Here is a sort of play-by-play list to follow:

1. Enroll at least five members in your club.  We will need the member's name, address (if you are students living away from home, send a summer address also), e-mail address, phone number.  When you join a local chapter and pay your membership fees, you automatically become a member of Missouri State Poetry Society http://mostatepoetry.com/ and National Federation of State Poetry Societies http://www.nfsps.com. 

2. Choose a name. 

3. Choose officers.  You will need at least a president and a state society representative (but they may be the same person), a secretary and a treasurer (these too may be one person).  Most of our chapters have a vice-president to lead in special projects the club decides to sponsor, such as poetry readings and poetry contests.

4. Collect fees.  You can determine what your fees will be, but we need $7 per member from you ($3 of the $7 is sent on to national headquarters).  If you anticipate other expenses to spend on your chapter activities, add them to the $7.  If your members pay their fees by check, make it out to MSPS or Missouri State Poetry Society.  It usually works best if this check is for $7 and another check or cash is given to your treasurer for your local expenses.

5.  Meet monthly or more frequently.  If you are a student chapter, you may meet weekly or bi-weekly.  Non-student chapters usually meet monthly.  Look at the Members page on the state web site.  Information is given there and also at the local chapter pages in the state web site.  Your chapter will have a local chapter page as soon as your information and fees are submitted to our state treasurer Bill Lower, 21010 S. Hwy 245, Fair Play, MO 65649.   He will send the names and addresses you send him to the state secretary, the state president, the editor of the state and national newsletters, and the state webmaster.  

6.  Send a poem (24 lines or fewer) by one of your members to appear in Spare Mule, our state newsletter.  Each quarter we like to run a poem from each local chapter.  Please send the first poem soon by e-mail to Teresa Klepac.   The poems appear in Spare Mule, Spare Mule Online and on your local chapter’s page on our website.

7. At your first meeting, explain these details to your members and give them the addresses of the national site and the state site.  Both of the newsletters appear on the web site as Strophes Online (the national newsletter) and Spare Mule Online (the state newsletter).

8. At your meetings, encourage your members to make the most of their membership by participating in the winter contest, spring anthology, summer contest, and fall convention.  Each of these activities is described in our state newsletter.  Perhaps some of your members would like to attend the national convention and also enter the national contests.  These activities are described in STROPHES ONLINE.

 If you have questions about any of these items, let us know.