|
|
||||
| 1757 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036 202-466-8866 | ||||
|
|
||||
|
JO FREEMAN NAMED WW SCHOLAR Board member Jo Freeman has accepted a two-year appointment as a non-resident scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center SOME HEALTH BENEFITS NOW AVAILABLE GERARD COLBY, NWU PRESIDENT - It is with great pleasure that, after consultations with our new broker of record and billing agency, we can now announce that the NWU will soon offer new insurance plans and open annual enrollment for the dental and vision program: An annual enrollment period is being offered for those desiring to enroll in the Dental and Vision program. Those members who are not covered by the Dental and Vision program may enroll in the coverage. Our new billing agency, Bollinger, is administrating this new enrollment. A new web site to facilitate the open enrollment process is currently being developed which will contain information on the new dental program and enrollment materials and should be up and running shortly. You will be receiving details under a separate e-mail announcement. A new Dental offering is being implemented. During the annual enrollment period as noted above, we will also be introducing a lower cost dental alternative to the existing Cigna DPPO. The new program is the Cigna Dental HMO. The new Cigna DHMO will have no waiting periods for obtaining services and will also be offered with the existing VSP vision benefit. New Benefit offerings to be introduced during the last half of 2006. We are pleased to announce that we will also be introducing several new programs during the remainder of 2006, including medical insurance in new areas and states not previously covered. The new program offerings will include:
We will be sending out periodic updates with additional information for each topic, as the information is available. In addition, the NWU Member Benefits website will periodically be updated to include program information and enrollment materials for your use: . www.nwuhealth.org. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at : healthbenefits@nwu.org. CHAPTER STEERING COMMITTEE DEFENDS MEMBER IN TROUBLE WITH PBS [A letter signed by members of DC chapter steering committee that was sent to Liz Rosa-Pinero, Sr. Director of Human Resources at PBS] The National Writers Union, D.C. Chapter is writing in great concern for the potentially punitive treatment of our member, John Cerna, by management at PBS, and the profoundly negative impact such action might have on the vital liberty at the core of our shared professional interests: free expression. Mr. Cerna--a former writer for PBS who also freelances--wrote an article in the Washington Blade bemoaning the media's skittishness in dealing with gay issues. He cited PBS's decision, at the behest of the Bush Administration, to pull a recent episode of its children's show, Postcards From Buster, because it briefly featured a lesbian couple in Vermont. PBS, apparently as penalty for his thoughtfulness in alerting his managers to the news column and anxious to prove critics' point about its cowardice, has reacted by scolding him and isolating him from his colleagues. He was ultimately terminated. We are concerned that review processes may have been distorted for the purpose of reprisal against a talented worker. And we are worried that PBS managers were tempted to re-write or invoke against Mr. Cerna in a pretextual fashion a policy about media attribution so as to justify retaliation against him. As wrong as it may be that "public" media are caving into governmental demands, it is especially upsetting and unsettling that PBS took hostile job action against a talented worker for leveling open and honest criticism in a community news outlet. In 1967, the Carnegie Commission said PBS would act as "a forum for controversy and debate," and "provide a voice for groups in the community that may otherwise not be heard." When PBS managers abandon these goals in practice by succumbing to political pressure, it corrodes the mission of PBS and, indeed, our democratic system. Punishing a writer for doing a writer's job--pointing out cowardice and hypocrisy when he sees it--is a threat to all writers everywhere. It saddens all of us who prize our profession and maintain faith in the mission of public broadcasting. Moreover, it violates the very principles of PBS and the democracy it was intended both to serve and to invigorate. We thus look forward to your response. JEANNE ECK HAS written I Am Happier to Know You which is a portrait of Egyptian daily life, the people in Egypt, their faith, and culture, viewed through the heart of a western woman. "In October 2000, I visited Egypt as a tourist. As soon as my feet touched her ancient soil, I knew I had come home. I fell in love with not only the people in Egypt, but the ebb and flow of Egyptian daily life. Four months later, I packed up my life in the United States and moved to Cairo. I didn't know the language or the rules a single midlife woman would be expected to live by in a predominately Muslim country. I went anyway. Each day I embraced the opportunity to observe the melding of Egyptian daily life with her magnificent history and modern culture. "I had promised family and friends, many of whom were horror-struck by my decision to relocate to Egypt for an undetermined amount of time, that I would stay in touch. It was too time consuming to write individual letters, so I wrote one. From the responses I received, I knew that when I shared my observations about the culture and the people in Egypt from my heart, I touched the hearts of others. My experiences, the lives of the people in Egypt I met, my laughter, my pain, and how I chose to deal with it evolved into I am Happier to Know You." LORETTA SCOTT HAS WRITTEN Yes I Can, a true story of a soldier/nurse, woman, and wife/mother who went to war and her undying courage and the Supreme Being that enabled her to weather the storm, before, during and after Desert Storm. A rich book about heroic courage and perseverance to survive the war after the war.
