Board Meeting Minutes
October 16, 2009
Member present: Sue Stevens, Howard Dubin, Beth Konrad, Jon Seidel, Micah Maidenberg, Ken Davis, Kathy Catrambone, Suzanne McBride, Kristen McQueary, Abdon Pallasch, Stephen Franklin , Bonnie McGrath, Hilary Fosdal
Dawn Reiss has requested to be removed from the Lisagor Committee.
May minutes were not adjusted but approved with Dawn Reiss’s notes added as a narrative to the May minutes written by Micah Maidenberg.
The $500 grant money given to the club by SPJ national for use in the Olympic bus tour has been rescinded due to the fact that we are no longer offering the Olympic bus tour. The matching $500 McCormick Foundation grant has also been rescinded.
There is confusion as to how the Chicago Headline Club received a plaque for being the ‘Outstanding Large Chapter’ Award when several board members in attendance at the 2009 SPJ convention in Indianapolis recall the CHC taking second place and Seattle being the winner.
SPJ National will be putting together the Regional Conference in Chicago this Spring. We as a chapter may provide input for what type of programming topics we would like to have presented during the conference. Presently no one has offered programming topic suggestions.
The CHC would like to create a venue for discussing the recent Sun-Times agreement with James Tyree. Sometime in November Beth Konrad will write a letter to Mr. Tyree requesting his appearance for a Q&A for Chicago journalists and the public.
Kristen McQueary reported that this year the club will only be able to give one $2,500 scholarship, not two. AAJA was unable to provide a scholarship this year.
Howard Dubin believes that the Foundation may be able to create a second scholarship.
Beth Konrad suggested that having a past president rotate into the Foundation board members would improve relations and communication between the two boards.
Nothing has been planned for the Brownlee Series currently.
The Community Workshop will be holding a ‘Future of the News’ unconference addressing how minority groups can communicate with the media on Oct. 29th. On Oct. 28th the Community Workshop will hold a program called ‘Ethnic News Media.’ The Headline Club is considering co-sponsoring one of the two events.
Kristen Schrosch was not in attendance. Kathy updated the board on the programming committee’s upcoming Digital Media Training Institute sessions. 11-12 individuals have signed up for the 1st training session. 8 individuals have signed up for the next two training sessions taking place in November and December.
Members were reminded to videotape and record the training events in order to promote them on the CHC website.
Susan Stevens announced that on November 4th @3pm Lisa Madigan will speak on matters of FOIA. The CHC is only one of many sponsors for this event.
2008 police credentials are still valid until February 15, 2010. The police are working on new rules and have created a deadline of sometime in November to submit these new credentialing rules. Dropping the fingerprint requirement and background checks is expected. The provision for a committee of journalists to decide who gets credentialed is also expected to be removed. Antiquated language is expected to be eliminated. There will be a committee hearing before the rules are moved to a council and Sue Stevens will continue to gather information on the exact date of this event so that journalists can turn out in significant numbers.
Beth Konrad introduced the new nomination forms for the Lisagor Awards. The cost of the mailings has increased from $900 to $1500, but the club will be using its one free mailing to cover the cost (a perk of being a 4-star rated chapter). Efforts to assure that the applications are reaching journalists at the correct place of employment are a priority to decrease the number of applications thrown away.
The CHC will purchase a copy of the Community Workshop’s book and CD which contains Chicago Media contacts in order to pull accurate addresses for the Lisagor Awards mailing.
The Lifetime Achievement Awards Committee is looking for additional members. Abdon Pallasch has joined.
The Ethic Award Committee is looking for additional members. Abdon Pallasch has also joined this committee.
Micah Maidenberg reported that 48 people that have recently signed up to be national members are not CHC members. A mailing will accompany the Lisagor Award application encouraging new membership and membership re-newals.
10 people showed up for Burger Night when Tran Ha spoke. Tran Ha has agreed to give a tour at the Tribune office sometime in January in reaction to a complaint that the Burger Nights meet at a bar and many college students are underage and do not feel comfortable meeting at the Billy Goat Tavern. Discussion about changing the venue of the Burger Night are ongoing.
Howard Dubin reported that the CHC has approximately $93,500 in its bank account, down from last month’s $95,000.
There are still two board vacancies. Beth is actively seeking out replacements. Names are being accepted. Dawn is the chair of the nominating committee.
Hilary reported that the website training went well. Board members have requested that the eBlast subject line be altered to [Headline Club] to allow more text to be viewed in members’ e-mail InBox. Hilary informed members that during a week when three eBlasts went off two members requested to be removed from the newsletter eBlasts. Future eBlasts will be vetted by Beth before being sent out to prevent abuse of eBlasts.
Adjournment.