Conference Volunteers and Hotel Information

The deadline for submitting your application to be a volunteer for this year’s conference is fast approaching. There is still time to request and submit an application. Contact me at scwwveep@gmail.com and I’ll get an application to you as soon as possible.

            As I said in my April 4, blog there are no special requirements to be a volunteer other than being a member in good standing of South Carolina Writers’ Workshop through the end of the conference. For information on your membership renewal date contact Jim McFarlane at scwwtreasurer@juno.com.

And don’t forget there are discounts for early reservations at our host hotel, the Myrtle Beach Hilton.  We don’t have the reservation code yet; once it’s available, it will be added to the conference area of our website. We ask anyone considering attending the conference please use the code when making their reservation.

The hotel doesn’t charge your credit card when you reserve a room. Your card is only charged when you check-in so reserving early costs you nothing, but it does let the Hilton know that our members are interested in our event. The deadline for receiving the discounted price for your Hilton hotel stay is September 12, 2012.

April showers bring… Conference Volunteers in October?

It’s April. Pollen was floating through the air and coating every surface until the rains came. The azaleas in front of my patio have bloomed. So of course, the bees are all over the place. I’ve turned on my air conditioner. Have I mentioned Columbia is already hot? On Monday, it was 90º and this is only the beginning.

This is spring in the south and these are some of the things we’ve gotten accustomed to dealing with around here.

Another thing I’ve gotten accustomed to in the spring is creating a To-Do List for SCWW.

This year it isn’t a long list:

1) Clean out last year’s stuff – make room for 2012
2) Make list of potential faculty for this year’s conference
3) Do we have enough bags for the conference?
4) Do we still have volunteer buttons from last year?
5) Where are the badge holders and lanyards?
6) MUST CLEAN STORAGE UNIT
7) Get Volunteers for 2012

On Saturday, I crossed number 6 off my list and found answers to 3, 4 and 5. I spent several hours cleaning out SCWW’s storage unit and making notes and lists for this year.

Now, I’m working on item 7: getting volunteers.

A few weeks ago our Quill special edition came out announcing that we are looking for volunteers. So far the response has been pretty good, but I would like encourage any SCWW member in good standing to apply to be a volunteer at the conference. We don’t require any special skills or talents, just an enthusiasm for SCWW and a desire to help your fellow members have the best conference experience possible.

There are part-time and full-time opportunities available. Both will require the volunteer to work a few hours each day during the conference. Full-time volunteers receive free attendance to the conference while part-time volunteers get a 50% discount on the conference registration cost. All volunteers are responsible for their travel and lodging.

There are some pre-conference opportunities available such as: publicity, gathering items for the silent auction and setting up for the event to name a few. So if you’d rather work during the year leading up to the conference we have that as an option as well.

To request an application send me an email at scwwveep@gmail.com and I’ll email you back as quickly as I can.

Thank you, Thank you and Thank you again!

This year we’re celebrating our 21st Annual Writers’ Conference and we couldn’t do it without some very important people: vendors and volunteers.

We are excited to welcome several new vendors as sponsors of the South Carolina Writers’ Workshop – Postertext, Dancing Lemur Press, Finishing Line Press and Spalding University.

Personally, I’m excited about the way Postertext turns literature into art. (Click on the names of our vendors to go to their websites.)

Dancing Lemur and Finishing Line are small presses where some of our members may find their next publishing home. YA and science fiction literature are the focus at Dancing Lemur, while Finishing Line is an award-winning chapbook publisher.

Located in Louisville, Kentucky, Spalding University’s MFA program was named one of the top ten low-residency MFA programs by Poets and Writers magazine.

We’re fortunate to have several vendors returning as sponsors of our conference: Fiction Addiction, Henry Wren Publications, USC Press and Glimmer Train. Returning vendors are special to us because it tells us that we’re doing something right. When vendors or attendees join us more than once, it speaks to the reputation of our event and SCWW.

Fiction Addiction is selling our faculty and member books during the conference.

You can look forward to finding some Glimmer Train publications in your conference bag as well as a selection of Glimmer Train publications in our silent auction.

