Contacting SFWA's Board of Directors

Contacting the Board
7/1/2007 - 6/30/2008

Lack of clear expectations about contacting Board members has caused problems in the past, so these guidelines should help members know what to expect. Each Board should modify these to suit their needs and communicate them to the membership.

1. How to contact the Board: For official matters, members should first contact their Regional Director. If you are unsure of your region, consult the SFWA Regions web page or the inside back cover of the current Directory. If you wish to contact a Board member, send email (preferred) or phone. Numbers can be found on the Officers page, in the online directory or in the printed SFWA Directory.
2. Other contacts: Many matters are handled by committees or other volunteers, rather than the Board. The Contacts web page describes a hierarchy of contacts and offers pointers to web site search tools that can resolve many questions even more rapidly than asking the Board or Executive Director. If you are uncertain whom to contact, ask the Executive Director, Jane Jewell (888-322-7392).
3. Response time: Since Board members are volunteers, and often busy with Board and non-Board work, a response may take a week, or longer at holiday periods or if a given Board member is out of town. Some board members may not reply until they have an answer to a question, while some may reply with a "message received," but there should be no expectation of an immediate reply. You may wish to cc the Executive Director if you are concerned about an email not getting received. If after two weeks you are concerned that your message was not received, ask the Executive Director to inquire about the status. Depending on the difficulty of the issue itself and directors' schedules, actual answers to questions may take significantly longer.
4. How not to contact the Board: Board members are not expected to read any sff.net newsgroups. Board members may read and post to sff.net newsgroups if they so choose. The Ask the President and SFWA Business newsgroups are the most likely places Board members may read. However, just because you saw a board member posting in a group does not mean you should expect them to see any given posting, and even if they do, there is no expectation that they will post a reply. Thus, Board members request that you ask questions or send comments by email or phone if you want them received. Thank you.

Information on logging in to read the SFWA private newsgroups, or to get the free account that allows members to read and post in the newsgroups, can be found at SFWA Member Gateway.