CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB
Board of Directors meeting
July 11, 2007
Executive Director Kathy Catrambone called the meeting to order at 12:40 p.m., then turned it over to Program Vice President Nate Hernandez. President Kristen McQueary was at home with her new baby.
Present: Nate, Kathy, host Steve Walsh at Bloomberg, Dawn Reiss, Howard Schlossberg, Esther Cepeda, Lisa Donovan, Jackie Fitzgerald, Jane Hirt, Howard Dubin, Abdon Palasch, Bonnie McGrath, Deborah Cohen, Laura Putre by phone, and guests Tony Noce and Susan S. Stevens.
Kathy said someone with leadership experience in other chapters has expressed interest in the board seat left open by the departure of President-Elect and Membership VP Brian Wellner, who has taken a job with the Quad Cities Times. Kathy will keep the board informed.
Board members introduced themselves.
Minutes of the last two meetings were accepted.
Treasurer’s report: Howard said at the end of the fiscal year on June 30, CHC had $63,500 in expenses and $71,300 in income. Lisagor entry fees carry the club, though expenses have climbed each recent year. We made $19,000 on Lisagor this year. Lifetime is a planned loss. Dues brought in $6,000. The executive director’s pay will be an additional expense in the coming year. We need to cut out some $900 parties, such as the general membership meeting at Harry Caray’s. Computer-related costs will be trimmed. Kathy said Melisa Goh will help on reducing computer costs. Howard will be working on a new budget, with help from Suzanne McBride. Dawn offered to help on Lisagor to reduce judging expenses. Laura will recruit judges.
Driehaus Foundation: Kathy said Kristin gave the Driehaus Foundation an update on June 13. Driehaus is committed to up to $10,000 in awards to investigative journalists needing funding and the annual Watchdog Award for Public Interest Reporting through the 2008 Lisagor at least. Tony Noce will be the funding administrator. Susan will help on publicity at least. (Tony, retired from WGN-TV, was chosen in part because he is a freelancer with no current media affiliation. Susan works for two community papers of the type that could really use the money.)
We need to publicize the Watchdog funding. Laura will call small papers. Dawn will post the information on the freelance boards. Lisa and Jane will get it into the Sun-Times and Tribune newsrooms. Kathy suggested we contact other journalism groups. Susan said we need some parameters on our proposed funding form which Kathy circulated in advance of the meeting, such as the 9-county area, freelance and fulltime journalists welcome. Will be done.
Lifetime Achievement Awards: Oct. 19 at Holiday Inn City Center. Cash bar, so maybe we won’t lose so much money. Nate said Bob Edwards is the front-runner for speaker, and he’s waiting to hear back. Howard said the Lifetime and Lisagor speaker searches can be combined; if a person is not available for one, he or she might be for the other. Nate asked for seminar suggestions. He’d like to do an event on citizen journalism. Other ideas offered at the meeting: changing world of reporters with multimedia, how Olympics coverage will affect newsrooms, computer-assisted reporting, ethics in journalism.
Programs: Amy Jacobson’s firing might be a topic for a meeting Aug. 1. Esther will work on it.
Brownlee: Susan said Les Brownlee’s widow, Priscilla MacDougall, offered to host a series kick-off 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 26 at her Evanston home. She’ll donate refreshments. She suggests a small charge, with the money going to the CHC Foundation. Board agreed. Priscilla will mail postcards to several hundred of her contacts. Susan and Deborah will do CHC e-blasts, one soon and one about a week before, with RSVP info.
Loyola: University’s Journalism Department wants us to help publicize a program tentatively entitled “The Three Ponces” in September. We’ll put it on our Web site and e-blast. Nate suggests listing possible events in an e-blast for member reaction.
Freelance: Dawn would like to plan a series focused on freelancing with the first session to see about the response. She welcomes venue and speaker suggestions.
Internships: Jane said the committee wants to revive those, but drop the high school contest. She also wants to work toward more mentorships, and maybe invite all student chapters in the area to a meeting. Kathy will look for volunteers to help Jane.
FOI: Abdon said the Salah trial security was difficult on working journalists with restrictions on courtroom entries and departures and cellphones, and the R. Kelly looks like it will be the same. He wondered if CHC should write a letter or try to meet with the judge, chief judge. Board agreed it should work on opening communications to say CHC is at least watching.
Marketing: We need volunteers for a variety of ways
Burger Nite: Maybe revive them but not buy food or drink. Need hosts.
PR Newswire: Howard S. said we made $2,200-$2,300 on the first three programs. The total for yhe year will be about $4,000. Jackie will be helping. These are still getting good audiences.