Members of USC Press and Henry Wren Publications will be on hand to answer any questions you might have about the services they offer.

Each year, SCWW depends on the time and talents of its members to plan and host the conference. We also rely on SCWW members to staff the event so that all of the attendees and faculty members have a great time.

So much of what SCWW does as an organization is the result of the volunteers, whether board members, chapter leaders or the person who runs the critique room at the conference.

I want to take a moment and say “Thank you to our vendors for believing in us enough to donate to our cause. Thank you to our Board for giving your time and talents to the business of running this non-profit. Thank you to the volunteers for spending your weekend helping host our visitors and friends at the conference.”

A Volunteer’s POV at SCWW Conference

Last year I was a full-time volunteer at our annual writing conference in Myrtle Beach. It was quite an experience. I knew SCWW put on a strong writers’ conference, but what I saw from my vantage point of the check-in/answer desk was a real wake-up message.

On Friday of last year’s conference, a very tire couple trudged up to the check-in desk. The lady said, “Can I still register?”

When I said she was most certainly welcome to do so, her face flooded with relief.

“My husband and I have driven from Phoenix, Arizona just so I could attend this conference.”

Dumbstruck I pushed the registration forms toward her. “How did you learn about us,” I asked her.

“There is a writers’ conference in Tempe and before I registered for it, I decided to Google writers’ conferences, and I found yours is the most comprehensive and best value. It was worth it to me to drive nearly across the country to attend. And the faculty you have put together is very impressive.”

I was impressed too! As she finished with the registration process and we continued to chat, she became so comfortable that she and her husband decided that he should take the opportunity to go visit friends in a near-by state and return on Sunday to get her.

I saw her again on Sunday morning, face beaming. I asked her if she had had a good experience at the conference, did she feel she had made a good decision to spend her weekend with SCWW. Enthusiastically she said yes and that she was planning to come back next time and bring a carload from her writing group. It was a highlight of my volunteer experience.

On Saturday I checked in a writer, physician by profession, who had flown in…again from Arizona…to get A critique ONLY from editor, Caitlain Alexander. I was awed that someone with a writer’s passion and very limited free time would fly cross country for a 20-minute appointment. Again I was struck by the quality of our faculty.

I ran into a friend from my home chapter on Saturday evening. She was as mad as a wet hen. “I am never coming to this conference again,” she said. It turns out the agent she thought would be her soul mate and would understand her writing esthetic was not a good fit. I tried consoling her, but it didn’t work…she was on her way home!

The next time I saw her was on Sunday morning after another critique with a different faulty member (who asked to see more of her work) and a pitch appointment (with a third faculty member who wanted to see the first 50 pages of another of her works). She was smiling and skipping to the tune of “Zippidy-Do-Da,” complete with the animated bluebirds from Song of the South.

“Aren’t you glad you stayed,” I asked, even though the answer was written on her face.

“We’re writers,” she said. “We’re opinionated and volatile. The agent I thought was so like me and would ‘get me’ was not who I needed to see.” And off she skipped, still smiling. I smiled too, happy to be associated with a writing conference that offers a wide variety of professionals so well versed in their fields of expertise.

I’m looking forward to volunteering at the SCWW 21st annual writers’ conference again this year. I hope I’ll hear a success story from you.

Conference Volunteers

By Kia Goins

Thank you to everyone who offered to volunteer at this year’s conference. We had a great number of people to select from and it was a difficult choice. If you weren’t selected this year, I hope you will offer again next year, we can’t do it without you.
Our volunteers come from South Carolina, North Carolina and beyond. We are indeed a national organization.
The volunteers are:

J. Michael Robertson - Mt. Pleasant
Joann Kelley - Greenville
Christina Ruotolo, Greenville
Jayne Bowers - Camden
Kathryn Lovatt - Camden
Shelby Adams Lloyd - Southport, NC
Stephanie E. Reed - Moncks Corner
Beth Browne
Teresa Burgher - Mexico, Missouri
Susan Jeffers
Brooke Buffington - Anderson
Shane Stewart - Myrtle Beach
Lauren Allen - Lugoff


Thank you again to all who offered to help, I hope to see you in Myrtle Beach this October!