Minutes from Dec. 9, 2015
MEETING MINUTES
SPJ Florida Board of Directors Meeting
7 p.m. | Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015
Panera Bread | Boca Raton
THE BOARD
| Dori Zinn, president PRESENT
Christiana Lilly, executive vice president PRESENT Jason Parsley, membership vice president PRESENT Michele Boyet, programs vice president excused Christopher Persaud, treasurer PRESENT Abbi Perry, secretary PRESENT Brandon Ballenger, immediate past president PRESENT |
Megan Fitzgerald, director excused
Andrea Richard, director PRESENT Michael Schottey, director absent John Sotomayor, director absent Dina Weinstein, director PRESENT Betty Wells, director PRESENT Rachel Wang, student member excused |
GUESTS
Michael Koretzky, SPJ region 3 director
QUICK UPDATES // REVIEWS
1. Approve lastmeeting’s minutes — Christiana makes a motion/ Brandon seconds. All in favor. Passes.
2. Committee updates
Membership (Jason)
- One new member re-newed – John McDonald. Next step is to send out an email blast to prospective members.
Programs (Michele)
- We will try to do monthly Google hangouts. Michele will send a doodle out.
- Many exciting things in the works! Initials next to event are those who are leading it.
January
**Palm Beach County mixer for 1/14 (City Place) / MB
**NOVA High School Conference 1/30 – speakers needed! / DZ & MF
February
**Wordcamp 2/19-21
**Speed Dating/Training on Freelance (Hollywood? Best location for HR Block rep & Koretzly to speak) / MB & CL
**Black Lives Matter event / CL & DZ
March
**No Notoriety Webinar / DZ & CL
**Speed Dating/Training on Social Media (Delray/Boca) / MB
April
**Full day of tech training (maybe in Boca at FAU?) — will be discussing more soon! / MB
**Author talk / CL
May
**Speed Dating/Training on Video & Drones / MB & BB / Maybe combine with MK’s Phone Alone training?
Summer
**All on Paper at FAU / MK
**Zine Party (Hollywood beach) / MK
**WHN code -data journo school / mini session? / CL
**August? Forging the Future (Miami) / MB & JP
**Awards event with NAHJ / JP
Fall
**Islamic/Muslim Media / MK
**Diversity mixer / JP
Scholarships (Christiana)
- Contact Christiana if interested in helping to promote college scholarships.
- New idea: Sponsor a classroom (newsroom) to high schools in need.
Student Affairs (Megan)
- Updated in new business.
Sunshine State Awards (Jason)
- Switched over to OpenWater (new content management system.) Will be launching awards in mid-January.
- New idea to promote awards: Highlight past winners on social media and advertise by posting “Last year, this person won this…and you can too” etc.
- New idea: Make cards that will promote the awards to hand out at future events.
Drone (Brandon)
- Drone task force
- Brandon got in touch with a gentlemen who teaches a class on drones and works for Miami-Dade Police Dept. Brandon got the opportunity to attend one of his classes.
- FAA made a new deadline for regulations – Spring 2016
- Brandon and Koretzky are going to apply for a grant through Sigma Delta Chi (SDX) to send Brandon “on tour” to learn more about drones and how to use them appropriately. They are going to ask for $2,500 from SDX They will ask for $500 from our local chapter.
- Drone’s name is “Dr. One.”
- Mark of Excellence Awards – Brandon needs volunteers to judge.
Finance/Current financials (Chris)
- The numbers:
- Checking: $39,570.40
- Savings: $32,468.12
- PayPal: $0
- Discussion: We’d like to put some of the money into a CD. We are going to take this convo to Slack.
NEW BUSINESS
We The Journalists — Dina
Dina would like to re-start this monthly Q&A feature. Be on the lookout for future communication from Dina.
- Reminder of what this is: Interview state journalists and feature their q&a interview on the website and e-blasts.
- Looking to feature journalists from various ethnic groups.
Black Lives Matter — Christiana
Web panel (webinar) in February to go over how the media is covering this movement. (In partnership with SFBJA).
- How do we cover race in the media – Black Lives Matter is a big platform right now
- Partnering with NABJ
- Aiming to get three panelists (lawyer, professor, police officer), a moderator (potentially Terrence Sheppard) and a tech backup
- Would like to use Citrix GoToWebinar (Abbi, a Citrix employee, will see if we can get it for free)
Conference Review — Many
- FSPA District 7 — Abbi, Christiana, Dori, Brandon, Megan, Koretzky all attended/presented
- Abbi and Christiana held a mock press release to a huge group of students (over 100 kids attended!)
- Dori and Christiana did a First Amendment session and an Advisor Session
- Brandon hosted a Drone Session (including an actual fly session outside) to about 40 people.
- Koretzky hosted Chicken Salad (design session)
- ACP/CMA (National College Media Convention) Dori and Koretzky presented
- Dori hosted a session on How to Land a Media Job and the No Notoriety Session (how the media covers mass shootings)
- If the event with BLM works well, would like to do a webinar again with No Notoriety. Also pitching to SPJ national conference.
- Koretzky hosted Chicken Salad (design session)
- Midnight Snack event with students, went until 1 a,m., a lot of students participate and stayed late.
Upcoming conferences — Dori
- EIJ16 — Currently a call for programming, due Jan. 27.
- Nova Southeastern University Multimedia Camp — Visit SPJ FLA Slack > Student Affairs for more info on session needs. Camp is Jan. 30 at Nova Southeastern University.
- Put your ideas in Slack so Dori can compile them and send them to her Nova contact.
DISCUSSION
No Notoriety — Dori
At the ACP/CMA convention in Oct/Nov. in Austin, Dori moderated a panel on limiting the exposure of shooters in mass murders. Discussion and vote on if we should adopt this policy as a chapter and promote the mission of No Notoriety in Florida.
- Dori makes a motion is to support the mission / Abbi seconds it. Dori will send an email with voting information.
- This topic had heavy discussion. Opinions and points brought up included:
- Is it our job to tell Editors how to edit?
- Does No Notoriety’s mission compliment/enhance SPJ’s Code of Ethics?
- SPJ should hold editors accountable.
- Does No Notoriety go too far?
- This topic had heavy discussion. Opinions and points brought up included:
Video Game Awards — Koretzky
A national awards program started because of a local event.
- Kunkel Awards: Deadline for submission is Jan. 15.
- Bill Kunkel was an original gaming journalist – he helped “invent” video game journalism.
New SPJ college media effort — Koretzky
- Award goes to a student who raises the most heck to administration.
Re-design of jobs section on website
- The redesign of the jobs section is still ongoing. We have sent a tentative deadline of January 30th for the jobs page to be completed.
Online resume critiques
- New idea: People will submit resumes they want critiqued via our website (for a nominal fee) for a professional editor to look over and give advice.
Dori makes a motion to end the meeting. All in favor.
Minutes were approved at the Feb. 9, 2016 board meeting.