MEETING MINUTES

July 2010 Board of Directors Meeting

SPJ South Florida Pro Chapter

Wednesday, July 28, 2010, 7:00 p.m.

South Florida Business Journal

1. Roll Call

All members were present, except Jake and Paola. Sam was phone conferenced in. Julie left early. The meeting started at 7:15 p.m.

2. Approval of Minutes

ACTION: Motion to approved the minutes made by Lisa; it was seconded by Jason. A vote All approved.

3. Committee Updates

Bylaws. (Darcie Lunsford)

- A review of the latest draft of the bylaws: Darcie wants to wait on an approval vote because SPJ National just came out with template bylaws. Once we get a final draft she wants the SPJ National bylaws committee to look at it. Darcie thinks we may not need a constitution, and we can just pass the bylaws instead. Sam agreed, saying we don’t need them because we have articles of incorporation.

- Darcie gave a brief overview of the key changes.

- Some discussion about Article III, Section II of the revision. Bill Hirschman wondered if it was right to allow the board to amend the bylaws with a majority vote and without membership approval. Sam said that we must remember that the board members are the ones legally responsible for the bylaws. The board’s thoughts were mixed on the idea. The committee will look at possible revisions.

- Brief discussion about Article V: Elections. One of the additions would allow members to vote by email. Michael Koretzky asked what would happen if a board violated its own election rules. What would be the recourse of the membership? Jason suggested a repeal clause that would allow a certain percentage of the membership to sign a petition to overturn the decisions of the board. Sam said that really the only recourse is a lawsuit. Michael said that if we change the bylaws to give the board more power we have to have a check. Darcie liked the idea of having a repeal clause. She is going to check into the details, such as a reasonable percentage of chapter member signatures needed to have a revote.

- Brief discussion about adding a non-voting student member to the board.

- Darcie asked anyone who has questions/suggestions on the bylaws to send them to her within five to seven days.

Finance. (Tim Dodson)

Budget update and overview of account balances:

- $25,454.50 – checking

- $12,152.48 – savings

- $33,121.97 – CD

- (Tim) At the September meeting he will have a statement of the whole year’s expenses.

Programs. (Sergy Odiduro)

Proposed increase of FSPA funding from $50 to $600 – Dori Zinn

- Dori gave an overview of the past success of the First Amendment Free Food Festival (FAFFF). This year we want to hold the event at Deerfield Beach High School as part of the FSPA workshop. $600 is needed to provide food for 1,000 students and pay for props for the FAFFF event.

- Darcie reminded the board that we have to balance the events we do to cater to our membership. We are the professional chapter. This does fall into educating the community, but we must remember that high school students cannot be full members.

- Dori went to FSPA when she was in high school and wished they had had something like this when she attended. Michele Boyet said that our local chapter will get national attention for this event because it would be the first time the FAFFF is held at a high school.

ACTION: Darcie asked for a motion. Lisa made a motion to approve the funding; Jason seconded. Tim asked where in the budget we should put it. Michele suggested taking it out of the marketing budget. Darcie called for a vote. The motion carried unanimously.

Membership. (Dori Zinn)

Recommendation re: resumption of dues collection for chapter membership

- Dori talked to chapter presidents (about seven) around the country about this issue, and after looking at the website usability she suggests that we should not start collecting dues until we make it easier to sign up as a member of our chapter on the website. None of the chapters in region 10 collect dues.

- Lucy suggested that we make a date to revisit this topic again. Dori said she would keep track of it and bring it up when the website is fixed.

Student Affairs/Scholarship. (Michael Koretzky) No update

Awards. (Tim Dodson/Julie Kay)

Financial results – 2010 Sunshine State Awards: We actually netted $2,000 more than we did last year. We spent less on the event (largely because we did not do plaques for the winners).

- Darcie got a lot of good feedback about the locale we chose (Hard Rock) and the event overall.

- Darcie wanted to set a workshop date to go over the event and talk about how to improve the awards process. Meeting was set for Saturday, Aug. 7, 2-4 p.m. Tim will come up with an agenda for the meeting.

