CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB
Board of Directors meeting
Fri. Nov. 2, 2018
President Alejandra Cancino called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. Also present: Ben Meyerson, Kristen Schorsch,, Rob Elder, Greg Karp, Flynn McRoberts, Matt Kiefer, Tahman Bradley, Mike Ewing, Maya Dukmasova, Susan S. Stevens, and by phone Suzanne McBride, Dawn Rhodes, Adriana Cardona, Howard Dubin, Richelle Rogers, Alex Hernandez, Maria Zamudio, and Madhu Krishnamurthy.
Minutes from the October meeting were approved as submitted by Susan.
President’s report: Alejandra said the head of SPJ’s Koch task force, SPJ President-Elect Patti Newberry, reported the group has met and looked at protest letters from the chapters in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego as well as a Koch report. We want to see the actual Koch-SPJ contract. The task force is due to report Dec. 1. Depending on what we see, we might submit a resolution requiring more transparency from vendors for conferences. Alejandra will see if the December meeting will be live-streamed.
Discussion of contribution to the Illinois Press Foundation and/or other groups beginning news coverage: we favor helping them. We might use Watchdog funds or CHC Foundation funds. Alejandra will talk with CHC board members Stan Zoller, also president of CHCF, and Jason Martin, Watchdog chairman.
Brief discussion of new SPJ finance rules.
Treasurer’s report: Greg said we have $5,484 in checking and $74,211 in savings. He submitted a fuller report as a Google document.
Please use THIS EMAIL for GREG: treasurer@headlineclub.org
He is looking into a more transparent general ledger, probably cloud-based.
Alejandra closed the old Paypal account and Greg is setting up a new one.
Membership: Rob is still looking for a great t-shirt logo. Send him your ideas. He’ll be looking for volunteers to phone lapsing members.
Programs: Maya said 12 showed up for the Excel and pivot training. Though the number was fewer than anticipated, it was good because everyone got personal attention. Mike will send a survey to attendees. Susan added them to the eblast list.
7 p.m. Monday: a free invitation to “Private War,” a film about journalist Marie Colvin. AMC is providing ticks. Eblast went to our entire list.
December: Maya will be talking with former CHC President Cynthia Linton about a climate change reporting program.
January: Possibly a panel on organizing yourself for investigative projects.
FOI: Kristen said the FOIAFest committee had its first meeting in late-September and is organizing another meeting. Date: Feb. 23 at Loyola. Send her program and speaker ideas.
Lisagor: Board approved the budget Ben circulated to us, including $3,500 for Kathy Catrambone to again do the heavy lifting. Categories have been finalized. Ben will email us a proof of the entry form in the next couple of weeks for us to proofread.
Watchdog: Jason could not attend nor get through to us by phone. He emailed this:
We updated the calls for Watchdog award and fund and Mike posted on the website. I’ve already received one inquiry about the fund and shared details with the potential applicant. I’ll increase promotion of both in the coming month as the submission deadline nears.
FOIA website: Mike said all the content has been moved to headlineclub.org. Now it’s a matter of updating FOIA contacts around the state. Mike and Matt will put together a report for the board.
CHC Foundation: Susan said Priscilla Ruth MacDougall would like to host the summer fundraiser Sun. Aug. 18.
Zachary Roth, a Springfield freelancer, joined the meeting by phone.
Dawn went to a Loyola chapter meeting and was very impressed.
Meeting adjourned at 10:20 a.m. Next meeting: Fri. Dec. 7.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens, secretary