Freelancer

THE

FREELANCER

July–August 2021 Vol. 46, No. 4

2021 EFA election results —

Congratulations to new BoG members

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he EFA Board of Governors (BoG) has several new members, starting from the top of the leadership ranks, as the result of this year’s election.

Ruth Mullen is the new co-executive director, replacing Bill Keenan, who has stepped down after many years of service. She will work with continuing co-exec Christina Frey in leading the association.

Members at large in the wake of the 2021 election are Maria Alonzo, Nanette Day, Andrew Huston, Brittany Krysinski, Denise Larrabee, Cody Sisco and David Stacks.

(For their committee positions, see the masthead on page 2.)

The EFA thanks departing board members Tara Kovach, Adrienne Moch and Heather Pendley for their service on the BoG.

Contents EFA news............... ..

Member news.......2 Manager........... 3, 6 Profiles............. 5, 6 New contacts........6 Annual reports......9 Strategic plan..... 16 Event presence... 16 PRO Act event..........7

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2/July–August 2021

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Member news

EFA Board & Committees Co-executives: Christina M. Frey, Ruth Mullen Secretary: Joy Drohan Treasurer: Marcina Zaccaria Chapter Development: Akiko Yamagata Diversity & PR: Sangeeta Mehta E-bulletin: Denise Larrabee Education: Molly McCowan Events: Amy Spungen Job List: Joy Drohan Social Media: Ruth Mullen Membership: Lourdes Venard Publications: Robin Martin Website: Karen Wallace Members at large: Maria Alonzo, Nanette Day, Andrew R. Huston, Brittany Krysinski, Denise Larrabee, Cody Sisco, David Stacks

Office staff: Susan Patton, General Manager Christina Shideler, Membership/Programs Coordinator Vina Orden, Events & Communications Coordinator Juliana McArdle, Website and Online Platforms Assistant

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Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Editor Ana Traversa, Proofreader Copyright © 2021 Editorial Freelancers Association, Inc. ISSN 1094-4567 The Freelancer is published six times a year by the Editorial Freelancers Association, Inc. 266 W. 37th Street, 20th Floor New York, NY 10018 newsletter@the-efa.org Phone: 202-920-4816 Toll-free: 866-929-5425 E-mail: office@the-efa.org Web: www.the-efa.org No portion of this newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part without specific permission of the individual authors, who retain the copyright to their articles, or permission of EFA. Acknowledg­ ment should be made to the Freelancer when it is the first publisher. Contact the EFA for more information at newsletter@the-efa.org.

• Jennifer Della’ Zanna has received the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s Educator of the Year award.

• Wendy Meyeroff was a guest on On the Record (https://www.wypr. org/show/on-the-record#stream/0), a morning radio program from Maryland NPR station WYPR, discussing hurdles of applying for unemployment benefits and what an early end to benefits would mean: https://www.wypr.org/

International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) was featured in an IABC newsletter.

• Christine Van Zandt’s funny nonfiction children’s picture book, A Brief History of Underpants, was published in June by becker&mayer! kids, a Quarto Kids imprint.

• Michele Wojciechowski interviewed actor Lou Diamond Phillips for Esquire recently: https://www.esquire.

• Heather Pendley was “privileged to be featured in the American Society for Indexing July newsletter”: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/

“When you work as a writer for decades, you get used to it,” she said.

“The assignments are still fun, but the bylines, well, you don’t get thrilled about them as you once did. Except in situations like this.” n

show/on-the-record/2021-07-07/gigfreelance-unemployed-oh-my.

featured-indexing-newsletter-heatherpendley.

com/entertainment/a36676635/lou-diamond-phillips-interview-playing-filipinoamerican-characters/.

• Lyn Sorresso has published a first essay about being nonbinary, specifically about growing out facial hair as a transmasculine person: https://

www.functionofbeauty.com/blog/definitionofbeauty/growing-my-mustache-is-away-to-find-out-what-i-actually-want/.

“I’m excited about it! and ... it might be useful to read this perspective for sensitivity purposes in [colleagues’] work,” she said.

She is open to answering questions; contact her at alyssasorresso.com.

• Ruth E. Thaler-Carter received a Terry Harper Memorial Scholarship to attend the 2021 national convention of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) in the fall. She will present a session about freelancing and help staff the SPJ Freelance Community’s Freelancers Corner during the conference, which has been moved from in-person to online.

Thaler-Carter has been asked to present a webinar about diversity for the American Society for Indexing (ASI), which is expected to occur early in the new year. Her leadership in reviving the St. Louis chapter of the

We need you!

The EFA seeks a new editor of the bimonthly Freelancer newsletter. Experience with using InDesign and editing newsletters preferred.

To be considered, send your statement of interest and qualifications to:

newsletter@ the-efa.org.

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July–August 2021/3

Long-time EFA general manager retires

By Joy Drohan, EFA Secretary

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usannah Driver-Barstow, EFA’s with and unquestionably the best boss to your colleagues who are doing what much-appreciated general manI’ve ever had,” said Shideler, memberyou do.” ager, is retiring this summer. ship and programs coordinator. “I’m Driver-Barstow and her husband “Susannah has been the chief operatcontinually impressed with her ability will begin moving out of New York ing force behind the EFA for the last to juggle the myriad tasks to keep the City upstate to a small town where 10 years,” said Bill Keenan, outgoing organization running, while remaining they have had a house for many years.

EFA co-executive. “She manages the kind and understanding to all.”

She intends to expand her volunteer staff and has run the day-to-day opera Some EFA programs, such as Eduinvolvement with environmental and tions of the association with a thorough cation, have also expanded in the last voting rights groups there. knowledge of where it’s going and decade. When Driver-Barstow started “I am going to greatly miss workwhere it’s been. She interacts with both with the EFA, the EFA still offered ing with our terrific staff and the exboard members and members with an in-person classes in the New York City tremely talented and committed Board openness and consideration that members I’ve come to know over helps to get things done.” the years,” she said.

If you want to get something “It’s a wonderful community ... people “The EFA has grown phedone in EFA, but you’re unsure support each other and care about nomenally over the years,” said how to proceed, a familiar refrain the careers of their colleagues and long-time member Elliot Linzer.