- Tim made a request to approve tentative agreement for online contest administration. He explained how the pro chapter in Western Washington used a judging system called The Better Newspaper Contest that puts the judging all online. It’s quick and easy. It eliminates hard copy entries – saving us a lot of money. He spoke with the rep for the company today, and he proposed bundling our membership with other chapters with small contests so we could split the cost of set up and the software. The board discussed what the cost would be. Tim said it would be some portion of $3,500 (including $1,000 for set up that will be a one-time cost). Tim said he cannot commit to doing the same system that we have been using. It is a real headache. This will all be considered and discussed at the Sunshine State workshop.

ACTION: Lisa made a motion to approve signing a tentative agreement with the online judging company to lock in the lower price. Tim noted that the agreement is not binding. Jason seconded the motion. All approved.

Professional Education. (Paola Iuspa-Abbott) No update

Marketing. (Michele Boyet) No update

Fundraising. (Lisa Lucas) No update

Ethics. (Oscar Musibay)

Public and the Press Panel – $650 funding request to host ethics-oriented panel discussion with WPBT – Darcie Lunsford

- Darcie is getting funding ($650) from SPJ regional and other places. She believes strongly about this program.

- PBS will air our panel discussion over and over. Live chats will also be incorporated into the event.

ACTION: Lisa made a motion to approve the funding; Jason seconded. All approved. The finance committee will come up with the best way to allocate the funds.

FOI. (Bill Hirschman/Darcie Lunsford)

Federal shield law update: The House passed the positive revision of the FOI bill. It is now with the leadership of the Senate, thanks in part to SPJ National. We need to get this passed before Congress goes into recess. Bill suggested writing a letter to send to Florida’s two senators. Everyone agreed on the idea.

Diversity. (Arlene Satchell) No update

4. Website Maintenance – Rachael Joyner

- Jaime Danielson, our chapter’s current web editor, is relocating. She offered a proposal to continue service to the chapter for fee. She had previously been volunteering her time.

- After a short discussion, the board decided not to pay Jamie to continue updating the site. We will instead find a student or recent grad to do it for free. It will be a Web internship of sorts. Rachael will oversee the process.

5. Delegate selection for SPJ National Convention

- (Darcie) We can send three delegates and one alternate. Michele won the student award and is willing to share her room to cut our chapter’s costs. Darcie, Rachael, and Dori will be the voting delegates. Sergy will be the alternate. And our chapter will also pay for Michele’s extra costs not covered by the award and defray some of Lucy’s costs to attend. Darcie thinks we will have enough money to send everyone who wants to go. Michele was put in charge of figuring out how to divide the $3,000 budgeted for the National Convention.

ACTION: Dori made a motion to approve the delegates and Jason seconded it. All approved.

6. New Business

- (Michael) Our chapter has been nominated for chapter of the year. He told the board about the requirements and how we meet them. We are in the running against other chapters who are much larger than us. Michael, a SPJ National board member, put in his pitch for our chapter with the man making the award recommendation.

ACTION: Lisa made a motion to adjourn the meeting. It was seconded by Dori. All approved.

Lip Service and the Society of Professional Journalists South Florida Chapter Present: Off The Record: Journalists Out Loud on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. An evening of storytelling featuring top local writers at Design Within Reach in Miami Beach.

What we’re looking for:
• True, first-person stories about funny, sad, humiliating, scandalous or 
uplifting experiences.
• Submissions from journalists of every fashion — print, radio, television and online.
• Writers who want to share their work with a live audience in a fun, 
appreciative setting.
• Typewritten stories of 1,300 words or fewer.

What we’re not looking for:
• Stories you’ve written about other people. This is an opportunity for you to write and talk about yourself. And what journalist doesn’t like to do that?

Modeled after the popular storytelling series Lip 
Service, Off the Record aims to toss objectivity aside and celebrate the art of 
writing and storytelling without concern for column inches, page views or 
ratings. Simply put, we want your story.

Send your story to submissions@lipservicestories.com. PLEASE PUT “Off the Record” in the subject line. There is NO FEE to submit a story or attend the event. It’s all FREE.

Submissions deadline: Friday, Oct. 22

For more information on Lip Service and to watch videos from previous events, visit Lipservicestories.com.

