Integrity and challenging the status quo are two of my values (because they lead to progress). It’s not always comfortable to speak up, but I prefer to put seeds of positive change instead of waiting to be knocked down by non-effective rules and unfair situations.
At one point, I joined a Safety & Health Committee and during the first meeting I heard the leader saying: “Oh, we’re going to have problems if Gabriela is in this committee.”
I wonder: since when challenging the status quo is a problem? I see it as a part of the creative problem-solving process. I’m a strategic thinker, and in time I learned that it’s better to speak up when I notice a potential negative impact – to see if we can prevent it from happening (which could lead to positive change). Not easy for an introvert like me, but I let the potential benefits motivate me enough to get out of my comfort zone.
The Rejection letter and Einstein
Recently I wrote a LinkedIn article about how I handled the rejection of my membership application for Writers’ Union of Canada (WU). I’m ok being rejected as long as I know why, so I can improve! In that article, I pointed out some aspects related to how WU communicated their decision: no specific reason was mentioned, no information on how to send an appeal (if I wanted to), why their suggestion (to reapply with another book) didn’t resonate with me, etc.
Why bother to apply again without knowing what I did wrong according to their rules: to risk another rejection? Especially since they refund only 50% of the application fee for self-published books; traditionally published authors get a full refund.
I like Einstein’s quote: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. 🙂
I was ready to stop there; sharing my perspective on what WU could do better was my way to challenge the status quo. But being the founder and president of the Immigrant Writers Association (IWA), it bothered me not to know the reasons for rejection. Because I want IWA to support its members in the best possible way. I’m not interested in applying again, but I was hoping to help other members avoid rejection if they’re interested in becoming WU members.
Well, the story didn’t end there
Somehow WU found out about my LinkedIn article and—to my surprise—they reached out saying that it would be helpful to send an appeal letter, and they told me where to send it! 🙂
Considering this an opportunity to share my suggestions formally, I sent the letter. I was also hoping to get some clarifications, maybe I learn something new.
This time the response came faster: the National Executive has decided to defer to the earlier decision of the Membership Committee (which is to deny my application). Which is totally fine, from my perspective. The next sentence was promising: If you have any additional clarifying questions, please contact…
Yeyyy! That gave me hope..for a couple of hours! 🙂 I reached out but the email received screamed like discrimination to me: The National Council revisited your original peer review assessment as a starting point, and this information is not available to self-published applicants nor appellants.
What? Ok, I can understand why WU is refunding only 50% of the fee to self-published authors (they mention that additional processing is required for such applications). But I really don’t understand why self-published applicants are not allowed to know why their application is rejected!
In thinking about your writing experience however, the message continues, the Council did welcome and encourage you to reapply for membership with another one of your books at a later date.
Thanks, but no thanks! 🙂 I prefer to direct my time and energy to my other projects instead of chasing a membership with a pan-Canadian writers’ organization which doesn’t even bother to explain my your award-winning book (best-seller in nine countries, accepted by Toronto Public Library and the main book chain stores in Canada and US) is not good enough to be considered for their membership.
I’m not some who likes to debate for too long, but I replied mentioned that their way of treating self-published authors looks like discrimination. And I’m glad I did!
It turned out that my effort to challenge the status quo was not in vain
If it is of any consolidation, our members have identified some of the gaps you’ve referenced which impact the membership application process. As a result, there will be a membership criteria review at our upcoming AGM, and any changes made to the application criteria will be listed on the website sometime after June 2019.
Yeyyy! They took my points into consideration!!!
I stopped here out dialog, half-happy with the results. I’ll probably never know why they rejected my application. And I’m not interested anymore in being part of WU either. But hopefully, their AGM will make some changes to their membership application process, to benefit those who will apply after June 2019.
Now I’m curious: Do you live by your values?
Whether you think of yourself (as an individual) or at your company, there are many benefits of making decisions based on the values you stand for.
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On another note
My brief experience with WU and the decision to not reapply will not impact in any way how the Immigrant Writers Association (IWA) will handle its potential partnerships.
As a recent survey of Canadian readers by BookNet Canada shows, there is a demand for diversity books—which is one of the reasons we put IWA on the Canadian literary landscape!
- If you’d like to read IWA’s upcoming co-authored book (written by some its members), please sign up to get notified via IWA’s newsletter. We have some inspiring and diverse stories to share with you!
- If you’re an immigrant like me—who believes that self-expression is essential because the world needs our talents, skills, and expertise—I invite you to join IWA! Your stories and opinions count too, let your voice be heard!
~ Gabriela Casineanu, MSc, MBA, ORSC
GabrielaCasineanu.com
ThoughtsDesigner.com
Amazon.com/author/gabrielacasineanu
