Getting out the Vote, Thinking about New Haven and other matters of interest from your board.
Save The Date #1: August 9 — NASW Elections
We will be holding a Special Meeting later this summer to elect the next board and officers. All regular members will be able to vote by proxy quickly and easily online, and those in the New York City area can opt to show up in person and vote.
The Special Meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 9 from 5:30-6:30PM. It will take place at 4 West 43rd Street, in the ballroom. That's just west of Fifth Avenue, on the south side of West 43rd, directly opposite the Century Association. The ballroom will be directly in front of you when you enter the building lobby. Signs on the building say simply, '4 West 43rd Street Bldg.' (This is a space that SWINY has used in the past for meetings.)
Per constitutional requirements on meeting notification, we will be sending a postcard notice via first class mail to all regular members in mid-July. The online proxy system will open beginning in mid-July. Members can cast their proxies anytime between that day and 10 AM Eastern August 9.
Save The Date #2: November 5-9 — Sciencewriters 2010
NASW Workshops are scheduled for Saturday, November 6 in New Haven CT. It's all part of a gala ScienceWriters 2010 meeting featuring professional development, science and celebration at Yale from November 5-9.
On tap are the NASW annual meeting, the not-to-be-missed workshops, and an exciting science program at Council for the Advancement of Science Writing's New Horizons briefings. Plus, we're celebrating NASW's 75th birthday and CASW's 50th (not to mention Yale's 200th to boot!).
Workshops worthy of NASW's milestone are coming together nicely thanks to the concerted efforts of more than 100 NASW members, who submitted a record 57 proposals for workshop sessions. Volunteers to the NASW Workshops Committee wrestled over which would work best in one tight day of sessions, using a NING site to debate the merits. Our goal: relevant content, expert speakers, riveting presentations.
We heeded members' requests for more schmoozing time with longer breaks between sessions. And we came up with a professional development lineup that we hope will meet the needs of our diverse membership as we create a robust future for science writing.
You can learn about new business models for science journalism; navigating the new world of PIOs; how online communities can make you famous; the possibilities and perils of e-book publishing; statistics made (somewhat) easier; how to make the most of scientific conferences; productivity hacks for freelancers; and how science writers outside America cover climate change. Rock stars of science writing will explain how they got that story. Hands-on sessions will give you the latest on data visualization, and cheap, effective video.
Robin Marantz Henig has once again volunteered to serve as empresario extraordinaire for the Science Cabaret, which was much missed in Austin. We'll celebrate our 75th birthday and toast our futures at the Friday night cocktail party. A special celebration group of volunteers is into full-on party planning.
Come ready to learn, network, and celebrate!
Full program information and online registration will be available at www.sciencewriters2010.org in early August.
Keeping A Date: Flagstaff, 2011
The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and the National Association of Science Writers will convene ScienceWriters 2011 as scheduled at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, October 14-18.
In consideration of possible attendee concern over the Arizona legislature's passage of a controversial immigration law in April, 2010, NASW and CASW leadership established a process to assess the attendance issue.
The process included a representative survey of NASW members. Results of the poll made clear that 95 percent of the more than 550 responding members would not be prevented from attending by an employer's travel boycott.
NAU's commitment to ScienceWriters2011 has been in place since 2007, and preparations are well underway.
Scientific Meeting Media Policies: Your Help Needed
NASW board member Bob Finn is working with the Association of Health Care Journalists' Right to Know Committee on an effort to end restrictions on recording and photography that some societies impose on journalists covering their scientific meetings. This is a continuation of the effort AHCJ spurred with a letter to several societies back in March.
Bob is asking NASW members for help with his task, which is to compile a list of every scientific meeting that has such restrictions. If you've been to a meeting within the last year or two and can put your hands on the actual text of the rules, please send it to Bob at finn@nasw.org.
He'd also like to know how carefully the rules are enforced. As he says, at some meetings, restrictions can be violated without consequence while "other meetings hire security guards who will eject you, your organization and the horse you rode in on if you dare to push a Record button."
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