Design Within Reach is located next door to Books and Books at 927 Lincoln Road, Suite 101, in Miami Beach. Call 305-604-0037 or visit Dwr.com.

Brought to you by:

The SPJ Convention and National Journalism Conference will be here before we know it! The event is Oct. 3-5 in Las Vegas, but early registration ends Sept. 8. We hope you can all attend.

We also hope you will help us spread the word to other SPJ members you know. The convention is a fantastic opportunity for all journalists – veteran or newbie – to learn and stay ahead of the game in this ever-changing climate. We’ve crafted our event to be a place for journalists to learn new skills that will make them competitive, meet inspiring professionals in the field and just have a good time with colleagues and old friends.

A few of the programs planned for this year’s convention:

What Does the Future Have in Store? Mark Briggs, co-founder and CEO of Serra Media and author of “Journalism Next,” takes you on an exploration of some of the more promising journalism ventures currently finding success.

Secrets to Personal Branding. Let the experts show you how to build your own brand by building your own website, video, blog and podcast. Personal branding is very important to know in today’s fast-changing media landscape.

Site Roulette: 60 Sites in 60 Minutes. Return to the newsroom or station armed with the tools journalists are using daily – and they’re right at your fingertips! SPJ’s Ron Sylvester and Jeff Cutler share their online media expertise and give you resources you won’t want to report without!

What Non-Business Journalists Need to Know to Cover the New Decade’s Growing Number of Business Stories. As business staffs shrink or are merged into other news departments, more and more general assignment reporters are being asked to do stories for which they are very ill-prepared. Quarterly earnings, annual reports, 10Ks, SEC filings – all of these can be foreign terms to many journalists outside the financial field, but when studied properly by a trained reporter they can yield many, many juicy and amazing stories.

And there’s much more! Click here for a larger list of the programs and sessions at convention, with more sessions added in the coming weeks.

REMEMBER: Early registration for professional members is $185. That deal ends Sept. 8!

Hotel information is online and the rates run $129 for a single/double and $144 for a triple/quad. If members are interested in finding a roommate, they can post their information on our site here.

If you have more questions about the convention and how it can benefit SPJ members, please contact Scott Leadingham at sleadingham@spj.org or at 317-927-8000 ext. 211.

We hope to see you in Vegas!

Program topics include Journalism Next, Secrets to Personal Branding, and Business Reporting for Non-Business Journalists. And there’s much more!

Early registration for SPJ professional members is $185. That deal ends Sept. 8!

Walnut-finish certificate frames ($40) and duplicate award certificates ($10) are available for purchase. Prices include shipping. To order, send an e-mail to tim@timdodson.com and you will receive payment instructions. Order deadline has been extended to Friday, July 9.

Whether you’re an editor looking for leadership ideas, a senior reporter looking for storytelling tools, or a cutting-edge journalist searching for multimedia and social media training, AASFE and Poynter will have the programming for you. Visit the AASFE website for conference details.

Here are a few program highlights:

What Does the Future Have in Store? Mark Briggs, co-founder and CEO of Serra Media and author of “Journalism Next,” takes you on an exploration of some of the more promising journalism ventures currently finding success.

Secrets to Personal Branding. Let the experts show you how to build your own brand by building your own website, video, blog and podcast. Personal branding is very important to know in today’s fast-changing media landscape.

Site Roulette: 60 Sites in 60 Minutes. Return to the newsroom or station armed with the tools journalists are using daily – and they’re right at your fingertips! SPJ’s Ron Sylvester and Jeff Cutler share their online media expertise and give you resources you won’t want to report without!

What Non-Business Journalists Need to Know to Cover the New Decade’s Growing Number of Business Stories. As business staffs shrink or are merged into other news departments, more and more general assignment reporters are being asked to do stories for which they are very ill-prepared. Quarterly earnings, annual reports, 10Ks, SEC filings – all of these can be foreign terms to many journalists outside the financial field, but when studied properly by a trained reporter they can yield many, many juicy and amazing stories.

