Before you write a great book, you have to have a great idea and do a lot of solid research. Last I heard, that goes for writing articles, too. So, it follows that freelance writers need to constantly scout for good material. One of the places we scout is at major science meetings. Some are intended primarily for scientists; others are designed for science writers. Good science writers need to attend both kinds, to keep up to date on interesting science, to meet new sources, to keep in touch with old ones, and to network with colleagues.
So, if you can't get your foot in the door, you've got a big problem. Recently, there was a lot of discussion on NASW On-line about problems freelance writers face getting in to some meetings.
I talked with Joann Schellenback, director of media relations for the American Cancer Society, and with Amy Stone, who puts together the program for the annual ACS science writers seminar. And we have good news. Joann and Amy have agreed to fling the doors wide open to science writers at their next seminar which they hope will be in Miami the end of March. The meeting will be open to "anyone who identifies him- or herself as a writer," said Joann.
In the past Joann had continued a policy she inherited, which was to have non-staff writers identify a media outlet for whom they were covering the meeting. Those writers the ACS staff didn't recognize were required to bring a letter from the editor or producer for whom they were, at the very least, going to send stories on speculation.
"When the issue came up this year, it certainly seemed like something that Amy and I ought to re-visit," Joann said. And so, next year, there will be no restrictions for freelance science writers: no letter from a client, no NASW card, nothing. Typically, about 20 percent of the writers who attend the ACS meeting are freelance, Joann said. Under the new, relaxed policy, I have a feeling that percentage could grow.
Joann cautioned that if the new policy leads to problems she can't adequately manage at the meeting, she may have to fall back to requiring some criteria for freelance writers at future meetings.
"The worst that could happen has already happened." Amy said, referring to an agent for the tobacco industry who posed as a freelance science writer. Joann says there have been several times when "we have had people misrepresent themselves."
So, understandably, this new policy is a two-way street. It requires an honor system. If you walk the walk and talk the talk of a freelance writer, you had better be a freelance writer. I congratulate Joann and Amy on their new open-door policy, and I hope other organizers and media directors of science-writer forums and scientific meetings will be encouraged to adopt similar open-door policies for writers.
I know that doing this may be more difficult for organizers of scientific meetings whose audience is largely composed of scientists who must pay to attend. The potential problem there is that a few people may masquerade as freelance science writers to attend the scientific sessions and avoid paying the conference fee. But maybe sponsors of such scientific meetings would be willing to try the open-door policy for one year, as ACS is doing, and see if problems occur.
If it turns out that there are too many freeloaders, then I would hope that every organization who sponsors a scientific or science writers meeting would be willing to accept the NASW membership card or the membership card of another major national or international writers' association as sufficient credentials for a freelance writer.
A policy that needs to be dropped altogether is requiring a letter from a media client. I don't work that way and I know a lot of other freelance writers don't either. I don't want to have to "belong" to someone when I'm attending a meeting. I don't know when I go to a meeting whether there will be good stories there or even whether ideas for future stories will emerge. During the many years that I was a staff science writer, I approached meetings the same way. I never promised my paper stories in advance. When a freelance writer attends a meeting, it's more risk-taking than for a staff writer whose way is paid. But risk-taking is part of the price we willingly pay for being freeÑas in freelance writers. Organizers of meetings can not require, and should not even seek, a promise from journalists who attend, that they will definitely write stories out of the conference.
So, I applaud the ACS on its new policy and sincerely hope that there will be no impersonators among the freelance writers who show up at scientific meetings and meetings arranged for science writers. Should it happen, we freelance writers ought to help give that impostor the boot.
I asked Stephen Hart, a member of the NASW freelance committee, who kicked off the NASW on-line discussion, to pull together representative selections from the thread dealing with meetings access. His report follows directly.
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Mary Knudson can be reached byemail at Mary@nasw.org or on CompuServe at 71614,3114; Phone (301) 495-9379; Faz (301) 495-0319.