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Andreas Schroeders ends 34 years with PLR
Andreas Schroeder became involved in Canadian cultural politics as far back as 1966, helping to found the League of Canadian Poets, serving repeated terms as its BC Representative, and editing its newsletter "Poetry Canada";. Then, in 1972, he became a founding member of The Writers' Union of Canada, and in 1973 was elected to its first National Council, on which he served for 5 additional years. In 1975 he was elected Vice-Chair of the Writers' Union, and in 1976 he was elected Chair, becoming the first non-Toronto writer to hold the post.
Returning to BC the following year, he became a founding member once again, this time of the Federation of BC Writers in Vancouver. He also served repeatedly on the BC advisory committee of the National Book Festival, and later, on the board of the Woodcock Foundation, which provides funds for Canadian writers in financial difficulties due to illness or accident.
But it was in 1973, shortly after the founding of the Writers' Union, that Schroeder began what would become the keystone of his contribution to the welfare of writers across Canada. One of the core objectives of the Union had always been the establishment of a Public Lending Right - a program of modest payments to authors to reimburse them for the free use of their books in Canada's public and university libraries.
This idea, first implemented in Denmark in 1946, had also been a long-time objective of Canada's earliest writers' guild, the Canadian Authors' Association, but their attempts over the previous 25 years had repeatedly failed. Now the Writers' Union was determined to pick up the gauntlet, and as one of the Union's first initiatives, a Public Lending Right crusade was launched under the leadership of novelist Marian Engel. Andreas Schroeder joined that crusade enthusiastically, and when Marian Engel was forced to give up this work the following year due to illness, Schroeder was appointed to take her place.
He took on the challenge with his trademark optimism and energy, little realizing that he would be spending a large part of the next 34 years to achieve, operate, and finally to safeguard and promote this program. The first 6 years were spent criss-crossing the country, pitching the idea with increasing urgency to writers, publishers, librarians and politicians. It seemed an endless case of two steps forward, one step back. The country's writers liked the idea well enough, but many publishers were only prepared to support the plan if they received a significant share of it, and Canada's librarians were staunchly opposed. As for Ottawa's federal politicians, they wanted nothing to do with the proposal until all dissenting groups had been brought on side. It wasn't until 1979, six hard-slogging years later, that Schroeder was finally able to convince the Canadian Library Association to withdraw its objections to the plan, and to get Canadian publishers to agree to at least provisionally zero-rate their claim to it.
But that was just the beginning. It took a further 7 years of relentless lobbying before the Liberal government of 1986, with Communications Minister The Hon. Marcel Masse as sponsor, agreed to earmark the sum of $3 million for a Public Lending Right Program. The good news, however, came with a proviso: the program had to be up and running by December 31 of that year, or the money would evaporate. This gave Schroeder and his newly minted Public Lending Right Commission exactly 4 months to find a suite of offices, furnish it, hire and train staff, acquire computers and custom-designed software to run the program, launch a registration drive to enlist all eligible Canadian authors, build a data-base of 17,000 eligible titles, search the holdings of ten of the largest libraries in Canada, convert this data into payments, and mail out the cheques to some 5,000 Canadian authors. Somehow, this was all accomplished on time.
Since then, first under Schroeder's direct guidance as founding Chair and then influenced by his many years of service on the Commission's Executive, the program has grown to serve over 15,000 Canadian authors, with a budget of just under $10 million. It has also operated with astonishing efficiency - at an administrative cost that has, throughout its 21-year history, rarely exceeded 4% of its budget. Two formal government reviews have confirmed that the program enjoys a remarkable level of client satisfaction throughout Canada's writing community, and in 1996 the Writers' Union recognized Schroeder's contribution with a special award and a life membership.
Schroeder did not, of course, accomplish all this by himself. Throughout this time he had help from a wide array of writers and other members of the book industry. But most volunteered their time for a year or two; a few were able to offer 5 or 6. No one else came even close to providing the PLR crusade with 34 uninterrupted years of volunteer work. Andreas Schroeder has served Canada's writing community in many more ways - his curriculum vitae describes his wide-ranging activities as writers' mentor, organizer and host of festivals, reading programs, literary competitions, publishing initiatives and emergency help for indigent writers - but it was his determination to do something meaningful about the generally meagre level of writers' incomes in Canada that undoubtedly had the greatest impact of all his volunteer work.
