By NASW Secretary Robert Lee Hotz
We are raising dues.
That was the decision made at the NASW annual business meeting in Boston on February 16. At the board's recommendation, the members present agreed to raise annual dues for the organization's 2,360 regular members from $60 to $75. Dues for its 250 student members will rise from $15 to $25. There was one dissenting vote.
The need for a dues increase has been slowly building up for several years, NASW president Paul Raeburn and treasurer Laura van Dam told members. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, NASW has always been reluctant to seek corporate or foundation funding, leaving dues its main source of operating income.
Over the past five years, NASW has been working to become more professional in all its operations. Its workshops have become more extensive — and more expensive to run. At the same time NASW has assumed the cost of receptions and services that in the past were donated by volunteers and outside groups.
This year, the annual two-day science-writing workshops held across the Charles River in Cambridge were attended by about 400 members and cost almost $40,000, they reported. The annual Science-in-Society Awards reception cost about $17,500. Both events come close to breaking even, but neither covers its expenses. To cover shortfalls this past fall, about $10,000 was taken from investment reserves. At next year's meeting in Denver, NASW may face the additional cost of meeting space, vice president Deborah Blum said.
NASW is also about to start paying the operating cost for its Web site, which in recent years has been donated by Stanford University and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, NASW secretary Robert Lee Hotz reported. The board and NASW cybrarian Bob Finn are negotiating with several Internet service providers.
During the discussion of the dues increase and annual treasurer's report, former NASW President Richard Harris suggested a reserve study be conducted to evaluate the size of the organization's operating reserves and develop a formal policy about its purpose. His motion passed unanimously.
In other business:
As part of a general effort to improve communication during the year, the board agreed to begin using the NASW-announce listserv for regular, periodic notifications from the board secretary to the membership about policy matters under formal discussion during the year. We want to do more to keep us all abreast of any important board discussions or decisions taken in between the official annual meeting.
The NASW-announce listserv goes to every NASW member who has an e-mail address.
This edition of the minutes was sent out on NASW-announce and was also posted on the NASW Web site.
At the meeting, Deborah Blum reported that the annual workshops at the 2003 Denver meeting likely will be smaller and more compact than the 2002 Boston sessions. "Denver is a tricky city," she said and may only support a one-day session. Workshop coordinator Brian Lavendel, who worked so hard to pull together the Boston workshops, will organize the Denver workshops under a one-year service agreement, with the assistance of his wife, Kimberly.
Paul noted that next year's workshops will include a special session on writing and reporting for trade journals. The board also commissioned a ScienceWriters article exploring the standards of professionalism in trade journals, to begin to address concerns raised to the board by Blake Powers and W. A. Thomasson.
Paul and Deborah also thanked the 2002 workshop speakers, panel organizers, and workshop committee members Marc Abrahams, Merry Bruns, Amanda Cook, Gareth Cook, Karen Hopkin, Aries Keck, Seema Kumar, Carol Cruzan Morton, Richard Saltus, and John Travis.
Among those who hosted or helped sponsor workshops sessions were: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Knight Science Journalism Fellowship program, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Biogen, Boston University, Harvard Medical School, Technology Review, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Boston Museum of Science.
The board appointed Tabitha M. Powledge and Joel Shurkin to head a newly formed issues committee to monitor various professional and First Amendment trends on which NASW may want to take formal actions during the year. Two people from the general membership also are to be appointed to the committee.
Paul Raeburn also announced that the board named Carol Ezzell and Peggy Girshman to succeed Beryl Benderly and Carol Morton as co-chairs of the Science-in-Society Awards. He joined with the board in thanking Carol and Beryl for their hard work in ensuring that investigative and interpretive reporting about the sciences and their impact for good and bad is properly honored.
To begin a board discussion of whether to broaden the awards, Earle Holland submitted a thoughtful and well-conceived report on the idea of creating a new award category for public information efforts that would honor the smart, innovative science writing that is published in the course of organizational or institutional public information efforts.
As head of a committee looking into the idea, Earle set up an online discussion group on the topic and then pulled together the thinking on possibilities of additional awards that would recognize excellence in science writing by practitioners working outside of traditional media newsrooms.
Earle offered several excellent suggestions on how best to test the water with a new set of awards. The board has now begun a vigorous discussion on the ideas that Earle and his colleagues have introduced.
At the members meeting, board member Beryl Lief Benderly reported on negotiations with the Author's Coalition, a group that disburses royalty fees collected in various European countries to groups that foster American writers. It is likely, she said, that NASW could qualify to receive some funding. There are some technical requirements and she is researching them on behalf of the board. "We certainly fulfill the spirit of the thing," Paul said.
In response to concerns about some job ads circulated on the NASW-jobs listserv, the board also decided to append a disclaimer to all job postings circulated to members.
Lynne Friedmann, editor of ScienceWriters, announced that the NASW newsletter will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year. She plans a special commemorative issue of the publication, which made its debut in December 1952.
To end on a happy note, NASW Executive Director Diane McGurgan went home with the roses, a standing ovation, and a $500 check as the recipient of the first Diane McGurgan Service Award for her many years working on the behalf of NASW. The award, the first of five in coming years, was funded by a donation of $2,500 by long-time NASW member Louis Lerner.
See you all in Denver.
Robert Lee Hotz is a science writer with the Los Angeles Times.