Jo Freeman photo SPRING 2006 ISSUE OF BELTWAY FEATURES POEMS IN RESPONSE TO THE IRAQ WAR Announcing the Wartime Issue, an anthology of poems on Beltway Poetry Quarterly by 46 authors from the Mid-Atlantic region, writing in response to the ongoing presence of the American military in Iraq. Contributors: Luis Alberto Ambroggio * Suzanna Banwell * Virginia E. Bell * Rose Marie Berger * Reginald Dwayne Betts * Linda Blaskey * Jody Bolz * Kyndall Brown * Grace Cavalieri * Adam Chiles * Kyle Dargan * Joanne Rocky Delaplaine * Zein Al-Amine * Yael Flusberg * Sunil Freeman * Parris Garnier * David Gewanter * Piotr Gwiazda * Leah Harris * Melanie Henderson * Esther Iverem * Reuben Jackson * W. Luther Jett * Fred Joiner * Christi Kramer * Joe Lapp * Mike Maggio * Judith McCombs * E. Ethelbert Miller * Carlos Parada * Linda Pastan * Marie Pavlicek-Wehrli * William Rutkowski * Ann Ryan * M.A. Schaffner * Johnna Schmidt * Jennifer Steele * Jeneva Stone * Venus Thrash * Lori Tsang * Melissa Tuckey * Bill Vander Clute * Rosemary Winslow * Ellen Wise * Marcella Wolfe * Ernie Wormwood * Guest editor Sarah Browning writes: "When the politicians are compliant and the press is distracted by the next sparkly thing, the poets continue to believe, to speak out and to say no to fear." NWU MEMBERS HELPED START LOCAL HUMANITIES COUNCIL TWO NWU CHAPTER MEMBERS were among the seven founders of the DC Humanities Council honored with medals on its 25th anniversary. NWUers Sam Smith and Ethelbert Miller joined Sophie Burnham, Cynthia Smith, Del Lewis, Rod French and Maria Otero to form the group under the nervous eye of the National Endowment of the Humanities. At the time, every state as well as Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico had a humanities council, but not the capital colony. This was not accidental. Beyond the normal indifference shown to the city by the federal government was the fact that DC was where Congress met and if the local humanities council did anything untoward it could hurt the humanities across the nation. But the Marion Barry administration was putting on the heat, and finally the NEH began looking for some safe, responsible, non-trouble-making citizens to form the council. In the end, the vetting down to seven founding members wasn't particularly effective. Not only did they let in alternative journalist Smith and liberated poet Miller but also Rod French of George Washington University, whose scholarship included a close look at America's free thinkers, the very freethinking author Sophy Burnham, and Del Lewis, later head of NPR. The group was - and remains - the only urban humanities council in the country. It consisted originally of three blacks, one latino and three whites, four academics and three philistines, and four men and three women. In another first for humanities councils, it had co-chairs, one black and one white. So on paper in 1981 it looked admirably diverse. What the NEH perhaps wasn't expecting was that it was actually quite unified, got on exceptionally well, had lots of fun, and right under NEH chair William Bennett's nose funded things like a film on liberation theology and another on the role of the sleeping car porters in the civil rights movement. BUSINESS AND FICTION Debbi Mack, whose mystery novel, Identity Crisis, was published this summer, spoke to the Business Writers Group on the challenges of writing fiction while working as a freelancer. To learn the craft, Debbi suggested taking courses at community colleges or universities, and she particularly recommended The Writer's Center in Bethesda. Debbi also suggested reading extensively, including books about writing. Although the conventional wisdom is that we should write what we know about, Debbi said it was more important to write what we like--to write the kind of books we would want to read ourselves. A useful way to develop our skills, she said, was to join a writer's critique group, especially one that had professional writers. She added that one should not worry about the quality of one's first draft. Just keep moving forward. You'll never finish if you simply rewrite chapter one again and again and again. She suggested that an outline was particularly useful to keep one moving forward. To make best use of our time, we should schedule time to write on a regular basis and should make the schedule realistic. We should establish benchmarks for progress, whether by number of words, number of pages, or time spent. We should also be prepared to sacrifice some of our other pursuits, to make room for fiction writing. When doing freelance work at the same time, Debbi often does the paying work first, so she can write fiction without feeling pressured. If we have a tight deadline, we may have to put off our fiction writing, but we should reschedule it for another time. To market our work, we should start networking early on. Join organizations and go to meetings and conferences, meet editors and agents, and get helpful advice from people in the group. Joining groups can also help us get our work out there. One group Debbi belongs to, Sisters in Crime, decided to do an anthology and gave her a vehicle for publishing her first mystery story. Even if you are marketing both fiction and other types of writing, there is an opportunity for cross-marketing. At meetings of business writers, for example, you can still mention your fiction writing, and at fiction-marketing venues, you can usually get away with using the business card from your freelance writing business. WRITING FOR ASSOCIATIONS Marian Wiseman spoke to the Business Writers Group on "Writing for Associations." Speaking from her long experience as an association executive, plus her experience as a freelancer for associations, Marian said that associations-just like anyone else-wanted good work, delivered on time, from reliable contractors who kept them informed of the progress of the assignment. Associations contact freelancers when they have no other choice and often when time is short. She quoted one association executive as saying, "Make it easy for me. I don't have time to do this." When she worked for an association, Marian hated getting calls from freelancers. She preferred to get a bio in the mail, which she would then file, and sometimes she would bring the people in 18 months later. But she added that this wouldn't always be the case-when many association executives need a freelancer, they simply call other association people for recommendations. Marian repeatedly stressed the importance of networking. The more association people you know, the more likely you are to have someone refer you. Internal networking is also critical, especially since so many associations are highly fragmented. The executive office, marketing, education, committee heads, and leaders of special interest groups may not regularly talk to each other, so even if you have a secure gig in one area of the association, you should get referrals to people in other areas, especially since those areas may have their own separate publications. Similarly, there is often tension between the national office and state offices, which can give rise to opportunity. Two caveats about working for associations or other nonprofits are that 1) the approval process may be drawn out, and 2) their approach may be governed by tradition rather than by what they really need. They may always, for example, have put a letter from the chairman on the first page of their newsletter, even if it no longer serves their needs. Marian commented that you can often get a foot in the door by doing editing work or by writing newsletter articles. She suggested that, when approaching associations, you should use a bio (which could include a list of projects) instead of a resume. She stressed the necessity of research to get to know associations in advance, and she passed out a list of useful resources, which included the Encyclopedia of Associations and the names of a number of associations, including the