Dear Ms. Witt,
We the undersigned, representing the majority of the board of
the Colorado Romance Writers chapter of RWA wish to extend a heartfelt
and humble apology to you for the unauthorized removal of your entry Lead Me Not from
the inspirational category of our 2016 Award of Excellence contest.
Having reviewed all of the email correspondences, it is clear to us that
you never gave permission to have your work shifted, nor should you
have been asked to move your novel from the category it clearly belonged
in. Our chapter’s mission is to support romance writers, no matter what
they write, and in this instance, we have failed.While no apology can ever fully undo the hurt this has caused you and other LGBTQ writers, please rest assured that CRW doesn’t in any way agree with nor condone discrimination or bigotry of any stripe, and we take this situation very seriously. As the Board of Directors, we are ultimately responsible for oversight of the contest, and it was a grave failure on our part that we did not monitor our coordinators' actions more closely. Our top priority going forward will be to make sure this situation never again happens to any writer entering our contests.
If
you would like, we are willing to post this apology publicly in the
comments on your blog post, or if you prefer, we have not objection to
you posting it yourself wherever you see fit. We will be posting a
public statement regarding this incident on our website tomorrow.
Again we wish to express our deepest regret for the harm this situation caused, and we will work hard to rebuild the trust that was lost.
Again we wish to express our deepest regret for the harm this situation caused, and we will work hard to rebuild the trust that was lost.
Sincerely,
Traci Morganfield - Vice President of Programs
Cheri Merz - Treasurer
Claudia Burgoa - Vice President of Membership
Very nice. While it doesn't erase what happened they do appear to b e owning it in a very professional manner which is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteVery nice. While it doesn't erase what happened they do appear to b e owning it in a very professional manner which is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent and professional response. I have faith that it won't happen again. Kudos for them for a prompt and honest reply!
ReplyDeleteThat's a very nice, professional, and prompt apology! I'm glad to hear they'll be working on this going forward.
ReplyDeleteIf only every organization and publisher in the genre had this level of honesty and class, huh?
ReplyDeleteVery nice to see such a swift and no-nonsense apology and not the usual run-around. I don't know if I'll be directing a lot of entry fees their way in the future but at least they're not an automatic veto now, as they would've been if the shenanigans had continued.
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