By NASW Secretary Nancy Shute
The NASW membership met at 9 a.m. Sun., Oct. 22, 2005, during the NASW workshop in Pittsburgh, Pa. About 75 people attended, despite the early hour. Could it have been the free breakfast?
NASW vice president Lee Hotz called the meeting to order. No budget was presented because the membership had met in February and approved a budget then.
Committee reports:
Workshop Committee. Conference organizer Tinsley Davis reported on registration for this, the first NASW meeting to be held in conjunction with the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing's New Horizons meeting. The meeting drew a total registration of 307. The breakdown: 221 members, 12 nonmembers, 20 students, 12 organizers, 31 speakers, and 10 student volunteers. Student registration was down from a typical 40 to 50. The registration fee included the Saturday night reception, whereas in the past that was a separate paid event. Registration for the Sunday NASW/CASW lunch was 254, including 30 scientists. About 500 people registered for the NASW workshop in February 2005, but Davis said the higher numbers were attributable to the fact that meetings in Washington D.C. always have bigger attendance, and that the Pittsburgh session was the second NASW meeting this year.
The registration numbers for the CASW meeting were 226 for the Sunday night reception, 209 for Monday morning programs, 112 for the Monday awards banquet (which required a $50 separate charge), 175 for Tuesday morning, 142 for the Tuesday party, and 135 for Wednesday morning. NASW Executive Director Diane McGurgan reported that those numbers were a little better than those for last year's CASW meeting in Arkansas.
Davis said that NASW is taking pains to fund its meeting independent of CASW, with the joint luncheon costs being split fifty-fifty. The 2006 NASW/CASW meeting will be in Baltimore, with the CASW portion sponsored by Johns Hopkins University. The weekend of Oct. 27 is being considered because of space conflicts at the hotel earlier in the month. Hotz, who chaired the workshop committee, thanked Davis for making NASW's workshops a tremendous success, noting that she had accomplished the superhuman task of staging two workshops in one year, and still had emerged smiling.
FOIA Committee. Co-chairman Tom Paulson reported that NASW had been approached by other writers' organizations about taking a position on pending efforts to amend federal laws protecting FOIA rights. He thought NASW could provide a unique perspective because the group has members on both sides of the issue, as writers and as PIOs and government officials. There are problems on both sides, he noted, with both officials and reporters abusing the laws. The committee plans to poll members on their interest and concern on FOIA issues. Paulson asked members interested in working on the issue to contact him.
Freelance Committee. Chairman Dan Ferber said the committee had about 18 active members and was putting considerable effort into the freelancers's portion of the NASW Web site. There is a series of new articles in the works, including two pieces by an accountant, on bookkeeping and tax issues, and four from a lawyer. two on contracts, one on indemnity, and one on getting clients to pay up. Early in 2006, a searchable markets database will be added to the NASW Web site. The database has been in the works for two years. It will include information on major freelance markets and will allow members to post information on payment and other issues. The committee also worked on creating a grievance procedure for writers who have been stiffed by publications.
Education Committee. Co-chairman Jeff Grabmeier reported that NASW would host a mentoring and an internship fair at the AAAS meeting in February 2006, in St. Louis, despite the fact that NASW will not be holding workshops there. He encouraged members to volunteer as mentors to avoid a last-minute scramble if there is a greater number of mentees who sign up.
Awards Committee. Co-chairman Bob Finn reported that the deadline for NASW Science-in-Society Awards is Feb. 1, 2006, with awards presented at the October 2006 NASW meeting in Baltimore.
Membership Committee. Chairman Nancy Shute reported that member Linda Wang took the initiative to organize a science-writing workshop at the Asian American Journalists Association meeting in Minneapolis, in August. Panelists included members Kenneth Chang, Lewis Cope, and Corinna Wu, who discussed how to cover stories with a local public health scientist. About 30 people attended. The diversity committee will try to present similar science writing programs for African-American and Latin-American journalists's organizations in 2006.
Web Site Committee. Cybrarian Russell Clemings presented a demo of the redesigned NASW Web site, which includes science news (supplied by RSS feeds from various news organizations), and Movable Type software that should make it easy for non-techies to post new content. Final signoff on the design templates is still to come, and discussion on content is still ongoing within the committee. The redesign is expected to be launched in the spring, with new content added as it is available. The redesign received an enthusiastic round of applause from members.
Hotz ended the meeting by noting that this year's stand-alone meeting was a big experiment for NASW, the first time the organization has met outside of AAAS. Hotz noted an energy and excitement in the sessions, as well as at Saturday night's reception celebrating the second edition of NASW's A Field Guide for Science Writers.
NASW, Hotz said, is really coming into its own.
The meeting adjourned at 9:45 a.m.
