CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB
Board of Directors meeting
Fri. March 1, 2019
President Alejandra Cancino called the meeting to order. Also present: Maya Dukmasova, Stan Zoller, Greg Karp, Matt Kiefer, Ben Meyerson, Flynn McRoberts, Rob Elder, Adriana Cardona, Alex Hernandez, Susan S. Stevens, and by phone Howard Dubin, Brandis Friedman, Richelle Rogers, Jason Martin, Kristen Schorsch and Suzanne McBride. LisagorFest organizer Kathy Catrambone also was present.
Minutes: from the January meeting were approved as submitted.
President’s message: Alejandra thanked everyone who helped at FOIAFest, especially Kristen who did a fantastic job while on maternity leave. Stan gave special thanks to Howard and his Dubin Foundation for its grant that paid for
FOIAFest and to Loyola’s Richelle and Michael Limon who hosted in a wonderful new building. We had 140 people attending.
Lisagor: Ben said all our entries are off to judges, with the results deadline March 15. We are in the throes of dinner planning. Kathy said she is in touch with the graphics and other people who do the program, etc. Need to settle on a menu and price. She proposed plastic cups with the CHC logo and filled with candy to replace the $11 dessert at the Union League Club. Board gave its OK. Finalists will be announced Thurs. March 28 at a location TBA. Maya is setting it up. Flynn still needs reciprocal judges for four or five categories.
Lifetime: Ben and Flynn will finalize the Lifetime winners in the next week. The Anne Keegan committee is choosing its awardee.
Watchdog: Jason connected the winning grant applicant with Howard to disperse $2,500 payment. Thanks to the board for your vote of support last month. For the award, judges are reviewing the applications and in the process of selecting finalists and a winner.
Treasurer: Full report is in GoogleDocs. Greg did not have final bank account numbers since it was the first of the month. Lisagor entry fees transferred from PayPal to Chase savings were $30,145, plus he deposited $1,530 in entry fees paid by check.
25 t-shirts sold at FOIAFest, 75 of them via credit card thanks to his new PayPal card reader. He will order more of the readers.
Anyone who runs up bills and needs quick reimbursement can set up QuickPay. Let Greg know.
Membership: Rob said only six FOIAFest postcards were returned. He’ll track down members to get current contact info. He wants to do a member visibility campaign, highlighting some of our members to attract new members.
He noted one-third of the FOIAFesters bought t-shirts. Board gave its OK to spending $650 to buy another batch for sale at Lisagor, etc.
Alex suggested promoting membership on the FOIAFest schedule, which attendees refer to all day.
Susan requested EventBrite emails for her to put non-members on the eblast list and for Rob to contact to try to sign up.
FOIAFest: Kristen said it was successful, and we try to make it better every year. She’d like to accommodate more people. Despite our registration cutoff, some rooms had people standing in the back. One suggestion is to use the big Wintrust room after lunch for sessions we expect to have large draws. She thanked Richelle and Michael in particular, and said she was grateful for everyone’s help. New committee members are already being sought for next year.
Richelle delivered about 100 photos; the video will be ready the first week in April. Kristen suggested a photo gallery on the web.
Nominations committee: If your term is up and you are willing to serve a new one, contact Rob, our president-elect. Email ideas and inclinations to him. He wants further diversity, new blood, and more members next year.
Foundation: Stan said he’d like an email address of our own. Board agreed.
Meeting adjourned at 10:25 a.m. Next meeting: April 5.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens, secretary