B O A R D M I N U T E S
Chicago Headline Club
Board of Directors Meeting
June 12, 2002
President Christine Tatum brought the meeting to order at 8 a.m.
Present: Christine Tatum, Casey Bukro, Pat Kosar, Paula Brien, Bob Roberts, John Camden, Steve Rynkiewicz, Susan S. Stevens and John McWilliams of PR Newswire.
President’s report:
Christy said President-Elect Molly McDonough had a son, Dylan, on May 29.
Christine said the Chicago Marriott will reimburse us about $2,000 because of the noise that occurred at a high school prom in an adjacent banquet room the night of the Lisagor Awards banquet. It interfered with the audio in our room.
The $15,000 from Arthur Nielsen Jr. for the Les Brownlee Lecture Series is being routed through Sigma Delta Chi so it will be tax-deductible for Nielsen.
Membership is up by about 20 percent. “We’re pushing 400 now,” Christine said. About 30 people signed up at Lisagor, when discounts were offered.
FOI report:
Bob Roberts noted the successful fight against the gag order in the Brown’s Chicken case. The Headline Club filed an amicus brief at the request of the Chicago Tribune and Illinois Press Association. We contributed $2,000. “We may have not heard the last of this,” Bob said, and the CHC will be prepared. Christy will file paperwork for an SPJ Legal Defense Fund grant, which could be $1,000 and could be used if the case goes further.
PR Newswire:
The board approved an agreement with PRN. Details were e-mailed the day before the meeting. There is one change. The 12 releases will be distributed to Illinois and Northwest Indiana, rather than the Chicago Regional Newswire.
John McWilliams of PRN elaborated on the agreement. For mailings, John Camden will provide PRN with labels. Three board members will be named as advisory contacts. Five will be listed on the ProfNet Expert Database, including Casey Bukro and Molly McDonough for certain. Others will be named later. McWilliams is eager to have CHC experts speak at meetings to tell PR people how to be more effective. Christy said the CHC will decide the programs, with the events sponsored by PRN. People who speak will not be paid. Our profits can go to something like scholarships. Christy said Howard Dubin was very much in favor of the agreement, which he called innovative. Bob Roberts moved for approval. John Camden seconded. All voted in favor except for Casey Bukro, who abstained.
Membership: John Camden was given a go-ahead to arrange for mailings via the Patricia Flynn company. We also plan to set up a vanity mailbox at the Flynn address, 333 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601, to use as a return address. John will write Shirley Friedlander about this. Start-up will be July 1.
Press cards: Police have not received equipment to start fingerprinting and backgroundchecking. Old press cards have been indefinitely extended.
May minutes: Were approved.
Ethics: Casey Bukro said grants will be sought for the Ethics Advice Line. Conflict of interest is “a huge issue,” generating the most questions.
Meeting adjourned at 9:05 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens
Note – correction to be made at the July meeting: We went to court in the Brown’s case as an “intervenor,” in opposition to the defense motion to restrict media coverage, rather than with an amicus brief.