Great news on the membership front—paying less and getting more

One of my main goals as your MWSA president has been to encourage growth in our membership rolls. One of the most effective ways to do this is by lowering the cost of membership.

Over the past six months, our membership and finance committees have been looking for ways to reduce our operating costs while also improving services to our members. As a result, we have been able to identify efficiencies in our operations and increased volunteer participation in our membership management area. These cost-cutting initiatives have led to a significant reduction in our annual expenses.

At the same time, we’ve introduced many new member benefits and programs to increase the value of your MWSA membership. Over the past several months, we’ve added author interviews, review-swap and writer’s forums, free online library listings (with expanded social media presence to help increase our members’ book sales), beta readers, member resource directory, to name just a few—and there’s much more to come.

I’m therefore very happy to announce that your MWSA board of directors has approved a reduction in annual dues from $75 to $50 per year. We’re also creating further opportunities for savings by introducing new membership options:

• 1-year membership @ $50 per year

• 2-year membership @ $45/year ($90 or 10% discount)

• 3-year membership @ $40/year ($120 or 20% discount)

We plan to implement these new membership options and pricing on July 1 this year.

As we iron out the technical details, we’ll be providing everyone with further information about how and when you’ll be able to take advantage of these new ways to save money as an MWSA member. We'll be posting these details on the membership page of our website (https://www.mwsadispatches.com/membership) in the coming days.

These are exciting times for MWSA. I'm optimistic about our future, and I think this new membership initiative will help set our organization on a path toward sustainable growth and ever-increasing value to our membership.

Bob Doerr
MWSA President