Reminder: Special General Meeting / Seminars - 3rd May 2011

 

Please see below the text of the email which we are trying to send out to all ABSW members regarding the Special General Meeting to be held on 3rd May 2011, followed by a choice of 2 Seminars.

The attachments mentioned in the email will also be posted on this site seperately.  

 

Please see below the link to the Wufoo form whereby you can select your choice of Seminar, should you be able to attend.

 

Email from Connie St Louis (Chair): 

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Important notice to all ABSW members

Important notice to all ABSW members

Friday, 21st January 2011

We have finally succeeded in establishing a new company called ABSW Ltd alongside the old ABSW, which as you may recall is an unincorporated body without limited liability, as instructed by the 2010 AGM. Now we come to the tricky bit.


The old ABSW has a constitution about members, officers etc which has been refined over the years. But the articles of association of the new firm are a standard piece of boilerplate about directors’ duties, quorum for the meetings, etc. They make no reference to the members or the executive and put all power in the hands of the directors, Connie and Natasha.

The new company is limited by guarantee so it cannot distribute any profits. We may choose to reform it as a Community Interest Company, but rest assured that the final structure will definitely be some form of non-profit setup in which all our money is used to develop science journalism.

I have agreed to think about how we get the new company into the shape it needs to be in to meet our needs, and I need your help. I don’t (at the moment) want any detailed legal or constitutional advice, although I would be glad to hear from anyone who is an aficionado in this area. Instead, I want to know what you want from the new-style ABSW.

At the moment we have a distinguished president (Colin Blakemore), a committee, some statutory officers such as the chair, vice chair and treasurer, and whatever ad hoc posts (events, student liaison) we feel like. We have an AGM and about half a dozen executive meetings per year. It is tempting to replicate this setup in the new structure, but is it what we want? Our aim is to advance science journalism, for the benefit of the profession and of the public. We now do this in a very different way from in the past, for example via the UKCSJ and online and via social media. We are more of a network organisation: how should our structure reflect this? What about our membership categories (full, student, associate etc)?

So – how much of our past way of doing things meets our needs and should be kept, and how much innovation is needed? Most importantly for me, how do the members get to be involved and feel part of everything?

I need your input on this and would be grateful for any thoughts, to the list or to me as below.

We need to crack on with this as I am going to report to the Executive on January 31. Let me have your ideas this month please. My replies may be a little slow as I shall be on jury service, so be sure not to commit any crime in South London for a few weeks.


Thanks,


Martin

Martin Ince, Committee, ABSW

Draft minutes ABSW AGM 2010

Dear Member,

in advance of the 2011 ABSW AGM, the Association is publishing the draft minutes of the 2010 AGM. These will be finalised and approved by members on the 17th January.

Natasha Loder, Chair, ABSW

Draft minutes ABSW AGM 2010

Cancer Research UK, Lincoln's Inn Fields

Tuesday, 26th January



Called to order about 18:30


Minutes: Wendy Grossman


Apologies

Timandra Harkness, Colin Blakemore, Wendy Barnaby, Jeremy Webb, Richard Hollingham, Claire Gilby


Present

Andy Extance, Natasha Loder, Martin Ince, Sunny Bains, Ian Adamson, Kat Arney, David Dickson, Patrick Walter, Anna Lacey, Mike Nagle, Bob Ward, John Bonner, Asher Mullard, Diane Stilwell, Wendy Grossman, Susan Aldridge, Katrina Megget, Anna Lewcock, Kellye Curtis, Barbie Drillsma, MK Looi, Brian Owens, Paul Rodgers, Chris Cooper, Simon Levey, Connie St Louis, Godze Zorhu, Richard van Noorden, Julie Clayton, Zoe Corbyn, Paul Sutherland, Tim Watson, Chrissie Giles and one illegible.


Minutes 2009

The 2009 minutes are lost, so can't be approved. Noted that Ted's report 2009 was accepted.


Ted Nield's report for the first  half of 2009 was accepted. Ted stepped down as chair in mid-2009 and Natasha Loder was co-opted as Acting Chair.


