CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB
Board of Directors meeting
May 7, 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, Ash-har Quaraishi, Alejandra Cancino, Blair Chavez, Maria Zamudio, Nader Issa, Maya Dukmasova, Amanda Vinicky, Taylor Moore, Suzanne McBride, Mike Ewing, Susan S. Stevens and Foundation President Molly McDonough.
Minutes of the April meeting were approved as sent by Susan.
President’s report: Madhu said our appeal for new board members drew several applicants (Mike said eight), and she and Amanda have given them until next Friday to provide more information. We still need three vice presidents; Madhu and Amanda are working on selecting people. If you have any other candidates to pitch, do so pronto.
Current nominees: Adam Rhodes of the Chicago Reader, Kelly Garcia who is a freelancer and coordinated FOIAFest, and Cathy Larkin of Bloomberg News.
A week out from the virtual Lisagor, things are coming together. Madhu thanks all who helped, including Kathy Catrambone.
Tahman Bradley needs more volunteers to step up for reciprocal judging.
Madhu would like a volunteer to work with Gary Cole on a possible September program regarding his book about Mike Royko and Chicago media.
Madhu and Dan Haar are still working on a formal plan for a mentorship program.
Attention officers: Madhu needs your write-ups for the annual report to SPJ HQs. This is the basis for chapter awards.
Treasurer’s report: Greg said we are about where we always are at this time of year, flush with Lisagor entry fees. As of today, CHC had $90,220 in the bank while CHCF had $75,658. Biggest foreseeable expenditure will be about $10,000 for Lisagor winner plaques.
Programs: Maya initiated a discussion about the difficulty of having a program every month. Board consensus: not needed.
Taylor’s April program on covering police drew 55 attendees o 164 signups. Was posted online quickly for those who had trouble accessing.
June program will be about covering communities of color, in partnership with Northern Illinois Newspaper Association.
July or August: immigration reporting, with Borderless magazine.
Foundation: Molly said it has selected two grantees out of eight applicants this year. We’ll have an announcement to share (hopefully in concert with Lisagors). For the recording, we can get you the grantees today. We just haven’t made notifications yet so this is still confidential.
We had a record 32 entries from an incredibly diverse and talented pool from across Chicagoland and a little far afield (Ghana is the furthest by far). We are winnowing down the applications and hope to have a winner selected in time for Lisagors.
FOIAFest memberships: We ended up with 12 takers for the CHCF-funded SPJ memberships. I’m circulating the names to the CHC-F board to see if there’s a way we can get this involved group of hard-news journalists engaged with the CHC. I will copy Madhu and Amanda.
Board Packets: I am happy to help assemble a new board member packet for the next board group and find a way to keep those materials in a shared archive for easy updating and future use.
Mike asked that we provide $500 to the Chicago Media Softball League this year. Our $250 check for last year was torn up because the league did not play.
Next meeting: June 4.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens, secretary