Last Post on SFWA Elections
The other day, I posted a (moderately cranky) note about the upcoming presidential elections in SFWA. After talking to the current SFWA prez, I'm told there's no problem for me to post the actual names of the candidates.
To the best of my knowledge, candidates for the upcoming SFWA elections are:
President: Andrew Burt and Russell Davis
Vice president: Elizabeth Moon
Secretary: Mary Robinette Kowal and Lee Martindale
Treasurer: Amy Casil
Eastern Regional Director: Bud Sparhawk
Overseas Regional Director: Ian Waites
I've linked to the candidates' platforms when I could find them. If you know of one I've missed, please let me know and I'll add a link.
Before we go any further, I'm going to ask people to keep things civil. Share your thoughts and opinions, sure. Argue for one candidate over another. But get nasty, and I'll chuck the comment and ask you to try again.
I said last week that I'll be voting for Russell Davis for president. There are a lot of reasons for this, and they fall into two categories: reasons to vote for Russell, and reasons to vote against Andrew. Personally, I'd rather vote for someone.
Russell's got a great deal of experience in the publishing business. In the often unpleasant atmosphere of the newsgroups, he's one of the most level-headed commenters I've seen. He's got some ideas on cleaning up SFWA that I think are practical and achievable (I.e., streamlining the committee structure.)
A lot of folks have begun crucifying Andrew Burt, and I can't say it's entirely undeserved, based on my own experiences and interactions with the man. That said, I find myself in the strange position of wanting to defend him ... at least a little. Burt has devoted massive amounts of time and energy to SFWA. His handling of the scribd.com mess was disgraceful, in my opinion, but Burt has also worked with places like eBay, Amazon, and others on behalf of members. I don't believe the claims that scribd was the first and only mistake ever made, but I do think it's unfair to completely ignore how much he's given.
Some of my reasons for voting against Andrew are personal. For instance, when I was a part of the committee to reevaluate SFWA's stance on copyright issues, I didn't appreciate Burt publicly criticizing our work on his web site before our report was even written. That seemed unprofessional in the extreme, particularly coming from the vice president of the organization. Other reasons are impersonal -- his lack of serious publishing credentials, or the stated unwillingness of major figures in the SF/F industry to work with him.
Those reasons don't make him the devil. Some of the discussion I've seen tends to portray Burt as a cardboard villain twirling his moustache as he plans the downfall of SFWA. None of us are mind-readers, and none of us have the power to look into a man's soul. In the words of my old crisis center training program, let's keep the focus on observable behaviors and actions.
Also, having seen Elizabeth Moon fence, I'm happy to see her running for VP. Next time a publisher tries to remove the "Out of print" clause from our contracts, I say we give her a sword and let her do some aggressive negotiations on behalf of the authors.
To the best of my knowledge, candidates for the upcoming SFWA elections are:
President: Andrew Burt and Russell Davis
Vice president: Elizabeth Moon
Secretary: Mary Robinette Kowal and Lee Martindale
Treasurer: Amy Casil
Eastern Regional Director: Bud Sparhawk
Overseas Regional Director: Ian Waites
I've linked to the candidates' platforms when I could find them. If you know of one I've missed, please let me know and I'll add a link.
Before we go any further, I'm going to ask people to keep things civil. Share your thoughts and opinions, sure. Argue for one candidate over another. But get nasty, and I'll chuck the comment and ask you to try again.
I said last week that I'll be voting for Russell Davis for president. There are a lot of reasons for this, and they fall into two categories: reasons to vote for Russell, and reasons to vote against Andrew. Personally, I'd rather vote for someone.
Russell's got a great deal of experience in the publishing business. In the often unpleasant atmosphere of the newsgroups, he's one of the most level-headed commenters I've seen. He's got some ideas on cleaning up SFWA that I think are practical and achievable (I.e., streamlining the committee structure.)
A lot of folks have begun crucifying Andrew Burt, and I can't say it's entirely undeserved, based on my own experiences and interactions with the man. That said, I find myself in the strange position of wanting to defend him ... at least a little. Burt has devoted massive amounts of time and energy to SFWA. His handling of the scribd.com mess was disgraceful, in my opinion, but Burt has also worked with places like eBay, Amazon, and others on behalf of members. I don't believe the claims that scribd was the first and only mistake ever made, but I do think it's unfair to completely ignore how much he's given.
Some of my reasons for voting against Andrew are personal. For instance, when I was a part of the committee to reevaluate SFWA's stance on copyright issues, I didn't appreciate Burt publicly criticizing our work on his web site before our report was even written. That seemed unprofessional in the extreme, particularly coming from the vice president of the organization. Other reasons are impersonal -- his lack of serious publishing credentials, or the stated unwillingness of major figures in the SF/F industry to work with him.
Those reasons don't make him the devil. Some of the discussion I've seen tends to portray Burt as a cardboard villain twirling his moustache as he plans the downfall of SFWA. None of us are mind-readers, and none of us have the power to look into a man's soul. In the words of my old crisis center training program, let's keep the focus on observable behaviors and actions.
Also, having seen Elizabeth Moon fence, I'm happy to see her running for VP. Next time a publisher tries to remove the "Out of print" clause from our contracts, I say we give her a sword and let her do some aggressive negotiations on behalf of the authors.