CHC Board Meeting: April 2, 2021

President Madhu Krishnamurthy called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. Also present via Zoom: Howard Dubin, Greg Karp, Flynn McRoberts, Robert Elder, Alejandra Cancino, Michael Limon, Maya Dukmasova, Amanda Vinicky, Taylor Moore, Suzanne McBride, Mike Ewing, Susan S. Stevens and Foundation President Molly McDonough and CHCF member Dann Gire.

Minutes of the March meeting were approved as sent by Susan.

President’s report: Madhu said she and Amanda have most of a slate for the next board. However, several on the current board have not indicated whether they want to stay on. Please let them know! They need to finalize before our May meeting. 

A general call-out to members will be made to ask if any want to join the board. Meanwhile, make suggestions to Madhu and Amanda, and let them know your status. Madhu hopes most of us will stay.   The March program was moved to April 29. It will be on law enforcement sources.

More questions have arisen about Gary Cole’s Royko book. Molly will see about it becoming a CHC Foundation fundraiser.

Madhu is working with Dan Haar on developing a mentoring project. Dan will line up some judges for our Lisagor reciprocals. Tahman Bradley expects Florida to finish judging ours by Monday; we don’t have theirs yet.

Officers need to quickly file annual wrap-ups with Madhu so she can prepare the CHC annual report to SPJ.

Treasurer’s report: Greg said CHC has $91,788.76 in the bank while the foundation has $75,733.55. Due to restricted/earmarked fundings, CHCF has an available balance of $48,984. Further details in GoogleDocs.

Membership: SPJ HQs reports we have 367. This does not count free memberships given to FOIAFest participants. Amanda said she is lining up SPJ President Matt Hall for a Zoom meeting after Lisagor.

Programs: Taylor said that, in addition to the April 29 Zoom program, we’ll cosponsor with the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association a session on covering communities of color.

Lisagor: Flynn said everything is in good shape. Madhu and Amanda will announce some of the winners in a Zoom presentation. Rob and Mike will help produce.

Next meeting: Fri. May 7.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens, secretary