Minutes From May 8, 2012
SPJ Board of Directors Meeting
7:30 pm, Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Panera Bread | Boca Raton
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Board Members Present
Michele Boyet, president – Devin Desjarlais, director
Jason Parsley, executive vice president – Rebekah Monson, director
Brandon Ballenger, treasurer – Cassie Morien, director
Rachael Joyner, secretary – Lucy Reed, director
Dori Zinn, membership vice president – Gabriel Tyner, director
Michael Koretzky, past president – Gideon Grudo, student member
Excused: Lynn Walsh, programs vice president; Sergy Odiduro, director
* Special guest – Bill Whiting, scholarship chair
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QUICK UPDATES // REVIEWS
1. Approve last month’s minutes –
ACTION: Rebekah made a motion to approved the minutes, which was seconded by Cassie. All approved.
2. Sunshine State Awards – We have most the finalists, there are seven categories withstanding — Michele
– We are still waiting to get the last seven entries judged. Tim needs a week to get everything together. He will make a Google Doc with the winners.
– The board discussed how to deal with the posting of the winners on the jump site Cassie is creating. These will be posted on the day after the banquet. We are going to announce the finalists on our chapter website along with the banquet details.
3. Regional convention – March 23-24 at University of Florida — Rebekah
– Rebekah gave a quick overview of the convention, which she attended as our chapter representative. It was geared mostly to college students. She did some networking. She thinks the conference wasn’t much benefit to professional journalists. She suggests that we gear next year’s regional convention more to professional journalists.
– As the regional director, Koretzky is in charge of planning next year’s convention. He wants to move it to June or July, but it has always been held in March or April. He wants to plan the convention around an event our chapter is having next year.
– The board discussed plans for next year’s convention. Koretzky said he will come up with some possible dates to present at the next board meeting.
4. SPJ National report – Gideon and Koretzky attended the annual spring board meeting
a few weeks ago — Gideon
– Gideon passed out a sheet with the new campaign guidelines, which was a hot topic of discussion at the meeting. They discussed how people will campaign now that everyone can vote, and not just delegates attending the convention as in years past. The voting can now be done online.
– The national board discussed some other very broad ideas. Gideon passed out the whole agenda. There was also a discussion about SPJ’s international membership – there are 100+. Some of the national board members were against having international members because there is no way to regulate if they are following the SPJ Code of Ethics. However, no action was taken.
5. Plans for the next Meet-up for May — Rebekah
– Sergy helped Rebekah reach out to all the diversity groups in the area for the next meet up. It will be held at J Marc’s in Fort Lauderdale on May 31.
– Rebekah informed the board that she could no longer take the lead on the meet-ups anymore. However, she still wants to help.
– Michele said that the Access Across event will not be coming to Florida in the spring, but possibly the fall. Rebekah also said that she has reached out to all the student SPJ chapters in the area, and we may be doing an event with Miami-Dade College in the fall.
– Michele thanked Rebekah for all her hard work on the meet-ups thus far.
6. Rehash First Amendment Foundation invoice — Not the group we thought it was, we get nothing for sending them money, just something the chapter has done in the past. Pass on paying to be a member this year? — Koretzky // Michele
– Koretzky did some research and found that they haven’t been very active. They weren’t very responsive when Koretzky inquired about what they do. The foundation does do some lobbying, however SPJ has it’s own lobbying arm.
– Lucy thinks that they are probably legitimate, but she wonders if it is worth our money.
– Jason will ask them if they will come do an event with us. The board decided to table the issue until Jason speaks with them.
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NEW BUSINESS
1. Sunshine State Awards Banquet – We’ve got a few dates on hold for June a few different places, we need to make a final decision tonight –– Lucy // Jason // Michele
– Jason and Lucy visited Nova Southeastern University and Calder Casino in Miami Gardens – both are offering free space for our event. Both are on hold for June 23. They are shooting to spend $3,000 and have 75 to 100 journalists attend.
– They liked Nova because it had free AV equipment already set up. However, some of the board felt that Calder would have more of a pull for out-of-towners because there is stuff to do there. The price for Calder will be $30 per person. Nova as 120 seats; Calder has 102. If we have the banquet at Nova, they charge for parking. Calder has free parking and valet parking. If we had the event at Nova, the food would be from Chartwells.
– After further discussion on the options, the board brought the issue to a vote.
ACTION: Gideon made a motion to go with Calder on June 23 as long as the price does not exceed $3,000. It was seconded by Dori. All members but Lucy approved. She thought that the event space at Calder was too old and dingy.
2. Will Write For Food 2012 – We will once again request $1,000 apiece from SPJ SoFla, regional, and FCPA for the annual event Labor Day Weekend — Michele // Koretzky
– Michele pitched the event to the board and explained how the money would be spent: Transportation costs for the students and food. Twenty students, who must be SPJ or FCPA members, take over a homeless shelter in Hollywood and put out an issue of their monthly newspaper. It gives the students great clips, helps out the shelter, and helps recruit new SPJ members. Three new people joined our chapter after the event last year. We are looking for professionals to be advisers.
– Gabriel volunteered to make a video covering the event.
ACTION: Rachael made a motion to approve $1,000 for the program; seconded by Dori. All approved.
3. Future programming ideas? What do we want to do during the SPJ National Convention in September — All
– Michele discussed designing an event that coincides with the SPJ National Convention that is coming down here next. She suggested holding an event with an educational component.
– The board discussed some ideas. Rebekah suggested putting together a panel with influential journalists from South Florida to speak. Michele asked the board to think of connections they have and email her by Friday evening.
4. Zine Party: One Night Stand — I want to do a program for pro journalists. I did this before on my own a couple times back in the mid-90s. Lucy was there. — Koretzky
– Koretzky gave a brief overview of the event. His envisions dividing the people participating into two teams. This is a pro journalist event only. The end product is one hard copy, from which he will make PDFs. The event is only 3 to 4 hours. There are few rules. It is very laid back.
– The board approved of the event and discussed ideas.
– Koretzky will come up with a proposal for the next board meeting.
5. Next meeting – Back to Fort Lauderdale for beginning of July? — All
– Michele will send out a doodle. The board was fine with going back to Fort Lauderdale at a Panera Bread for the next meeting.
6. Training Grant Applications –
– Bill – June 1 is the deadline for the training grant applications for the Steve McQueen scholarship.
– The board suggested pushing the deadline back so that we can promote the scholarship at the diversity meet-up on May 31.
ACTION: Dori made a motion to end the meeting, which was seconded by Devin. All approved.