B O A R D M I N U T E S
Chicago Headline Club
Board of Directors Meeting
June 16, 1999
The meeting was called to order at 5:35
Attended: Christine Tatum, Diane Monk, Stephen Rynkiewicz Maria R. Traska Edward J. Cooper, Michael Cordts (Sun-Times), Molly McDonough, Marsha Barancik, Tom LaPorte, Teresa Rae Knight (Screen Magazine), Patricia Kosar, RobHess, Bob Roberts
Guest: Adolfo Mendez (Tribune Media Services)
Corrections: Diane Monk was kind enough to inform me that the complaint from Les Brownlee’s wife focused on the fact that Bob Roberts announced this would be the last year of the Curtis D. MacDougall Scholarships and that they were being replaced by internships to be named after Mary McAndrew and Cathy McClelland. Curtis MacDougall was a professor, not a journalist.
President’s Report: Ilyce expressed her desire to get the Internship Committee moving.
President-Elect’s report: Rob Hess began by thanking the Board for having him as a member of the organization and asked for input from all on the Board. Rob commented on the thoughtful notes on the preview of the agenda he e-mailed to us. He also encouraged us to talk among ourselves. Rob admitted he is way too busy to do this, like all of us. He recognizes we all have other priorities. He distributed notes on his priorities, which he asked us all to read. We will have discussion on the future of the Journalist and the web site. Ilyce is still with us and will attend every month she can. He also paid tribute to Ilyce’s leadership.
Secretary’s Report: Ed Cooper also asked for corrections and other input on the minutes. Steve Rynkiewicz asked whether anyone had asked me about who files the Secretary of State’s annual report. I spoke to Howard Dubin the following day and was informed Ilyce’s husband, who is an attorney, has been doing that.
Treasurer’s Report: None Howard Dubin was not present.
1st Amendment Conference: Teresa Rae Knight is organizing a First Amendment Conference for high school educators. She distributed an agenda and description of what the focus of the conference will be and who will participate. The conference will be held August 20 at the UIC. It will open with a Friday evening session, followed by a reception. Session 1 will be Friday, and then there will be sessions all day Saturday. The sessions are tentative, and there is still time to make any changes needed.
The Chicago Headline Club First Amendment Rights Workshop for Educators, Administrators And Friends of the First Amendment
The University of Illinois Circle Campus 20-21 August 1999
“The Chicago Headline Club is a group of men and women in the communications business. We are reporters, editors, photographers, news executives, educators and students. Our purpose is to provide an effective means for journalists in the Chicagoland area to participate in programs designed to improve the standards of our profession, to recognize excellence, to encourage young journalists, to advance the cause of freedom of information and to enhance the prestige of how others perceive the profession.”
Three Club objectives for the 1999-2000 program year are: “…to strengthen [our] reputation as an organization that speaks with authority on matters relating to journalistic ethics, journalism education, freedom of information and the First Amendment, …to work with other organizations when our interests [the public’s interests] coincide with theirs and …to improve the outreach to Chicago-area schools and to strengthen our ties with area colleges and universities”
The time is now! These workshops will offer Chicagoland educators a unique opportunity to enhance their understanding of First Amendment rights, as well as to improve their ability to impart such complex information to their young charges. Teachers must try to see the world as their students do; a fresh approach is needed. Students want to speak up and speak out about the many new feelings that literally assault them on a daily basis. We Headliners believe that students will sit to learn, if they feel we’re preparing them to stand and deliver- to rise and to serve!
The seven (7) 60 or 90-minute sessions will rotate over the course of the two-day Workshop (6:00 to 8:30 P.M. Opening SessionReception and 8:30 A.M to 5:00 P.M. Saturday). Our target audience includes middle school English and history teachers, high school English, Journalism 1, American History 1 andor Contemporary American Issues I/II teachers, as well as newspaper and/or yearbook sponsors. If your staff is: revisiting school safety/security issues, such as searches of students’ belongings, their lockers and/or their persons.
