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July 2006

From the President's Desk: Losing Brett

by Jack El-Hai

About 15 years ago, before I was eligible for membership in ASJA, I attended a National Writers Union meeting where I encountered an interesting woman. As she spoke to a group about grievances against publishers-her specialty as a writers' activist-she punctuated her comments on this very serious subject with twinklings of her wonderful eyes.

I soon learned that the woman with the eyes was Brett Harvey, the author of The Fifties: A Women's Oral History and a series of children's books about the experiences of young people on the prairies and plains during the nineteenth century. At that meeting, I spoke with her briefly, and I remember that I left the conversation with a sense that Brett Harvey was very smart, and that despite all of her talk about demand letters and strategies to bring recalcitrant publishers to their knees, a warm and generous heart beat within her. Her eyes told me so.

I don't think I saw Brett again until ASJA's annual conference in 2000. By that time, she was our new executive director, and I was about to become a member of the Board of Directors. Already, so early in her tenure as ringleader of the conference, she appeared remarkably assured and knowledgeable behind the registration table. I waited in line for my name badge and registration materials, and the closer I moved toward Brett, the more the bustle and confusion of the scene diminished. When I at last stood before her to receive my packet, the self-possession of Brett Harvey enclosed me like a big bubble. The buck stopped there, at the center of the ASJA universe.

At the conferences since then, we've learned that Brett has refined the craft of meeting planning to an art. Just this past spring, when I sat next to her at the Members Day luncheon, Brett continually scanned the horizon of the hotel ballroom, observing what the waiters were serving and whether there were too few, or too many, empty chairs. A plate of salad appeared before me, and Brett asked me what I thought of it. At that moment, I was rehearsing the lines of my forthcoming speech, and I couldn't tell a salad from a sombrero. But Brett never loses sight of the details. Presentation and professionalism have always been important to her.

The last thing I want to suggest is that Brett is some kind of planning machine. She has applied her formidable brains to improving the administration of ASJA and lifting us to levels of service to members that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. Even so, compassion and concern have always tempered her competence. Over the years, as I have come to know her better, I've learned to respect her belief that when people in ASJA make a mistake, act rudely or in some other way stray from expected behavior, we should not come down on them too hard. One of her favorite lines to Board members is, "This isn't the Army, folks." Brett is admirably forgiving of others' flaws.

So when Brett retires later this year, we will miss her. Yes, the new executive director we hire will have new talents and ways of seeing things that will benefit us. But Brett Harvey carries much of ASJA in the sparkle of her eyes, and it's hard to imagine the absence of that twinkle. We all wish the best for her.

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I cannot let this column fly by without thanking everyone who played a role in the success of our 2006 Writers Conference. Members flocked to it in record numbers; we enjoyed a wealth of panels, workshops, Personal Pitch meetings and other attractions; and I saw a lot of smiles.

One of the architects of the event, conference committee co-chair Trish Riley, joins ASJA's Board of Directors this month. Meanwhile, she will serve another year as the co-chair of the conference (with newsletter editor Barbara DeMarco-Barrett), so Trish will have her hands full of ASJA business. A big Board welcome to her, and a grateful farewell to outgoing Board member Claire Walter, to whom we're grateful.

Jack El-Hai of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is president of ASJA. E-mail the president through www.asja.org/contact.php.