The annual membership/business meeting, on Feb. 14, 2004, was attended by an estimated 150 NASW members packed into a meeting room in the Seattle Convention Center. The topic of the day was the NASW board's decision to separate the NASW national conference from the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, beginning in 2005. (See President's Letter for more details.)
President Deborah Blum opened the meeting, at 4 o'clock, by thanking the NASW board, committee members, staff, and volunteers for making 2003 a fantastic year for the organization. Special thanks went to Mariette DiChristina and Kelli Whitlock, co-chairs of the Education Committee, who were honored with the Diane McGurgan Service Award in recognition of their tremendous success in developing mentoring and ongoing education outreach programs for NASW.
It was announced that Bob Finn, who has served generously and graciously as NASW cybrarian since 1996, is stepping down. The board presented him with a certificate of appreciation and a check for his tireless efforts in keeping NASW "online" and for shepherding the NASW Web site and listservs during their critical periods of development. The audience gave Bob a standing ovation.
NASW vice president and workshops committee chair Laura van Dam thanked workshop coordinators Brian Lavendel and Kimberly Wilson for making this year's NASW workshops a tremendous success. With about 460 registered attendees, it was the largest NASW workshops held to date. More than 80 NASW member volunteers contributed to this highly professional effort. Preliminary accounting suggests the workshops were more financially self-sufficient than in years past, requiring a smaller subsidy from the NASW treasury. It was announced that Tinsley Davis will serve as the 2005 NASW workshop coordinator.
Laura reported that she is on the program planning committee for the 4th World Conference of Science Journalists, in Montreal. She also announced that NASW will be represented at Unity: Journalists of Color 2004 Conference, in Washington, DC.
Glennda Chui, chair of the Freedom of Information (FOI) committee, reported that she and others had met with representatives from the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Environmental Journalists to discuss how the three organizations can collaborate on efforts to ensure open access to government information. The NASW FOI committee has established a listserv, NASW-foia, devoted to FOI issues and committee members are also considering a session on FOI topics for the 2005 NASW national conference.
Glennda stated that science journalists have been confronted with several FOI issues lately, including whether such journalists should back off coverage of scientific results that could potentially aid terrorists (the weaponization of biological weapons, for instance). She encouraged NASW members to be proactive in discussing such self-censorship.
Past president Paul Raeburn, chair of the ethics committee, related that his group has drafted an ethics statement to govern the activities of NASW as an organization (not the behavior of NASW members, per se). The committee has submitted the draft statement to the board for approval, after which it will be posted on the NASW Web site.
Freelance committee chair Kathryn Brown reported the workshop session on negotiating freelance contracts will be transcribed and posted on the members-only portion of the NASW Web site. The committee is now developing a database of the freelance experiences of NASW members — a kind of Writer's Market for science writing — that will include rates paid by various publications and outlets. She thanked Richard Robinson for contributing nine articles on freelance topics to the Web site over the past year, and commended the research done by David Lindley, Jeff Hecht, and Tammy Powledge on strategies freelances can use to obtain health insurance.
Mariette and Kelli, education committee co-chairs, announced the NASW mentoring program that takes place during the AAAS meeting has fostered more than 250 "mentees" since its inception in 1997. At this year's meeting, 28 mentees were paired with mentors. An internship fair held during AAAS this year attracted more than a dozen recruiters. Mariette said that the online resource for teachers of science writing being developed by Glennda and John Travis will be up soon, and that a new listserv, nasw-teach, is already functioning to discuss teaching issues.
Membership committee co-chairs Nancy Shute and Carol Morton investigated the possibility of providing Lexis-Nexis access to NASW members but reported it is prohibitively expensive. They are now talking to research librarians seeking a way to open research resources through links on the NASW Web site. Nancy and Carol are also pursuing ways to foster the diversity of science writers, including participating in the Unity conference.
Paul Raeburn announced he will chair the nominations committee for this year's board election. NASW treasurer Lee Hotz presented this year's NASW budget (see page 18). The organization is financially sound with $248,723 in the bank or in investments, as of year end 2003.
Jeff Mervis reported on a AAAS initiative to provide seed money for programs to increase the number of minority science writers. Anyone who would like to volunteer in developing the effort should contact him. Representatives from the World Federation of Science Journalists took the floor to urge NASW to participate in the recently formed global organization to exchange information and expertise in the field of science journalism. They encouraged NASW to join the federation and to send delegates to Stockholm this summer for an organizational meeting.
The discussion then turned to the future of NASW's national conference. Deborah began by recounting the rapid growth of NASW over the past 15 years to an organization of approximately 2,400 members (plus 200 student members). Workshops that began with a few sessions in the mid-1990s have now blossomed into a two-day professional conference with more than 400 attendees. She stressed that as NASW continues to evolve it's time to look more closely at its association with AAAS.
Deborah reported that the board voted unanimously to consolidate NASW activities into a two-day meeting separate from AAAS, beginning in 2005. That meeting will take place in Washington, D.C., with all NASW events-the workshop, awards reception, membership/business meeting-taking place before AAAS begins and in a location apart from AAAS annual meeting facilities. Over the next year, the board will evaluate whether it best serves NASW interests to continue to hold its national meeting in conjunction with AAAS, with another scientific society, or branch out on its own. The board has already heard presentations from the American Chemical Society and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing encouraging NASW to have its meeting in conjunction with them. The floor was open for discussion.
Several comments centered on whether staff or freelance science writers could afford to travel to a NASW conference if it was held independently. Many staff and freelance attendees can only justify the expense to their employers, or to themselves, if they can file stories from a meeting. Although some noted that AAAS is perceived as not having as much news value in recent years as it once had, it covers the entire spectrum of science, from astronomy to zoology.
According to a recent survey of NASW members, most members attend the NASW national conference for networking and professional development, not because it precedes AAAS. Of those responding roughly half currently travel at their own expense.
Deborah said the NASW Board is considering separating from AAAS, in part because of increasing complaints — especially from freelances, book authors, and book editors — that NASW members are being turned down for press credentials. Ginger Pinholster, AAAS director of public programs and an NASW member, told those assembled "AAAS loves NASW" and that the press-registration policies have not changed. Ginger said that AAAS is looking forward to meeting with the NASW leadership to discuss these issues.
Dan Fagin, president of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), encouraged NASW to hold its meeting separate from a scientific society to foster more cohesion among members. SEJ holds its own annual conference, which draws roughly 800 attendees, spans two-and-a-half days, and includes more than a dozen field trips. But the conference is expensive and requires significant underwriting (upwards of $140,000). Also, SEJ has five full-time paid staff and other part-time staff. Someone pointed out the Association of Healthcare Journalists also subsidizes the costs of its meeting through fund-raising.
NASW board member Beryl Benderly pointed out that NASW would no longer be able to accept royalty payments from the Author's Coalition if more than 25 percent of its budget derives from fund-raising. Author's Coalition royalties in 2003 contributed a whopping $48,501 to the NASW treasury.
Deborah concluded the meeting by announcing a more detailed survey of the membership will take place on the issue of separating the NASW national conference from AAAS. She encouraged members to discuss the pros and cons of such a step on nasw-talk.
The meeting adjourned at 5:45 p.m.