“Much of what EFA has accomis “Ask Susannah. She’ll know.” also the field of editorial freelancing.” plished over the past decade can Driver-Barstow began as be linked directly to the work of EFA’s sole employee about 10 our general manager, Susannah Driveryears ago after the retirement of office. In spring 2021, 1,323 students Judith Greenstein; until then, she Barstow. She will be missed by all of us.” took online courses — the highest “Susannah has been so much more had been a freelance editor and EFA number of participants in EFA history. member, and had served on the board than a paid employee,” said Robin “Susannah’s exemplary managerial Martin, chair of the Publications for a year. skills have kept EFA running smoothly “I was just ready for a change from Committee. “She has really held the as volunteers came and went, as new freelancing,” she said. “I had certain organization together over the last 10 initiatives led to new challenges, as we knowledge of the organization and years. She is truly committed to the hired talented new staff and moved how things work that were needed in people and the mission of the EFA. to a new office, and as we dealt with that position. I was interested in giving She’s been the glue that has held all COVID-19,” said Sheila Buff, who it a try. I never expected I’d do it for 10 the parts of this organization together oversaw the Discussion List and Job years.” through our tremendous growth and List for about 20 years.

During Driver-Barstow’s tenure, movement into the 21st century.”

Driver-Barstow was an integral membership has increased by about “I am going to miss all at the EFA part of the website redesign and keep100 percent to more than 3,000. The — those I’ve had the opportunity to ing the site updated. She also contribEFA’s Board of Governors has grown meet in person and those I’ve met just uted to the rate survey in 2020 — ansince she started, and the office staff through your words on screen,” Driverother large EFA project — as well as has also grown, with related additions Barstow said on the EFA Discussion the 2019 conference in Chicago and to Driver-Barstow’s responsibilities.

List. “It’s been a privilege and a pleathe move to a new office in 2019.

In 2017, the EFA hired Christina sure to be part of the team making Driver-Barstow has most enjoyed Shideler to help in the office. Her job our growth possible, through members getting to know the members of EFA. has been split into two part-time jobs supporting members, with incredibly “It’s a wonderful community,” she said. with the addition of Vina Orden in dedicated, generous and skilled volunteer “I love that people support each other 2019. In 2020, the EFA hired Juliana leadership, and with our terrific staff. I and care about the careers of their colMcArdle. Driver-Barstow has overknow the future is bright for the EFA!” leagues and also the field of editorial Driver-Barstow has set a high bar seen all of their work. freelancing. I think there’s something for her successor. n “Susannah has been a joy to work irreplaceable about being able to talk

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Member profile

Meet Edward Batchelder Interview by Sarah Banks First paying job: Editorial assistant at Houghton Mifflin — the job was mostly secretarial, but I got to write manuscript reports and I learned enough about publishing to know I didn’t want to be involved in it. When several editors retired, I was laid off and started a parallel career as a freelance writer.

When started editorial freelancing: I moved to NYC in the mid-1990s, and a friend of a friend of a friend knew someone at Ballantine Books — I started working for them as a sideline to legal proofreading and freelance writing. It was a great job for variety: I did all kinds of fiction — romance, horror, historical, literary — as well as self-help books, encyclopedias, and Vietnam memoirs.

Career/Job before freelancing: My occupational life has been pretty picaresque. I’ve worked a mental institution, driven a cab, painted houses, delivered government surplus food to daycare centers, taught ESL in the U.S. and abroad, and held way too many temp jobs.

When joined the EFA and how membership has helped freelance career: When I moved to Buffalo in 2005 and started freelancing full time. I can’t point to any specific career benefit (for example, I’ve never gotten a single job I’ve applied for), but it’s been an invaluable resource nonetheless. The listserv has been a spiritual lifeline; I’ve learned a lot from other editors; and I’ve made a close friend I’ve never met.

Can’t live without my ...: My laptop is unfortunately the

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the work on time. And you don’t even need all three! Two out of three is fine.

People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. People will forgive the lateness of your work if it is good and they like you. And you don’t have to be as good as everyone else if you’re on time and it’s always a pleasure to hear from you.” — Neil Gaiman It’s a great observation but not entirely accurate — most of the time, you really do need all three, although maybe Gaiman doesn’t.

Website and/or blog:

cornerstone of my existence. I use it to work, keep up on current events, correspond with friends, and listen to new music. I wish that weren’t the case—I’d much rather edit on paper, read newspapers and books, write letters, and swap mixtapes with friends.

Favorite/most used reference book(s)/ website(s): These days, I mostly edit academic manuscripts, so Google Books is essential for verifying quotes that seem to have gone awry. I have mostly internalized the Chicago Manual of Style, but I double-check things there pretty regularly.

Project most proud of/Favorite client: I worked very closely with a sociologist friend on his book, Where the North Sea Touches Alabama (University of Chicago Press, 2011), a beautiful, thoughtful memoir about a friend’s suicide and his own parallel passage through a difficult period of his life.

Best advice about freelancing received or would give: “People keep working in a freelance world … because their work is good, because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver

www.e-w-b.com

Star who would play me in the movie version of my life and why: Cate Blanchett — I think it would take someone of her prodigious talent to make my life seem even remotely interesting to other people. And she did a great job as Dylan in “I’m Not There.”

Last book read for pleasure: Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. I read it as a child (my mother taught Greek mythology) and I wanted to revisit it. It held up well.

Deathly afraid of: The next release of MS Word.

Known as/Nickname: The guy who does my taxes calls me Eddie; I let him get away with it only because he saves me so much money.

Hobbies/Interests: I spend a lot of time repairing things — my century-old house, the toys broken by my kids, useful furniture salvaged from the streets.

What else colleagues might like to know: I’m married to a Greek, our twin Continued on page 6.

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Volunteer profile

Meet Amarilys Acosta Interview by Sarah Banks When and why did you join the EFA? I officially became an EFA member in 2018 after it was highly recommended to me in an online copyediting class at the University of California San Diego and the instructor invited me to check out the Diversity Initiative.

By then, I’d been taking EFA courses for almost a year, but only as a guest.

I joined because I’d made the decision to start my editing business and treat it as a part-time job, so I wanted to network with other editors and put my name out there as fast as possible. I hoped having my name in the member database helped with visibility, which it did to moderate success. The Diversity Initiative (DI) was also a huge draw, because it connected me with other editors of color and editors from minority groups.

What do you see as the value of volunteer work?

Work is what you do to feed yourself, and volunteer work is what you do to feed your heart. Nothing fills my heart more than sharing my time and skills to help others achieve their dreams of writing, especially when it comes to underrepresented groups in publishing. Volunteering also brings a sense of community; it’s all in the people you meet and the positive changes you accomplish as part of a group. It’s not me, me, me. It’s me, you, us, everyone.

Where have you volunteered other than the EFA? I’ve always volunteered my time and skills whenever I can. In high school, I created my class video yearbook because I was the only one with knowledge of video software and Photoshop. In college, I volunteered my design skills to create the English

Department’s newsletter and a couple of posters for Drama Club events.

I was also one of the hundreds of volunteers at the 21st Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico, helping with athlete signups and creating ID cards for each delegation.

The experience was as awesome as it sounds and I’ll never forget it!

These days, I volunteer my time and expertise as an acquisitions editor to writer events by joining their pitch sessions and Q&A panels.

