President
The President oversees the running of EMWA, including:
- EC Management: contributing to and driving agenda content for EC meetings (in-person, virtual and ad hoc); understanding and facilitating each EC officer’s responsibilities and workload; helping to find candidates for EC positions.
- Head Office (HO) co-ordination: conducting the annual review of HO services; co-ordinating any changes to the service provider; maintaining regular contact with HO.
- Finance and constitution: maintaining awareness of EMWA’s financial situation; defining and driving forward EMWA’s business and communication strategy.
- Conference: chairing relevant conference sessions; participating in the conference opening (and other relevant) speeches; assisting (as needed) with conference organisation; preparing text for the conference invitation and brochure.
- Journal and website: writing the President’s Message for each issue of the EMWA journal and providing website content as needed.
- Other activities: developing and maintaining partnerships with related professional organisations; promoting the medical writing profession through presentations, discussions and press releases; along with all EC members, taking responsibility for maintaining all governance documents and ensuring copies are stored in the document repository.
Contact email: president@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Martin Delahunty
President-Elect
The President-Elect assists the President (and Past President) and, in their absence takes on the role of the President. The President-Elect’s role includes:
- Supporting the President: providing support to the President and taking the lead on these roles in the President (or Past President’s) absence.
- Supporting EMWA groups: being the EC point of contact for some of EMWA’s groups and initiatives, providing support to them, and representing them (as necessary) at EC meetings.
Contact email: president-elect@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Katrin Zaragoza-Doerr
Conference Director
The Conference Director is responsible for overseeing conference organisation, including:
- Pre-conference: liaising with HO for conference and venue planning; overseeing preparation of conference-related materials (brochures, flyers, delegate pack, etc.) and having final approval; forming and leading a conference steering committee (as needed); collaborating with HO and the Education Officer to establish the programme of events; leading discussions on conference registrations, preparing conference-related surveys.
- During conference: attending conferences, checking conference facilities; overseeing conference activities, being a key point of contact during the conference.
- Post-conference: debriefing with HO and the EC, presenting survey results to the EC; suggesting any changes to future conferences (venues, programme, etc.); liaising with HO to identify future conference locations.
Contact email: conferencedirector@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Jules Kovacevic (interim)
Education Officer
The Education Officer is Chair of the EPDC and manages the EMWA Professional Development Programme (EPDP). Responsibilities of the Education Officer include:
- EPDP: leading the EPDC in managing the strategy, content, quality assurance and organisation of EMWA’s workshop and webinar programmes; planning workshop programmes to be run at EMWA conferences; ensuring topics are relevant to members’ needs and keep abreast with new developments in medical writing; supporting workshop leaders and webinar presenters; setting standards and monitoring quality; developing EPDC documentation for workshop leaders, webinar presenters, and EMWA members; devising a strategy to keep the EPDP relevant for EMWA members.
- Interactions with HO: developing the schedule for EMWA conference workshop programmes; running the webinar programme; ensuring EPDP content is provided for the conference website; providing timely information for presenters (including workshop leaders) and webinar participants; maintaining the database of workshop information.
- Other activities: advising on the potential impact on the EPDP of any projects being discussed by the EC; liaising with the Conference Director on the conference workshop programme and the EPDP pages of the conference website; selecting new members of the EPDC and proposing successful applicants to the EC for appointment; ensuring there is an effective webinar team to support the EPDC.
Contact email: education@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Andrea Palluch
Honorary Secretary
The Honorary Secretary is also the registered Company Secretary for EMWA. Responsibilities of the Honorary Secretary include:
- EMWA-related documents: regularly reviewing the Articles of Association, Rules of the Association, policies and procedures, and all other official EMWA documents to ensure they reflect the current practices; co-ordinating updates to these documents for EC approval.
- Monitoring HO: conducting an annual review of HO services and co-ordinating any change to the HO service provider; reviewing a monthly report on EMWA-related and membership-related activities.
- Contracts: reviewing all contracts between EMWA and service providers; maintaining the database of EMWA’s regular suppliers; ensuring revised contracts are approved by the EC as appropriate.
- Meetings: ensuring the call for EC role nominations is sent out, correspondence required for official meetings according to the legally-required time requirements before the respective meeting (eg, a General Meeting of members); chairing General Meetings.
