How Expensive is Free?

I’ll bet you think of BWW like a forest or a river, something that exists and you enjoy at times, but requires little from you except the effort of strolling through its learning paths or jumping into its writing pools. That’s the joy of BWW but also its tragic flaw.

All of these wonderful “free” workshops we offer? Behind the scenes unpaid volunteers keep this forest growing, donating their valuable experience and time for your benefit. But old trees fall, and eventually some burn out and need new saplings to replace them. Oh, and there are hidden expenses of running a nonprofit corporation: MeetUp, Submittable, Zoom, QuickBooks, insurance, and so on.

BWW’s Finance Team manages the expensive, shadow side of happy-go-lucky free. One of our recent efforts is to add some benefits for Contributing Members of BWW. (Participating Members are BWW’s consumers, attending free workshops but not significantly volunteering or donating.) Discounts to Master Classes, purchases of Cold Lake Anthology, ISBNs, and access to links to special craft and publishing training are examples of benefits the Leadership Team will consider approving at its next meeting.

Our Finance Team manages payments, oversees many online services, handles bookkeeping and financial reports, tax and regulatory reports, and so many more of the shadow operations that keep a forest growing wild, a river running clean, or a nonprofit looking free.

And we’re always looking for more people to help out, with Finance or any other part of BWW. Be sure and volunteer today!

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