American Society of Association Executives, the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, and the Society of National Association Publications. BUSINESS WRITERS GROUP RICK HOLTON - Enid Zafran and Phil Mattera spoke to the Business Writers Group on September 22, on the topic of contracts and payments. Enid, past president of the American Society of Indexers, addressed the problem of not getting paid. Referring to her own experience, she said that one should qualify new clients in advance--search the Internet, try to find other people who have worked for them, find out who their clients are, and so forth. She also suggested asking for half the project price up front. If a client refuses, that should be a red flag. In a large job, one should also require milestone payments. Even if one doesn¹t sign a contract, one should write a letter agreement, spelling out the terms and schedule in detail. This way, one still has a paper trail in the case of a disagreement. For a lengthy project, Enid suggests submitting work for review once 15% to 20% of the job is done, so the client can buy in that the project is on the right track. One should also invoice for a project on the day it¹s done, and then track the invoice and follow up as appropriate. One is entitled to charge interest on late payments, and an accounting department will usually act quickly once a writer points out the possible copyright issue of using work that has not been paid for and the penalty clauses in the contract or engagement letter. Enid also suggests finding out up front if the client requires a W-9 form, to prevent unnecessary payment delays. Phil Mattera, the union¹s national book grievance officer, addressed the topic of contracts. The union helps authors on two levels. First, they address general issues and try to educate publishers on authors¹ rights and on changes needed in the industry. Second, they give individual contract advice, which can often improve the terms of a contract significantly. In book contracts the publisher has the upper hand, and one should never sign the boilerplate version, which is a starting point for negotiations, nor should an option clause be mandatory. The union will help a writer negotiate with the publisher, and they keep a database of past negotiations to aid in the process. If a publisher, for example, claims that they have never agreed to such-and-such terms, we will often have information to the contrary. Getting Union assistance in negotiating a contract will reduce the chances of having to call a grievance officer later. A grievance, according to Phil, may involve a violation of 1) an individual contract, 2) copyright law, or 3) fairness. The grievance is not handled by lawyers, and the grievance officers simply act as advocates. In any grievance, the member must try to resolve the issue first. If that isn¹t possible, sometimes getting a letter with AFL-CIO in the letterhead will motivate a publisher to change its position, and sometimes just having a third party involved can be effective. If all else fails, the publisher¹s name can be posted on the Union website (which could be the first thing to come up in a Google search), but if the publisher subsequently gives in, their name can be removed promptly. UNION SONGS What do Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, the Indigo Girls and YoYo Ma have in common besides music? They're all union members. You can enjoy the music of these and other dues-paying members of the American Federation of Musicians through the Union Plus Music CD. You can buy single CDs for only $9.99 and double CDs for $15.98, buy 2 CDs and get 1 at no cost AND you don't pay for standard shipping. PUMPING IRON AS WELL AS IRONY Union members can join a gym to stay fit and save. With Union Plus Health Club Discounts, union members can take advantage of pre-negotiated 20-60% discounts on initiation and monthly fees at over 1,500 health clubs nationwide, including Bally Total Fitness and Gold's Gym. Visit the Union Plus program provider, GlobalFit for details. To receive your union-member discounted rates, you must enroll through GlobalFit, not directly through a particular gym or health club. STREET HEAT DCLABOR ONLINE: Check the Council's website daily for the latest local labor news, reports, updates and photos. You can also get news and announcements by subscribing to Street Heat CONTRIBUTED BOOKS On Thursday, June 23, Gabe Goldberg spoke to the Business Writers Section on contributed books--books with a large number of contributors, all managed by an editor. Gabe originally worked on one such project as a writer, and then he edited three contributed books. Acting as editor is neither harder nor easier than being a contributor; it just takes different skills. For editors, contributed books permit a deeper and broader coverage of the material-like an encyclopedia, which would never be written by a single author. Editors also have the reward of teamwork and the satisfaction of keeping the project organized. Multiple contributors provide built-in feedback, and each contributor becomes an evangelist for the book. Contributors, meanwhile, get to write about a subject they are currently working on and that they love. In one book Gabe edited, half the contributors were IBM employees, who got extra credit for writing their respective chapters and who got to do it more or less during work hours. Nearly all contributors enjoy being published and having their biography and employer or other professional contact information publicized. The pay is typically an honorarium of $50 and two copies of the book, but it's almost never an issue. In managing a contributed book, it's important to get a contract with the publisher in place early and to remember that the contract is negotiable. The original contract will be heavily weighted in the publisher's favor, but the publisher will be more than willing to make changes. Then use one's network of colleagues, professionals, experts, and past contributors to assemble a team of authors, working carefully to balance writing ability against knowledge and enthusiasm. Develop written contracts with contributors, and agree up front on issues of style, consistency, and format. Contributors should also understand that their text will be edited. In managing a contributed project, organization and good recordkeeping are key. Establish a project timeline with the flexibility built in to accommodate the inevitable delays. To track progress among 35 or more authors, use project management software like Microsoft PM or ACT!, and use the Internet and other technical tools to make the project run as smoothly as possible. Share project information with contributors and encourage collaboration. The more reviewers for each chapter, the stronger the final publication will be. And finally, Gabe advises, stop when the book is good enough. The book will never be perfect, and if that's the object, the project will never be completed. NEW ANTHOLOGY: POETIC VOICES WITHOUT BORDERS WILLIE DAVIS - Gival Press has a new international anthology of poetry which includes notable national and international poets in three languages, English, French, and Spanish, from six continents. Poetic Voices Without Borders is an edgy collection that transcends regional as well as cultural borders on many levels. Nearly 150 poets, including Karren L. Alenier, John Amen, Antler, Grace Cavalieri, Alfred Corn, Jim Elledge, Jewelle Gomez, Joy Harjo, Peter Klappert, Lyn Lifshin, Marta López-Luaces, Jaime Manrique, E. Ethelbert Miller, Richard Peabody, Myra Sklarew, Gloria Vando, and many others, provide superb work that ranges from the individual to the collective we, from the sublime to the provocative, from the social to the political, in a variety of styles. This anthology intentionally is knocking down borders that separates the writing of poets be they "male, female, straight, gay, white, black, Native American, liberal, conservative, religious, non-religious, pro-war, anti-war, young, middle-aged, old, American, Latin