CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB
Board of Directors meeting
Fri. Jan. 8, 2021
President Madhu Krishnamurthy called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. Also present via Zoom: Howard Dubin, Tahman Bradley, Rob Elder, Greg Karp, Flynn McRoberts, Jason Martin, Alejandra Cancino, Suzanne McBride, Mike Ewing, Susan S. Stevens and Foundation President Molly McDonough.
Minutes from the December meeting were approved as submitted by Susan.
President’s report: Madhu noted our first endeavor of 2021 will be a Jan. 28 Zoom event about mental health and trauma, led by Elana Newman of the Dart Center. She will receive a $500 honorarium.
Foundation: Molly said a new mission statement was adopted: “The Chicago Headline Club Foundation’s mission is to provide funding to professional, student and citizen journalists for the enhancement of responsible and ethical media practices.”
Calls for scholarship and intern grant applications will go out this month.
Advisory board members are being sought, largely for fundraising
A Google form for program funding requests is being developed
Madhu said Grace Wong has resigned since departing from the Tribune and recommended Jessica Villagomez replace her on the board. Jason said Jessica had been one of his students, and would be excellent for the board. Madhu hopes to appoint someone by the next board meeting.
Lisagor: entry forms were mailed and eblasted in late December. Jan. 31 is the submission deadline. Madhu plans more PR to increase entries.
Tahman needs reciprocal judges and will put together a list. Try to put together judging panels of about five colleagues per category. We will get about 1,000 entries from Florida. We will judge from around early April to late May.
Florida will have about 100 entries in Spanish, which we might be unable to judge, so they will look elsewhere. We discussed resuming Spanish categories and perhaps other language categories in Lisagor; they got few entries when we offered them some years back.
FOIAFest: Alejandra said committee chairman Nader Issa looks to finalize 20 panels this week for the Feb. 19-21 event. He got $15,000 from the McCormick Foundation (Greg said the check arrived). Nader plans on 15 mentors, each receiving $500 stipends, working with 15 mentees on FOIA related investigations, each receiving $150. A coordinator to be paid $3,000 is being sought. PR coming.
100th Anniversary: Rob is collecting anniversary wishes from journalist VIPS. Howard and Susan have written historic blurbs. Madhu is looking for a professional videographer we will pay.
Treasurer’s report: Greg said CHC had $66,278 in the bank and CHCF $97,084 as of Jan. 1. About $1,000 in Lisagor entry fees had come in.
Lifetime Achievement: Flynn said his committee nominated Cheryl Corley and Greg Kot. Board approved the nominations.
DC mobsters: Rob, Mike and Madhu will craft a response to the attacks on journalists.
Meeting adjourned at 9:56 a.m. Next meeting: Fri. Feb. 5.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens, secretary