CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB
Board of Directors meeting
Fri. Oct. 2, 2020
President Madhu Krishnamurthy called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. Also present on a Zoom conference call: Rob Elder, Howard Dubin, Greg Karp, Flynn McRoberts, Suzanne McBride, Maria Zamudio, Blair Chavis, Christine Wolf, Jason Martin, Michael Limon,, Grace Wong, Raza Siddiqui, Taylor Moore, Nader Issa, Ash-har Quraishi, Tahman Bradley, Maya Dukmasova, Susan S. Stevens and Molly McDonough, new CHC Foundation president and also past-president of it as well as this board.
Board approved minutes of the September meeting as submitted by Susan.
President’s report; Madhu said the SPJ Conference passed by an overwhelming margin the sponsorship policy we urged, which is designed to halt contributions from groups such as Koch which stand contrary to the practice of fair and unbiased journalism. She and other board members praised Rob and past-president Alejandra Cancino for their three year long fight. Rob said now we just have to keep SPJ honest. He will work to do that. He and other board members also will continue to try to persuade Poynter from accepting Koch money.
At the conference, Chicago won Circle of Excellence awards for Professional Development, Diversity and Student Relations. Rob will put the awards in our archive at Newberry Library.
Lisagor Award plaques are being made. Madhu will set up a GoogleDocs for us in newsrooms who will be point people to put in contact information regarding shipping.
100th anniversary: Madhu and Mike Ewing are working to set up something every month. Need volunteers to write short pieces regarding historic moments, etc. making them relevant to the present and the future of the club. A meeting will be held next week. Madhu also hopes for media interviews and a video document to be shown at the 2021 Lisagor dinner.
Madhu hopes for a Zoom road show for college students to talk up the club, starting maybe this fall. Need contact list at colleges.
Treasurer’s report: Greg said we have $79,898 while CHC Foundation has $77,312. He got our sales tax exemption renewed with great difficulty. This saves a couple-thousand dollars on the Lisagor banquet bill.
Membership: SPJ is still processing our free offers, set back because of installation of a new computer at HQs. HQs plans to contact each person for further information. Madhu and Amanda are working on a welcome for new members.
Programs: Madhu said she and Taylor will have a list for the rest of the year by next week. Taylor said they plan in October a program on how ideas become news stories which will be targeted to the public. It will include such things as ethics and fact-checking. November will be a discussion of how to cover communities of color. We agreed to cosponsor training for people of color on how to do investigative journalism. Probably a social event in December.
Bylaws: Howard and Molly are working to update both CHC’s and CHCF’s outdated bylaws. One question arises about term lengths. Should active board members be bounced when they reach the limits? They will submit their recommendations.
Meeting adjourned at 9:55 a.m. Next meeting: First Friday in November.
Respectfully submitted
Susan S. Stevens, secretary