Ever feel lost? Like you’re shouting into space, and the only reply you get is the echo of your own voice? Yes. I get it. One of the things we do well at the Catholic Writers Guild is helping unknown writers find their niche in the publishing world — whether online or on paper. One of the things we struggle with at the guild is being an all-volunteer organization . . . meaning that when real life strikes, projects can get sucked into the vortex for months at a time.
At the Live Conference this summer, I found myself describing our various projects in terms of “We need a volunteer for this” and “If only we had a volunteer for that.” I had to stop and clarify: Volunteering is the way you benefit most from membership in the Catholic Writers Guild. Volunteering is what helps you meet other writers and publishing professionals, learn from your colleagues, and make the connections that lead to paying work.
This isn’t a cold calculation. If you volunteer for the sole purpose of promoting me-me-me, you’ll fail miserably. Volunteer because you care about the project. But when you care about something enough to put hours of work into it, and you find yourself side by side with other people who share the same mission . . . a community forms.
Chatting at social hour builds 10 minutes of nice feelings. Working together — freely, whole-heartedly — forms the bonds of sincere and lasting friendship.
Today I’d like to introduce you to a few CWG members who have stepped forward to help carry the Catholic Writers Guild to the next level. Each of these volunteers is top notch, truly lending professional expertise to the mission of the Guild. I think you’ll enjoy working with them, and I encourage you to personally thank them for their service:
Speakers Bureau – Erin McCole-Cupp is the new project manager for the Catholic Writers Guild Speakers Bureau. The Speakers Bureau in an opt-in benefit of membership — we never share member information unless you specifically ask us to. You can view the spreadsheet of members who are available to help at special events here. Erin has some ideas on how she’d like to grow this project — I can’t wait to see what she does!
You can reach Erin at speakers @ catholicwritersguild.com.
Guest Posts Editor – Stephen Weisenbach is a professional freelance editor who has gamely agreed to manage guest post submissions for the CWG blog. I tell people the CWG blog is part student-paper, part paper-for-students. If you are a dues-paying member of the Catholic Writers Guild and would like to guest post here, we’re happy to have you. With Steve on board, turnaround time on guest posts should improve dramatically.
For the moment, continue submitting your guest posts to blog @ catholicwritersguild.com, and I will forward your submissions to Steve.
Member News Editor – Erik Washam is a veteran columnist with Catholic Match; when he volunteered to help at the blog, I asked if he might be willing to take on the Member News position. He said it would be just his thing. Several of you have submitted member news over the past month (the conference black hole month), and Erik’s going to get started by working through your submissions and getting them posted. Look for news, as well as personal columns from Erik, on Thursdays.
As always, the address for submitting member news is membernews @ catholicwritersguild.com.
Links Editor – Collen Duggan is our new Link Lady! We do not list your name in the sidebar at the Catholic Writers Guild blog unless you ask us to — several of our members have very serious privacy concerns, and we don’t ever presume on what you do and don’t want shared with the world. We are, however, pleased to list one link per person, for any dues-paying member who asks to be included. You make the decision about what name you’d like listed (Real name? Pen name? Nick name?), and what link you’d like.
To get your link added to sidebar, email duggancolleen1 @ gmail.com.
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Three longtime CWG volunteers deserve your attention this month:
Kathryn Cunningham would like to keep our monthly poetry feature up and running. She posts on 3rd Sundays, so get your submissions in early in the month to give her time to prepare. The address for poetry sumbmissions is poetry @ catholicwritersguild.com.
Charlotte Ostermann is hosting a Blog Round-Up on 1st Wednesdays. She’ll be featuring book review posts in the coming months, but you can submit other posts as well. The way it works: Send a link a month to Charlotte, to be included in her round-up post. This is a great way for others to see what you’re up to — we have so many good bloggers in the CWG, it’s hard to keep up with them all. You can submit by emailing charoster @ yahoo.com.
Please thank Tony Kolenc for doing the legal work (pro bono! yes!) to get our local affiliates 501(c)3 status. If you would like to contribute to the IRS filing fee costs for this project, contact treasurer @ catholicwritersguild.com for an update on how much funding is still needed.
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I recently tested the patience of a Catholic internet-pundit, who posed the question, “Who, pray tell, is doing ‘professional work of the top caliber’ in ‘work related to the Catholic faith.’?”
I answered with about 50 names, and I could have easily given 50 more. Most of them Catholic Writers Guild members, or our friends in the field.
It is easy to grow discouraged when we see problems in the Church. It is easy to feel like our puny efforts are doing nothing. It is easy to get frustrated when we laborers for the harvest don’t get as much accomplished as we’d like, or don’t do it as well as we’d like.
Well let me tell you: Your work matters. I can personally list the names of souls who have been moved closer to God by the work that you, the members of the Catholic Writers Guild, are doing.
Keep at it!
Jennifer Fitz
Jennifer Fitz is the author of The How-to Book of Evangelization: Everything You Need to Know But No One Ever Taught You from Our Sunday Visitor and Classroom Management for Catechists from Liguori Publications. She writes about all things evangelization and discipleship at jenniferfitz.substack.com. For updates on where else to find her, visit JenniferFitz.com.
Great post Jen. Thanks. I hope to get more involved . Wife facing more surgery and more chemo and, well, we’ll see how it all goes.
Thanks for giving the lay of the land! I will definitely consider volunteering. Does the CWG have a list of volunteer positions?
Laura, the best thing is to just watch for announcements in the newsletter and here on the blog. We have a volunteer coordinator in the line-up for the spring, but don’t have someone managing that right now.
Jennifer, thanks for this round up. It’s very useful for new members like me who aren’t yet sure of how things work at the Guild. I’m already overbooked right now and probably will be for the near future (2 blogs, homeschooling, writing a book, etc.). Otherwise I’d love to volunteer.
Thanks to you and all the volunteers at CWG!
Believe me, Connie — I get it. I think that breaking down projects into smaller pieces will help us avoid overloading any one volunteer.
Re: Busy: No worries! Focus on your most important priorities, and the rest will fall into place time.
This was my third conference and the first one as a volunteer. It was a way to break into the Guild in a way not possible any other way. As part of the Registration desk team, the Trade Show booth team and the Presenters Aid team I learned so much and got to know Guild officers, new writers, and speakers. God always blesses us in his own way when we offer our time to his servants. A big plus was the FUN I had doing this.
Yes. Volunteering at the conferences is the way to go. Especially for someone shy like me, having a job to do makes it much easier to meet people.
(I know, I don’t always come across as shy. But I’m *terrible* at just mingling with strangers. Give me a job, any job, I’m so much happier.)