American, European, Asian, African, Australian, rich, poor, widely published or an emerging poet." Consequently, a variety of venues will be tapped to announce its publication: Poets & Writers, Saint & Sinners Literary Festival, The Chronicle, Lambda Book Report, Literal (a bilingual journal), among others. In addition, local Washington, DC readings have been scheduled at the Arlington Arts Center, Café Muse, Nora School, and the Writer's Center and national and international readings are planned for Austin, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, and Athens, Greece. In reading this anthology it is "essential for readers to recognize the value of a work, which should be the center of any literary criticism, and to let the work speak for itself," as noted by editor/poet Robert L. Giron. VOICE OF AMERICA BECOME VOICE OF HONG KONG SHANE HARRIS, GOV EXEC - Voice of America, the international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government, is shutting down the overnight shift of its central news division in Washington and replacing it with a new workforce in Hong Kong, which will be comprised partly of contractors. . . VOA employees are reacting "with anger," said one news division staffer, who asked not to be identified. Of the 10 employees who will now have to adjust to lower pay and different hours, the staffer said, "They feel like their world has been turned upside down.". . . Moving a decades-old and renowned institution such as VOA to a country with no history of a free press and a state-run media is likely to raise questions. "The irony of transferring our operation to a communist country is not lost on anyone," the staffer said. [This letter went to the head of the Voice of America, David Jackson, and to four members of Congress who have VOA oversight duties] Dear Mr. Jackson : We are writing in regard to Voice Of America's deplorable decision to outsource part of its news division, downgrade some of the remaining jobs, and station both them and contract work in Communist China. This decision is appalling enough on its face. The irony of spreading a message of freedom while removing employment protections, dismantling jobs, and off-shoring them to a venue renowned for press repression and serial human rights abuse is cruel and contrary to Americans' best interest. But the mocking tone in which VOA managers announced this decision is an even more brazen attack on the dignity of our brothers and sisters who work for VOA. Associate Director, Ted Iliff said, "Any change is denounced by a core of VOA diaspora without them knowing the details of what's being planned and without them understanding contemporary media and business circumstances." The burden of proof to justify this scheme, which undermines the effectiveness and integrity of VOA, is on its framers. In doing so, it would be helpful to explain, to workers and to Americans at large, how a public agency established to spread a message of liberty could degrade American jobs and ship them to a Communist government notorious for ghastly human rights abuses. Admittedly, we do not understand what "contemporary media and business circumstances" allow for cutting the salaries and changing the lives of workers--loyal, in every sense--in order to save money by cheaper, more exploitable labor excluded from basic worker benefits. Perhaps the expressed discontent amongst Voice Of America workers stems from a like ignorance. Further, we ask you to explain to us and to the American people, as well as responsible oversight officials in Congress, the "business circumstances" that have such power over management as to hobble a proven public agency and prostrate its staff and consumers. VOA is an organization ostensibly committed to freedom of the press. Off-shoring good jobs to China, where broadcasts are jammed and the government controls all of the media, seems like the worst irony since Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. Certainly, Amnesty International wasn't speaking out of ignorance when it cited China-your new business partners-for imprisoning academics and human rights' activists, torturing prisoners, forcing women to have abortions, and executing hundreds of human beings. We would welcome any serious attempt to elucidate your actions and cure us of our ignorance. Until then, it just looks like rank hypocrisy and yet another slap in the face of the American worker. Until we are convinced by evidence to the contrary, we will continue alerting our members and standing strongly in support of our colleagues at Voice Of America. Sincerely, National
Writers Union D.C. MARKETING YOUR HOME-BASED BUSINESS Rick Holton spoke to the Business Writers Group on March 10 on the topic "Marketing Your Home-Based Business." Before starting your marketing program, you should identify what you're actually selling, what your real strengths are, what differentiates you, and who your target market is. A key problem for a service business is that your product is intangible and cannot be directly examined before purchase. To make your services more tangible, you should have, among other things, a list of services, a client list, client testimonials, qualifications, samples, and a photo. You may also want to divide your market into four segments: 1) advocates (people who spontaneously promote your services), 2) customers, 3) prospects, 4) suspects (people who don't know much about your services). You should design your marketing tactics by segment and should apportion time and money by likely return, from advocates down to suspects. Rick summarized by outlining the seven must-haves of service marketing: - A business card with your differentiated identity. - A menu of services, delivered in a brochure or website or by some other means. - A means of providing regular value to customers and prospects, through email, newsletters, or mailings. A low-risk means for letting suspects sample your services, through articles, seminars, or demos. Give samples of your expertise away for free. - A defining statement that explains what you do in 20 seconds or less. - A voicemail message that conveys your differentiated identity and your tagline or defining statement. - An automatic email sign-off that conveys your identity and contact information and links to your website. And most important: implement your plan on a schedule. Getting the job done is by far the hardest part. |
LOOKING FOR FREELANCE WORK? If you are looking for freelance work, sign up on the Hire a Union Writer web portal on www.nwu.org . To sign up, log into the union hall/members only section and scroll down to Member Resources, where there is a link to Hire a Union Writer. You can enter your genres, specific publications, and (if you wish) your resume and samples of your work. As soon as 100 members register, the NWU will notify unions and progressive organizations around the country of the search engine they can use to find union writers. This is a new program to link up writers and clients, and we need as many of you as possible to sign up for it to be effective. Hire-A-Union Writer may become one of the most valuable benefits of NWU membership. This dynamic members-only program will connect progressives around the country seeking writers for specific jobs with NWU members who have posted that they do that kind of writing. In addition to being the father of oft-noted journalist and editor Sarah Stillman, longtime member Don Stillman has edited Since Sliced Bread: Common Sense Ideas from America's Working Families, due out March 1. The paperback book, with a foreword by SEIU President Andy Stern and photographs by noted labor photographer Earl Dotter, compiles ideas submitted in response to a contest run by SEIU to find the next best idea since sliced bread. Mary Shomon's latest book, The Thyroid Hormone Breakthrough: Overcoming Sexual and Hormonal Problems at Every Age was published in late 2006 by Harper