Board Minutes – 01/1996

2). DEPARTMENT OF ED ROONEY: WHAT’S WRONG — AND RIGHT — WITH LAWYERS, JUDGES AND JOURNALISTS. Program put on by the Headline Club, Loyola, and the Illinois State Bar Assoc. Friday, Feb 16, Loyola Law School Auditorium, 1 East Pearson Street. 5-6:30 p.m., Free. Refreshments will be served. Great Panel. Current Board Member Barbara Schleck, and former board member Chris Berry will serve on the journalists panel.

ROLES AND PROBLEMS OF STUDENT NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALISTS. Friday, March 15, 1996, Symposium from 1-4pm, at Rubloff Auditorium, 25 E. Pearson, First floor. The subject of this symposium is the challenges facing student journalists. Keynote speaker is Dr. John Duff, President of Columnbia College. Free. But we’re requesting a donation of $3 at the door. We will require reservations (by telephone) 312-915-6549.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE 1968 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. Monday, April 15, 1996. Rubloff Auditorium, 25 E. Pearson, First Floor, Loyola. 1-4:30 p.m., reception and festivities until 7pm. 50 Tickets available for Headline Club members. Admission by ticket only. 250 people expected. Keynote speaker is Carole Simpson, ABC Anchor, who will also receive an honorary degree.

3). JOB FAIR: The job fair will be held Friday and Saturday, February 2-3, 1996, at Columbia College. Paula Eubanks is the Job Fair Chair. Here’s the program: Friday evening, the job fair will kick off with a coaching session for students. This is in response from employers saying we all need to be better prepared. Various journalism associations can set up tables. Participants include the Asian American Journalists Assoc. National Gay and Lesbian, Chicago Hispanic Journalist Assoc and Chicago Black Journalst. The Community Media Workshop has been helpful in brainstorming the topics for this year’s job fair as well as the names of people who are on the panels. Community Media Workshop will host the Friday night reception. They will not donate money, but we’ve raised the fees to $75 to cover food. Columbia donates everything else. Saturday, there will be two panel discussions, one on the decision-making process and the future job market (traditional and non-traditional jobs). Paula has been sending out letters to different organizations. Top journalists will sit on the panels. Paula needs 6 to 8 volunteers.

4). LISAGOR: Sue Stevens reported that the Lisagors are running along. Members should get entry forms in newsletter. The nonmembers mailling list has been delivered. If anyone wants a form, call Sue: 312-733-1936. Deadline is Feb 9.

5). GRIDIRON: Bob Roberts said he thinks the Gridiron is the last Thursday and Friday in April. Whoever was in charge of the video last year is now running it. The first writer’s meeting on Sunday had good attendance.

6). FOI: To make things easy for filing, Bill Miller will be our registered agent in Springfield so he can fill out the paperwork. Have to send a check for $50 to Secretary of State along with registration statement. Has to be filed annually. Bill wants the check written by Jan 15th. It gets mailed to 2500 Westchester Blvd. Springfield, 62704.

7). TREASURER’S REPORT: Howard Dubin submitted the following by fax: Since the last report on December 14, 1995, we’ve spent $2,178.26 and received $200 — for a deficit during the period of $1,978.25. Because we were operating with a yearly surplus of $1,432.69 as of December 14, this brings us up to a yearly deficit of $545.57, which is normal before the national dues are received. The $200 income came from 10 more members paying dues from the 141 we deleted from our mailing list. This brings us to 14 or 10 percent of those nonpayers. I’m still waiting reimbursement from WBBM-Radio for 12 lisagor plaques. They cost $35 each. Cindy Cheski said she billed them but she didn’t return my call. We paid for and shipped the plaques on November 11th. In the future, it might be a good policy, if anyone orders additional Lisagor plaques, to get the money in advance. The price ranges from $43.60 for one to $35 for multiples. Can someone else follow up with Cindy because I’ll be out of town until Jan 30th? A major expense during the past four weeks was a bill from Shirley Friedlander for $961.62 for secretarial services. And even after several conversations with her, it was difficult to break own the various postage, photocopying, shipping and letters into programs. It came out: Lisagor: $34.50; Membership Recruitment and Letters: $224.09; Newsletter & Mailing Lists: $469.15; and the Bukro Ethics Project: $233.88. When requesting something from Shirley, please make sure she knows which project or program it is for. I’m waiting for the new lists from national (promised after the first of the year) so we can do a series of membership mailings to the current national and previous national members who don’t belong to the Headline Club.

8). ETHICS: Nothing this month.

9). DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION: Bob Roberts reported that Tom LaPorte has been heading this up, and is currently at a meeting with the Chicago 96. Our telephone number (312) 714-LIES has been programmed so that box #5 is for the Democratic Convention. The DNC and Chicago 96 have requested help in the form of Public Relations professionals who can seek out people in specific delegations. Up to 500 public relations professionals (volunteers) are needed for the convention. People who are interested should call Tom LaPorte at 312-245-6082. The Chicago 96 committee, which is nonpartisian, is providing some support. They are setting up media center at United Center. Tom is on 2 committees there, the media relations committee (which will do show and tell stuff about Chicago) and the Media support committee. He has insinuated Headline Club into this quite a bit. The materials we have available on 1968 convention will be made available as will any video or print materials. Anyone who wants to help should call Tom at (312) 245-6082.

