Board Minutes – 02/1996

B O A R D M I N U T E S

Chicago Headline Club
Board of Directors Meeting

February 1996

Attended: Ellen Shubart, Howard Dubin, Kathy Catrambone, Casey Bukro, Teresa Rae Knight, Ed Avis, Kristin Fox, Ed Rooney, Bob Roberts, Barbara Schleck, Stephen Rynkiewicz, Tom LaPorte, Ilyce Glink. Guest: Abim Ademosu.

1). MINUTES: APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY

2). 1996 CONVENTION. Tom LaPorte talked at length about how the Headline Club can help the 96 committee. The voice mail box already has 9 people signed up.

3). 75th ANNIVERSARY. Tom, Ed and Kathy met. They’re looking for films with journalism themes, which have panel discussions, or possibly Siskel & Ebert. Press Publications Film Editor will help. They’ve also discussed different admission plans. They’re thinking about having the anniversary celebration over two weekends. The films would be on the first weekend and the bus tour would be the second weekend, as would the induction ceremony and dinner. Archive Search: Ed asked National but they don’t know when our chapter was chartered.

4). MEMBERSHIP: Kristin reported that she sent out 75 fliers in the last 2 weeks to names pulled from the database. The call-in party for the directory is scheduled for March 4,1996, from Ed Avis’ office. 4 telephone lines, 106 South Oak Park Ave, #205, Oak Park. Howard Dubin also volunteered his office. Jerry Moore was asked to put something in the next Journalist that can be mailed back. Howard Dubin reported that he received the latest list on disk from National and will recheck it against our membership. We’ve asked Kathleen McHugh, of Women in Communications about putting our events in her newsletter, which would give us exposure to another 220 people.

5). LISAGOR: Ellen Shubart announced that we’re judging Southern Florida, Southern California and Connecticut. Sue Stevens reported by telephone that we’ve already collected $1,700. Ed Avis volunteered the HC to judge a magazine category for the SDX awards. Steve Rynkiewicz volunteered the chapter for college judging..

6). ETHICS: Casey asked Dick Locher to design a logo and he came back with four selections. Casey recommended that we choose the one that incorporates the image of the Picasso statute from Daley Plaza. The award deadline is March 21. Casey wants to propose one more mailing, to again let everyone know what the guidelines should be. Al Smedley said he would try to get the guidelines out. Casey didn’t know how many nominations had already been submitted.

7). FOI. Ed Rooney announced three programs that the Headline Club is sponsoring in conjunction with Loyola:
WHAT’S WRONG — AND RIGHT — WITH LAWYERS, JUDGES, AND JOURNALISTS, Friday, Feb 16, Loyola Law School Auditorium, Room 110. 1 East Pearson 5-6:30 p.m. Hugh Hill has been added.
ROLES, PROBLEMS OF STUDENT NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALISTS. John Duff, President of Columbia College is the keynote speaker. The program is free, but Loyola is trying to get student reservations in. First panel is How To Do Investigative Reporting. The second panel is How To Do Features And Editorial Writing. The final panel is Layout and Design. Asking for donation of $3 at the door.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM 1968 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. Twenty-two people have accepted including Jesse Jackson. Carole Simpson, ABC Anchor, will accept an honorary degree and be the keynote speaker. The Headline Club gets 50 tickets. Monday, April 15, 1996, 1 pm on Friday afternoon. Capacity at Rubloff Auditorium is 225. Call now and reserve your seat with Ed Avis 708-445-9454.

Other FOI NEWS: Steve Rynkiewicz is looking for help in fighting the increasing limited access of journalists to correctional institutions. The ramifications are not only for press’ ability to cover, but prisoners free speech rights. Steve is trying to gather information on limiting access. Contact him at 312-321-2136 if you have any information. Ed Rooney said he was going to try to see if one of the newspaper’s legal departments might be interested in fighting this. Barbara Schleck said she could attend the public hearings on the issue at the Department of Corrections. She said she’d try to contact some of the PR people. The board also felt it important to contact Jon Duncan and find out if they can do this. Bob Roberts noted that our lobbyist, Bill Miller, didn’t get the check together on time. He also doesn’t see anything happening in Springfield. So he is pushing back the start date of our contract to April 1. The good news is that we’ve had his counsel for six months without paying for it.

7). JOB FAIR: This year’s job fair took place during a cold snap in some rooms that were unheated. The kids were organized but we only had 1/3 of the numbers of employers as in past years. Part of the reason is that there aren’t enough people to spare to cover it (Bloomberg), and that we were told we’re disorganized (Chicago Sun-Times and CBS). There may be too many job fairs out there. The board discussed pushing together these smaller job fairs into one massive job fair under our umbrella. More to come.

8). GRIDIRON: Ed Avis will appoint a committee to work on next year’s gridiron, now that Ryan has left.

9) VACANT BOARD SEATS: Ed Rooney suggested Jerry Moore, our newsletter editor. Ilyce noted that Julia Wallace moved out of town to Salem Oregon. Although she didn’t contact the board, the board has accepted her unofficial resignation. Jon Ziomek, former board member, had proposed Paul Larson. (SECRETARY’S NOTE: Since the meeting, Paul Larson has tendered his resignation to Medill and is moving away. Jon Ziomek is considering another nomination.) The board will consider the nominations at the next meeting.

10). TREASURER’S REPORT: Howard Dubin gave the following report: Our assets include: Bank One checking account $ 100.11 First Bank & Trust of Evanston CD $ 27,356.06 Kemper Money Market Fund $ 15,317.05 First Chicago Gridiron Account $ ? TOTAL $ 42,773.22 + Gridiron Account. Howard suggested he be added to the Gridiron account so that he would receive duplicate statements, and hence get a complete picture of the HC’s finances. Of note since the last report: Howard has received cash from WBBM-Radio for the extra Lisagor plaques. We’ve spend an additional $150 on secretarial services for the Ethics Award, bringing the total expenses to date on this project to approximately $860. We have not received any advertising checks for ads in the Chicago Journalist in many months. Howard wants to know if someone is following up on the Illinois Insurance Information Services and the Illinois State Bar Association. Our last checks from these organizations were in August, and July, respectively. Expenses since Jan 10 $1,500.42 Income $1,488.00 DEFICIT FOR THE MONTH $ (12.42) YEAR TO DATE DEFICIT $ (557.99)

Meeting was adjourned at 6:30p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Ilyce Glink
Secretary