careful not to lump all these groups into one boat, because some groups are great at updating. And guess what? These are the ones whose web pages I’ll continue to visit, whose conferences I will pay to attend, and whose lectures/community events I will tell others about and do my part to support. But if you don’t update your site and tell me about what you’re doing, I can’t help support you. And beyond that, I can’t become a member of your writing group, which I may have otherwise joined.

That’s one membership fee that could have helped to support a writing event, gone because somebody didn’t bother to take 15 minutes to update the website once in awhile.

And that, my friends, is frustrating.