Review of 2009

At the beginning of 2009 the ABSW's finances seemed to be in perilous state. The World Conference, which it was hoped would provide some profits, looked like it might lose money. Prior to co-option, Natasha and Ted made a number of changes intended to secure the ABSW's future. First and foremost of these was recognizing that  the ABSW could no longer afford to pay for a permanent part-time administrator, and Barbie Drillsma agreed to take redundancy. Some of her former work has been automated via the new Web site; other elements have been taken over by committee members; the ABSW will pay for a small amount of administrative worth about 20% of its income. In the event, the ABSW received about £40,000 as its share of the profits of the World Conference which makes it solvent.


Natasha would like suggestions and ideas for how to move forward from here using this lump sump to launch other activities, particularly ones that may generate income.


Natasha gave out lifetime achievement awards at the Natural History Museum, partly as a test to see whether the concept of low-cost awards she had been working on with Sunny Bains was workable.


Highlights of the year:

- the WCSJ conference

- a joint debate with City University on libel law. The debate filled a 350-seat auditorium and was recorded by the BBC.

- the new Web site was launched in October. 15% of members have already uploaded their details, and it has dramatically reduced the amount of administration necessary.

- 50 new student members joined from City University

- in December the ABSW submitted evidence to the BIS group chaired by Fiona Fox on science in the media

- Sunny Bains has successfully revitalized The Science Reporter.

- successful regional events in Bristol, Brighton, Cambridge, and London.

- pay survey of members, no migrated to the Web site reading room under "guides".

- Moved the ABSW desk within the Dana Centre.


Voted thanks to Mike Nagle for revamping the Web site and Michael Kenward for having managed it for many years. Thanks for Colin Blakemore for arranging the Dana Centre hot desk.


Elections

Natasha was the only candidate for chair and was unanimously voted in.

Kat Arney was the only candidate for treasurer and was unanimously voted in.

Vice-chair is Jeremy Webb

Committee members are Bob Ward, Mike Nagle, Ted Nields, Caro Kelday, Barbie Drillsma, Wendy Grossman, Claire Gilby, Jacob Aron, Anna Lewcock, Chrissie Giles, Mike Nagle, Mun-Keat Looi, Richard Hollingham

Colin Blakemore was reelected for a second three-year term as president.


Accounts

For personal reasons Martin Ince was unable to complete the accounts in time for auditing before the meeting, or to complete the 2010 budget. The latter will be prepared in collaboration with Kat and will be presented to the committee for review.


The accounts for 2007-2008 will be posted on the Web site, followed by the accounts for 2009.


In 2009 the ABSW took in 50% more in membership subscriptions than in 2008, with three bursts of new members: the world conference, the launch of the new Web site, and the student agreement with City University. Mike Nagle reported that 75 people have joined since October, of which 50 were students.


The World Conference paid ABSW approximately £40,000, plus some additional money was made from a book sale and £15,000 was paid to the ABSW for administration. The capital is currently in a savings account paying 3.5%.


Because the ABSW has cut costs steeply and because of the world conference the ABSW is now the most affluent it's been in more than 10 years. It is in a good position to expand activities – for example, by running a one-day summer conference.


Martin noted that the ABSW has never had any formal legal structure but believes that with financial resources on this scale it is advisable to become a public trust company

- a cheaper way to incorporate that would still limit liability for officers and directors. Martin believes this is an important step if we are going to take on the risk of trying new activities.



The meeting voted for the change of status. Kat noted that the change would enable the ABSW to take direct debits, which was impossible as an unincorporated body.


Code of ethics

Some members have suggested the ABSW should adopt the code of ethics used by the US Society for Professional Journalists. It was asked why SPJ and not NUJ; Mike Harrison said the issue of respecting creators; moral rights should be included. Sunny Bains noted that professional standards and professional ethics are not the same thing. Bob Ward said it's necessary to be clear about the conditions under which someone's membership can be terminated – and that requires full consultation and possibly a change to the constitution. After much discussion it was felt that the idea needs further research. Wendy Grossman and Mike Harrison were coopted to form a committee to discuss it further and make recommendations.


A question of the constitutionality of elements of the proposal was raised. At this point it was discovered that the version of the constitution included in the agenda pack is not the current one, drafted and accepted while Toby Murcott was chair. It is therefore necessary to locate the current version of the constitution before settling this point.


Bob Ward noted that the constitution needs to be amended to allow emendations at SGMs as well as AGMs so it is not necessary to wait 12 months to make changes.