What volunteer work have you done with the EFA? I volunteer with the EFA’s Diversity Initiative. I’m a past subleader of resources and, along with the awesome DI team, I helped review the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Survey.

Why did you choose that work?

The Diversity Initiative’s goal of achieving a diverse membership and promoting equitable access for all is one I fully support. At the time I joined, the resources subleader was in charge of updating the DI Style Guide and the Resource List, which contains links to BIPOC associations and events, articles relevant to diversity discussions, and more.

There was also a pending project called the Word List that greatly interested me, so I volunteered as subleader.

The idea was to have a main document that editors could reference for words used in diversity discussions; not just the correct words, but also harmful terms to be avoided. We completed the Word List of Diversity and Contested Terms in 2019, and it is now a free resource for all our members.

Life has gotten a lot busier since then,

but I continue supporting the DI however I can and I’ve enjoyed seeing the group grow over the years.

Of what volunteer work are you most proud?

The Word List of Diversity and Contested Terms is my proudest work without a doubt. I couldn’t have done it without the wonderful team of volunteers that helped get this project off the ground. We all learned so much about word usage and context of many of the terms.

What advice do you have for EFA members considering volunteer work?

Try it! Find a group, network a bit, then see the openings they have and work with them. The experience and connections you make are always worth it.

What benefits have you gotten out of EFA volunteer work?

Networking is usually the thing that makes most of us shudder and grimace, but volunteering is the easiest networking opportunity ever and a great experience overall. You’re not forcing yourself to connect; the connection comes from sharing time and skills to create something to help others.

What are your freelance services and skills?

I’m mainly a developmental editor, so I offer manuscript critiques and developmental editing of genre Continued on next page.

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EFA welcomes new general manager

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elcome aboard to Susan Patton, the EFA’s new general manager.

Patton joined the EFA from the Association of University Presses (AUP), where she started as a program assistant in 1998. She later became membership manager and was named membership and events director in 2018.

At AUP, Patton was responsible for managing the association’s annual conference and developed its webinar program. Her many additional duties included overseeing the membership database, producing an annual membership directory, administering the business statistical programs and man-

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Batchelder, continued sons were born in Athens and we spend several months a year in Greece.

We’re the Persephone family, alternating between the brilliant sunshine of the Peloponnese and the gloom and chill of western New York state. n

Acosta, continued

aging several professional development programs. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, teenage son, dog and two cats. n

EFA has new contact info s part of the EFA’s transition to a new general manager, the e-mail address office@the-efa. org has been phased out and there are new contact points for official EFA notices and announcements, including the Job List.

Job List messages are now sent from notices@the-efa.org, while other EFA announcements will be sent from info@the-efa.org and other committeespecific e-mail addresses. Members are urged to whitelist these and other relevant e-mail addresses and/or add them to your lists of approved senders.

To make sure you do not miss any EFA notices, consider adding the entire domain the-efa.org to your approved sender list. If you have experienced issues with receiving the Job List in the past, make sure to add notices@the-efa. org to your whitelist. notices@the-efa.org will not be

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fiction manuscripts — contemporary romance, paranormal, fantasy, science fiction, etc. I also do sensitivity reading and audiobook proofing.

Most of my work comes from publishers, but I prefer one-on-one work with indie authors, especially after the experiences I’ve had as an acquisition editor working authors through editing passes all the way to publication. In the near future, I’m hoping to expand my freelance services to coaching writers.

monitored, and will have an autoreply message. Since it will only be used to send Job List e-mails, this autoreply will send an immediate redirect notice to anyone who applies for a job opportunity by replying to the listing instead of contacting the client directly.

Feedback about the Job List’s content should continue to sent to joblist@theefa.org.

New contact points are: Courses and webinars: efa.

What is the best advice about freelancing you have received or would give?

This is less about freelancing and more about the person who does the freelancing: Please, make sure to take a break! It’s easy to forget to take care of yourself when you’re at home and there are never-ending projects and e-mails waiting for your attention, but remember that you won’t be able to get through any of that if your physical and/or mental health drop.

What are your social media links?

Website: https://www.

christina.shideler@the-efa.org Event sponsorships: vina.orden@ the-efa.org Website assistance: juliana. mcardle@the-efa.org Joining the EFA: efa.christina. shideler@the-efa.org Finding a freelancer to hire: efa. christina.shideler@the-efa.org Other questions: info@the-efa.org EFA general manager: susan. patton@the-efa.org. n

amarilysfictionediting.com/ Twitter: @AmarilysWrites Facebook: https://www.facebook. com/AmarilysWrites EFA directory: https://www.theefa.org/memberinfo/amarilysacosta-20573/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin. com/in/amarilys-acosta/ n

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Fight for Freelancers co-founder updates EFA members on PRO Act

By Amy Spungen ast February, the EFA Discussion List lit up with posts about the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) bill that was making its way through Congress.

It was, for many EFA members, a confusing subject. The exchanges occasionally grew testy as proponents of the pro-union PRO Act, including its three-pronged ABC Test, argued with opponents of it. The issue for freelancers is that the test in the PRO Act could affect their ability to be freelancers. The EFA issued a statement about the PRO Act on March 6 (see next page), but the discussion, arguments and bafflement continued.

To help EFA members understand the PRO Act and its potential impact on freelancers, the EFA’s Chicagoland chapter invited Jen Singer, co-founder of Fight for Freelancers (F4F) USA, as well as a freelance ghostwriter, editor and writing coach, to speak at their virtual monthly meeting on June 23.

The Zoom presentation was open to all EFA members.

If passed, the PRO Act would significantly change labor law, strengthening unions and encouraging more workers to organize. It contains the ABC Test (see next page), which was written during the Depression and determines who is an employee and who is an independent contractor (freelancers are independent contractors). To be considered an independent contractor, one must pass all three components of the test. However, many freelancers would be unable to pass the B prong, which states, “the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer.”

In other words, Singer explained, under the PRO Act, an independent

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contractor or freelancer cannot do the same work as the hiring entity. For example, magazines and publishers with writers and editors on staff would be unable to hire “1099 freelancers” (that is, freelancers who receive 1099 tax forms from clients confirming independent contractor status) to write and edit without breaking the law.

There are different versions of the antiquated ABC Test, and the PRO Act’s is one of the strictest. Similar legislation to the PRO Act has been introduced in six states. Legislation most closely resembling the PRO Act appeared in California’s Assembly Bill (AB) 5, which passed in 2019 and took

issues, but we freelancers would.”

Nationally, the PRO Act was first introduced in 2020, passing the House of Representatives but not the Senate.

When it came around again in this year’s legislative session, the bill passed the House on March 9 by a vote of 226 to 205, with five Republicans joining the 221 Democrats voting for it (one Democrat opposed it). The bill was approved as written, without testimony from expert witnesses.

