EMWA FBF Agenda s1

Freelance Business Forum Minutes, EMWA Conference Florence Friday 7 November 2014, 17:15–18:45

Presenters: Alistair Reeves (AR) with Kathryn White (KW) and Sam Hamilton (SH)

Item 1: Introduction (AR) AR, KW and SH introduced themselves briefly and gave a brief overview of the history and aims of the Freelance Business Forum (FBF). Members of the Executive Committee (EC) were not able to attend (other than SH [Vice President]) due to an EC meeting running in parallel.

Item 2: Welcome first time attendees (AR) First time attendees of the FBF were welcomed – for most this was their first EMWA conference. Some of the first time attendees of the FBF were employed but considering a move into freelancing.

Item 3: FBF survey on type and source of registration documents prepared by freelancers (AR) SH and AR recently published an article in Medical Writing (MEW) that compared the cost of employing freelancers with that of full time employees.1 The survey, conducted within the last month and sent to EMWA members, was a follow-up to this article, focusing on the types of regulatory documents that freelancers are contracted to write.

In summary, the survey was completed by 143 freelancers of which, 68% were involved in regulatory writing and 67% spent 50% or more of their time writing regulatory documents with most obtaining their work from ‘big pharma’. The survey also indicated that 43% of the respondents were involved in non-regulatory writing. We would like to encourage all those freelancers involved in non-regulatory writing to come forward with ideas for future topics for the FBF and the Out On Our Own (OOOO) section of MEW to ensure this population of freelancers is represented.

The results of this survey will be published on the website during December 2014.

Action (all freelancers who work in non-regulatory areas such as med comms, etc,): please forward any ideas you have for topics you wish to see covered at future FBF meetings or in the OOOO section of MEW to AR or KW via email.

The results of this survey will be used to modify the Freelance Business survey (conducted every 3 years) to ensure it captures information about the specific types of documents written by freelancers. A document describing the survey results will be published on the EMWA website.

Item 4: FB survey 2015 (all) This survey is conducted every 3 years, usually between March and June, and provides useful information about appropriate fee setting for medical writing services; the results are summarised and published in MEW. The next survey will be conducted in 2015 and volunteers are being sought to write the article summarising the survey outcomes. This is a brilliant opportunity for FBF members to be an author of a published article, which is great for your CV!

Action (all): if you would like to write the article summarising the survey results please contact AR or KW via email.

Item 5: Networking table session (all) We once again held an interactive networking session during which attendees were encouraged to network and ask questions. Experienced freelancers were appointed as table leaders and were introduced at the start of the session: Ingrid Edsman (Sweden), Craig Stevens (France), Julie Charlesworth (UK), AR (Germany), Karin Gewert (Sweden), KW (UK). Anne McDonough (UK) was unable to join us as table leader due to illness and Gillian Pritchard (UK) kindly stepped in.

Topics raised during the networking session included:

1. Starting out as a freelancer – how to obtain your first client. 2. Agencies as ‘middle-men’ in supplying work 3. Computer software – is it worthwhile buying specialist software, especially when starting out as a freelancer, due to the associated costs. Tips on accessing IT support. 4. Payments – how do you ensure that you are not left out-of-pocket when writing documents for clients, especially if reviews are delayed? 5. Home office – tips on how to set up a working environment at home and to work efficiently at home. 6. How worthwhile is renting office space with services?

Item 5: EMWA Benefits for freelance members of EMWA (SH) SH gave an update on changes being made to enhance the freelance member benefits. In particular, the Freelancer Listing (FL) and associated benefits have been reviewed and updated. This will be announced by EMWA in the near future. Furthermore, SH has secured a discount as part of the FL benefit package for membership of the UK contractor’s organisation IPSE (The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed). More details on the benefits IPSE offers are available at their website: http://www.ipse.co.uk/. Other countries may have similar organisations to IPSE, so there is the potential to gain similar discounts with your help.

Action (all): the benefits package has scope to grow so please contact SH by email if you have any ideas for benefits that could enhance your membership of EMWA. If you know of organisations similar to IPSE in other European countries, and if you are able to offer assistance in negotiating discounts, then please contact SH with details.

SH also described opportunities for freelancers to get involved with other activities within EMWA including membership of the expert review groups and the expert seminar series (ESS) at conferences that SH has initiated.

Action (all): please contact SH if you are interested in getting involved in these initiatives or have ideas for other activities that may benefit freelancers.

Item 6: Freelance Resource Centre (FRC) on website (AR and SH) Thank you to Jonathan Edwards who has volunteered to help with the updating of the FRC which provides a comprehensive source of information relevant to freelance medical writers. The FRC is available to EMWA members and can be accessed via the EMWA website.

Action (all): if you would like to be involved in ensuring the FRC is kept up-to-date to maximise its usefulness to freelancers, then please contact AR or KW by email.

Item 6: MEW and Out On Our Own (OOOO) (AR) We are always looking for volunteers to write articles for the OOOO section of MEW. This is a great opportunity for you to hone your writing skills and become a published author so please send your ideas for articles to AR or KW. Thank you to everyone who has already provided ideas via the ‘Ideas Slips’ distributed at the FBF.

Item 7: AOB  Question: are there plans for EMWA to collaborate with the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)? o Answer: EMWA already collaborates with AMWA - representatives of AMWA sit on the ESS and we are in discussion with AMWA regarding future collaborations.

References: 1. Reeves A, Hamilton S. Cost comparison of salaried and freelance medical writers working in Europe. Medical Writing 2014;23(3): 215-20.