Actually, one of the best things about RWA -- and the way it separates itself from SFWA -- is that it doesn't separate the published from unpublished. It does have a "Published Authors Network" separate, but for the most part everyone is together, helping the unpublished learn from the published. I think that's fabulous, and important -- how can anyone learn if no one is around to teach them?

I think what RWA is trying to do is encourage the writers -- it's the same reason that unpublished writers are told to call themselves "pre-published" instead of "unpublished". Also a total indicator to me that someone doesn' t have a clue!