imprint Collins. Shomon's agent is NY-based Carol Mann. Shomon, a patient advocate who also runs the Thyroid site for the New York Times-owned About.com network, has done six books with Harper Collins since 2000. Susan Elizabeth Pattishall: "A twenty-first century satire on the vital side, Witchgate is the story of spying without trying. Narrated in the first person, it takes the reader into the imaginative wanderings of a witch's mind. With realism and fantasy, the author and Sebastiana, the witch, take you to matters that depict the slapdash side of the 1980s to the present. Showing mystic intuition that is definitely realistic, witch identification is not always respect for the netherworld. It is a secret world of intense, counterclockwise awareness. The story is almost a spy's handbook. Member Sarah Stillman is editing a new feminist magazine, Manifesta. I Am Happier to Know You by member Jeanne Eck is an award-winning finalist in the Spirituality/General Category for the Best Books 2006 Book Awards. It is available at: www.jeannemeck.com Member and helpful guy Steve Ackerman has received a silver award for a 2006 historical feature from the International Regional Magazine Association, for "Moonshine over the Bay," a story about the "predictably unsuccessful endeavor to enforce Prohibition on the Chesapeake. It appeared in Chesapeake Life. AN INTERVIEW WITH DOROTHY FALL [Sarah Stillman is a member of our chapter] SARAH STILLMAN, TRUTHDIG - When I recently stumbled upon Confucius' ancient invective against armchair academics - "The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar" - I couldn't help but wonder: In the unlikely event that the grumpy old philosopher's words were enforced through the barrel of a gun, just how many contemporary Western political scientists would be left standing? Although your guess is as good as mine, I can assert one thing with confidence: If I had to identify a single 20th-century thinker who could save the fuzzy-sweatered clan from extinction on such an awkward occasion, my money would be on the late French political scientist Bernard Fall. Sure, this unsung exemplar of rough-and-tumble scholarship met his tragic death almost 40 years ago, stepping on a land mine in Vietnam while conducting research for his eighth book on foreign interventions in the region. But Fall's name is now witnessing a much-deserved resurrection among activists and counterinsurgency experts as our nation stumbles deeper into yet another catastrophic misadventure abroad, tripping over familiar phrases like "stay the course" and "light at the end of the tunnel" while the American death toll in Iraq climbs toward 3,000. Against this Orwellian backdrop, Dr. Fall offers us a powerful model of wartime scholarship at its least comfortable and most courageous. Never content to pontificate on counterinsurgency from within the Ivory Tower, Fall traveled frequently to Vietnam to catalogue body counts, survey Vietminh tactics, and map fissures between official political rhetoric and what he liked to call "hard facts." He then relayed his findings in a wide array of popular publications like The Nation and Foreign Affairs, as well as in scholarly books with telling names like "Hell in a Very Small Place" and "Street Without Joy" (the latter celebrated as "the definitive military history of the Indochina conflict" by the New Republic). Regarded as the first theorist to publicly document why American troops were destined to repeat French failures in Vietnam, Fall paid the price for this title in ways that might have prompted Confucius to stroke his beard approvingly: He confronted jungle rot and dysentery during his tropical fact-finding missions (much as he had at age 16, fighting in the French Resistance against the Nazis), faced ostracism for his politics within some camps of the academy, and endured wiretaps and accusations of spying from the FBI. But you needn't take my word on any of this. If you're eager for details about Fall's larger-than-life biography or want proof of his recent popular comeback, look no further than a new memoir by his widow that hits bookstores this month, "Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar." Drawing upon 30 years of interviews and newly released U.S. government documents, Ms. Fall traces her late husband's transition from waging guerrilla wars to theorizing them. She offers a compelling chronicle of Fall's scholarship, tracking his escalating commitment to denouncing the Vietnam War and helping us to grasp why such a diverse array of government policymakers, public intellectuals and military leaders viewed him as a critical ally. All this is sandwiched between accounts of Dorothy Fall's own intimate journey as a painter, a mother and-come that untimely telegram in 1967 - a mourner. As a result, the prose sometimes tiptoes dangerously close to the no man's land between biography and memoir - not quite fine-toothed or rigorous enough to qualify as the former, but not quite juicy or literary enough to qualify as the latter. But oddly, this is precisely what many readers will grow to appreciate about Ms. Fall's approach: Amidst the recent deluge of woe-is-me confessionals and scholarly biographical tomes denser than Grandma's fruitcake, it's refreshing to encounter a narrator who makes no attempts to woo us with her labyrinthine footnotes or wow us with a peek at the skeletons in her late husband's closet. Instead, she simply aims to tell us an important story about her life with an extraordinary man who lost his mother to Auschwitz and his father to the Gestapo, who cradled a gun in the French Resistance and investigated Nazi war crimes as a teenager, who trudged through jungles and rice paddies to document foreign blunders in Vietnam, who won her heart with letters from the world's most dangerous highway, and who suffered greatly to tell his version of the truth-ultimately paying with his life to issue a cry against hubristic U.S. interventions that echoes all the more urgently today. WOMEN WHO RAN FOR PRESIDENT CHAPTER BOARD member Jo Freeman has posted highlights of "The Women Who Ran for President," her keynote speech for the Bostonian Society's conference on "Women and Political Life" at the Old State House Museum in Boston on September 23. Also up at the site: The written version of "My Tribute to Coretta Scott King," along with eight photos Freeman took of King over the years. HAVING TROUBLE GETTING TO MEMBERS' AREA ON THE NATIONAL SITE? So did your editor, so he emailed the address for sign-on problems - dbm@nwu.org - and got a phone call in a few hours that straightened it all. It was the classic problem for me - too many Smiths in this world - so just using ssmith as my user name didn't work. Turned out I was really ssmith12, something my mother never told me. If all goes well, here's how to do it: your user name is your first initial and your last name and your password is the member number on your membership card. MOTIVATIONAL CD NWU member author Antonio Graceffo has just released his first motivational speaking CD, "Around The World and Back to Your Beginnings" based on "the wisdom of Shaolin Temple monks and years of adventures in the deserts and mountains of South East Asia." GOT SOMETHING NEW OUT? WRITER ALERT Fashion Windows, an online fashion magazine out of Dallas, Texas, refuses to pay an NWU member almost $5,000 against invoices for photographic work completed in 2004 and 2005. The member started a working relationship with Fashion Windows in mid 2000. Over the next four years he worked for the same rate for each job he did for Fashion Windows, and he was regularly paid on his invoices. Then, after the member completed a job in October, 2004, Fashion Windows delayed payment, citing “accounting” issues. Fashion Windows repeatedly said they would pay interest on the delayed payment and that the check was in the mail. No payment was forthcoming. Based on his favorable past relationship with Fashion Windows, the member