Board minutes
January 15, 2009
Present: Beth Konrad, Sue Stevens, Howard Dubin, Brian Pitts, Tony Noce, Kristen Schorsch, Hilary Fosdal, Micah Maidenberg, Ken Davis, Robert Flynn, Steven Franklin, Kristen McQueary, Abdon Pallasch, Dawn Reiss
Minutes approved with a spelling correction.
The discussion on board vacancies was tabled.
The Digital Media Training Institute update will be available once Kathy has compiled the data and given the report over to the Programming Committee for analysis.
The Chicago Headline Club continues to support the Northwestern Excellence Project in the form of public statements, written press releases and an amicus brief. An amicus brief written on behalf of the CHC and SPJ and a second amicus brief from news organizations will be posted onto the website.
The SPJ Regional Conference will take place March 27-28th in Chicago. SPJ national has requested assistance by several CHC board members to coordinate sessions at the conference including Beth Konrad, Steven Franklin, Casey Burko, Steve Edwards and Hilary Fosdal.
The CHC has requested that SPJ lead a session on topics pertaining to the Northwestern issue, specifically the importance of protecting journalists.
Beth Konrad will establish a bylaws committee following the Lisagor Banquet.
The CHC has voted unanimously in favor of appropriating $2,500 for a journalism scholarship. The Headline Club Foundation will match this contribution. The money will be allocated for two summer internship opportunities, one internship will be designated for students majoring in broadcasting and the other for print/online. It is the wishes of the Headline Club Foundation that the CHC and the Foundation continue to donate more money to internships.
Howard Dubin reported that we have reached the low point in the year as far as our funds are concerned. Until money from the Lisagor entry forms comes in we are at just over $89,000. Howard has recommended cutting several monthly administrative costs including the mail drop, the Merchant Bank card and the club’s liability insurance. Beth Konrad and Kathy Catrambone will investigate the purpose of the Merchant Bank card and Howard will learn more about the depth of liability coverage from the insurance policy.
With two weeks before the nominating deadline, entries for the Lisagor Awards are at about average for this time of the year. Board members were asked to volunteer to sort the Lisagor Award forms on January 30th and 31st. We are still in need of non-English speaking judges. The board has agreed to invite James Tyree to be the keynote speaker. Adding the nomination postmarked deadline to the CHC calendar and placing the Lisagor information in a more prominent homepage position on headlineclub.org was suggested by the board.
The Programming Committee has been asked to hold a post-primary election program in February. Kristen Schorsch and Micah Maidenberg have agreed to use Feb 4th’s Burger Night to host the event.
Jim O’Shea is scheduled to speak on January 25th and the Google workshop is set for January 21st. Board members will explore the possibility of directing attendees to a local restaurant for after parties.
Roderick Drew is expected to announce another extension of 2008 police credentials as the new credential rules have not been finalized.
The Chicago Headline Club was unable to get a comment from Stevenson High School on the matter of censorship, stemming from student journalists employing anonymous sourcing for reporting, in their school newspaper.
The judge for the Drew Peterson case may limit media coverage to one person per organization.
February 10th is the next scheduled hearing for the Medill hearings and all journalists are encouraged to attend to show their support.
Membership has seen slight growth.
Steven Franklin suggested that the CHC make a gesture to unemployed journalists.
ADJOURNMENT