Why do so many Democrats in Congress, and for that matter, President Biden, support the PRO Act? Most likely, according to Singer, because supporting the pro-union

“We believe the PRO Act is a legislative and not a political issue. Fight for Freelancers has everyone from Bernie bros to Trumpers, and we all manage to get along.

We are in agreement that the ABC Test needs to come out of [proposed] national law.”

— Jen Singer, Co-founder, Fight for Freelancers USA effect on January 1, 2020. Businesses stopped hiring independent contractors in California almost immediately across the board. Since then, the state legislature has added exemptions to more than 100 industries statewide to try to rectify the problem. Still, said Singer, many freelancers have lost their freelance careers.

Singer acknowledged that there “absolutely are permalancers” who are being exploited. “But there are laws in place to take care of that, like the IRS Test,” she said. She and F4F recommend replacing the ABC Test with the IRS Test, because “it is much more nuanced ... with a whole lot of things you must be able to pass to be able to be an independent contractor. Permalancers wouldn’t pass because of the control

proposed legislation aligns supporters against the exploitation of workers on its surface. Yet, many freelancers who are opposed to passage of the Act as currently written are Democrats, and Singer insists that the F4F objection isn’t political.

“We totally understand there is sometimes misclassification of workers and it needs to be addressed,” she said.

“Yes, unions have been good for our country. We are not anti-union, though unions support the PRO Act and the ABC Test. What we are saying is that this test is a threat to our livelihoods.

It’s misclassifying us as employees.”

For now, the proposed legislation is stalled in Congress, sitting in the Senate’s Committee on Health, EduContinued on next page.

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PRO Act, continued cation, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said he won’t bring the PRO Act up for vote in the Senate until he is certain all 50 Democratic senators would support it; three have refused to do so.

On July 22, HELP held a public hearing on the PRO Act. Three witnesses spoke in favor of the act. The sole invited witness against it was a California hotelier, who spoke about why the ABC Test must be removed.

Some characterized the session as an orchestrated event rather than a genuine exploration of the act’s pros and cons.

Four New York-based freelancers from Fight for Freelancers USA — Halley Bondy, head of the F4F NY chapter; Rose de Fremery; Pete Croatto; and EFA member Lila Stromer — met virtually with Schumer’s legislative aide, Ramón Carranza on July 28 to explain why they are fighting to remove the ABC Test from the PRO Act. The same group met earlier with Caitlin Rooney, the legislative aide for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), for the same reason.

“They seem to have heard us,” said Stromer. “I don’t know if this will

The ABC Test of the PRO Act

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he PRO Act’s ABC Test states the following, with the B portion affecting freelancers the most: “(A) the individual is free from control and direction in connection with the performance of the service, both under the contract for the performance of service and in fact; (B) the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer; and (C) the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed.”

For more information about the PRO Act and the ABC Test, as well as the IRS Test, visit fightforfreelancersusa.com. n go anywhere, but both Gillibrand’s aide and Schumer’s aide seem open to learning about the IRS guidelines.”

The goal is to have the ABC Test removed and replaced with the IRS Test before the PRO Act gets to a Senate vote. Stromer’s group also requested that different kinds of freelancers be invited to give expert testimony if the PRO Act reaches the Senate floor with the ABC Test still in it.

President Biden has called for the PRO Act to be added to his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan as another means of getting the bill passed into law, but that has not happened. It’s possible that the Department of Labor (DOL) will make the ABC Test a rule

EFA responds to PRO Act

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n March 6, 2021, the EFA issued a statement on the PRO Act. (For the full statement, visit the EFA home page and enter the term PRO Act into the search function.) The EFA objects to the PRO Act as written because of the potentially devastating effect on freelancers of its ABC Test component. The EFA’s position relates exclusively to the ability of its members to pursue their freelance work and careers.

Members concerned that this position is anti-union might find the origins of the EFA noteworthy. The EFA was founded in 1970 after a group of editors at Grove Press were fired for trying to start a union within the publishing industry; two of those women, plus a few other freelance editors, began meeting in their houses and eventually formed the EFA. For more about the history of the EFA, see the recently published EFA booklet “50 Years of the EFA.” n

(it cannot enact law). Although subject to being overturned under different administrations, a national ABC Test rule would provide the DOL with strict guidelines for determining who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. The DOL could then fine companies that do not comply with the three-pronged test.

Freelancers setting themselves up as LLCs or S Corps would not be exempt from the PRO Act and its ABC Test. “That’s the number-one question we get,” said Singer. “They’re going after solopreneurs, and it doesn’t matter how your company is set up.”

After Singer’s presentation, Chicagoland co-coordinator Kandy Hopkins reflected on the bill’s galvanizing effect. “The PRO Act, in all its unpassed folly, has actually been very successful in its mission of getting ICs to organize. The founding of Fight for Freelancers USA, our meeting on the act, and the many posts on our Discussion List about the act and members contacting their legislators are all evidence of that.”

“Jen provided some really invaluable insights. I’m very happy I was able to attend,” said Rose Foltz, of the greater Philadelphia area.

For a link to the meeting, available until September 21, contact Hopkins at chap_chicago@the-efa.org. n

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July–August 2021/9

2021 EFA Annual Reports Advertising

David Stacks, Advertising Chair he EFA’s advertising program for 2021–22 has two goals: 1. Recruit potential clients to our Job List and Member Directory.

2. Continue growing our membership.

Over the past year, we have advertised in print and digital publications aimed mostly at potential new members. We have seen some success, as our membership has grown an average net of about 50 new members per month. We have advertised with Google display and text ads; in Writer’s Digest and Poets & Writers magazines; and at the Society for Scholarly Publishing conference website.

In response to requests from our members in academic editing, we will place our advertising in the coming year in the academic marketplace to reach doctoral candidates, historians, researchers, scientists, and scholars. EFA’s advertising program will recommend additional ad placements with the Scholarly Kitchen, Education Week, the Organization of American Historians, and possibly Science magazine and the Chronicle of Higher Education. These placements will be in addition to Writer’s Digest and Google advertising.

The EFA has a strong working relationship with our creative-advertising agency, Robot House Creative of Oklahoma City, and our media-placement agency, Peak Media of Edmond, OK. We plan to rely on these partners again in 2021–22.

Our advertising program wishes to thank members of the EFA’s Diversity Initiative for assisting with our review of academic publications for our 2021–22 advertising placements. The following EFA members have provided research, resources and opinions regarding our coming year’s advertising program: Sheila Buff, Joy Drohan, Elizabeth A. Farley-Dawson, Tanya Gold, Kellie M. Hultgren, Sangeeta Mehta, Adrienne Moch, Katharine O’MooreKlopf, Faye C. Roberts, Amy Spungen and Lila Stromer.