seeking innovative student-centered, student-tested curriculum materials on valuing and each of the First Amendment issues,
interested in participating in meaningful dialogue with members of the working press and tailoring curriculum materials to fit your students’ individualized needs, then The Chicago Headline Club’s First Amendment Rights Workshop is for YOU! Surprise Luncheon keynoter, middle school or h.s. mat., door prizes and photo ops with local press/panelists. ALL for just $45 CONTACT akarai@aol.com for details.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND SUB-COMMITTEES Teresa Rae Knight, Event Chair
The Committee has nineteen (19) members, serving on one or more of eight (8) committees, as listed below. A significant number of members has indicated a strong preference for committing to either a single session (SS),/ single task (ST) responsibility, short-term obligation or day-of-event support. Those requests are being honored. Please feel free to cross out your name as necessary andor add it in another preferred category.
Committee Members 1. Les Brownlee 2. Jeff Currie 3. Howard Dubin 4. Paula Eubanks 5. Jenny Glick 6. Josie Gough 7. Carolyn Hulse 8. Linda Jones 9. Pat Kosar 10. Herb Kraus 11. Seth McCormick 12. Charlotte Ogorek 13. Ed Planer 14. Bob Roberts 15. Barb Schleck 16. Sue Stevens 17. Maria Traska 18. Moses Vines 1. 19. Anita Ward
Sub Committees
1. BudgetCorporate Donations
2. Conference Materials Howard Dubin Pat Kosar Charlotte Ogorek Ed Cooper(?) Josie Gough Pat Kosar (?)
3. Logistics/Signage/ Participants’
4. Phone Contacts/Mailings/ Certificates Follow-Up Video Documentation Pat Kosar(?) Les Brownlee Maria Traska Paula Eubanks(?) Moses Vines* Linda Jones Anita Ward* Seth McCormick
5. Program Development Jeff Currie Josie Gough (Session 6) Carolyn Hulse Linda Jones (Session 4 or 5) Bob Roberts (Session 6 contacting Duncan and Cowlishaw) Barb Schleck Moses Vines (Session 5 or 6) Anita Ward (Session 5 or 6)
6. AdvertisingPublicity Paula Eubanks(?) Jenny Glick(?) Herb Kraus (?) Sue Stevens Ed Cooper
7. Raffle Prizes
8. Registration Josie Gough Advance (Mail-in) Pat Kosar(?) On Site
* Moses and Anita will provide rosters of CPS English and History Dept. chairs. List of Tentative Sessions Lesson #/PGS Session Length or High School Student Rights And Beliefs H.S. 1/9-16 1. A 1st Amendment Freedoms Survey 1 hour
H.S 3/17-18 Life Without the 1st Amendment The 1st Amendment in Its 3rd Century 2. Integrating Nothing But The Truth ( a novel) ” Orwell’s 1984 ” Forty-Five Words Of Freedom (a 20-minute video)
H.S. 4/19-25 H.S. 5/26-38 An Established Church in America? 3. Free Exercise of Religion; 1 hour Freedom of Assembly Legal Perspectives: The 1st Amendment
H.S 6/39-43 4A Freedom of Speech Limits on Freedom of Speech Exploration of Five (5) Case Studies 4B “Offensive by Any Definition” (separate Panelists, discussing collegiate dictionary Entries) 90 min.
M.S. 7/42-47 H.S. 7/44-54 5. Freedom of the Press Integrating Letter from a 90 min. Birmingham Jail
H.S. 7 and 8 PGS. 50-57 6. Freedom of Assembly 90 min. Petitioning Government
7. Roundtables/Q and A/Sharing Raffles Photo Ops (with panelists) As deadlines permit 90 min. Keynote Panelists Session/Luncheon Session First Amendment Rights and Technology
Panelists for this session will use an indirect interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate the importance of First Amendment rights in dealing with societal changes. The specific focus will be technology, which is exploding-changing our lives and the way we think about our constitutional rights. Technological breakthroughs have the potential to interfere with our privacy, improve our health, blight our environment and provide us with immediate access to information. Panelists will urge participants to explore new technologies that have raised legal and ethical issues to develop [instructional] plans for using the First Amendment rights to advocate a position on, at least, one such issue-hopefully the Internet being one of them. Transparencies of Handout 12-Analyzing technology and Legal Rights and Handout 13-First Amendment Strategy Checklist- will facilitate participants’ understanding of the session. given that many present will come from various fields of endeavor, in addition to the educators.