Constitution

Proposals 1 and 2 were moot because of the previous vote.


Proposal 3 provoked some discussion. The meeting agreed that a committee is needed to consider the issues of the code of conduct, the constitution, and the articles of incorporation that will be necessary. Natasha would like to have a clause that allows the association to ask someone to leave in difficult situations involving abusive behavior.


The future

Natasha believes that although there may be a crisis in science journalism in the US in the UK the picture is more mixed: the number of jobs is stable, though freelance rates are static and many journalists are too overworked to get out of the office. The ABSW should think about what it can do to make lives better for journalists. She is optimistic that science journalists' status has increased in newsrooms, but believes the BIS report may not support the areas we would choose, such as helping investigative journalists.



With the help of Julie Clayton and Sallie Robins, Natasha has secured seed funding of £12,000 a year from Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical and research division for low-cost awards to run in 2010 through 2015. The arrangement will give Natasha three years to run the awards and then her successor two years to decide whether to renegotiate or continue on our own. There will be four or five prizes of £500 each, presented at a stand-up event limited to 100 people. Irish journalists will be included among those allowed to apply.


The funds the ABSW has now should be used as a "fighting fund" to be invested in things that will yield benefits in perpetuity or earn money. As an example, the committee have agreed to spend £5,000 to support a one-day conference in July that will be like a mini-WCSJ and include training, talks, and, in the evening, the awards presentation. Julie Clayton will organize this event.


In addition, the ABSW should support for example, the libel campaign, which will deliver something we all need and want: sensible libel laws.


Another key initiative is securing access for members to the scientific literature, something that is now difficult especially for freelances.


Finally, Natasha hopes during her tenure to start a fellowship scheme that would provide a journalist with sufficient funds to take a month off from their regular journalism job to do investigative journalism.



Other business, matters arising


Julie Clayton is asking members who may be interested in attending the one-day conference to sign up to register their interest and help her build up a mailing list. The tentative date, July 23, will be confirmed after a visit to the venue in a couple of weeks. Julie would like to he2ar from any members willing to serve on the programme committee.  Julie thanked Bob, Barbie, Simon, and Martin for their help.


Mike Nagle noted that all Web content can be private or public, users can change their own details and join and/or pay online, and there are integrated external blogs, RSS feeds of everything the ABSW publishes, job listings, and a jointly edited committee area.


Vote of heartfelt thanks to Michael Kenward.


Congratulations to Peter Briggs, who was awarded an OBE in the New Year's honours list.


Peter Briggs and Peter Cooper were appointed auditors for the coming year.


There was a discussion of the jobs listing policy on ABSW-L, which currently cost £50. The meeting voted to remove the charge (losing approximately £300 to £400 a year in income) and to reconsider the matter should providing such listings free of charge become a problem.


Sunny Bains asked if it was possible to automatically link jobs from the list to the Web site job section for those who do not have time to read the list. Mike Nagle said it was technically too difficult but that members can get an RSS feed of the Web site job listing.


Life memberships were voted for Michael Kenward, Barbie Drillsma, and Rick Stevenson.


Wendy Grossman noted that the committee reviewing the constitution, the code of ethics, and the articles of incorporation will need to consider what the position of bloggers and other non-traditional journalists should be in the ABSW.

Meeting closed at 8pm.

Can you RELATE to this? Research Labs for Teaching Journalists experience

Over the past two years a European Union project has taken 80 journalism students and early-career journalists for one-week courses visiting research labs across Europe.

I was lucky enough to take part in the last cohort of journalists sent to universities in either Paris or Bologna. I joined a group of four journalists travelling to the latter.

The RELATE (Research Labs for Teaching Journalists Experience) project promised to bring journalists face-to-face with cutting edge research and provide open access to some of Europe’s best researchers. All that journalists had to do in exchange was to write daily blogs about their experiences and submit a single piece of work (article, podcast or video) for publication (here's mine).

RELATE did deliver on its promise of contact with researchers (sometimes in excess, with some researchers really keen to talk about their work for a long, long time...). But what it failed to do was to offer any kind of on-site training whatsoever. Anyone can talk to (read: listen to) a scientist about their work, but a skill of a journalist is to know which questions to ask and how to do it.