Thanks to everyone!

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Chapter Development Committee Akiko Yamagata, Chapter Development Chairperson hapters are one of the EFA’s main sites for member networking. In a typical year, chapter coordinator volunteers across the country organize coffee hours where members share stories and resources about their businesses. They arrange for experts to speak to members about marketing strategies to macros. This year, as the pandemic

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dragged on into a second fiscal year, all of these gatherings continued to take place on Zoom.

In 29 chapters in 21 states, chapter coordinators found creative opportunities amid the constraints. They adapted their meetings to better suit the virtual platform: one chapter changed from an unstructured social hour to more structured sessions focused on peer critique of websites, for example. Other chapters cosponsored gatherings with other professional organizations, such as a writer’s group or an entrepreneurial association. Another chapter responded to the stress of the pandemic by offering a virtual self-care and yoga session.

Virtual meetings allowed connections within EFA that would not have been possible otherwise. Board members spoke at several chapter meetings. Robin Martin presented on making the most of your EFA membership to the Northern California and Chicagoland chapters. And Lourdes Venard spoke about the fiction editor–client relationship to the Florida chapter. No longer restricted to in-person meetings, members took part in chapter gatherings far beyond their local area. Members in Pennsylvania and Florida attended chapter meetings in California. Chapters across the United States hosted members from around the globe, from India to Ecuador.

Chapters have also actively extended their reach. Even during the pandemic, we re-activated the Chicago chapter and established one in New Mexico. More importantly, chapters are moving toward encompassing larger geographic areas. The North Carolina chapter is expanding to include South Carolina, and plans are in the works for a Midwest regional chapter.

The motivation behind these developments — expanding the reach of EFA’s chapters — addresses a gap recently identified by a Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Survey, conducted in November 2020 by the Diversity Initiative. The survey quantified what had previously been a hunch: that chapters serve only some EFA members (35 percent, according to the survey). Looking ahead to FY 2021–2022, addressing this gap will be a primary goal.

The Chapter Development Committee, which includes David Stacks and is supported by Christina Shideler in the office, also focused this year on better supporting chapter coordinators. These have included chapter mentors, experienced EFA members who act as resources and sounding boards for new coordinators for three or four months as they begin to organize. We have also distributed resources to improve accessibility on Zoom and are continually researching ways to improve chapter meetings in this

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regard. We also developed logos for each chapter to support their marketing efforts. We are also changing how chapters pay their speakers in order to alleviate the financial burden on chapter coordinators, one small step in improving equity and inclusion in the organization.

In the upcoming year, the Chapter Development Committee will build on the lessons of our pandemic year to expand EFA’s chapter program in ways that members can take part. Chapter coordinators have overwhelmingly voiced support for more virtual meetings, so the committee will focus on providing training and resources to support continued success in the virtual space.

Our approach to developing chapters will also focus more on larger geographic regions without the presumption of in-person gathering. Finally, to ensure that the growing network of chapters receives adequate support, the Chapter Development Committee will also be expanding. Members interested in serving on the committee should contact chapters@the-efa.org.

Discussion List

Nanette Day he last year has been eventful for the Discussion List. Foremost among this year’s changes was the retirement of longtime EFA Board member Sheila Buff. After two decades on the Board, she stepped down in January 2021 from her board duties, including her role as DL Chair. We thank Sheila for her lengthy service and for her oversight of the DL during a period of growth.

In the past decade, the EFA Discussion List has doubled in size, growing from 736 members in 2011 to more than 1,400 members today. The list has become increasingly spirited over the years, often averaging nearly 1,000 posts per month while offering members collegiality, passion, depth and breadth of knowledge, and empathy and support. A greater number of participants means greater diversity and variety in points of view. Norms for online communities have also changed over time, leading to a shift in many EFA members’ expectations for how the DL is moderated.

In response, an ad hoc team was formed to review the DL Code of Conduct and moderation policies as well as oversee the DL on a daily basis. This team included Education chair Molly McCowan, Event Chair Amy Spungen, Social Media chair Ruth Mullen, Chapter Development chair Akiko Yamagata and EFA co-exec Christina Frey.

They did a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes while also carrying out their duties for their respective committees. For example, they considered the feedback that the board gathered from members regarding how the DL operates and encouraged members to share suggestions during a town hall. Using the insights gleaned, along with a vision of

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how to grow the DL, they developed the new code of conduct that clarified the ground rules for collegial and inclusive discussions. At the same time, they created guidelines for moderators to handle issues fairly and objectively in a timely manner.

This month, the EFA Board of Governors voted to make the Discussion List a Committee of Record in recognition of its importance to our members and to our organization. We are currently finetuning the Code of Conduct based on ongoing member feedback. In addition to sharing mental health resources and engaging members in targeted discussions, we are in the process of setting up a #newvoices program to help new DL users become more comfortable contributing to discussions. We are also planning some focused “coffee chats” for the fall to help members within specific areas and fields connect with one another and build more meaningful professional relationships. We will be using the academic editing group as our pilot program for these chats.

Finally, we are looking at ways to create moderator training modules so we can develop a rotation schedule for new moderators. If you are interested in helping out with any of these activities, please let me know at discussionlist@the-efa.org.

Diversity Initiative

By Sangeeta Mehta ow in its fourth year, the EFA’s Diversity Initiative (DI) continues to support the EFA’s increasingly diverse membership and promote equitable access for all. I’d like to thank everyone who has attended our meetings and taken part in our online discussions, especially our five incredible subinitiative leaders for their exemplary dedication to the DI. Here is a brief report from each of them on their subinitiatives.

Communications: Slack is still popular as the DI’s primary communications platform, with a steady engagement of about 20 users and 12 posters per week and two or three new members joining per month. It has been especially popular for sharing new style and language resources related to our mission and requests for assistance with specific cases.

This year we added a #job-opportunities channel where DI members can amplify postings and share references for projects with diversity-related needs. After two years in the role, subinitiative leader Kellie M. Hultgren is seeking a replacement and will be stepping down in July.

Events and Opportunities: In October 2020, the Diversity Initiative hosted its first online event, a free webinar on transgender allyship for writers and editors, coordinated

by Molly Pisani. The 90-minute webinar was enthusiastically received by members, around 100 of whom either attended the live event or viewed the recording afterward on the EFA’s website while it was available. Molly is negotiating with

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the instructor to make this content available at no charge to EFA members on a long-term basis. Molly is also in the process of developing an event on disability and inclusion that will be cosponsored by the EFA’s Education committee and will be held in August 2021.

Resources: Former DI Resources subinitiative leader Amarilys Acosta stepped down in July 2020 after successfully steering several DI projects, including the Word List of Diversity and Contested Terms, which is now available via the member section of the EFA website. Additional resources, including booklets and webinars related to diversity and inclusion, were linked on the website during this period. In May 2021, Cody Sisco stepped up to oversee Resources and looks forward to assessing and updating the current resources and helping EFA members access them.

