Minutes from March 31, 2014
SPJ South Florida Pro Board Meeting
March 31, 2014 – 7:30 p.m.
Panera Bread | 5050 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, FL
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Present: Jason Parsley, Brandon Ballenger, Christopher Persaud, Dori Zinn, Christiana Lilly, Andrea Richard, Gabriel Tyner, Dina Weinstein, John McDonald, Michele Boyet,
Absent: Dylan Bouscher, Betty Wells, Sergio N. Candido, Bill Whiting
Special Guests: Michael Koretzky, Region 3 Director; Jeffrey Pierre and Michael Sharp of SPJ FIU Student Chapter
Approve January minutes: Dori motion, Brandon seconds, unanimous approval
Illustration Workshop: An art workshop for journalists with illustrator and cartoonist, Leela Corman. She is a Gainesville, FL-based cartoonist, illustrator and author.
Tentatively planned for May 3 at The Art Center of South Florida, 924 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. The Carleton Hotel is hosting Corman as a part of their Writer’s Room program.
Need sponsorship and advertising, Andrea suggests Tates Comics, Barker Animation.
How do we ensure that people will actually show up, since it’s free? Pay a refundable fee upon arrival?
Unanimous approval for $300 for travel expenses.
Treasurer’s Report: Tim has not sent report to Chris yet.
Membership: Lost five members since last meeting. Have 75 to 100 people who are either not affiliated with a chapter or are post grads we can recruit, ongoing project. Michelle is joining Dori as co-chair of Membership committee.
Renewals right now are not user friendly, tell you too far in advance and a lot of people forget it. Maybe we can notify people three days before to not lose people through lapsing? SPJ national says they are working on fixing this.
Votes: 11-0 to sponsor Chicas Poderosas Miami event. They are an organization dedicated to empowering Latin American women journalists to excel in visual storytelling, data visualization and interactive media with hands-on skills training. First workshop in the United States from April 17 to 20 in Miami.
Jason will find out if we can have a table at the event.
Website Redirect update: Don’t have to pay for another year to host two sites, redirect works from old to new.
Regional Reps: Kristyn Caddell will represent the Orlando area and John Sotomayor will represent the Ocala area.
SPJ Florida Intern: Intern from UF will be working this summer for chapter.
Will Write For Food: $4,000 for us to front to pay for travel for students out of state. $2,150 from students’ fees.
Spread Immoral News: FIU made a website (will send link for us to promo), FAU produced a glossy, other schools have through April to do theirs.
Death Race: $500 approved last meeting. Looking for a celebrity “dead person” writer to participate, sponsors.
Vacancies: Need a new vice president of programs. Dina interested, must find someone to replace her position.
Sunshine State Awards and ceremony: Most professional entries since at least 2009! Betty, Dina, Dylan, Kristyn and John are on the committee to promote the event more and to expand it. Michelle, Dina, Koretzky, Dori, Christiana will plan ceremony.
Grand total: Either 870 or 880 (there are 10 entries disabled by the entrant, perhaps mistakenly. English Pro: Either 746 or 756 (see above). Spanish Pro: 38. Student: 86. 2013: 721 (652 & 69). 2012 724 (614 & 110). 2011: 738 (638 & 100). 2010: 700 pro. 2009: 720.
Scholarship Committee: Five students from UF applied, awarding to Claudia Lievano. Perhaps need to rewrite the application for future to determine if chapter wants a winner based on financial need or overall talent.
FAF Awards: We’re soliciting nominations.
Diversity Mixer: Not planned yet. Dina suggests having it after the cartoon workshop.
Q&As/Shine On: Not done, hopefully new SPJ Florida Intern can assist.
SFMJ: Updating every two weeks. Chris joining to help Brandon.
Licensing Journalists: Koretzky wants to have students think about how one would be a “licensed” journalist — encourages discussion of what makes a journalist a qualified one. Winner of who can figure it out gets $500.
Dori makes motion to end meeting; Brandon seconds. All in favor.
These minutes were approved at the Sept. 15, 2014 SPJ Florida board meeting.