REMEMBER: Early registration for professional members is $185. That deal ends Sept. 8!
Hotel information is online and the rates run $129 for a single/double and $144 for a triple/quad. If members are interested in finding a roommate, they can post their information on the SPJ site.

SPJ hopes to see you in Vegas!

Workshop scholarships, provided by a grant from The Florida Bar Foundation, cover two nights’ hotel accommodations and workshop meals. Travel expenses and any incidentals are the responsibility of the participant or the participant’s employer.

Reporters attending will learn about legal reporting and covering the state courts from lawyers, judges and other experienced journalists. Topics will include: covering high-profile cases, public records and Florida’s open government laws, the foreclosure crisis, libel law and defamation, legal issues of reporting via social media, lawyer regulation and legal resources on the Internet. Additionally there will be luncheon speakers on timely topics, a tour of the Florida Supreme Court and an evening reception and dinner on the 22nd floor of the Capitol with the Supreme Court Justices.

Nominations must be made by editors, publishers or news directors and include information on the journalist’s background, current assignments and contact information.

Please send nominations for receipt by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11, to Dorohn A. Frazier at The Florida Bar by e-mail (dfrazier@flabar.org), fax (850-561-5733) or mail to 651 E. Jefferson St., Tallahassee, FL 32399. The selection process will be completed by mid-August and those selected for participation will be notified by e-mail.

AGENDA

May 2010 Board of Directors Meeting

SPJ South Florida Pro Chapter

Wednesday, May 26, 2010, 7:00 p.m.

South Florida Business Journal

1. Roll Call

Roll called. All members present, except Sam Terilli (teaching a class) and Paola Iuspa-Abbott. Meeting started at 7:15 p.m.

2. Approval of April 6 Minutes

ACTION: Lisa made a motion to approve the last meeting’s minutes. Dori seconded the motion. A vote was taken by voice. Motion carried unanimously.

3. Committee Updates

(Darcie Lunsford) Going forward we will only have committee updates from people who tell Darcie before the meeting that they want time to speak. This will allow more time for agenda items.

Bylaws. (Darcie) She plans to email a draft of the new bylaws to the board next month for review, and then have a vote for final approval at the next board meeting. The committee is very close to completing the revision.

Membership. (Dori Zinn)

- Dori has been talking to the folks at national about making it easier to join our chapter on the SPJ website. They just revamped the site, but didn’t do anything to fix the membership page. (Koretzky) They actually haven’t automated the membership part of the website, so someone has to enter all the new members by hand. This makes it difficult to know if we have new members in a timely fashion. He is going to see if we can get an extension on the cutoff for new members, so we can get an extra delegate for the Vegas convention in October. Right now we are just a few away from the 150 needed to have three delegates.

Student Affairs/Scholarship. (Michael Koretzky)

- Scholarship ideas for next year: We should give out scholarships at events – clips and resume would be reviewed on-site by judges after the event. They would hand out scholarships of smaller denominations ($500 instead of $1,000). This would tie scholarships to membership and events.

- Discussion with Bill Hirshman on how this would work. He thinks we should hand out scholarships with higher dollar values because students won’t be motivated to apply otherwise. (Koretzky) We tried this plan at the unconventional and it worked out well. It also gave an opportunity for students to get their clips and resumes critiqued. (Darcie) This new plan would make it an interactive process, instead of people just sending in clips.

ACTION: The board supports the idea and Koretzky will come back with a more concrete plan.

- The FOI program held at FAU on May 20 was a success – golf claps all around for the event. (Darcie) It was a really good program with a good turnout – about 20 people, mostly students.

Awards. (Tim Dodson/Julie Kay – Sunshine State Awards update)

- They’re working on getting the room fee waved. We’ll only be paying for the food. We still have to create programs and a PowerPoint presentation. We also need volunteers to stuff bags. They have to come two hours early.

- Discussion on what to do about the first place awards. We have a $500 grant from the Palm Beach Post that we could use towards getting something more substantial than just a certificate. (Tim) He’s concerned that we can’t do more in such a short amount of time. It was decided to just stick with what we have.