nevertheless took on another Fashion Windows job in April, 2005. When the member invoiced for the April work, Fashion Windows again delayed payment, citing a variety of reasons. Then Fashion Windows tried to “kill” the project by sending him a check for $500. Despite persistent attempts by an NWU Grievance Officer and by the National Grievance Officer, Fashion Windows flatly refuses to pay the photographer unless he sends them the rolls of film (something they never asked for in the past) as proof that he did the work. The cost of the film represents a small portion of the total invoice, but Fashion Windows has stonewalled on paying anything at all. The photographer made and sent contact sheets (at considerable expense), but Fashion Windows won’t accept them as proof. The NWU urges its members to consider these facts before undertaking assignments from Fashion Windows. HIRE A UNION WRITER PAGE HAUW is reached through the members-only Union Hall section of the website. Once you have signed on to the site, click on "Enter the Union Hall. There you will find a prominent link to the HAUW pages. HAUW provides a search engine that will enable potential employers to find members who fit their hiring needs. To register as a writer available for assignment, you will first be asked to agree to the terms of use, which were compiled by the NWU's Grievance and Contract Division. Then you will provide the information you want those seeking writing help to see -- a space in which to list where you have already been published, and a check-off list of genres in which you have interest and experience. In addition, you will be able to upload up to three samples of already-published work, or two pieces plus your resume, into your personal registration form. Employers searching for writers will be required to agree to the same terms of use before they can enter their search criteria. They will check the genre in which they need a writer, and the forms of those writers who have checked that genre will appear. The NWU will be sending hundreds, perhaps thousands, of personalized solicitation letters to prospective employers. We will follow up, as much as possible, with personal phone calls. We will contact other UAW locals, other unions, members of Congress, non-profit organizations, advertising and public relations firms, newspapers, magazines, and other organizations that need credentialed, deadline-conscious, professional writers. HAUW will be linked with the NWU Job Hotline, so that members who don't find work on the hotline can go directly to HAUW to register, and employers who don't find what they need on HAUW can post their positions on the hotline. We encourage you to log in today and take advantage of this new benefit of membership in the NWU. It offers every member the opportunity for additional income. NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE BALLOT COUNT Total
ballots received: 417 President 2nd
VP 3rd
VP Trustees
(3) Guide POETRY & SOCIAL CHANGE  These five activist-poets
kept a large audience engaged and enthusiastic at the NWUDC panel
discussion on April 30 at Busboys and Poets. Discussing Poetry
and Social Change: What Difference Are We Making? were (l to
r): Kenny Carroll, widely published poet, teacher of literature
at Duke Ellington High School for the Arts in DC and executive
director of DC WriterCorps; Sarah Browning, Guest Editor of the
Wartime Issue of Beltway Poetry Quarterly and coordinator of
DC Poets Against the War and co-convenor of the DC Chapter's
Fiction and Poetry Caucus; Carlos Parada (who also took the photograph),
a founding member of ParaEsoLaPalabra, a collective that promotes
culture among the Spanish-speaking communities in the DC area;
Susan Tichy, whose poetry appears in the US and Britain, and
who teachers in the Graduate Writing Program at George Mason
University; and Shahid Buttar, a lawyer, hip hop emcee and founder
of the DC Guerilla Poetry Insurgency. Carlos noted that one model of resistance to problems in society is to form a non-profit organization, but that model that has failed to achieve any kind of strategic victory. He posited that the transformation of the power structure of this society will be the work of small groups of people, and poets could be among those spurring that transformation. AIDS STORY COMES HOME
TO REPORTER JOHN-MANUEL ANDRIOTE, WASHINGTON POST - I'm a reporter. For two decades I've written newspaper and magazine stories -- and a book -- about HIV-AIDS as it has robbed the health and lives of millions of people worldwide. Many were my friends. I decided this would be my beat back in 1986, when I was still in journalism school. . . I started informing myself on every aspect of HIV-AIDS, reading the literature and interviewing activists, scientists and people living with the virus. . . But despite all I knew, I never truly knew what I was writing about. As a gay man, I wasn't a completely detached observer, because HIV-AIDS affected so many people close to me and in my community. Yet the stories I told were always "their" stories. I could watch and listen and share with readers what I saw and heard. Being HIV-negative myself, though, I had only a limited understanding of even my closest friends' experiences. Until now. Because now I'm not just a reporter. Now I'm a reporter with
HIV-AIDS. . .
Chapter treasurer Ann Hoffman (l) and steering committee member Jo Freeman (r) pause to pose with Mayor Anthony Wiliams at the DC Metro Labor Council annual fundraising dinner. NATIONAL LAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE On Monday, March 27, 2006 the union will launch a new NWU web site. The new site has many new capabilities and is more user friendly than our current 10 year-old web site. The address for the new NWU web site will be the same as before, but as you will see, the look and structure is very different. Your current username and password will no longer give you access to the union's Members Only section. In order to view the Members Only part of the site, now called the Online Union Hall, you will need to log in with a new, individual username and password. The individual login lets you directly change your contact information, renew your membership online, request contract assistance, and access members-only benefits and resources located in the Online Union Hall. You have been assigned a new (temporary) username and password: - Your new individual username will be your first initial and your last name. For example, Julie Smith's username would be jsmith. - Your new password is your NWU member ID number which is printed on your membership card. To log in after the new site is launched, type your username (first initial and last name - all lowercase) and password (Member ID #) into the fields in the upper left-hand pane of the home page and click "Login!" If you cannot find your membership card or can't remember your password (Member ID #), click on the "Forgot your password?" link just below the login box. You will be asked for your username and a new password will be sent to you by e-mail. If you are still having trouble, send an e-mail to our new database specialist, Sarah Sklar, at ssklar@nwu.org or call Sarah at the office 212-254- 0279. In order to better protect your membership information we strongly suggest that once you have logged in for the first time, you change your password using the links provided in the Union Hall Members Only pane at the upper left section of the home page. Once you change your password, you, and only you, will know your password. Please remember or record it, and do not share it with anyone else. We hope that you will like the new web site and will find that it more engaging. If you have questions, suggestions or problems with the web site, please use the "Contact Us" drop-down menu and click on Webmaster to pass your feedback along. BUSINESS WRITERS AND FEES How much do you charge? How do you charge? And what goes into determining your fee? Ken Norkin, freelance copywriter