NASW President Richard Harris called the annual business meeting to order at 4:03 p.m. on Saturday, February 15, 1997, in Seattle. It was one of the shortest and least controversial meetings in recent memory.
Harris offered congratulations to Paul Lowenberg and Carol Cruzan Morton for overseeing the organization of this year's popular workshops. He also thanked Stephen Hart for organizing two workshops for freelance writers. Harris offered kudos in advance to L.G. Blanchard for organizing a blowout party on behalf of local science writers the next evening, February 16. Dare we wonder what to expect in Philadelphia and Anaheim the next two years?
Harris also congratulated Deborah Blum and Mary Knudson, co-editors of NASW's new book, A Field Guide for Science Writers, which made its debut at the AAAS meeting, selling about 180 copies. Knudson said that the book is the work of 37 contributors, all of whose names will be included in a flyer/order form that will go out with the next edition of ScienceWriters to all NASW members.
Then Bob Finn gave a report on use of the nasw.org site on the Web. He said that 530 NASW members have registered there and 730 people have used the different listservs. Harris then thanked Bob Finn for being a tremendous sysop for token pay, working seven days a week. Harris said during the last year, users have voted overwhelmingly for the NASW site on the Web over the older CompuServe site. "When you see the traffic on the CompuServe site, it has basically come just to mirror what's going on at the NASW site," Harris said. As a result, there is a strong feeling on the part of the board that it makes sense for NASW to have a single on-line presence, and that site will be the nasw.org site on the Web, he said. We will end our relationship with CompuServe some time during the next six months.
Harris suggested that people who would like to continue chatting on CompuServe and who prefer that interface can still talk by means of scinews/mednews run by NASW member Roger Johnson. It is also in the JForum, but it is not and will not be an official NASW site. Harris asked for comments or questions, and there was a moment of silence. Then, from the audience, the comment: "What a difference a year makes!"
The next item on the agenda was the workshops. Harris also thanked Ellen Cooper and Nan Broadbent of AAAS for dovetailing the workshops with the AAAS meeting. Paul Lowenberg said the workshops were a big success, with more people attending than organizers had expected. The opening workshop drew about 200 people. Harris said the workshops have also become a good tool for recruiting new NASW members. He said that Lowenberg did such a great job, he will be in charge of organizing the workshops again for next year's meeting in Philadelphia. Then Rick Borchelt gave a short report on the mentoring program he has organized for the last two years. He said 17 students were assigned mentors last year and 19 students participated this year. Sandra Blakeslee will be calling on senior science writers to act as mentors next year.
Joel Shurkin announced that NASW is exploring the possibility of surveying NASW members who freelance for magazines, broadcasting, write books, write for corporations, etc., to find out such things as who pays what, and with how much hassle, and what contracts are saying with regard to electronic rights and indemnity clauses. We will accumulate a data base, probably through ScienceWriters. He said we are exploring over the next few weeks legal issues and other startup questions, and hope to start the survey in the spring. All responses will be anonymous, he said. We will use as a model what the American Society of Journalists and Authors has been doing for some time, gathering information from members.
Left: Paul Lowenberg was hailed at the membership meeting for his "great job" in arranging NASW workshops and invited to do the same for the 1998 meeting in Philadelphia. Center: Dancing at the NASW Banquet brought out the current NASW power structure -- Diane McGurgen and Richard Harris. Right: Party organized by the host Puget Sound Science Writers Association scored high in audience participation.
Committee Changes: Harris said he has reviewed various NASW committees and decided to make some changes. The Awards Committee was set up in New York 18 years ago, and the same group of New York writers has continued to serve all that time, he said. Finally, Harris said, it's time to "give them a break."
Vice President Joe Palca added that we want to also thank the committee, chaired by Ben Patrusky, for its long years of dedicated service. Harris agreed, and NASW members attending the meeting gave Patrusky and the committee a round of applause. Harris said our new policy is to rotate the committee every two years. It now moves to San Francisco, and the new committee is headed by NASW board members Deborah Blum and Joel Shurkin who are based on the west coast.
Harris also announced he will head a committee to revise the NASW constitution, which is outdated. For example, he said, it contains a class of members, "affiliates," which is no longer used and therefore has no members. He said the committee will also consider redefining categories to reflect how NASW members work today, so that people have a better sense of where they fit in the organization. Describing the freelance world as "murky," Harris said freelancers used to be people who wrote for magazines and now sometimes write for publications and sometimes work for corporations. Harris said he hopes to publish either on the Web site or in ScienceWriters copies of the proposed revised constitution and the current constitution side by side. Harris promised there will be plenty of opportunity for NASW members to participate in molding an updated constitution. The committee includes freelancers, PIO's, and staff journalists-"a small cross-section of NASW," he said. And he volunteered that if members want something to fight about next year, this will be it. The existing constitution is on the Web site.
Harris mentioned that one of the changes in NASW is that ScienceWriters is recognized as much more than a newsletter. NASW Secretary Mary Knudson said it is now known as a "quarterly review."
Treasurer Paul Raeburn presented the budget, noting that we have a $700 surplus. He explained that last year we had a $21,000 deficit, but in the previous year we had a $22,000 surplus which reflects a large grant we received for the book. He noted that we sold $500 worth of the Communicating Science booklet last year and expect to sell more this year, and pointed out that NASW received a second grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation this year in the amount of $12,652. That grant helped pay for the Field Guide reception held at the Seattle Sheraton and will go for promotion of the book and to pay the indexer. For the first time we have an item called Workshop Revenue in the amount of $5,750 which reflects the $25 fee which NASW, for the first time, charged those who attended.
That income actually covers the cost of providing lunch and renting equipment, and is a break-even figure. One member said that Administrative Secretary Diane McGurgan's salary didn't look high enough. Raeburn said we gave her a raise of a little over $1,000. Harris added that McGurgan doesn't work full-time for NASW, so what we pay her is not her full income. To which McGurgan retorted: "May not seem full-time to you, dear"-an off-the-cuff remark that drew noisy audience appreciation.
New Business: NASW member David Zimmerman proposed a motion to establish an independent ad hoc commission of NASW members to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) trip to Africa for science writers, and whether all categories of active NASW members were dealt with equitably in the selection process. The motion died for lack of a second. Stephen Hart then asked what the relationship of NASW and CASW is. Harris said that the issue was discussed earlier in the day at the NASW executive committee (loosely known as the NASW board) meeting, and Raeburn, who is both NASW treasurer and CASW treasurer, agreed to write an article about CASW for ScienceWriters. Diane said that NASW has 1,890 members, some of whom won't be members next month (hint: pay your dues, folks.) The meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.
-Respectfully submitted, Mary Knudson, NASW secretary