Chicago Headline Club
Board of Directors meeting
Fri. March 9, 2012
President Steve Franklin called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. at Bloomberg News. Present: Aimee DeBat, Kristen Schorsch, Flynn McRoberts, Alden Loury, Abdon Pallasch, Susan S. Stevens, and by phone Howard Dubin, Odette Yousef, Beth Konrad, Fabiola Pomareda and Rumanna Hussain.
President’s welcome: Steve said we need a nominating committee of at least three members to slate officers and board members for the coming year. He said volunteers should contact him within three days. (Howard stepped forward later.) Also, Steve said, we have a listserve and asked if we want to use it.
Executive director’s report: Aimee said we brought in $21,490 on Lisagor entries. Postage and mailing are down because of the switch to online judging. She expects results by April 15. Dinner prices: $75 for members, $85 for non-members, $800 for a table of 10. Steve Edwards will again be emcee. Rumanna and Randi Bellisomo will be asked to present awards again.
Watchdog Award: Kristen said she has 19 entries. Tony Noce is rounding up the final vote.
Keegan Award: Susan said the committee reports nine excellent entries and will submit the winner shortly. They will provide their own award, and a short video about Anne. Anne’s husband, Leonard Aronson, said later he will present it.
Lifetime Awards: Abdon said the committee nominated Mary Ann Ahern of NBC-5, William McMullen, retired from the Tribune, and Mary Mitchell of the Sun-Times. The board approved the nominations.
FOI: Alden will write an op-ed on the eavesdropping cases, asking that most things in the current law affecting journalists be removed. He has contracts going to two people: Glen Reedus, who will create our FOI guide, and Lissie Schiffman, who will create our new blog. May 1 is the proposed launch date.
Programs: Odette said 10-12 people attended the first revival of Burger Nite, which she said was a nice event. A new venue will be considered.
Odette also reported:
— March 17 FOI training: about 25 people signed up at IIT-Kent Law School.
— March 27 No RSVP announcement for the trauma event at Loyola.
— April 5 Steve said SPJ will provide a trainer on how to use smart phones in reporting. It will be at Community Media Workshop.
— Odette has not been able to reach Jake Perrillo about a Google event. Steve will try. Maybe June.
— Steve and Flynn hope for a second Scribe Aid in late June at the Heartland Café.
— Probably Sat. April 21 will be the date for a NATO training event. Venue to be decided.
Membership: Rumanna reports 372 CHC members, but possibly 399.
Treasurer’s report: Flynn said we have $104,603 in the treasury, taking in $23,000 in February between Lisagor and membership. We received SPJ’s quarterly check for local dues, a total of $1,300.
Website: Aimee said Jon Seidel is working on a pay portal for Lisagor dinner tickets.
Minutes of the February meeting were approved.
CHC Archives Susan reported our former Chicago Journalist co-editor, John McClelland, husband of CHCF President Diane Monk McClelland, has finished digitizing all of our archives and sent them to Newberry Library, which will catalog them and make them available to the public. We hope some researchers will make use of them. John also will put the archives on a memory stick that will reside in the box of incomplete paper archives which I have. I have emailed you a list of what we and Newberry have.
CHC Foundation Susan said Randi Belisomo has been hard at work on collecting applications for the $2,500 scholarship (1) and intern-scholarships (2). The CHCF board will meet April 26 to choose the winners, who can be announced at Lisagor. We voted to increase the amounts $3,000 to each next year, to better help students. However, we are concerned about the small revenue stream. Our annual fundraiser at Priscilla Ruth MacDougall’s will be Sun. Aug. 26, but brought in only about $1,500 last year. To increase the intake, CHCF will conduct a silent auction this year during the Lisagors. Rob Hess will staff the tables. Howard Dubin will provide signs. All we need from the CHC board is for Aimee to arrange for at least two adjoining tables. And, if anyone has anything they would like to donate, Susan will happily accept it. So far, we have such things as journalism related tote bags, books, City News visors. I hope we can raise $2,000, but need more contributions.
Howard asked that CHC appropriate $5,000 toward the scholar-internships, as it has done in years past. Beth asked that a vote be delayed until next month.
Lovejoy Memorial grant Susan distributed background on SPJ’s work to honor the first American martyr to Freedom of the Press, a monument in Alton that was stolen years ago. She asked if CHC would appropriate $500 toward replacement; She also is asking the SDX Foundation to give the same, and the St. Louis SPJ chapter will contribute. So will others in Alton. Board approved the $500 for this SPJ National Historic Site. Steve said SIU Carbondale might be reviving its SPJ chapter (which was involved in the first Lovejoy monument), and Bill Freivogel is the contact.
Meeting adjourned at 10:20 a.m.
Next meeting: 9 a.m. Fri. April 13 at Bloomberg.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens
President ex-officio
Interim secretary