The Writers’ Club, established back in fall of 2004, provides a sanctuary for people who are interested in writing. They can come to the meetings to share and listen to literary works. People can volunteer to read their works of literature, either for critique and feedback, or just because they want to present their work. They also discuss different crafts and forms of writing such as image, metaphors, character development, poetry, screen writing, play writing, non-fiction writing, and fiction.

“Basically any kind writing that has some sort of creative or original essence to it,” literature and composition instructor Chad Bartlett said.

Currently, the club is in a rough state. There are different issues with attendance that are holding the Writers’ Club back. President of the Writers’ Club, Jason Deal, explains that it’s not the lack of interest in the club, its just conflicts with other priorities.

“A lot of people that were members of the club weren’t able to attend this year for certain reasons, a lot officers couldn’t be officers anymore,” Deal said.

Scheduling problems are one of the main issues causing low attendance. Many of the members are not able attend club meetings because they either have classes during that time or other personal issues, like work. Other issues for low attendance are a lot of officers couldn’t afford to pay for school tuition; however, that doesn’t stop them from being a member.

You don’t necessarily need to be a student to be a member of the club, but you do need to be a registered student to be an officer.

Bartlett says that like any other new club, it’s tough to get people to know about it and to get the word out. One of the many things they did to promote the club was attend Welcome Week at the start of the term.

Deal said a lot of people were interested in joining the club, but just didn’t have the time. In addition to publicizing the club, they have put up posters with information they offer to the college, what they do, and the room and date when meetings take place.

One of the things that would help aid the club is having strong members and officers attend.

“The people that we do have right now are definitely interested in keeping the club alive, [and] expanding the interest,” Deal said.

“You sort of need a good nucleus of people to begin with, and then have things grow outward. That could be really hard in the first couple of years to develop,” Bartlett said, “And we had have some really strong people.”

The club has been brainstorming different promotional ideas. The most recent idea is hosting a Campfire Stories event. They plan to host the event on Oct. 25, in room 1502. This event is open to the public. This event is themed for Halloween, complete with ghost story telling. This event is a rendition of a past Halloween event the Writers’ Club hosted, an urban legends reading.

“[It’s a] more intimate sort of thing as opposed to someone going up in front a podium; more of a sharing sort of thing as opposed to a performance,” Bartlett said.

Another idea for promoting the club is talking to the Learning Assistance and Tutoring Center; the club is looking more into helping people. They plan to help people with essays for class, and hope to help improve people’s writing skills. However, they are not necessarily trying to overrun those centers.

“Sort of letting people know ‘hey, we exist’ and maybe we could be of some assistant to some students here on campus,” Bartlett said. “We’re not suggesting that we somehow replace the Learning Assistance Center or somehow replace anything they do. It’s something we’re talking to them about, [it might] be something they can get some use out of.”

For more information on the Writer’s Club email Jason Deal at [email protected] or call writing instructor Chad Bartlett at (503) 491-7151.