From ScienceWriters: NASW salutes a friend

By Beryl Benderly

In January, the NASW board passed a resolution of appreciation and gratitude marking the retirement of one of the pivotal figures in our organization’s history, Marianne Shock. If you don’t know that name, you’re not alone. Only a handful of NASW members have ever heard of Marianne and her crucial contribution to making NASW the active advocate for science writers it is today.

As long-time administrator of the Authors Coalition, Marianne Shock has been a champion of repatriating and distributing royalty

Quite simply, without Marianne’s initiative and help, we never would have joined the Authors Coalition of America (ACA), which has transformed our ability to serve science writers by providing NASW with more than $1 million over the past 12 years.

In 1994, when 10 writers’ organizations banded together to form the coalition, Marianne — herself a novelist and member of the Romance Writers of America, one of the original coalition partners — signed on as ACA administrator. She has handled the partnership’s day-to-day operations for two decades, all that time making one of her goals the recruitment of new organizations. According to her thinking — which proved prescient — the more writers’ organizations that belong to ACA, the more representative it would be of American creators at large and the more foreign reproduction rights organizations would therefore want to send it funds.

In November 2001, I represented NASW at a meeting in New York organized by Jonathan Tassini (he of New York Times v. Tassini fame) to discuss how writers’ organizations could band together to take advantage of the landmark Supreme Court decision upholding authors’ copyrights in the digital age. I was then chair of NASW’s freelance committee.

Also in attendance was Marianne, who came over to me, asked how many members NASW had, and then uttered a fateful question: “Why isn’t NASW in the Authors Coalition?”

“What’s the Authors Coalition?” I replied.

It’s not often that you get to experience the John Beresford Tipton moment. (For those who don’t remember 1950s TV, he was the philanthropist who bestowed huge checks on unsuspecting but deserving people on the weekly drama “The Millionaire.”)

ACA funded projects graphic from ScienceWriters spring 2014

With a straight face, Marianne explained that the coalition was a group that remarkably gave out free money to writers’ organizations. Every member organization was guaranteed at least $5,000 a year (since raised to $7,500), she explained. She couldn’t predict how much more than that we might expect because she didn’t know enough about our organization.

It took me a while to absorb the bizarre concept that someone wanted to give rather than take money, but Marianne seemed to be on the level. I did a little checking and determined that, indeed, she was. Next, I had to convince the NASW board that I was not insane. Quite naturally, the board was skeptical and rather uncomprehending at first.

Finally, they agreed to give it a try, because it appeared that the worst that could happen if we joined was being several thousand dollars richer each year. As a freelance, I always try to put a financial value on my work time, and this seemed a pretty good return for filling out some paperwork describing NASW.

In the end, it took somewhat longer than I had expected to join the fold, because ACA did not accept us on our first try. Despite NASW’s obvious efforts to help the work lives of our members, our constitution did not explicitly state that as one of our organization’s main purposes. Such a clause in an organization’s foundational document is a coalition requirement.

Marianne asked if we could amend the constitution, and I discovered that, indeed, it would not be too difficult. So I collected the required 20 signatures, many at a conveniently scheduled DCSWA meeting, for the petition requesting a membership vote on the proposed amendment. Something over 900 members voted in favor of adding “In addition, this organization shall foster and promote the professional interests of science writers” to Article 1. For reasons still unclear to me, two or three members voted against.

I redid the ACA paperwork and we were accepted on the second try. This brought with it those rather eccentric annual genre surveys and the task of convincing members that we had not gone crazy and it really was important for everyone to fill them out because the answers determine how much money we receive each year.

But then the money started coming, and people started to believe. In some years, inconceivably large amounts arrived. All thanks to Marianne’s diligent efforts to increase not only the number of coalition partners but also of sender countries.

So, everyone who has ever benefitted from Authors Coalition funds through NASW is in Marianne’s debt, although hardly anyone knew that. As she caps her distinguished and highly productive career working for the benefit of writers everywhere, NASW happily and gratefully salutes our friend Marianne Shock.

Beryl Benderly is NASW treasurer and, since 2002, one of two designated NASW representatives to the Authors Coalition. Benderly is also a prize-winning Washington, D.C., freelance specializing in science policy and health.

Authors Coalition’s profound impact

The Authors Coalition of America LLC is an association of 21 independent authors’ organizations representing text writers, songwriters, visual artists, illustrators, and photographers. This formal association marked a milestone in the history of American author groups, and its union has had a healthy unifying effect on American writers as a whole. Together, ACA represents over 80,000 authors and artists.

The coalition was incorporated in 1994 for the purpose of repatriating and distributing the creator’s share of foreign non-title specific royalty payments for American works photocopied abroad. Prior to 1994, these collective funds were sent to the U.S. licensing agency Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., where they were spent on copyright enforcement.

With the establishment of Authors Coalition, these funds are more effectively focused on the rights holders for whom they were paid by proportionate distributions to the associations constitutionally directed to promote and advance their careers.

Currently, the coalition receives fees from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Learn more about the ACA at authorscoalition.org.

Marianne Shock Declaration of Appreciation

Whereas membership in the Authors Coalition of America has transformed the ability of the National Association of Science Writers to serve science writers,

And whereas countless science writers have benefitted in their professional lives from the grants, information and many other services made possible by funds obtained from the Authors Coalition,

And whereas NASW would not have joined, or even known about, the Authors Coalition without the initiative, help and guidance of Marianne Shock,

And whereas the Authors Coalition’s growth, success, and prosperity, as well as all the good things that they make possible, have resulted largely from Marianne’s many years of able, diligent, and dedicated service as the coalition’s administrator,

And whereas Marianne is retiring from her longtime position as administrator,

Now therefore, the officers and board of the National Association of Science Writers, on behalf of our membership and of science writers everywhere, hereby salute Marianne and express our deep, sincere, and lasting appreciation and gratitude for all her kindness and help to science writers and other writers and for the many benefits that science writers and other writers across the country have enjoyed as a result of her tireless work. In addition, we wish her much happiness and success in all her future endeavors.

June 5, 2014

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