EMWA FBF Agenda

Freelance Business Forum Meeting Minutes

EMWA Conference,Manchester, 10 May 2013

Introduction

Presenters: Sam Hamilton (SH)andKath White (KW); Minutes:Debbie Reynolds (DR).
EMWA incoming President Andrea Rossi (AR) and VP Julia Donnelly (JD) attended the meeting.
MEW Editor in Chief, Phil Leventhal (PL) and Associate Editor, Steve Gilliver (CG)also attended the meeting.

Item 1: New members - SH

There were 53 attendees. Of these, 23% were new to freelancing and 38% were first time attendees at the freelance business forum.

Item 2a: Website

Diarmuid De Faoite (DDF), EMWA Web Manager,discussed the continuing development of the EMWA website

DDF referred to the web-manager report.
He commented that it was necessary to make the website content more dynamic for users.
He also explained that the team was close to solving the login problems experienced by some members to the main website and the members’ area (currently it requires two sets of login details).
Access to the website increases around the time of EMWA conferences.
DDF asked for suggestions for how freelancers can make better use of the website and received the following responses:
SH suggested that EMWA needs to encourage further involvement from freelance EMWA members to contribute to the Freelance Resource Centre.
Further suggestions for how the website may be improved to become more user friendly can be sent directly to DDF at .

Item 2b: Freelancer ads on EMWA website

SH asked the floor for their views on posting freelancer adverts on the website and how much new business has been generated as a result of being listed on the website:
Several attendees commented that they did not represent good value with regards to generating work
Claudia Frumento (CF) commented that approximately 2 to 3 years ago, she gained more work as a result of being listed on the website compared with now. Alistair Reeves (AR) agreed with this.
Gillian Pritchard (GP) commented that she still receives enquiries from potential clients as a consequence of being listed on the website, and potential work is more likely to be for writing manuscripts.
SH commented that she had noticed a pattern in the number of “blanket” emails that had been sent out to freelancers. These are generic untargeted resourcing emails for med comms and translation work, and less so for regulatory work.
DDF suggested that it might be necessary to modify the search engine search terms in the freelancer listing section and volunteers were requested to help with this. Please contact DDF at
Jo Whelan (JW) commented that potential customers are using Google to search for freelance writers, and an increasing number of potential clients usesocial networking sites such as Linked In.
DDF stated there are approximately 2000 members of the EMWA Linked In group, however only around 1000 of these are fully paid-up members of EMWA.
AR added that approximately 60% of those on the freelancer list are based in UK.

Item 3: Freelance Business Survey –Anne McDonough

Anne McDonough (AD) presented the FBS 2012 results.

The survey was conducted last year and compared results with those from 2003, 2007, and 2010.
Methods:
10 question survey
Open to anybody who classed themselves as a freelance medical writer
Results were analysed using Excel
Results
123 respondents (84% of these based in Europe).
67% full time freelancers.
47% worked ≤30 hours per week.
47% worked 31 to 50 hours per week.
6% worked >50 hours per week.
Sources of work:
Repeat customers and referrals from long-standing customers represented most of the work.
Types of work provider:
Pharmaceutical companies.
Communications agencies.
Types of activity:
Writing.
Editing.
Types of document:
Articles for journals and the scientific press (36%) are the most common.
Regulatory documentation (34%).
Hourly rates:
Writing: mean €77 (median [range] €75 [€20 to 135]).
Editing: mean €69 (median [range] €75 [€10 to 135]).
The rates tend to be approximately the same or slightly lower than those reported in the 2003 survey.
Discussion from the floor:
SH was concerned that some of the rates were very low and commented that we, as freelancers, need to be mindful when setting our rates as we are a niche profession and setting our rates too low is bad for others working as freelancers.
PL concurred, and stated that during his time as a freelancer, he would refuse work offered at too low a rate. He suggested that no freelancer should accept work at a low rate as this will lower the expectation for others in the industry.
Bilal Bham (BB) described how an Austrian CRO asked him to quote for some work and told him that his rate was too high and he should be considering a rate of €25 to 30/hour.
JW commented that there may be issues attached to publicising the data with regard to the range of rates and that some members of the freelance community may not want this information in the public domain (ie if someone is charging a very low rate such as €10/hour, this would not be good).It might be a better idea to publish the mean and median. ARconcurred and commented that this may send out a misleading message to potential clients. However, he also added that for these results, we might need to consider which countries these data were recorded in (i.e. a low rate might be good for a poor country).
It was suggested that EMWA might assist with suggesting rates, but SH reminded everyone that this survey is for information purposes only.
There were concerns that the mean and median rates have decreased since 2003 and 2010.
JW reminded us that there is an exchange rate component to this and most UK freelancers invoice in pounds sterling, which will affect the rate in euros.
Fees for different types of client:
Most respondents charged more or the same for pharmaceutical companies compared with their other clients.
Training charges
Offered by approximately a quarter of respondents.
The mean rates had decreased compared with 2003.
For a full day of training, the mean rate was €932 (median [range] €900 [€400 to 2040]).
Summary of the survey results
Compared with the results from 2003, the hourly rate charged by freelancers was the same or slightly lower.
The very low rates charged by some respondents are a concern for us all within the industry.
It should be noted that the same pool of writers may not have responded to the survey and there may have been a greater proportion of less experienced writers who are charging less.

