Society of Authors’ members have elected Helen Epega, Charles Harris, Juliet McKenna and Simon Michael to join the union’s Management Committee. The Management Committee is the SoA’s board of directors, voted for by the union’s members, and responsible for the strategic direction of the organisation.
It will be the second term for both Charles Harris and Juliet McKenna who have been re-elected by the membership.
The Management Committee for 2024/2025 will be Helen Epega, Harriet Evans, Helen Fields, Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin (chair), Charles Harris, Abie Longstaff, Nadine Matheson, Juliet McKenna, Simon Michael, Nicholas Rankin and Julia Williams.
The new members will join the board after the 2024 AGM on 21 November, when Hugh Roberts will complete his current three-year term. Nikesh Shukla stood down from the board earlier this year.
SoA Members were invited to stand for election in May and we received nine nominations for four vacancies. The election – managed by Civica Election Services – recorded ballots returned by 1, 688 members.
Welcoming the results, Chair of the Management Committee, Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, said:
I was delighted to see such a strong number and range of members standing for the board. Elected by you, for you, a board with a varied background is crucial to representative decision making and with authors’ livelihoods more precarious than ever, it’s never been more important to come together to fight for a better deal for writers and other creators.
Juliet and Charles’ reappointment brings continuity and experience as well as key genre speciality, and I’m delighted to welcome Helen and Simon whose fresh thoughts and insight will be invaluable in board discussion.
Standing for the board of the SoA is no light decision and election requires a considerable commitment of time and energy. I’d like to thank everyone who chose to stand for taking that step, and the existing board for their continued work across the huge range of issues that the SoA is involved in, from AI to ensuring fairer terms in contracts, to prizes and grants and providing information that empower writers through our events programme. As the union for writers, translators and illustrators, the work the SoA does is crucial and member led, thank you to everyone who voted.
Many thanks to Hugh Roberts for his strategic input to the direction of the organisation over the past three years.