Now Schroeder has decided that this coming May (2008), at the end of his current term on the Public Lending Right Commission, he will not stand for re-appointment to a further term. The program is running well, and is in good hands. Schroeder has said that he hopes to focus more determinedly on some of the books he still wants to write (despite all the foregoing, he managed to publish 17 books during those 34 years). "Back in the early days of the Union, it became a tradition that each Chair would take on a Union campaign or enterprise that would clearly extend past his or her mandate as chair,"; Schroeder said. "And this was mine. It went on so long it became one of the main through-lines of my life's narrative, and ending it feels a lot like finishing a book. Both a relief and a sadness - and I'm not quite sure in what order.";
Returning to BC the following year, he became a founding member once again, this time of the Federation of BC Writers in Vancouver. He also served repeatedly on the BC advisory committee of the National Book Festival, and later, on the board of the Woodcock Foundation, which provides funds for Canadian writers in financial difficulties due to illness or accident.
But it was in 1973, shortly after the founding of the Writers' Union, that Schroeder began what would become the keystone of his contribution to the welfare of writers across Canada. One of the core objectives of the Union had always been the establishment of a Public Lending Right - a program of modest payments to authors to reimburse them for the free use of their books in Canada's public and university libraries.
This idea, first implemented in Denmark in 1946, had also been a long-time objective of Canada's earliest writers' guild, the Canadian Authors' Association, but their attempts over the previous 25 years had repeatedly failed. Now the Writers' Union was determined to pick up the gauntlet, and as one of the Union's first initiatives, a Public Lending Right crusade was launched under the leadership of novelist Marian Engel. Andreas Schroeder joined that crusade enthusiastically, and when Marian Engel was forced to give up this work the following year due to illness, Schroeder was appointed to take her place.
He took on the challenge with his trademark optimism and energy, little realizing that he would be spending a large part of the next 34 years to achieve, operate, and finally to safeguard and promote this program. The first 6 years were spent criss-crossing the country, pitching the idea with increasing urgency to writers, publishers, librarians and politicians. It seemed an endless case of two steps forward, one step back. The country's writers liked the idea well enough, but many publishers were only prepared to support the plan if they received a significant share of it, and Canada's librarians were staunchly opposed. As for Ottawa's federal politicians, they wanted nothing to do with the proposal until all dissenting groups had been brought on side. It wasn't until 1979, six hard-slogging years later, that Schroeder was finally able to convince the Canadian Library Association to withdraw its objections to the plan, and to get Canadian publishers to agree to at least provisionally zero-rate their claim to it.
But that was just the beginning. It took a further 7 years of relentless lobbying before the Liberal government of 1986, with Communications Minister The Hon. Marcel Masse as sponsor, agreed to earmark the sum of $3 million for a Public Lending Right Program. The good news, however, came with a proviso: the program had to be up and running by December 31 of that year, or the money would evaporate. This gave Schroeder and his newly minted Public Lending Right Commission exactly 4 months to find a suite of offices, furnish it, hire and train staff, acquire computers and custom-designed software to run the program, launch a registration drive to enlist all eligible Canadian authors, build a data-base of 17,000 eligible titles, search the holdings of ten of the largest libraries in Canada, convert this data into payments, and mail out the cheques to some 5,000 Canadian authors. Somehow, this was all accomplished on time.
Since then, first under Schroeder's direct guidance as founding Chair and then influenced by his many years of service on the Commission's Executive, the program has grown to serve over 15,000 Canadian authors, with a budget of just under $10 million. It has also operated with astonishing efficiency - at an administrative cost that has, throughout its 21-year history, rarely exceeded 4% of its budget. Two formal government reviews have confirmed that the program enjoys a remarkable level of client satisfaction throughout Canada's writing community, and in 1996 the Writers' Union recognized Schroeder's contribution with a special award and a life membership.
Schroeder did not, of course, accomplish all this by himself. Throughout this time he had help from a wide array of writers and other members of the book industry. But most volunteered their time for a year or two; a few were able to offer 5 or 6. No one else came even close to providing the PLR crusade with 34 uninterrupted years of volunteer work. Andreas Schroeder has served Canada's writing community in many more ways - his curriculum vitae describes his wide-ranging activities as writers' mentor, organizer and host of festivals, reading programs, literary competitions, publishing initiatives and emergency help for indigent writers - but it was his determination to do something meaningful about the generally meagre level of writers' incomes in Canada that undoubtedly had the greatest impact of all his volunteer work.
Now Schroeder has decided that this coming May (2008), at the end of his current term on the Public Lending Right Commission, he will not stand for re-appointment to a further term. The program is running well, and is in good hands. Schroeder has said that he hopes to focus more determinedly on some of the books he still wants to write (despite all the foregoing, he managed to publish 17 books during those 34 years). "Back in the early days of the Union, it became a tradition that each Chair would take on a Union campaign or enterprise that would clearly extend past his or her mandate as chair,"; Schroeder said. "And this was mine. It went on so long it became one of the main through-lines of my life's narrative, and ending it feels a lot like finishing a book. Both a relief and a sadness - and I'm not quite sure in what order.";
Submitted on March 16, 2008 in By David.