and owner of KN Creative, spoke on these and other issues at a NWU Business Writers meeting . He described the general guidelines for rate-setting in a four-letter acronym:YECH, which stands for you (your expertise, creativity and experience), environment (what will the market bear?), competition (is there any? what do they charge?) and hunger (how badly do you need the work?). Ken discussed the pros and cons of charging an hourly rate versus a flat project fee. Writers who choose to charge a flat fee must still have an hourly rate upon which to base the fee. Ken's suggested rough formula for devising an hourly rate was to start with the annual salary you'd like to make, add a 33-40% markup for overhead and self-employment taxes, and divide that figure by 1,000, which he believes is a realistic amount that can be billed per year. While a writer charging an hourly rate can charge for all the time spent on a project, if the project takes longer than anticipated, either the client may suffer "sticker shock" or the writer may cut back on the number of hours charged (effectively lowering his or her hourly rate) to maintain good client relations. It's also possible that, if a writer works fast, the cost of the resulting product will be far below its value to the client. Ken cited as an example an ad campaign slogan, which might take a half hour to create, but be worth far more than a half hour of a writer's time in terms of value to the client. Ken believes project fees have the benefit of certainty, for both client and writer, and can take into account the project's subjective value to the client. In addition, by setting a fee high enough and working quickly, a writer has the potential to exceed his or her hourly rate. Although it is also possible to underestimate the fee, Ken has found that estimate variations tend to even out or even work to his advantage over time, while hourly billing tends to work to client advantage. When pricing work by the project, Ken said it's important to be clear about the scope of work included in the fee, including the number of client meetings, components of the written work and number of revisions. If the client seeks to expand the scope of work, the writer should charge more for that. For instance, Ken says if a client wants more revisions than those agreed upon, he charges by the hour for the additional work. Among other things, Ken recommended setting a minimum project fee (his minimum is four hours work at his going rate), getting paid a portion in advance and the rest in installments and putting your agreement in writing. EXPERT PROPOSAL WRITING Michael Cohen spoke to the Business Writers Group on "Expert Proposal Writing." Speaking from his long experience as a management consultant, Mike focused primarily on Federal government proposals, although the practices he outlined were applicable to all client sectors and all sizes of proposals. Among many other things, Mike identified six main sections of any proposal: Background and Understanding, Technical Approach or Work Plan, Management and Staffing, Corporate Experience, Staff Experience, and Pricing and Administration. In the Background and Understanding section, we should discuss the specific background, objectives, and desired results. We should demonstrate our understanding of the client, and in research projects, we should demonstrate our knowledge of the literature. In the Technical Approach section, which is usually the most important section, we should present a task-by-task description of what we're going to do and how we'll do it. We should introduce the section with a statement of overall project length, and we should describe tasks in terms of purpose, relationship to other tasks, process, and product or result. We should also be precise and client specific, provide relevant examples, and state all assumptions. In the Management and Staffing section, we should discuss required staff skills, project organization and staff responsibilities, the role of subcontractors, and a brief description of key staff qualifications. In the Corporate Qualifications section, we should briefly describe the firm and give examples of specific experience relevant to the project. In the Staff Qualifications section, we should tailor staff resumes to the specific project and pay special attention to the resumes of the project manager and key staff. In the Pricing section, which is almost as important as the Technical Approach section, we should break our cost categories down into direct labor, other direct costs, indirect costs, and profit. We should start pricing early in the proposal process, and to properly estimate costs, we should create a chart of staff hours by task. The most important principle in every section, Mike emphasized, is that we closely follow the RFP instructions and evaluation criteria. Other useful proposal items are an executive summary (in longer proposals) and a table of contents in every proposal longer than, say, five pages. Critical success factors, Mike added, are that we 1) tailor our proposal, especially the Technical Approach section to our corporate experience and staff qualifications, 2) remember that we only get one shot, 3) differentiate ourselves or our firm from the competition, and 4) provide strong quality control for both content and editing.  Jo Freeman and Rochelle Schwab at the 3rd annual Holiday Book Fair. More than 100 writers and readers jammed the Langston Room at Busboys and Poets last Thursday at the Third Annual Holiday Book Fair, sponsored by the DC Chapter of the National Writers Union. The hottest sellers were hard-boiled mysteries written by NWU members Con Lehane and Debbi Mack. The list of authors and titles can be found at left and most of the books are available either at Busboys & Poets (202-387-POET, ask for the bookstore) or at Powell's Books (the 100% union on-line bookstore). NWU WANTS TO USE CRIMINAL COPYRIGHT LAWS FOR WRITERS Authors, journalists, and freelance writers have voted overwhelmingly at the National Writers Union Delegates Assembly in Baltimore to petition Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez for a Justice Department Task Force to enforce criminal copyright law on behalf of individual authors and other creative workers. The petition cites chronic Justice Department discrimination against creative workers which has denied them equal protection under the law despite constitutional provisions mandating that protection and congressional legislation to safeguard creative workers¹ rights and livelihoods. Justice Department failure to enforce criminal copyright law leaves most piracy victims with no affordable recourse under law, effectively stripping away their constitutional rights in the same manner poll taxes stripped away minorities¹ voting rights in past decades. Both President Gerard Colby and Chief Financial Officer Thomas J. Gradel who helped draft the resolution spoke on behalf of passage. The resolution was written by Illinois author John Gile, the victim of copyright infringement by the National Wildlife Federation, a Reston, Virginia, lobbying corporation which pirated 547,000 copies of his work The First Forest, a retail value of $8.1 million. NEW MEMBER L. Pilar Wyman is a professional freelance indexer and indexing consultant. She has been involved in indexing since late 1983, and has been writing indexes since 1990. She teaches the Basic and Applied Indexing courses for the USDA Graduate School Correspondence Program, and has mentored countless students of indexing. When her schedule permits, she gives training workshops and presentations on indexing and related topics.  