Next meeting will be at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 22, again at Beautiful Bloomberg.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens
Ex-secretary
CHICAGO HEADLINE CLUB
Board of Directors meeting
July 11, 2007
Executive Director Kathy Catrambone called the meeting to order at 12:40 p.m., then turned it over to Program Vice President Nate Hernandez. President Kristen McQueary was at home with her new baby.
Present: Nate, Kathy, host Steve Walsh at Bloomberg, Dawn Reiss, Howard Schlossberg, Esther Cepeda, Lisa Donovan, Jackie Fitzgerald, Jane Hirt, Howard Dubin, Abdon Palasch, Bonnie McGrath, Deborah Cohen, Laura Putre by phone, and guests Tony Noce and Susan S. Stevens.
Kathy said someone with leadership experience in other chapters has expressed interest in the board seat left open by the departure of President-Elect and Membership VP Brian Wellner, who has taken a job with the Quad Cities Times. Kathy will keep the board informed.
Board members introduced themselves.
Minutes of the last two meetings were accepted.
Treasurer’s report: Howard said at the end of the fiscal year on June 30, CHC had $63,500 in expenses and $71,300 in income. Lisagor entry fees carry the club, though expenses have climbed each recent year. We made $19,000 on Lisagor this year. Lifetime is a planned loss. Dues brought in $6,000. The executive director’s pay will be an additional expense in the coming year. We need to cut out some $900 parties, such as the general membership meeting at Harry Caray’s. Computer-related costs will be trimmed. Kathy said Melisa Goh will help on reducing computer costs. Howard will be working on a new budget, with help from Suzanne McBride. Dawn offered to help on Lisagor to reduce judging expenses. Laura will recruit judges.
Driehaus Foundation: Kathy said Kristin gave the Driehaus Foundation an update on June 13. Driehaus is committed to up to $10,000 in awards to investigative journalists needing funding and the annual Watchdog Award for Public Interest Reporting through the 2008 Lisagor at least. Tony Noce will be the funding administrator. Susan will help on publicity at least. (Tony, retired from WGN-TV, was chosen in part because he is a freelancer with no current media affiliation. Susan works for two community papers of the type that could really use the money.)
We need to publicize the Watchdog funding. Laura will call small papers. Dawn will post the information on the freelance boards. Lisa and Jane will get it into the Sun-Times and Tribune newsrooms. Kathy suggested we contact other journalism groups. Susan said we need some parameters on our proposed funding form which Kathy circulated in advance of the meeting, such as the 9-county area, freelance and fulltime journalists welcome. Will be done.
Lifetime Achievement Awards: Oct. 19 at Holiday Inn City Center. Cash bar, so maybe we won’t lose so much money. Nate said Bob Edwards is the front-runner for speaker, and he’s waiting to hear back. Howard said the Lifetime and Lisagor speaker searches can be combined; if a person is not available for one, he or she might be for the other. Nate asked for seminar suggestions. He’d like to do an event on citizen journalism. Other ideas offered at the meeting: changing world of reporters with multimedia, how Olympics coverage will affect newsrooms, computer-assisted reporting, ethics in journalism.
Programs: Amy Jacobson’s firing might be a topic for a meeting Aug. 1. Esther will work on it.
Brownlee: Susan said Les Brownlee’s widow, Priscilla MacDougall, offered to host a series kick-off 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 26 at her Evanston home. She’ll donate refreshments. She suggests a small charge, with the money going to the CHC Foundation. Board agreed. Priscilla will mail postcards to several hundred of her contacts. Susan and Deborah will do CHC e-blasts, one soon and one about a week before, with RSVP info.
Loyola: University’s Journalism Department wants us to help publicize a program tentatively entitled “The Three Ponces” in September. We’ll put it on our Web site and e-blast. Nate suggests listing possible events in an e-blast for member reaction.
Freelance: Dawn would like to plan a series focused on freelancing with the first session to see about the response. She welcomes venue and speaker suggestions.
Internships: Jane said the committee wants to revive those, but drop the high school contest. She also wants to work toward more mentorships, and maybe invite all student chapters in the area to a meeting. Kathy will look for volunteers to help Jane.
FOI: Abdon said the Salah trial security was difficult on working journalists with restrictions on courtroom entries and departures and cellphones, and the R. Kelly looks like it will be the same. He wondered if CHC should write a letter or try to meet with the judge, chief judge. Board agreed it should work on opening communications to say CHC is at least watching.
Marketing: We need volunteers for a variety of ways
Burger Nite: Maybe revive them but not buy food or drink. Need hosts.
PR Newswire: Howard S. said we made $2,200-$2,300 on the first three programs. The total for yhe year will be about $4,000. Jackie will be helping. These are still getting good audiences.
Next meeting will be at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 22, again at Beautiful Bloomberg.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan S. Stevens
Ex-secretary