FWA provides a professional atmosphere, a vast networking system, and valuable tools to succeed in today's publishing industry.
Other founding members: Vicki M. Taylor and Weslynn McAllister were instrumental in the formation of the only (at the time) Florida non-profit "dedicated to helping writers of all genres, published or not.
To this end, it was decided to appoint Regional Directors (who would also serve Board Members) to grow local groups.
Vicki M. Taylor, Caryn Suarez, and Doug Dillon established one or more 'Palm Groups' to meet once a month in the areas of Tampa, Jacksonville, and Orlando respectively.
The meetings were led by appointed Group Leaders and included workshops, panel discussions, writing critiques, screenwriting, and poetry.
Contact with the growing membership that first year was through a twenty-page newsletter called Florida Palm Magazine mailed to members' homes.
On its one-year anniversary in May 2002, FWA had 129 members, ten Regional Directors, and eight Palm Groups in Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, Lake Wales, St. Petersburg, New Port Richey, and Saint Augustine.
Anticipating their election by membership at the 2004 conference for 2005, they strategized Griffith's plan to shift FWA's operations into a stable, business model that would carry it forward into the future and tapped Shara Smock as Secretary and Lisa Coleman for Treasurer.
But controversy marred the elections after former president Caryn Suarez arranged the showing of a special film at the 2004 RPLA banquet, held during the conference.
In the fallout Suarez swung her support from acting president Dan Griffith to Port St. Lucie Group Leader Acashya Dolfin.
Soon, Dolfin also resigned and Mykle became president, with the knowledge that his international business commitments would not allow him to serve out the full term.
The previously conceived Officers and business plan now in place, this group stabilized FWA's early structure and allowed its continued growth.
The current four-day conference format offers panels, workshops, break-out sessions, meals with genre groups, pitch sessions with agents, editors, and publishers, critiques and pitch practice, signings, networking, a store, the Royal Palm Literary Awards banquet, a parallel young writers track, and a silent auction benefiting the Florida Writers Foundation (FWF), which promotes literacy.
Best-selling writers of renown are invited to give the keynote address and choose ten stories to highlight from among all the winning selections of the annual members anthology contest.
If the score from that final judge reaches a second set point, the entry becomes a Finalist and is eligible to win an award.
[12] The winners of Royal Palm Literary Awards (RPLA) are announced and celebrated at a banquet during the annual conference, which was rebranded as Florida WritersCon in 2022.