It has no money so no office or paid staff. Its effectiveness is completely decided by who is on the executive committee, made of only volunteers. When they are effective people, the organisation is effective, and when they are not, it is not. And because of the lack of money nearly everything WABO does is centred around Gaborone. But not all writers live in or near Gaborone, me being a case in point. When I was active in WABO, I had to get myself to Gaborone for meetings and workshops and other events. This was costly and most writers don’t have money for that. I vowed when I left WABO, I think I even spoke about it at the AGM where a new committee was elected, that I wanted to make a writing group in Mahalapye so that writers in the area could come together. I may be slow but I do eventually get there! Witness the birth of Mahalapye Writers’ Club.
My vision for the Club is that it will encompass as wide a group of writers as possible and be a place for writers to improve. It doesn’t matter if you being a writer is only a dream and you’ve not actually written a single thing, or if you’re someone who writes every day, if it’s a hobby or one day you hope to be published and go professional. Or if you write nonfiction (creative or otherwise), short stories, poetry or novels. Everyone is welcome. The goal is better writing.