- (Julie) Discussion on whether we then spend the money from the Post on dessert and coffee? Tim read through the menu, which is really nice. Discussion on whether to do just coffee for $50 or go with coffee and desserts for $500. ACTION: Six voted for the dessert and coffee and three voted for just coffee (Jake, Dori, Rachael), so the motion to have coffee and dessert passed on a majority.

- Sergy and Rachael agreed to staff the registration table.

- (Lucy) Wants to know what the future holds for this event. (Rachael) We should put this discussion and a review of what we can do better as an agenda item for the next meeting.

Diversity. (Arlene Satchel)

The chair emailed her committee update, and it was part of the board’s meeting packet.

4.  Proposed 2010-2011 chapter budget (Tim, Darcie)

- (Darcie) Review of the proposed budget that was passed out to the board. We need to come up with an additional fundraiser because the Sunshine State Awards aren’t bringing in as much money as in years past and we are running into a deficit-spending situation. Let’s look at what other chapters do to fundraise that has been successful: a high-brow FOI dinner (Sacramento does it), National Writers Workshop, Lisa’s high school journalism camp.

- (Lucy) Will we get money from membership? We should start collecting our dues. (Jason) We need to give people incentives to be part of our chapter. Otherwise, what would be their motivation for paying dues. (Darcie) Michele needs to create a marketing flyer. We could have discounts on events. (Koretzky) If we start charging dues then our membership count will go down when people do not renew. Right now anyone in Florida who signs up nationally who doesn’t pick a chapter is allocated to us. (Darcie) We need to make a decision going forward. The membership committee needs to sit down and weigh the pros and cons. They need to bring back a proposal for the July board meting.

ACTION: Darcie asked for a vote to adopt the new budget. Lisa made a motion to approve, which was seconded by Jason. All voted by voice, and the motion carried unanimously.

5.  Minority Scholarship proposal (Julie Kay, Lourdes Martinez)

- (Julie) Lourdes, a former editor at the Miami Herald, wants to give our chapter $500 for five years to start a scholarship for a graduating high school student or first-year college student. This person needs to be either a minority or the first person in their family to go to college. (Koretzky) There could be an issue for picking someone who is the first person in their family to go to college because how can you really verify it?

- After a bit of discussion from the board, Koretzky asked if Lourdes would be willing to let us partner with other minority associations for marketing purposes. Lisa knows a man from Miami who runs a three-week journalism camp for minorities who could help us. (Darcie) The board is in agreement that this is a good idea. Now we need a more detailed proposal that Julie will work up for the next meeting.

6. Lip Service program proposal (Jake Cline, Sergy Odiduro)

- (Jake) He participated in a literary event recently at Books & Books in Miami that he thinks would be an interesting event for our chapter to do with a journalism twist. The program is run quarterly by two women. People get up and read first person stories (of 8 minutes or less) about themselves. About 200+ people show up. It’s an interesting exercise to edit your stuff to be read aloud. He was the only journalist there. He was thinking that we should do a journalism version. It would be a good promotional and membership opportunity for us.

- He’s already spoken to the organizers about it. They partnered with a Jewish organization last year to put on a similar event. They sent him a budget of what the event would cost: $1,438. He broke down what each cost would be. He thinks he can get them to cut it in half: $600. This would fall under a professional development program.

- (Julie) It would be good to have an event in Miami. (Koretzky) It would be neat for the journalists to be edited by non-journalists – that is quickly what is happening in their real world. (Jake) Our event would be held on Nov. 13 (a Saturday evening) at the Books & Books right off Lincoln Road in Miami. We do a lot of insular events with journalists and journalists. It would be a good way to actually meet with readers. (Jason) This sounds completely different from anything our chapter has done. This is the type of programming we need to do more of. (Jake) If this is successful, this is something we could replicate in Palm Beach or Broward county. We should start promoting ASAP.

ACTION: Rachael made a motion to approve up to $600 for the event. Lucy seconded. All voted by voice. The motion passed by a majority with Lisa Lucas voting no.

7. National Writers Workshop discussion/steering committee creation (Lucy Reed)

- (Lucy) She didn’t make it to the UF event to see how they did it because she broke her arm, but she spoke with some of the folks at the journalism school. We need to put together a steering committee.

