  Hi Everyone, (do I have everyone on my e-list above? ) First of all, I still (okay, I'm a complete idiot) can't figure out how to post on the group's blog. Although I have a "profile," the name of our blog doesn't come up so I can't get into it in posting mode. I can, of course, read the blog. If anyone can give me a hint as to how to do this correctly, I'd be grateful. Second and much more important, we had a very good meeting last night, I thought.
I hope all the contributors got something useful from the discussion of their works. At the end, we talked about how it went and what we'd like to do to make it even better in the future. Here are the suggestions that came from that discussion. --Each time we meet, anyone who CAN'T attend should let others know so that we don't wait for someone who is not coming. Email, blog post, telephone--just let the group or someone who is coming know that you can't make it. --We will start on time, so if the meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., that's when the writing exercise person will get us going.
If you want to socialize before the meeting, come early! If we need to change the meeting time to accommodate people who have to come from across town or whatever, we can do that. --At least for next time, the group that is presenting their works should get them to the rest of us by email NO LATER THAN A WEEK BEFORE THE MEETING. If we want to go back to the other method, that is, you distribute your work at the meeting before the meeting where you present, we can do that. But only Tony brought her work to distribute last night, so we decided to distribute works by email for next time. --Everyone should read everything two or three times before the discussion.
That's why we need to get the works distributed early. --Also, let's give our marked copies to the author after the discussion--that way she or he can contemplate suggestions, queries, etc. that aren't necessarily covered in the discussion. --If you come to the meeting, please make every effort to stay the whole time. That's the level of commitment that will make the group work. We will do everything possible to stay on t ack, so that we begin and end on time.
Again, we can change the time to accommodate people if need be. --These suggestions come from me. Could everyone put their name, the date of the discussion, and page numbers on their works? This will enable all of us to be better organized. --Another suggestion from me--we can talk about this one. Perhaps the person assigned to lead us in a writing exercise each time could also be the "leader" for that night--keeping us on track with the time, serving as a contact person for last minute drop-outs, etc.
I fell naturally into the leader's role last night, and while I could continue to do that, I think it would feel more like a writing GROUP if we shared that responsibility. Let's discuss this, and indeed, we can discuss all of these comments. --Future meetings. Our next meeting will be Monday, August 23, 6-8 p.m. unless we decided differently over email. For September, we pencilled in the 13th and the 27th (so as to avoid meeting on Labor Day weekend). Following that schedule, the October meetings would be on the 11th nd the 25th, which works well with my travel schedule.
Again, all of this can be discussed and changed, but we wanted to at least begin to look ahead. Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make last night's meeting a sucess. Special thanks to our four illustrious contributors/guinea pigs who held up beautifully under the group's scrutiny. I enjoyed talking about writing with writers--I hope others did, too! Christine 