EDI Survey Project: The DI’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion survey, chaired by Lourdes Venard, was sent out to the full EFA membership in November of 2020. We had 637 members completing the survey, for a response rate of 22%. The survey was undertaken to not only ascertain information about the membership, but to ensure that the EFA is inclusive and welcoming. Now that the data has been tabulated, Lourdes and other members of the EDI Survey Project continue to work with the EFA Board to implement resources that will benefit all members.

Welcome Program: Under the leadership of Linda Ruggeri, two iterations of the DI’s Welcome Program (WP) were held this past year, once in the fall and again this spring.

First launched in February 2019 by Alissa McGowan, and later co-directed by Brittany Dowdle, this three-month program pairs established members (welcomers) with new members (newcomers) to help new members familiarize themselves with the EFA. As director of the WP, Linda’s work included editing various documents, managing the intake and exit surveys, and holding orientations for over 90 program participants. She and volunteers also organized three virtual socials.

Founded in January 2017 by EFA co-executive Christina M. Frey and me, the DI is always open to new members.

If you would like to join and help make the EFA a more inclusive organization, see our page on the EFA website and send an e-mail to diversity@the-efa.org. Any EFA member who agrees to our nondiscrimination statement and honors our mission statement is welcome to participate in our discussions and let their voice be heard.

E-Bulletin

Denise Larrabee, Editor, What’s New at the EFA hat’s New at the EFA continues to exceed the industry open rate standard of 22.6% with its average open rate of 34.24%. With a new design

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launched in January 2020 that is more compatible with the EFA brand, this monthly communication tool continues to provide EFA members with information on benefits, events, and resources available to them.

Member support has been more important than ever during the pandemic, and What’s New has helped the EFA keep its members informed and connected during this difficult time by: • presenting up-to-date information on all the events and meetings now presented virtually; • providing the information and links members need to stay connected to each other through social media; and • promoting numerous new educational webinars (now totaling 15) that the EFA offers free to members.

EFA member Lila Stromer continues to volunteer time as proofreader, and EFA staff provide tech and design support. What’s New is a successful communication tool because of these volunteers and the EFA staff, and we are grateful for their hard work and dedication.

Education

Molly McCowan, Chairperson hen I took over as Education chairperson in July 2020, the Education program had outgrown the systems previously put in place. Therefore, my first action as chairperson was to complete an in-depth program audit to decide which ongoing courses needed to be updated or removed from the catalog and to develop better tracking methods for financial and other data, such as enrollment figures.

This audit provided two main insights: one, many of our courses were losing money (they need to break even so we can continue to provide professional development for our members and guests). Two, the number of students had more than tripled from the previous year (2019) while all the systems had stayed the same. (Summer 2019 had 360 active students; summer 2020 had a whopping 1,230.)

While we did see a dip in enrollments in spring 2020, most likely due to the pandemic, overall, the program’s growth has continued (Spring 2021 had 1,323 students, the highest number in EFA history). The demand for professional development and editorial training is now extremely high, perhaps because the pandemic forced many people to either move into freelancing or rely on it as their main source of income for the first time.

To help the Education program meet this demand for professional training, I’ve worked to reconfigure administrative tasks so as many as possible are automated. I’ve also streamlined the instructor onboarding and course management processes.

When I came on as chairperson, all communication

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about scheduling, interviewing, vetting, and course details and materials was done via e-mail and Word documents, creating an arduous workload for the chairperson and staff member working on this committee. We have now moved to software called Dubsado, which streamlines the course proposal process, allows us to interview and onboard new instructors easily, and automates much of the behind-thescenes course administration. We have detailed spreadsheets tracking course financial data and enrollments, allowing me to see which classes are consistently in the red and adjust as needed. I’ve also created training materials that help our instructors navigate Sakai — our learning management system — and format their courses in a similar way, making course navigation easier for students.

An additional priority over the past year has been to improve course accessibility for students who are deaf or hard of hearing or who have vision impairment or low vision. The instructors and I have worked as a team to implement accessibility changes within Sakai, making sure our ongoing classes are as accessible as possible. On the webinar side, we’ve moved to using Zoom Webinar, which offers live captioning and automatic transcription tools.

Finally, in response to direct instructor feedback, I created a Slack community where EFA instructors can ask questions and provide peer support; we also held our first Instructor Happy Hour event (held via Zoom), which was a success.

My goal as chairperson is to continue to improve the Education program’s offerings, creating a one-stop-shop for anyone seeking high-quality editorial training. I’m working on adding more self-paced courses, although we may need to find a separate learning management system to handle these due to technical difficulties we’ve encountered over the past year. I will also continue to offer regular free members-only webinars, as they’ve consistently had high enrollments and I believe they further enhance the benefits of EFA membership.

Events Committee

Amy Spungen he goal of the Events Committee is to promote the EFA and attract potential clients and members by attending conferences, annual meetings, literary and book festivals, and trade shows. After former Events Chair Molly McCowan moved to chair the Education Committee, I began serving as Events Chair in February 2021, with transitional help from Molly and much ongoing help from EFA staff member Vina Orden.

This past year was unlike any other for the Events Committee. Nearly all of the 27 events for 2020–21 that were expected to be held in person, and were budgeted for accord-

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ingly, were either canceled or moved online during the year of the pandemic. There were 16 events the EFA sponsored last year that were not canceled, some of which were new.

Sponsorship opportunities that did not evaporate were transformed into an online EFA presence via virtual booths.

These pandemic pivots offered the EFA a way to promote itself and, through virtual rooms in some of the virtual booths, to occasionally interact in real time with attendees.

Though these venues were challenging, the EFA was grateful to maintain relationships with organizations we have worked with in the past—and to connect with some new-tous events as well, such as the Festival of Literary Diversity in Canada.

The Events Committee also worked with the Advertising Subcommittee (now a committee of record) to place ads at some virtual events that did not offer booth options. Thank you to Advertising chair David Stacks for his help with that, as well as Vina.

At this point we are seeing some events revert to inperson planning, but we are also noting hybrids combining in-person and virtual options. Hybrids may become an event staple going forward, given their ability to attract participants unable to attend in person, pandemic or no pandemic.

For now, the Events Committee is planning for another 27 events in 2021–22, hopeful they will all be held, whatever the format.

Thank you for this opportunity to present our annual report on Events. If you have any event suggestions for future EFA sponsorship, please e-mail them to me at events@ the-efa.org.