- (Darcie) We need to get some heavy-hitters on the steering committee. Brainstorming from the  board: We need a super publicist; need to talk to Books & Books about finding authors who will be down here on tour. UM and FIU can also probably help with that. The Florida publishing association may be able to help us get a book publisher.

ACTION: Darcie asked for a vote to create a steering committee. Jason made a motion, which Jake seconded. All voted by voice and approved. Jake, Koretzky, and Rachael agreed to be part of her committee.

8. New Business

- (Darcie) Please look at annual report and see if anything is missing. Comments are due Tuesday.

- (Lucy) She went to the national journalism awards in Tampa of behalf of our chapter. It was amazing and motivating.

- (Rachael) A brief update on the Will Write for Food program. We have nearly all the applicants we need. We were getting a lot of applicants from outside of Region 3. We’ve decided to admit some, but will give people from our region the priority. We will pick the winners by June 30. (Jake) We should get one of the writers from the event to participate in the Lip Service event.

- (Lucy) When can we get a regional convention again? We need more programming for pros . We should look at holding some more one-day training events.

ACTION: Jason made a motion to adjourn the meeting, which was seconded by Rachael. All approved.

Contacts:
Kevin Smith, SPJ President, 304-367-4864, ksmith@spj.org
Neil Ralston, SPJ Vice President of Campus Chapter Affairs, 270-745-5841, nralston@spj.org

INDIANAPOLIS – Leaders of the Society of Professional Journalists wrote a letter to the president of Florida Atlantic University, Mary Jane Saunders, voicing concern over news reports that university administrators have threatened to punish a student journalist for her actions with the student newspaper, the University Press. The situation involves SPJ national board member Michael Koretzky whose removal as newspaper adviser and reinstatement as a volunteer adviser by the student journalist led to administrative threats. In addition to President Saunders, the letter was sent Tuesday to Associate Dean Terry Mena and Director of Student Media Marti Harvey. The letter is included below:

Dear President Saunders:

The leadership of the Society of Professional Journalists is troubled by news reports that administrators at Florida Atlantic University have threatened to punish a student journalist if she continued to recognize Michael Koretzky as a volunteer adviser for the student newspaper, the University Press.

We understand that student journalists at the newspaper have chosen to meet regularly with Mr. Koretzky even though he recently was relieved of his official duties as newspaper adviser. We also understand that the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Karla Bowsher, wishes to recognize Mr. Koretzky’s involvement by publishing his name in the newspaper as a volunteer adviser.

While Mr. Koretzky’s continued involvement may be awkward for administrators and the newspaper’s official adviser, we do not believe the university has any right to threaten Ms. Bowsher or any other FAU student simply for seeking Mr. Koretzky’s counsel and choosing to list him as a volunteer adviser.

Mr. Koretzky is member of the SPJ national board, but our involvement and concern with this issue would be the same regardless of Mr. Koretzky’s connection to the organization. One of the missions of SPJ is to protect student press rights. We are involved because it appears those rights are being violated.

We believe the First Amendment’s freedoms of speech, press and assembly apply here. FAU students should be free to meet with whom they wish, and student editors of the University Press should be free to control the content of the newspaper. Threatening an editor for listing Mr. Koretzky as a volunteer adviser not only violates that editor’s First Amendment rights, but it sends a signal to all other FAU students that university officials do not respect all of the students’ constitutional freedoms.

If news reports of the threat have been inaccurate, we urge you to set the record straight and publicly declare that students are free to meet with Mr. Koretzky at any time to discuss anything they choose. We also urge you to declare that student editors of the University Press are free to list Mr. Koretzky as adviser.

If news reports about the threat are correct, we urge you to remove the threat and require any administrator involved to apologize for attempting to violate the First Amendment rights of an FAU student.

The Society of Professional Journalists, the nation’s largest membership journalism organization, promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.

Sincerely,

Kevin Z. Smith
President

Neil Ralston
Vice President of Campus Chapter Affairs

Darcie Lunsford
President of the SPJ South Florida Pro Chapter

CC: Terry Mena, Marti Harvey

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. For more information about SPJ, please visit www.spj.org.

-END-