- Other activities: ensuring each new EC member receives an official administration pack once elected on to the EC and completes accordingly (including directorship forms); being a member of the Finance Committee.
Contact email: honsec@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Sarah Choudhury
Journal Editor
The Journal Editor is responsible for all aspects of the EMWA journal, including:
- Journal content: deciding on and securing content; ensuring quality of content, decisions relating to journal design and development, and production and distribution; co-ordinating an editorial team; liaising with journal contributors and vendors.
- Journal production: ensuring delivery of content from authors; assigning, overseeing and peer reviewing content; making decisions on acceptance/rejection of manuscripts; writing an editorial as needed; obtaining copyright permissions when applicable; soliciting volunteers for write-ups; working with the editorial board to ensure proofs are provided and checked; approving final proofs; arranging editorial board meetings.
- Other activities: liaising with the Website Manager/PR Officer and providing text to promote each issue; liaising with HO for an email notification to be sent when new issues are imminent or available.
Contact email: editor@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Raquel Billiones
Membership Officer
The Membership Officer is responsible for fostering a good relationship with EMWA members and volunteers, and promoting a more interactive experience for members, including:
- Membership database and metrics: managing the database in conjunction with HO to ensure accurate and current records are held; overseeing membership metrics and reporting; analysing membership data and trends; preparing reports on membership growth, retention rates, and engagement levels.
- Membership communication: responding to membership inquiries; considering and handling applications from new volunteers; managing applications for new EMWA groups (e.g., SIGs, working groups).
- Membership growth: working with the PR Officer and Website Manager (and other EC members) to develop and implement membership recruitment strategies.
- Other activities: serving as the Data Privacy Manager for EMWA; leading the Salary and Compensation Survey Team.
Contact email: membershipofficer@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Sarah Hopwood
Public Relations Officer
The tasks and responsibilities of the Public Relations (PR) Officer include the following:
- PR activities: planning the PR and communication strategies in association with other EC members; promoting and raising awareness of medical writing as a profession; supporting the growth of EMWA and its membership; providing the Website Manager with fresh news and updates for website content; encouraging knowledge sharing through communities of shared interests; liaising with and supporting the Conference Director and HO with promoting EMWA conferences; checking all promotional literature relating to EMWA and informing other EC members.
- Other activities: co-ordinating and liaising with the Webinars Team to design, conduct and promote an appropriate yearly program of events.
Contact email: pr@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Johanna Chester
Treasurer
The tasks and responsibilities of the Treasurer include:
- Payments: reviewing and approving invoices, expense claims etc.; ensuring payments are booked to the correct accounting code; approving or initiating payments via EMWA’s online banking systems.
- General finance: liaising regularly with EMWA’s finance team at HO regarding all aspects of EMWA’s finances (HO is responsible for bookkeeping, preparing monthly accounts, preparing conference budgets, and liaising with EMWA’s auditors); interacting with the EC regarding financial matters; leading the Finance Subcommittee which reviews monthly accounts, annual Financial Statements, and EMWA’s annual and conference budgets); drafting EMWA’s annual budget; maintaining oversight of EMWA financial service providers (e.g., bank accounts, and online payment gateways); pursuing debts to EMWA once HO has exhausted usual debt collection channels; signing supplier contracts (ongoing, conference venues, etc.).
- Other activities: preparing the Treasurer’s Report including the previous year’s financial statements and proposed budget for presentation at the AM; signing the annual financial accounts.
Contact email: treasurer@emwa.org
Role currently held by: Julia Cooper and Wendy Kingdom
Website Manager
The Website Manager has overall responsibility of the content on the EWMA Website and responsibilities include:
- Website-related: co-ordinating activities with content and infrastructure partners; reviewing content provided for the EMWA website; verifying requests for content updates to the website; implementing website content updates where feasible.
- Associated data: working with the Membership Officer, Education Officer, and HO to ensure databases are current and complete; overseeing other EMWA-related websites (e.g., CORE Reference and the journal) to ensure integration within the EMWA infrastructure.
- Other activities: delivering relevant statistics related to website usage, website costs, and website development; liaising with HO regarding content, website infrastructure (including licences) and website security.
Contact email: webmanager@emwa.org
For details regarding eligibility, election, duration of office, meetings, etc., see Executive Committee (EC) Roles and Responsibilities or contact Head Office for the latest version.
Please note, full job descriptions will be posted when roles become available.