The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) today announced they will hold a Special Election to fill the offices of President and Secretary. Those elected will serve for the remainder of the current terms, until June 30, 2025.

The office of President was vacated by the resignation of SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy on August 1. And when Interim President Chelsea Mueller resigned on August 15, Secretary Anthony W. Eichenlaub moved up to take her place.

Candidates for the two offices must post their platforms by September 24. Members will begin voting on October 9. The ballots will be counted after October 23.

The full SFWA Board consists of the President, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, and five (5) Director-at-Large positions.

Progress Report. Also today, Interim President Anthony W. Eichenlaub sent members a “Report on SFWA Progress” with updates on these issues:

Non-Discloure Agreements:

The Board made significant progress on a new and limited confidentiality agreement to replace the current NDAs in last week’s meeting. This is the cornerstone of our push toward transparency, and we’re pleased with how it’s turning out. We spent the weekend wordsmithing and will be sending it to the lawyer at the beginning of this week. Our goal is to get it out as soon as possible.

SFWA Website:

A Website Content Audit Taskforce has been formed to locate and fix errors and omissions on the sfwa.org website. This is a limited duration taskforce and its goal is to fix inaccuracies and omissions on the current website as we put together plans for a full website overhaul. Please look in the next issue of the Singularity for volunteer opportunities to help with this taskforce.

International Writers:

The Board discussed our statement regarding writers in crisis around the world. This statement has been stalled too long, and now it’s on my desk. It needs some work, but I’m putting it as a top priority next week.

SFWA tasked a committee to write such a statement in 2022. A draft reportedly was produced but the Board did not take action. This year there has been a renewed call from members who want a response to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza. Some members doubt such a statement would be appropriate under the organization’s purpose statement. Some others believe it would relate to SFWA’s function of “supporting and empowering” writers. They note that earlier in the decade there was “A Statement from SFWA on Black Lives Matter and Protests” and “A Statement and Plan of Support for the Asian Diaspora Communities”, as well as an announcement that “SFWA Stands With Ukraine”.

Internal Communication:

The Board has decided to leverage the Airtable volunteer database to facilitate communication between committees.

Staff replacement:

The Board has been working on strategies for replacing staff. The first job listings are almost ready to go out.