Read more: Can you RELATE to this? Research Labs for Teaching Journalists experience

Multimedia from the First UK Conference of Science Journalists

Video, podcasts and enhanced podcasts from the First UK Conference of Science Journalists are now available to members.

UKCSJ Multimedia

 

 

Save the date: AGM and post-christmas party

Save the date: The ABSW's AGM and post-christmas party will be on Monday 17th of January, 2011.

Winners of 2010 ABSW Science Journalism Awards announced

The winners of the 2010 ABSW Science Writers’ Awards for Britain and Ireland were announced at an evening reception in London on Friday.  The winners were:

Best news item

John Travis, Europe News Editor, Science Magazine, for ‘Scientists Decry "Flawed" and "Horrifying" Nationality Tests: Scientists are greeting with surprise and dismay a project to use DNA and isotope analysis of tissue from asylum seekers to evaluate their nationality and help decide who can enter the United Kingdom.’ Published in Science.

Best feature

The judges were unanimous in deciding to make two awards in this category as there was no way of separating these two excellent entries:

Robin McKie, Science Editor, The Observer, for ‘Breathing lessons: This is what Emma Lake has to take every day to stay alive. But now a team of British scientists is on the verge of a evolutionary treatment that could extend her life by decades.’ Published in The Observer Magazine.

Helen Pearson, Chief Features Editor, Nature, for ‘One gene, twenty years: When the cystic fibrosis gene was found in 1989, therapy seemed around the corner.  Two decades on, biologists still have a long way to go.’ Published in Nature. NB: Helen Pearson could not be present at the ceremony and her award was collected on her behalf by Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief, Nature

Best scripted/edited programme (podcast, radio, TV or online video)

Nick Jordan, Producer/Director, Adam Rutherford, Presenter, Jacqueline Smith, Series Producer, BBC (team entry), for ‘The Cell’ a BBC Scotland Production broadcast on BBC4.

Best investigative journalism

Peter Aldhous, San Francisco Bureau Chief, New Scientist, for ‘How My Genome Was Hacked: If a New Scientist reporter’s DNA is vulnerable, so is yours.’ Published in New Scientist.

Best newcomer

Helen Thomson, Biomedical news editor, New Scientist. NB: Helen Thomson could not be present at the ceremony and her award was collected on her behalf by Jeremy Webb, Editor in Chief of New Scientist.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Geoff Watts, Broadcaster and Journalist, most recently presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Leading Edge

Read more: Winners of 2010 ABSW Science Journalism Awards announced

ABSW Science Writers' Awards Shortlist Announced

After an all day judging meeting on Wednesday 30^th June the shortlists for the ABSW Science Writers’ Awards for Britain and Ireland have been decided. The winners in all categories will be announced at an awards ceremony on Friday 23 July in London, where an award for lifetime achievement in science journalism will also be made.

ABSW Science Writers’ Awards for Britain and Ireland 2010 Shortlist

 

Read more: ABSW Science Writers' Awards Shortlist Announced

NHM ticket offer for ABSW members

A while ago our member survey revealed that people would be keen on some kind of discount/free ticket arrangement with museums and other venues.

The Natural History Museum is prepared to offer a writer 10 complimentary tickets to cover all their temporary exhibitions (The Deep, Butterfly Jungle and the Wildlife Photographer of the Year) for a year. They can also offer 2 places on large capacity Members events.

Sadly this doesn’t come completely free. What they need is someone to write a 1600 word feature article for their quarterly magazine Evolve (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/become-a-member/magazines/evolve/index.html) on the subject: ‘What Price Oil?’. This would look at the effects of oil exploration on the ocean's biodiversity and how an oil spill can cause sustained damage to food chains and ecosystems. The deadline would be 16 July.

If anyone is interested, please email me as soon as possible at keat [dot] looi [at] gmail [dot] com.

Invitation to final EU FP7 conference 'Communicating Science'

ABSW members are invited to 'Communicating Science: Strengthening the researcher-journalist-citizen 'triangle''.

Friday, 28 May 2010, Bolzano, Italy.

This is the final conference of the FP7 Science in Society project "MY SCIENCE ˆ European Program for Young Journalists".

Go to EUSJA website for more information.

If interested please reply to Barbie Drillsma - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.