10). GRIDIRON SCHOLARSHIPS: ED AVIS’ PROPOSAL: DISCUSSION. The Board discussed Ed’s suggestion that we change the scholarships to a donation to a program to help reading. There was a general feeling on the board that we’re in the business of journalism and that it is appropriate that we use our scholarships to promote the field. But there was a recognition that scholarships may reduce student aid. There was little, if any, support for Ed’s suggestion of funding a reading or literacy program. Most of the discussion centered on how to fix the scholarship program. After a lengthy discussion, it was decided that we should take the money and fund a summer internship at a company because that wouldn’t hurt student aid plus it would give someone a real leg up. The board decided to set up a committee that would look into finding companies that would allow us to do this. We want to offer a broadcast, newspaper, and magazine option, so that any student of journalism might have an opportunity for an internship in his or her field of interest. The following are some of the comments of Board Members:

STEVE RYNKIEWICZ: There’s a good argument for giving fewer scholarships to Medill graduates, but this is a good program. I’ve been head of the scholarship committee and lots of people outside of Medill who need help. The Judges have the leeway to consider need, and there were people who needed the money. One person who applied needed money so bad he also applied the following year. Maybe we should formally change the guidelines of who is eligible, and informally change the criteria. I was unclear as to whether the Gridiron people had an opinion on the issue. We want the people running the Gridiron to be working toward something they can support because they’re putting a lot of effort into this. There must be a way to get the scholarship program to a place where they can get behind it.

PAULA EUBANKS: In Ed’s proposal, when you give college students $2,000, it automatically reduces their aid by that $2,000. Shifting emphasis to highlight worthiness doesn’t really help them. I like idea of giving to high school students. Not a senior, but a junior who could go into one of the high school institutes, especially if we focus on Chicago or need-based. That way, we have the chance to shape who is coming into journalism rather than someone who is going through all the hoops.

ED ROONEY: Should we define needy?

PAULA: Yes, committee would have to do that and be flexible. I like the idea of high school student. I like supporting profession.

STEVE: It would have a greater impact on getting people to enter journalism rather than reading. ELLEN SHUBART: Lots of agencies support literacy. This
is our profession and we should aim to get people who are good into the profession. Just because you go to Medill doesn’t mean you don’t need money. We should stick to awarding people in profession or getting people in the profession. Les Brownlee has always said high school not college kids. But I think we should stick with college students going to j-school. Can we pay off a summer internship?

BOB ROBERTS: I wasn’t aware of problems relative to financial aid. But something that can help people get hands-on experience and help them when considering careers. I’ve always believed practice makes perfect and if you have the chance to do 2-3 internships, great. If you can get one, great. A lot of students feel they cannot afford to work an internship and they pass up experience that would help them in the long run. We should focus more on
funding an intership.

SUE STEVENS: Maybe we should increase our scholarship amount. How much do interns get paid?.

ELLEN: We pay $1,500 per month.

STEVE R: CABJ is $2,000. Sun Times has a 6-weeks for $2,000.

BARBARA SCHLECK: We could go in with other groups that provide some of these, have a judge on each and pay for an entire internship. Some of the contribution might be in wages subsidized, and make a difference together.

STEVE: Sounds like a great idea.

SUE STEVENS: Ed should set up a committee to study this.

ED ROONEY: I second the motion.

DISCUSSION: Casey: We have to focus on journalism and forcus on this specifically. The early reason for doing the scholarship was to attract people to journalism. The figures say we don’t have to do this because j-schols are flooded. The idea is to do some good in a specific way.

BOB ROBERTS: Funding an internship works for me.

BARBARA: Technology is changing. If you’re 5 years out of the workforce, you’re way out. Kids who get the jobs have the skills to be there.

BOB ROBERTS: So many news directors want to know what can you write, what can you report, what can you put on air for me today, or tomorrow.

STEVE: WMAQ internships are paid?

BOB: Yes. WBBM is unpaid and others are gas money. Interns at MAQ do work. They have a reporter in training at WBBM that is paid. Do we want to fund a specific internship at specific newspaper?

ELLEN: This requires getting together with a lot of organziations in town. We need to put together a professional group. When the time comes and if we award, these people will have to agree to take them if we pay X amount of dollars. Will this require a legal document? Something that binds us to them?

SUSAN: I Don’t think Chicago Comunications has any formal agreement with WBEZ.

ELLEN: We don’t want to look as if we’re favoring one news house over another. If you’re interested in TV, Radio, Newspapers, can give them the money and point them in the right direction.

PAULA: The Broadcast Advertising Club of Chicago uses that model exactly. They recruit someone. They have written guidelines.

MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY The GridIron will fund scholarships
as normal. But this will be the last year.

11). PROGRAMS: Don’t have formal schedule. First is Jan 31. Limiting free speech in cyberspace. Haven’t set it up totally. BOB ROBERTS: As soon as it’s finalized, call so I can put it on 714-LIES.

12). MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY: Kristin is scheduling a call-in party for February. There are 300 names in the database who aren’t members. We’ll verify the list and turn it into the directory. The board suggested asking for fax numbers and e-mail addresses. Kristin found someone who will print it for us at his book cost.

13). NEW BUSINESS: BARBARA: Places for freelancers to call for employment during the convention. 714-LIES. Call #5 mailbox.312-245-6082, usually gets in around 10 am. Monday is 7-3. Kathryn, of the University of Chicago, is working with program committee. She wanted people to know about the holiday party. She found that the current list is pretty bad. She offered to integrate her database with ours.

MOTION TO ADJOURN: 9:06am