Chicago Headline Club
Board of directors meeting
Fri. June 8, 2012
President Steve Franklin called the meeting to order at 9:15 a.m. Present: Steve, Howard Dubin, Aimee DeBat, Flynn McRoberts, Kristen Schorsch, Suzanne McBride, Alden Loury, Susan Stevens, incoming board member Dan Gire, and Rummana Hussain on the phone. Susan notes that we did not have a quorum until 40 minutes into the meeting. Please try harder to attend and be prompt.
President’s report: Steve said the NATO summit prep session for journalists worked out great. In addition, he said CHC became a negotiator with city police with a conference three days before the summit. Incoming board member Hugh Delios was good at negotiating.
Discussion of the Chicago Half-Marathon & 5K resulted in us agreeing to move forward on participating. Steve will write an eblast, asking members if they will commit. He will ask them to respond to Lolly Bowean, whose idea it was in the first place. CHC Foundation will get half of what we raise, the News Literacy Project will get the other half.
Steve also wants to plug John Conroy’s currently running play about journalists. He asked that CHC be a co-sponsor of a June 28 Community Media Workshop event on how to cover youth violence. We agreed.
Suzanne said former CHC President Meg Tebo has re-started the Columbia College student chapter.
We will not meet July 13. The next board meeting will be Aug. 3. Alden will schedule a planning meeting sometime in July.
Steve also wants to do a program on how ex-journalists move on with their careers and an October fundraiser for displaced journalists.
Executive director’s report: Aimee does not have the final figures for Lisagor yet. Rumman wants volunteers for membership calls.
FOI: Alden said the site is up but needs content before going live. There are there blog posts.
Alden attended the annual SPJ Leadership Institute in Indianapolis last weekend. He said it was good but he is still processing all the information. He will give briefings to the Membership, FOIA and Programs VPs and other leaders.
Minutes were approved as submitted.
Website: Aimee reported Jon is trying to clear time to update it with Gary Kopycinski’s help. Aimee offered to help load about a year’s worth of board minutes.
Steve said we need to be more aggressive in finding journalists in need of expense money to apply for Dreihaus grants. We have $3,000 left.
Treasurer: Flynn said we have an available balance of $92,738. A $1,680 SPJ dues check came in.
Ethics: Dan Gire said he’s very interested in the Ethics AdviceLine. Susan said she would put him in touch with EAL chairman Casey Bukro. Howard said he will talk to Northwestern’s new dean about a partnership with EAL. Suzanne said Columbia would be very interested.
Meeting adjourned at 10:20 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens