Minutes From September 12, 2012
MEETING MINUTES
SPJ Board of Directors Meeting
7:30 pm, Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Panera Bread | Boca Raton
____________________________________________________________
THE BOARD
Michele Boyet, president
Jason Parsley, executive vice president
Brandon Ballenger, treasurer
Rachael Joyner, secretary
Dori Zinn, membership vice president
Lynn Walsh, programs vice president
Michael Koretzky, past president
Excused: Jason Parsley, Rachael Joyner, Lucy Reed
Here: Michele, Brandon, Dori, Lynn, Michael, Devin, Rebekah, Cassie, Gabriel, Gideon, Dylan Bouscher, Sergy
____________________________________________________________
Devin Desjarlais, director
Rebekah Monson, director
Cassie Morien, director
Lucy Reed, director
Gabriel Tyner, director
Sergy Odiduro, director
Gideon Grudo, student member
1. Approve last month’s minutes – Dori made motion, Cassie 2nd
2. Recap – Zine Party: One Night Stand | http://bit.ly/SPJZine — Koretzky // Gideon // Michele
– Gideon said zine party was success. 21 people showed up. Two teams, competition was high, two people left.
Most people want to do it again before next year. A student in Arizona is going to be doing one of her own.
3. Recap – Will Write For Food 2012 | http://www.wwff2012.com — Gideon // Koretzky
– WWFF had 23 students, most ever. Dylan said it was better than any CMA convention he’s been to and he
learned more at this event. Rebekah wants to note that pros were involved in the program. Devin, Rachel, Dori,
Cassie and Sergy were there representing board members. Sergio, another SPJ member, was advising.
4. Update – Partnership with SPLC, $500 for “compliance audit” — Koretzky
– Dylan, Ryan Cortes, and Koretzky spoke with Frank Lamonte who is coming down for the SPJ convention. SPLC
wants to take one region and do a Cleary Act audit. Dates still need to be figured out. Rebekah has to recues
herself because she’s employed by a university. The program will stick to public universities.
5. Update – We’re sponsoring the First Amendment Foundation Sunshine Seminar Series, the closest to us is
October 16 in Deerfield, $10 for SPJ members | http://bit.ly/SunshineSeminar — Michele
– Michele is reminding people they can come, she says we’re sponsoring it and it’s important for as many of us to
show up as possible. Details are on their website. Koretzky and Lynn are both going to try to go.
6. Update – Devin is moving out of state in October — Devin
– Rebekah doesn’t believe Devin will miss everyone. Devin says she will.
– Michele says we have about $70K between all the accounts. No bills are due as of now except for website
hosting. We earned $0.71 in interest.
____________________________________________________________
NEW BUSINESS
1. Sunshine State Awards Committee for 2013
– Lucy has stepped down as committee chair, Jason will become the new chair. Gideon, Dori, Rebekah and Cassie
volunteered to be on the committee at our last meeting, Jason will set up a meeting very soon. Anyone else want
to be involved?
– Jason has made Gideon Vice Chair. Jason will be sending out an availability email for the first meeting. Rebekah
is not running for re-election because she’s starting grad school. Michele is looking for other people who want to
2. WWFF12 was $800 over budget, because we brought in more students from outside South Florida. We would
like to propose: Region 3 and SPJ South Florida split this cost — $400 apiece. — Koretzky
– We asked for less this year from other organizations and went over budget. SPJ National President attended and
said “he has hope for the future of journalism.” He also said there might be a chance for grant. Brandon motions to
add motion to budget for WWFF. Cassie seconded. All approved.
3. SPJ National Convention Events | http://excellenceinjournalism.org — Michele
When: Thursday, Sept. 20 – Saturday, Sept. 22.
Where: Marriott Harbor Beach
Who: Michele, Brandon, Lynn (3 delegates), Dori (alternate), Sergy, Jason, Gabriel
Events SPJ South Florida is involved with…
-We submitted the local hot spots for the program, thank you!
-Gen J night out, we are co-sponsoring SAT 9/22 — Lynn
-Ethics Hold’em FRI 9/21 4-5 p.m. & SAT 9/22 1-2 p.m.– Gideon
-We are sponsoring the Diversity Fellows meal, $300 – Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7:45 — Michele // Sergy
-Virtual help desk during the convention via Twitter #EIJ12 — Want to be involved? — Michele // Dori
Michele, Brandon, and Lynn are serving as delegates but everyone can vote through email. Anyone in the area
can come Saturday night for the Gen J. night out which will start at 5:15 in the lobby on SAT 9/22. It will start at
Oasis/Bahia Cabana on Las Olas. Follow #GenJ to find out where they are. Lynn is going to post a blog on our
website about the event. Gideon is hosting two different ethics hold em tournaments.
Gen J is also doing resume critiques. Lynn is looking for two people who can volunteer 30 minutes to 1 hour on
Friday or Saturday. Michele volunteered from 1 to 2 on Saturday.
Gideon holding two Ethics Hold ‘Em sessions with decks as prizes. Wants $50 for other prizes.. Gideon did it at
FAU and bought $25, $10 and $5 gift cards for 1/2/3 place. Michele motions for $50 for two first place gift cards for
Amazon. Cassie seconds. Motion passes unanimously.
Michele and Sergy are looking for a place to hold the Diversity Fellows meal.
Michele asks that if anyone is at work and can contribute time to answering people on Twitter using the #EIJ12
hashtag, that they contribute. It’s going to be more about following the hashtag and talking to people through the
SPJ So Fla twitter account.
Koretzky said BOD where they’ll discuss whether to use blogs and social media to to address controversy in the
industry. Rebekah says we need to draft a memo or have a statement for this that urges SPJ to be more
responsive by using social media and CURRENT TECHNOLOGY to address concerns.
Voting for National Board — Every member can vote between Thursday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at 3:30 p.m. by
checking your email and voting electronically. –Brandon // Lynn thoughts on competitive races
Tim is addressing financials, giving partial accounting of our year since fiscal year ended in July. He’s presenting
the ledge from Aug.1, 2011 to today. Next step is to sort all of the information so we have an accounting of awards,
programs, etc. Ledger shows checking account balance as of 7:31 is $12,056.19. Savings balance is $10,442.98,
paypal account has balance of just over $18,049.02. All of that money needs to be transferred out of paypal into
other account. COD balance is $35,214.88.
All of our balances as of today total $70,023.50. There are quite a few transactions that still need to happen so that
is just a snapshot as of today. Just over $4,000 of that money belongs to Region 3.
Tim says there’s nothing that we owe, except for FCPA’s portion of the awards, but we’re owed money. Tim paid
us cash for reimbursements of conventions registrations. He’ll be sending full categorized report over next 2-3
days. He will make moving money out of paypal a priority.
Lynn –
– MuckRack is interested in flying down and getting involved with the SPJ So Fla chapter. She’ll have more
information by next meeting. It could possibly be done in November. Rebekah can find a venue or move forward
with other program if they say no.
Rebekah –
– Proposed the idea of live-streaming future board meetings so we can be as transparent as possible.
– Rebekah made motion to adjourn meeting. Dori seconded. All approved.