Job List

Joy Drohan etween May 2020 and May 2021, we listed 389 jobs, basically equal to what we listed in the same period in 2019–2020 (391) and less than we listed in that period in 2018–2019 (495). On average, we listed 32 jobs a month over the past year, equivalent to the average of 33 per month in 2019-2020, but down substantially from the same period in 2018-2019 (41). Our 20-year average is 36 jobs/ month, so there’s not generally a great deal of fluctuation in our listings.

In January 2020, we started to track the job listing acceptance rate — the proportion of job listings received that meet our standards of reasonable pay and antiharassment.

Data are limited, but for January to May 2021, the acceptance rate is below that of the acceptance rate for the same month in 2020, by as much as 27%. The average acceptance rate in 2020 was 56%, and in 2021 so far it’s been 47%, so we’re seeing more jobs that are never listed because we will publish only jobs that basically meet or exceed the median rate in

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our 2020 rate survey. I suppose this is to be expected after publishing rate increases (in Sept. 2020), but we hope that we are raising the floor for editorial freelance pay by enforcing this standard.

As usual, the primary source for job postings continues to be word of mouth. At least half of all jobs come either from repeat clients or clients who were recommended to EFA by a colleague. Web searches are our third-largest source of job postings. Our Google ads are a distant fourth.

We continue to get job postings from a range of other sources, including our social media and print ads. We have participated in some virtual conferences and other events in the past year, but as expected the jobs from these sources are down.

The categories of work from the Job List continue more or less as always. From January 1 to May 31, 2021, the jobs have broken out as: Academic work: 63 Fiction: 61 Business/marketing: 39 STEM: 32 YA/Kids: 22 Memoirs: 14 Miscellaneous: 13 General nonfiction: 11 Education: 11 Graphic design/book layout: 4 Indexing: 6 Translation: 3

Membership

Lourdes Venard or the first time, EFA surpassed 3,000 members. As of May 31, 2021, the number of active members was 3,073 (last year, the total at this time was 2,768).

The Membership committee, under Michael Coffino, surveyed members in August of 2020. One of the topics of most interest was a question about EFA conferences; a sizable majority said they preferred virtual conferences because of travel expenses and a lack of time for attending in-person conferences. Others said they prefer in-person conferences because of the networking opportunities. Members mentioned the following as possible conference topics: • Developmental and substantive book editing skills • Working with authors and their expectations • Finding agents and editors who use developmental editors • Up-to-date information on book publishing standards and expectations • Networking for jobs • Tax issues

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• Website development • Dealing with unfair clients and cultivating good ones • Business management and marketing • Publishing and editing trends • Career management Members also wanted discounts for office supplies and laptops. One of the newest member benefits, which I obtained in April of this year, was a partnership with Perks at Works, which offers discounts to more than 30,000 merchants, including Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and more. Please check out our Members Benefits page on the EFA website if you haven’t lately, as there are some new benefits there.

We also have partnered with ACES: The Society for Editing; Editors Canada; the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP); and the Institute of Professional Editors to obtain a partnership rate for their conferences and discounts on their classes and webinars.

The 2020 survey yielded a long list of other potential connections and benefits that members would like to see.

I continue to explore more of these benefits, but help is always needed to negotiate with vendors and companies. If you are interested in volunteering for the Membership committee, please reach out to me at membership@the-efa.org.

As Membership chair, I also am working with other board members and the general membership to make EFA more inclusive and diverse, as well as to bring more programs that will further benefit all members, including webinars, virtual events, and networking groups. If you have any ideas, please feel free to reach out to me.

Freelancer Newsletter

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, Newsletter Editor ince the 2020 EFA Annual Meeting, we have published six issues of the EFA’s Freelancer newsletter. While the newsletter volume year now adheres to the calendar (January–December), this report features the last three issues of 2020 and the first three issues of 2021 to match the June timing of the Annual Meeting.

As of the first issue of 2021, the Freelancer is published electronically only and is available to members as a download from our website. We realize that some members prefer a print copy and some no longer have home printers, but this change saves the association several thousand dollars a year in printing and mailing (especially for the July–August issue, which usually runs to not only more than the usual eight pages, but often to a page count that isn’t divisible by four, making it much more expensive to print and bind). It also saves the volunteer editor substantial time in producing both color and black-and-white versions of the publication, and it means that everyone can see a full-color version of the pub-

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lication. The e-only format allows for issues to have fewer or more than eight pages depending on available content, which also makes it easier and faster for the editor to produce it.

The Freelancer is now under the EFA’s Publications program, so the editor is no longer on the Board of Governors.

As always, I wish to thank the wonderful, generous colleagues who contribute articles and other material, and especially our stellar team of proofreaders. We are all volunteers and take time from our paid work to provide fellow EFA members with a publication we feel is a valuable resource.

Also as always, the Freelancer newsletter is open to submissions from members of articles, news of achievements, resources, tools and whatever else you would like to share with colleagues. Deadlines are: July 15 for the July–August issue September 15 for September–October November 15 for November–December January 15 for January–February March 15 for March–April June 15 for June–July Send your newsletter material to: newsletter@the-efa.org.

PR Group

Sangeeta Mehta he PR group is proud to report that, this past fall, we concluded our two-year long rates survey project, enabling the EFA to update its rates chart, a resource widely used as a reference point by clients, members, and other freelancers.

Back in the spring of 2020, we surveyed EFA members on the rates they charged for projects from which they earned freelance income in 2019. Last summer, Research Results in Fitchburg, MA, collected and tabulated the survey results. Our consultant for the project, Angela Darchi of Venture Research Associates in Westfield, NJ, provided analysis of the survey data in the form of an executive report. This report was released to the EFA membership on September 23, 2021, along with the updated rates chart and an introduction to these materials.

The rates survey project would not have been possible without a dedicated team of staff members and volunteers, and I am particularly grateful to General Manager Susannah Driver-Barstow, Membership, Programs Coordinator Christina Shideler and longtime PR group member Sheryl Holmberg. Sheryl also wrote a series called “EFA members comment on their real-world practices and experiences,” based on anonymous write-in comments in the rates survey; Part One of this series is available in the November/ December 2020 issue of the Freelancer newsletter.

Many thanks also go to Events and Communications Coordinator Vina Orden and principal partner of Robot

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House Brian Winkeler for their work in keeping our “EFA in the News” page updated. This webpage consists of media outlets and industry leaders that have covered or mentioned the EFA — most recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Poets & Writers.

Publications

Robin Martin, EFA Publications Chairperson t the annual meeting in 2020, I reported that the EFA Publications Committee was hoping to re-issue much of the back catalogue in new editions. The EFA Publications committee began a systematic review of backlist titles during the ’20–’21 fiscal year. Volunteers Molly McCowan and Maria Alonzo have been tremendous help over the course of this project, which will continue into the next fiscal year.

