SinC Chapters

[Sisters In Crime]

I'd like to put the focus on chapters for a moment. You can belong to Sisters in Crime without joining a chapter--but if you don't belong to a chapter, you could be missing some of the most rewarding benefits and opportunities that SinC can offer.

For starters, chapters are one of the best ways to get to know your fellow Sisters in Crime--the people who love mysteries the way you do. The people who write the mysteries you read--or read the mysteries you write.

I have writer friends who found their critique groups, their agents, and a wealth of practical advice and moral support through their SinC chapters. I have reader friends who credit SinC meetings and listservs with helping them find some of their most beloved books. (A few of them blame SinC for their out-of-control to-be-read stacks, but I suggest that's less a case of too many books than too few walls.) Working in SinC, both at the chapter and the national level, has helped me make some of my best friends.

If there is a local chapter near you--have you joined? You can check out the chapter locations on the chapters page of the SinC national website: http://www.sistersincrime.org/chapters.html

Be sure and look beyond the mailing address to see where the chapter nearest you actually meets. For example, although the Chessie Chapter, my local chapter, has a Reston mailing address--I've lent the use of my UPS box for the cause--we don't meet there. Our meetings are held at a variety of locations in the Virginia or Maryland suburbs of DC. Check your chapter's website for details, or contact the president or membership chair.

If there isn't a chapter near you--are you interested in starting one? Check with Beth Wasson and me to see if someone is already working on the idea and could use more volunteers, or to find out how you can spearhead creation of a chapter in your area.

If you're in an area too remote for a chapter, if you have trouble making your chapter meetings, or if you just want more contact with your fellow SinC members, consider joining the Internet chapter http://www.sinc-ic.org/ or, for aspiring writers, the Guppies chapter. http://www.sinc-guppies.org/

And if there is a local chapter and you either don't belong or don't attend--why not? And have you told your local chapter? Because your local chapter can't serve needs you don't express. If you need transportation, perhaps there are other members who would like to carpool. If the time or location of the meetings prevents you from attending, have you asked your local chapter if they'd consider having some events at a different time or in a different location? Better yet, would you be willing to volunteer to help with such events? Are the meeting topics of interest to you? If not, have you suggested some topics that would be? Would you be interested in helping find speakers on those topics?

One thing I've seen during my term as chapter liaison is the problem of chapters that serve the needs of only one small subgroup of our membership. If your chapter has only readers, or only writers--or even more specifically, only aspiring writers, for example, or only readers of cozy mysteries--why is that? Is it because everyone who might possibly be interested in joining Sisters in Crime in your geographic area is an aspiring writer, or a reader of cozies? Or is it because the chapter is failing to serve the needs of one or more segments of the SinC membership?

I'd even go so far as to suggest that a chapter that says its members are all in completely harmony and perfectly happy with what it's doing is either a chapter in denial or a chapter that has failed to reach out to many of the potential members in its community. If you're involved in a chapter, look at your membership? Is it homogenous? All readers, or all writers, or all one type of writer? What can you do to mix things up? Have you looked to local bookstores and libraries to help recruit new members--including the librarians and booksellers who may love the genre? Have you checked the directory to see in your area is a national member but not a local member, and contacted them--not to ask them to join up, but to ask them what you need to do to make joining your chapter a must-do?

Having challenged chapter leaders, I'd also like to contradict myself and ask everyone to be a little easier on them. They--we--are all volunteers. Volunteers who usually have lives, including day jobs or writing careers--or both. Challenge your leadership to do better--volunteer to help them do it--but remember that change can take time in an volunteer organization whose style is to work toward consensus rather than issue orders.

And if you have any questions, problems and suggestions about chapters, Beth Wasson ( [e-mail] ) and I stand ready to help.

Donna Andrews, Sisters in Crime Chapter Liaison

[Sylvia Matthews]

I used to belong to my local chapter a few years ago. I haven't been able to afford the dues since then and while it's true that you can go to the meetings without being a dues paying member I felt that it wasn't quite right to be a part of something I couldn't support financially.

That along with asking for favors like transportation to and from meetings without being a dues paying member and not healthy enough to volunteer for any of the work that needs doing such as for the con coming up here next month has made me feel that it was just wrong to partake with nothing to give back.

I'm not a writer so I can't imagine that what I may come up with would be suitable or acceptable for the members of the chapter. While it's true that I have a good mind and have lots of ideas it seems to me that isn't enough of a contribution for someone who requires needy things just to get there and home again.

I have missed going to the meetings and being with this group of people but as I say I just can't justify, the effort of some of them to get me to meetings and events when it wouldn't really benefit them that much. (even though these are people with huge hearts)

By the way I just want to say that for those of you coming to B'con next month you will be treated to the best hostesses from the Anchorage SinC than anywhere on the planet. That's not to slight other states or chapters but rather to say that this group of people really know how to throw a party and to say how big the hearts of this chapter are.

I hope everyone who comes has a big Alaskan blast.