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From the President's Desk: Investing in the Future of ASJA

by Bob Bittner

I am writing this just days after the 2007 ASJA conference in New York City. It was a landmark gathering this year, with record member attendance and member participation, beginning with conference co-chairs Trish Riley and Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. And even as this year's event was in full swing, the 2008 team of Salley Shannon and Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt was laying the groundwork for next year, when ASJA will celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Sixty years ago, ASJA was a small group of working freelancers who banded together as the Society of Magazine Writers to improve the lives and the craft of independent writers. Those first gatherings happened casually, in a Manhattan apartment.

Today, we are an organization of almost 1,300 members, spread throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and beyond. But we might still be apartment-bound -- in vision, if not in size -- if it weren't for members' willingness to commit their time, skills and energy on behalf of ASJA.

That spirit of volunteerism was there at the start. It continues to be the root of our success. A large number of volunteers serve on committees that, among other things, recruit and welcome new members, review member applications, offer contract advice, provide reports on current markets, administer ASJA's awards, oversee the electronic life of our online forum and Web site and, yes, plan and organize our annual conference. Some of these positions are relatively easy and require a limited investment of time. Others demand significantly more work and, in a few cases, an extraordinary sacrifice of time that otherwise would be spent on paying assignments.

I learned during my two years as vice president that not every member understands how to get involved or how the process works for going from being a new member to, say, serving as a committee chair or becoming a Board member.

Here's how it happened for me.

I joined ASJA in late 1998 and immediately began being fairly active on ASJA's private forum on the old CompuServe service (since replaced by our own forum). At the 2001 conference, I met The ASJA Monthly editor and asked about writing articles, which led to my doing Market Reports and other features. I also made the "mistake" of suggesting a panel topic for the next year, which of course led the conference chair to make me a moderator for 2002. I guess I'm a slow learner: The same thing happened again in 2003.

With each step, I gained some name recognition and proved that I wanted to be more involved. So the Nominating Committee invited me to serve as an at-large Board member. Then, for reasons that still elude me, I was asked to chair the 2004 conference. I did it again in 2005 (see "slow learner," above). This time I did it with a co-chair, Minda Zetlin, so we could begin to build continuity from year to year (a new model that has since proven effective). Then the Nominating Committee again came calling, choosing me as vice president on the 2005 slate of officers and as president in 2007.

If you had told me 10 years ago -- when even membership in ASJA seemed a distant career dream -- that I would one day be serving in this role, I would have been speechless. Yet here I am. And though it amazes me, it also feels like the logical conclusion to a fairly clear-cut process. I didn't come into ASJA knowing lots of influential members. I am not, by nature, "political" (if you can believe that from a president). The only secret is that I wanted to somehow get involved in a group that had done so much for me.

As an organization, we can do better at helping all of our members find their own niches within ASJA, their own ways to contribute. We can do better at identifying members' skills and interests when it comes time to seek out and train our future leaders. But even as we develop programs to aid that process, moving from A to B to C within ASJA is still pretty basic. It's not all that different from making yourself known to a new editor by pitching good ideas and building name recognition.

Do you want to get more involved? Let members get to know you through helpful forum posts and articles for the newsletter. Contact the chair of a committee that interests you -- or contact Volunteer Coordinator Minda Zetlin -- and offer to serve. Help out at the conference with Personal Pitch, mentoring or the Welcome table.

Why bother with all of this?

You'll get out of the organization in proportion to what you put into it. And that simply can't stop with writing a dues check. Real benefits are only going to come when you take action: share your knowledge, develop relationships and contribute personally to ASJA.

My sincere and deepest thanks to all of the members who have already given so much. But if you're not yet invested in some volunteer capacity, I urge you to get involved. Volunteers are the lifeblood of ASJA. Together, we can keep the heart of this organization beating loud and clear for the next 60 years.

Bob Bittner, ASJA's president, lives in Charlotte, MI (which, for reasons unknown to him, is pronounced "shar-LOT"). Reach him at prez (at) asja.org.