Do ya (really, really) wanna be in our gang?
‘Welcome to the gang’ for Engadget writer, Conrad Quilty-Harper who, after exercising a bit more determination than most new members are required to show, has just become the latest member of the NUJ. Conrad is unusual, in this the NUJ’s centenary year, as the first ever member to have the job title of ‘Blogger’.
You can read the problems he had over at his personal blog, Spalpeen, and from Martin Stabe at Press Gazette’s Fleet Street 2.0, as he was initially turned down for membership for falling between some of the NUJ’s strictly defined membership categories. Not content to remain in union limbo, he did what comes naturally to any good unionist and complained – And last night, he was finally confirmed as being qualified to be a member after all.
There’s been a lot of coverage of this, allied to the Greenslade/Journalist story in recent weeks. I think it’s largely just a problem of process rather than policy. The NUJ is, I believe – and so does Jeremy, by the look of this 
– not a union that doesn’t ‘get’ the Web, but one with somewhat outdated organisational structures that are in the process of changing and which can throw up silly anomalies like Mr Quilty-Harper’s (or the fact that whilst I work in online PR, I have to choose between New Media and PR as my affiliation, for example). This is all compounded of course by being one of those annoying democratic organisations which (unlike a lot of media companies) doesn’t restructure without consultations (…motions to branch… Standing Orders Committee… adoption at ADM… review and recommendation to NEC… checking to see if anyone’s still awake…).
Anyway, all’s well that engadget’s well, and I’m looking forward to reading more on Conrad’s blog. If he’s that determined to get in, I’m sure he’ll have a lot to say about where the union goes from here. Fingers crossed he’ll be a very useful, as well as an eminently qualified, member.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Of course, NUJ members – if they’ve read today’s NUJ Active email – now have the opportunity to suggest how the union might do things better.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Cheers Donnacha! Well that’s a challenge (heh – didn’t check my email before writing) – I shall get thinking cap on now!
December 20th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
um i dont have blogger as a title but
You could have joined Connect of course Big grin I belive there is an agreement to cover the issue of techi jounalists – dating back to PRESTEL I recon that Jane Mcarten did stuff at Micronet that today would be covered as Blogging.
December 20th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
heh heh, I smell a merger coming on