We re-released two revised titles this FY: • Ebooks and Editors: What You Need to Know, by Kevin Callahan • 6 Easy Steps to Customize a Style Guide: What’s Your Style?

by Robin Martin We also published a “Special Anniversary Release” titled 50 Years of the EFA: Commemorating Fifty Years Supporting Professional Editorial Freelancers, which I researched and compiled along with co-editor Denise Larrabee. It was designed

by EFA member Kevin Callahan. All of our efforts were donated.

For the final thrust of this year, we sent out a call for proposals in March (2021) and selected two new booklets to add to the catalogue: Kristy S. Gilbert — Visual Grammar: Design Foundations for Editors and Wes Cowley— Using Freelance Platforms Safely and Effectively. Once again, we have reached into the EFA membership to bring in two copyeditors, two proofreaders and a designer for the booklets. We will issue both paperback and ebook versions of all booklets and are aiming for a late-summer release date.

As the Publications Committee chairperson, I am dedicated to building the quality and value of the EFA booklet catalogue. The review of the back catalogue titles continues, even as we press forward in the production of valuable new offerings for editors and writers.

The transition to Aerio, an Ingram company, as the storefront for our booklet sales has had some bumps because of insufficiencies of the platform. For instance, international customers must purchase the booklets elsewhere (they can order from their favorite local bookseller with the ISBN).

With the help of Susannah Driver-Barstow and Christina Shideler in the office, we’ve been able to iron out most issues as they pop up, and will continue to be responsive.

We are also on the lookout for more-efficient ways to sell the booklets from the EFA website.

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Costs are projected to remain in budget for 2020/2021.

More volunteers are needed to assist with the ’21/’22 Publications committee. Please express your interest to Publications Committee chairperson Robin Martin at pubs@ the-efa.org.

Treasurer

Marcina Zaccaria t’s been a memorable year at the EFA. Each month, the EFA Board has looked at our income and expenses.

We’ve compared our spending year to year and made certain to attend to requests for spending in new categories.

Our dues, education income and publication sales have been healthy and strong. We’ve kept track of our expenses, and made certain that payroll, professional fees, and education payments were made.

This year, we’ve attended to areas of the budget like professional fees and diversity training. Our bookkeepers have kept up with us each month. We have compared our spending, and noted the difference in the areas of conferences, rent and internet costs.

Although we have all had to adapt to remote work, we found our reliable EFA staff always working with us. We have persisted and thrived. In accordance with our 50 year tradition, we have recognized that the Overall Financial Situation of the EFA continues to be strong.

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Website

Karen Wallace ver the past year, there have been tweaks to the website and a great deal of troubleshooting. Fortunately, most problems have only affected a few members. (An exception was an erroneous second set of renewal notices sent by a testing version of the website in January.) Downtime was rare and brief.

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New content

• Updated Editorial Rates table and supporting information • Word List of Diversity and Contested Terms • So You Want to be an Editor?

• Resources for New Freelance Editors • Keeping Your Business Safe from Scammers • Member Skills: revised to agree with the terms used in the rates survey • Mental Health Resources (in progress) • Regular posts in the Blog & News section All of this content was created by board members and other volunteers, as well as by the office staff.

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New functionality

• Blog & News page: Added the ability to subscribe.

Each Tuesday, subscribers receive an e-mail notification of any new posts during the previous week.

• Recorded webinar e-mail automation: Links to the webinar and materials can now be specified when the webinar is set up, and they appear in the automated e-mail.

• Recorded Webinars page (in progress): It will soon be possible to restrict the page view to recorded webinars that are free to members.

The first half of 2021 was mostly devoted to preparing for, testing and trouble-shooting a full WordPress update, which was implemented on April 12.

We planned to add a PayPal payment option but set aside the testing once the update started. Since then, PayPal introduced a virtual credit card option called PayPal Key. This provides PayPal account holders with a number that can be used like a credit card number during checkout.

Before the introduction of self-paced classes, we investigated ways to streamline the class registration process. Nothing turned out to be feasible, so we’re using a work-around that reduces the demand on staff time.

Information from discussions on Vanilla Forums (used by the board and chapters) was transferred to a searchable section of the website accessible to admins. If a board member or chapter chair needs to access any of that information, they can contact the office for assistance.

Reporting continues to be slow. We will remove old accounts and transactions soon and will continue to do so periodically. However, this will probably not improve the speed much, so we plan to create an off-WordPress report manager that will run on daily imports of data.

Another major effort going forward is to assess the website’s accessibility and bring it into line with current accessibility standards.

It’s been an honor to serve as the EFA’s website chair for the past nine years. During that time, the organization has grown in size and in what it offers, and our new (almost four years old!) website has reflected that growth. I am grateful for all that I’ve learned in this role, for the ongoing support of our co-chairs and for the opportunity to work with many dedicated board members.

Special thanks to our amazing staff members. My job would have been impossible without the skilled and always willing help of Susannah Driver-Barstow, Christina Shideler, Vina Orden and Juliana McCardle. I will miss everyone, but I know that I’m leaving the website in good hands. n

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Members urged to participate in new strategic planning process

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he EFA is embarking on a multiphase strategic planning process. After issuing a formal request for proposals and undertaking an exhaustive evaluation of candidates, the Board of Governors (BoG) selected consultant Elisa Pratt of Brewer Pratt Solutions to be our guide and facilitator in the process.

Pratt is an expert in strategic nonprofit solutions that increase membership, ensure diversity and inclusion, and maintain relevancy and financial stability. With a unique background in membership and stakeholder relations, as well as national and chapter operations, she will be a valuable partner and advisor to the organization.

This undertaking will involve the entire membership as Pratt and the Strategic Plan Task Force seek

member feedback during the process, which will extend through this fall.

The task force will consist of a mix of EFA board members, staff and general members.

The goal of the plan is to serve all EFA stakeholders as a guide through the next two to five years. Periodic re-evaluations will ensure that the plan can continue to serve the EFA into the future.

This process has two pillars for success: engagement and transparency. We need to hear from a broad spectrum of members — new and longtime members, members who represent the EFA’s broad diversity in terms of personal background and professional expertise and experience, members who are deeply engaged with the EFA, and those who are less in-

With some live events coming back, intrepid volunteers Chris Thomas, Crystal Shelley and Ted Olson staffed an EFA table at the League of Utah Writers Quills2021 conference in August in Salt Lake City, UT.

volved. Member participation is crucial to the success of the strategic plan.

For its part, the BoG will keep the membership informed throughout the process as we hit key milestones.

Among the first and most important is an all-member survey that was distributed in mid-July as an opportunity to help shape the future of the EFA by telling us what the organization does well and not so well, and how you envision the organization can better meet your needs now and in the future.

The BoG looks forward to the strategic plan experience, is excited about the expertise that Pratt brings, and hopes that members will be generous with your input. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the BoG. n