“Where members have a grievance over issues such as plagiarism, with a publisher over a contractual issue, or a similar matter; and that grievance has not been resolved after the member has made reasonable endeavors, the member may approach the HWA Grievance Committee. The Committee will consider the facts and endeavor to assist the Member in getting a satisfactory resolution.” - HWA Member Handbook
Function
HWA Grievance Committee is established to provide an avenue within the organization where members may freely and openly inform the association of events that may negatively affect the organization or its members. The Chairman of the Grievance Committee must appoint volunteers to act as committee members. The committee must have a minimum of 5 volunteers including the chairman, but never exceed 9 members, including chairman.
The committee DOES NOT:
- Make decisions regarding the morality of members.
- Take sides on any issue.
- Play favorites.
The HWA offers this service as a benefit to its members and acts solely as an investigator/mediator. The HWA does not provide legal advice to anyone. If a party to a dispute informs the HWA that such party is represented by legal counsel, the HWA will immediately cease its investigation or mediation unless all parties and their counsel agree otherwise. The HWA is not obligated to conduct an investigation or mediation with regard to any matter that, in its sole discretion, the HWA deems to be outside the scope of the Grievance Committee or deems might place any of the HWA or its officers, trustees, or members of the Grievance Committee in jeopardy or expose any of them to liability.
Purpose
The purpose of the Grievance Committee is to help members resolve various complaints AFTER the member has utilized their own methods of resolution.
The chairman will notify HWA leadership and Board of Directors of any negative trends found in grievances.
Steps of grievance committee upon receiving complaint:
- Ensure that complainant is a dues-paying member of the HWA.
- Ensure that complaint specifies type of grievance.
- Contact complainant within 72 hours.
- Contact defendant within 48 hours after receiving a completed grievance form from the complainant.
- Check complaint against the current bylaws of the association.
Grievance Submission:
Complete the form below to submit a grievance to the HWA.
In a major advance for our website and the positioning of our members’ work we have just launched a Young Adult Horror section on our website, at http://www.horror.org/yahorror/
It’s a bit sparse at the moment but we will begin to populate it shortly. To launch, we are fortunate to have the input of acclaimed comic strip writer and HWA member, Ray Billingsley as we look to use YA horror to improve uptake of reading, and of literacy generally.
All YA material that appears on our ‘Dark Whispers’ blog will be duplicated on this YA section, so that librarians, parents, teachers and young adult readers can find our YA material in one easy place.
We will shortly be adding last year’s Bram Stoker Award® nominees for Young Adult Novel and the winners of the Award for this category in previous years. There will be a selective addition of ‘iconic’ and notable YA works from past years at some point also.
You can assist us to populate the YA section by doing the following:
- If you have a blog to write about YA and YA horror you can submit by following the guidelines at the bottom of this announcement
- If you have a New Release YA book don’t forget to use the New Release form: http://www.horror.org/private/new-release-form.htm
Remember the audience here is not fellow HWA members – it is librarians, parents, teachers and most of all Young Adult readers.
Submission Guidelines
Size limit: 1000 words for article, 200 words for bio
If you’d like to submit an article to the HWA blog, follow these simple guidelines. We reserve the right to reject any submission for any reason.
Only members (of any level) may submit directly.
Non-members must send a query first. Email queries to yaeditor@horror.org.
We accept two types of submissions: non-fiction articles and recommendations. Articles can be about anything related to the horror genre, the horror industry, horror writing, or the HWA.
Keep your audience in mind. If in doubt about whether your topic is appropriate or not, you can query at yaeditor@horror.org.
Word limit: 1000 words; 200 words for bio (total of 1200 words max).
OTHER GUIDELINES:
1. No profanity.
2. No slander.
3. Spellcheck and copyedit for punctuation and grammar. We will reject a sloppy article.
4. No line indents. No tabs. Put a blank line between paragraphs.
5. Indicate links by putting the URL in parentheses after the text you want linked.
6. If you have images, please note that in your cover letter and we'll contact you about them. Images should be no smaller than 500px wide. JPG format only. We will crop it. Images must NOT be copyrighted by anyone other than you.
7. HTML: If you know HTML and can appropriately format the article, please do, and submit it as a .txt file.
8. You receive no payment for your article or recommendation. It will stay live on the site until you ask us to take it down, until we decide to remove it, or until the site becomes defunct.
By submitting, you agree that the material submitted is your own work and that you have the right to let us publish it on the HWA website and blog. Send submissions to webmaster@horror.org.