I joined the writer's guild this winter because a family friend insisted on buying me a membership for my birthday. I was excited when we first went down and I was looking forward to making some connections.
When we went into the centre, the person who was manning the front desk seemed very disinterested in us being there and didn't know much about her position. We were asking her questions and she didn't know the answer to any of them,
After leaving the office, my family friend told me about all the perks that were involved in membership and I was pumped. It is now 2 months later and I have yet to find any worth in the $30 that was spent on the membership. I feel bad that I received membership as a gift from someone who was so excited about it, but it just doesn't do much at all.
Yes, you can get discounts on retreats (They still cost upwards of $500) and you can go to lectures and talks from authors in Alberta which is cool, but I hear about enough of these through my school. You are supposed to receive monthly "Writer's Guild of Alberta" publication (I never received one) and weekly e-newsletters into your inbox (mine stopped 2 weeks ago for some reason).
To sum up? I won't be reapplying for membership next year. read more