Panelists:
Notes
Although all panelists will be invited to the luncheon, only those participating as keynoters will be seated with Board officers on the dais. Additionally, we must consider whether there should be a separate ticket and ticket price ($40) for guest opting to come only to the luncheon session.
Rob reminded us that the decision we’re making as a board is to support this event with our efforts, as well as financially and encouraged those who had not yet volunteered to do so. Rob also asked that some members of the board moderate panels.
Steve added that there has been much discussion over the last few years about the fact that high school journalism teachers are not, themselves, well- trained in journalism
Teresa then presented the board with three choices of what could be served for lunch: A fajita bar for $11.95; Asian adventure, Which consists steamed rice, chicken chow mein stir fried vegetables, veggie salad dessert and beverages $12.95; stuffed chicken breast, stuffed with spinach and mushrooms and cheese with rice pilaff $10.95; beef or vegetable lasagna, cheapest entree.
Teresa said the target audience will include administrative staff as well as the educators. “Legal issues will be dealt with”. She also asked us to see if we would be interested in being talent or facilitators on any of the panels.
Suggested speakers for Friday night were Ken Bode, former host of Washington Week in Review and Jim Howard, the Executive Director of the Illinois Chapter of Common Cause.
Teresa then discussed possible door prizes for the raffle.
Program Updates: Marcia Barancik The Brown Bag speaker for June is Dr. George Lundberg and in July there will be four war correspondents. She also discussed making a tape of the monthly meetings for the Board’s own use. We also discussed the fact that all Brown Bag lunches are on the record and therefore can be the basis for a story.
There was also discourse about the possibility of a networking event and Rob said he is speaking to a friend he has at Hyatt about the possibility of renting one of their rooms. Another possible venue would be Second City, where the fee for everything would be $1000. The Second City event would have to be a fund-raiser and there would need to be a minimum of 100 people. It was suggested that the fee charged for admission to the networking could be channeled to the internship fund. Someone suggested that the invitation mention the money will be used for the internship or whatever purpose the Board decides. The best day to hold this event was thought to be a Thursday. The tentative date is Sept. 15 Membership: Pat Kosar There was a question about compiling a new directory since apparently a number of members, including Rob Hess, are not in the current one. It was decided to update the directory every couple of years.
Steve Rynkiewicz reported that arrangements have been made with Medill that will allow us to have a password-protected site, which is now up, but not yet available to use.
FOI: Bob Roberts distributed a report stating that the legislative session is over and there are no additional surprises.
The good news is that HB 1686 died. This is the bill that would have allowed municipal treasurers to publish guidelines, hiding from the public the line items that often prove so interesting.
Governor Ryan still has not taken action on HB 1432, the bill that sets uniform standards under the Public Records Act for media disclosure of police reports.
I am relatively new to the job of VP/FOI , and haven’t been able to build up the network of contacts that Ed Rooney has had over the years. While it’s good to have a handle on what is happening legislatively, I would like to hear more about actual or perceived violations of the FOI and Open Meetings Acts. Perhaps if we published a short item in the Chicago Journalist saying we would like to hear about battles that are being fought and lost so we can put some feet to the fire. It’s difficult to believe that every Chicago-area body know and always observes both laws.
As a service, it would seem to me that perhaps we should distribute copies of both acts or at least make them available to the membership. I believe the Illinois Attorney General’s office publishes some of the laws in booklet form.
I followed up with Beth Bennett about getting information on FOI and OMA-related news into the Journalist. She said IPA could tailor such material to our needs. Beth is also the state SPJ Sunshine Chair, so she is the natural source for such material. I advised her (as did Diana) about our intent to go to quarterly publication this fall at Chicago Journalist, with frequent updates on the Web.
Beth says IPA is in the process of assembling a Web site, and would be more than happy to link. I asked if it would be possible to do something more focused on OMA and FOI issues that could be sent periodically to the Web site and she said it’s definitely doable.
Diane Monk said that going quarterly with the Journalist is not at all definite.
Ed Cooper, secretary