The SWG is rapidly approaching its twentieth anniversary next July. We have grown from an email list and LiveJournal community into a vibrant archive and community on the strength of the efforts of volunteers who have helped to grow the site and keep fun and interesting things happening here. If you enjoy the SWG and think we do cool stuff, and you want to help us keep that cool stuff going for another twenty years, you might wonder how you can get involved.

Volunteer Roles. Our Around the World and Web editor role has been vacant for more than two years now. If you scroll down this email and see the announcements we post from other groups, this role manages this section of the site and newsletter. It tends to involve a lot of copying and pasting from the announcements posted by groups and events outside the SWG and tends to max out at about a half-hour of work per week. Reply to this email if you're interested! All open volunteer roles can be found here.

Write for Us! Our newsletter goes out weekly, and we are always looking for feature articles and columns. In the next couple of months, we will be introducing a few new columns. Two of them have calls for articles available now! Lay of the Land is inspired by our nearly complete Character of the Month column but with a focus on important places in the geography of Arda. Like Character of the Month, it is aimed at creating a resource where the major details about a location can be found in one place with a lot of freedom for where the writer takes the column from there.

Our new Master Class column focuses on creating fanworks. Whether creating a tutorial for someone trying a fanwork for the first time or sharing tips and tricks for creators looking to improve their craft, all approaches and media (and of course fanworks!) are welcome. We also welcome recommendations of your favorite creators who do that particular thing amazingly well.

If you might be interested in writing a column, hit REPLY and let us know! If you're feeling nervous about it (but find yourself thinking, yeah, it might be fun to try ...) know that you will have the full support of our editors, who are willing to work with writers new to nonfiction writing. The SWG takes seriously its mission to provide a comfortable, supportive community where creators who wish to learn and try new things are able to do so, and we value expanding Tolkien scholarship beyond the voices that tend to be heard the most. If you'd like to give writing for us a try, we'd love to work with you!

Host an Event! If you are looking for a one-and-done way to get involved, we host member-run events on our Discord server.

• Instadrabbling brings creators together to create and share flash fanworks in real time with each other. You can structure your session around a theme, a particular type of prompt, or you can keep it open-ended.
• Fanfiction book clubs gather to discuss fanworks, usually around a theme, and what makes those works excellent. Book club hosts choose the theme, manage sign-ups and scheduling, and then facilitate the discussion on the day of the book club.
• Live readings can feature fanworks, passages from Tolkien, or both and can be structured or open-mic (or both!) Organizers choose the theme, manage sign-ups, and welcome readers to the "stage" during the event.

For all member-run events, you will have the support of the SWG moderators, who will be available if you run into issues or have questions.

We welcome and appreciate our volunteers, newsletter writers, and event hosts! Let us know if you'd like to become involved by replying to this email!