CHAPTER CO-CHAIR Tim Shorrock [l], Ann Hoffman, and John Feffer during a break in the national's delegate assembly [Jo Freeman photo] WRITING FOR AGENCIES Ken Norkin spoke to the Business Writers Group on Thursday, April 28, on writing for creative services firms, among which he included ad agencies, PR firms, and design studios. Ken emphasized from the start that there's a huge amount of work out there for freelancers. Ad agencies do not typically have many writers on staff because it's hard to keep them busy with billable work. Or they may have a staff copywriter who doesn't "get it" for a certain industry. This provides a great opportunity for freelancers, especially ones who can offer subject area expertise. PR firms have more writers on staff but can still become overloaded with work. Design firms typically have no writers at all, and often the client provides the copy. Sometimes, however, the client doesn't have time to do it, and the firm may have no subject or medium expertise (say, for example, the client asks for radio spots, and the firm has never done any before). Creative services firms look for freelancers who can work with clients. Freelancers have to be presentable, someone they can take to a meeting, and someone they can count on not to say the wrong thing. Firms look for people with whom they have rapport and who can work as part of their team. The freelancer has to be dependable, and oh yes, creativity doesn't hurt. To find prospects, look at professional associations whose members are likely to include people from organizations you want to talk to. As a start, he suggested contacting Advertising Club of Metropolitan Washington, Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Public Relations Society of America, or the Direct Marketing Association. All or most of these organizations have membership directories, which can be very useful. Ken has successfully used direct mail to find clients, and membership directories are a good source of contact names. You can also rent a list. You should target people with titles like creative director, art director, or production manager, and in a very small firm, you can send your mail piece to the president. After sending out your mailing, follow up with phone calls. Ken has never sent out a mailing that didn't bring in business. PROPS To the editor of the NWUDC Newsletter: Just a note of appreciation for the October 2005 newsletter. It was informative, both as to what's going on in the DC Chapter of the Union (a lot!) and what's going on in the broader world of writing, publishing and reading. I have saved the advice from Phil Mattera and Enid Zafran on the business of freelance writing. I loved the plot to move George Orwell's "1984" to the current events or nonfiction departments of bookstores. The whole issue was full of "must read" stories. Keep up the great work! - Ann F. Hoffman FREELANCE WRITERS WIN BIG SUIT RACHEL METZ, WIRED - A settlement reached last Wednesday in a class-action online publishing lawsuit could mean plenty of freelance writers will be eligible to receive their share of up to $18 million dollars from big media companies, once the agreement receives court approval that is expected in the next few weeks. The settlement, which could net qualifying freelancers a collective minimum of $10 million and maximum of $18 million, is the result of a lawsuit meant to remunerate writers for work that had been published over the years in online databases without their approval. . . Plaintiffs, who filed on behalf of thousands of freelance writers, included the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild, the National Writers Union and almost two dozen freelance writers. The suit was filed against several media companies, including Time, Knight Ridder, Reed Elsevier (of which Lexis Nexis is a division) and The New York Times Company. Under the terms of the settlement, freelance writers who had work published between August 1977 and December 2002 will be eligible to fill out a form -- online or by mail -- that will entitle them to money for works to which they had not signed away their rights to electronic publication, said Jim Morrison, a past president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors who helped negotiate the settlement. According to a joint press release put out by the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild and the National Writers Union, those eligible could receive up to $1,500 for stories that they had registered a copyright for, or $60 for those they had not. The release said remuneration amounts depend on other things as well, like how much was initially paid for the article when it was published, and if the writer allows future utilization of the article in the databases. A site called FreelanceRights.com has been set up to help disseminate information about the agreement. JOINT PRESS RELEASE - Gerard Colby, president of the National Writers Union, noted that in its historic 2001 ruling in Tasini vs. New York Times, the Supreme Court ruled that the principles of copyright apply to online distribution of editorial content, and that articles cannot be distributed in cyberspace without permission of their creators. The Tasini litigation was initiated by the NWU and funded in part by its parent union, the United Auto Workers. "This settlement will put money in writers' pockets," Colby said. "Individual awards for individual articles could add up to big money for writers who had more than one article published electronically without their consent, and who take action to file proper claims. This settlement underscores the fundamental importance of the Constitution's copyright clause and proclaims that the rights of writers and artists to own their own creations and to earn a living from them must be respected -- even by the nation's most powerful media corporations." "This monetary settlement is the final chapter in a 12-year fight to right a gross injustice," said Jonathan Tasini, president emeritus of the NWU who served on the settlement negotiating team on behalf of the union. "But, more important, it shows that writers can stand up, fight and win." Taylor and Morrison noted that fulltime freelancers likely will have substantial numbers of stories eligible for claims. "I wouldn't be surprised if there are many writers who did not register their copyrights who will earn thousands of dollars from the settlement because they have so many stories eligible for claims," Morrison said. "That is why we strongly encourage freelancers to make claims." PAYMENT INFO - I never registered my stories with the U.S. Copyright Office. How much would I receive? Even if you did not register the copyright, you would still be eligible for cash compensation in the Settlement if you submit a timely, valid Proof of Claim. This is called Category C. Compensation for unregistered Eligible Works would be calculated as follows: o $60 for each Eligible Work originally sold for $3,000 or more; o $50 for each Eligible Work originally sold for $2,000 to $2,999; o $40 for each Eligible Work originally sold for $1,000 to $1,999; o $25 for each Eligible Work originally sold for $250 to $999; o The greater of $5 or 10% of the original price of the Eligible Work for all other works (sold for less than $249). . . Reduced Payments For Older Eligible Works: If the unregistered Eligible Work was created before January 1, 1995, payments in Category C would be reduced . . .
LOLA "AKUA" THOMPSON Lola "Akua" Thompson has a new book out. "Locked Up and Set Free" is a collection of inspirational writings, meant to form and inspire an awakening of the spirit. It has always been Lola Thompson's goal to understand the world through her relationships with others. By transforming the beauty and pain of her life into words, she expects to help heal the scars and support the dreams of all those she touches. Ms. Thompson is passionate about her mission to help others unlock their hidden talents and push past the things that are seemingly impossible in their lives. Having been a counselor for the past 5 years working with youth in the Washington, DC area, Lola has learned how important it is to share ourselves with the young people around us to help improve our communities and breathe hope into their lives. [And let us know about your new book or article] |
|||