The full report on the 2012 Freelance Business Survey is available in MEW issue 21(4).

Item 4: John Brazier (JB), PCG (UK Freelancers Association)

PCG is a UK-based association of freelancers across a wide variety of industries and business sectors. With over 21000 members, PCG represents the largest association of freelance professionals in the EU. PCG Managing Director John Brazier provided a brief overview of PCG and its European counterparts, and a description of the work these organisations do to campaign on behalf of, and support freelancers. A full presentation is available on Linked In.

Item 5: Out On Our Own –SH (supported by PL and SG)

PL discussed how the editorial team has worked on the appearance and format of the journal.He encouraged everybody to get involved with writing articles including short articles, jokes, or anything else that would be of interest to the readers.
This is a good way to get involved with EMWA and the journal.
Amy Tjerdman (AT) asked why Out On Our Own (OOOO) articles not in the main journal’s table of contents (TOC). PL explained that this was due to the publishing process; sub-articles are not independent articles, so would not be treated as such in the TOC. However, he would like to see this change. Post meeting note: this has been resolved from issue 22 (3) of MEW and OOOO articles are individually listed from this issue onwards
Another attendee suggested that OOOO could have its own TOC, which could be navigated via bookmarks in a PDF. PL responded by saying that this is not possible at the current time as there is limited space in the journal.

Contributors to be aware of assignment of copyright:

FAQs on copyright assignment are posted on EMWA website

IFAs are on Maney's website at Please use it for preparing articles.

Volunteers for writingOOOO articlesshould contact Sam () or Kath () directly. Note: articles for OOOO should be received in a publication-ready state, meeting language and content standards, and must avoid self-promotion/promotion of freelance services.

Item 6: Freelance Resource Centre- KW

A brief presentation about theFreelance Resource Centre was given. The contents of the Regulatory Medical Writing section of the FRC is conducted annually. Thank you to Debbie Jordan for completingthe 2013 review.

Any suggestions for content for the FRC should be sent directly to () or Kath ().

Item 7: LinkedIn - SH

A brief presentation about the EMWA LinkedIn group was given.The Linked In forum provides a platform for discussion topics, both for EMWA as a whole, and for the freelance contingent. Everyone was reminded to use this platform to post questions.Freelance-related issues and topics are also posted here.

Item 8: Member questions/points

DR:I've been contracting for 2 years now, so taking the first step into freelancing. I am a bit wet behind the ears with it all! My question really is what is the best way to acquire new clients aside from networking at events such the EMWA conferences? The response was to attend as many networking events as you can, particularly NetworkPharma ( which is run by Peter Llewellyn.

A suggestion was to allow freelancers to stand beside the freelancer table at EMWA conferences, at agreed times, to network with other freelancers.
Wendy Kingdom (WK) thought this was good idea, but it would need to be fair and not just used as marketing opportunity. Perhaps 30-minute time slots could be allocated with two freelancers standing at the table per time slot?

Item 9: Any Other Business

JB informed everyone about the“national freelancers’ day” which is organised as an annual event in the UK by PCG and which is usually held in London around mid to late November.