Minutes from March 9, 2017
MEETING MINUTES
SPJ Florida Board of Directors Meeting
7 p.m. | Thursday, March 9, 2017
Panera Bread | Boca Raton
THE BOARD
Dori Zinn, president
Christiana Lilly, executive vice president
Jason Parsley, membership vice president
Christopher Persaud, treasurer
Abbi Perry, secretary
Brandon Ballenger, immediate past president
Michele Boyet, director
Aurora Dominguez, director absent
Brendon Lies, director
Dina Weinstein, director
Emily Bloch, student member
GUESTS
Michael Koretzky, Region 3 Director
QUICK UPDATES // REVIEWS 2 minutes each
Approve last meeting’s minutes Abbi makes a motion to approve last week’s minutes. Chris seconds. Passes.
Committee updates
Membership (Jason)
– No update.
Scholarships (Christiana)
– Launched the college scholarship. Students have until June 5 to apply, so if you know anyone, let them know.
– Molly Turner scholarship underway. (She was first female anchor in South Florida and a local 10 reporter) Christiana got in touch with her daughter and the family is very excited about the scholarship. The family is eager to contribute money each year as long as we do the leg work.
Programming
– Freelance Fair (Dori) Had about 80 people attend with 15 outlets. Overall, feedback was good. People are eager for another one.
– Waffle Wednesday breakfast (Christiana) Christiana and Dori went and made a short presentation. About 30 people attended. A lot of people asked questions and were very interested in the drone.
– Fake News Game Show (Chris P.) March 30 at 7 p.m. at Undergrounds Coffee Haus. They are excited to host us and are not charging us a rental fee! The game show will be trivia style and contestants have to guess which news is fake. Chris needs helps in finding more fake news items! If you spot any, send them his way!
Student Affairs (Emily)
– Emily is doing student outreach for scholarships. Emily is going to CMA.
– Student Chapter Development (Chris D.) Chris will be working with students who want to start chapters or need help to revive their chapters. She started a Facebook group for this initiative, so befriend her to join!
Sunshine State Awards (Jason)
– We got 900 entries this year! Last year, we got 899, so we are increasing each year! Thank you to everyone (especially Jason) who helped spread the word. Reminder: this is our ONLY money making event for the year!
– Need help with awards ceremony. Slack him (but in a thread) if you are interested in helping.
Drone (Brandon)
- No updates but thinking about the next drone tour!
Finance/Current financials (Chris P.)
- Chapter Checking: $25,749.53; Region 3 Checking: $6,375.48; Chapter Savings: $32,476.20; Paypal: $21,954.64
- Naming and credential updates (transitioning from some board members to others) will take place April 1 and then we can start the investment transition.
NEW BUSINESS
New Board Members (Dori)
As a full-fledged member of the journalism workforce, Emily is now a member of the board of directors. Also, Chris Delboni is joining the board as a director and will be leading the Student Chapter Development Subcommittee.
Would anyone like to lead the programming committee? Any suggestions for a student member?
New Voices Help (Christiana and Aurora)
Frank LoMonte at the Student Press Law Center is asking for help collecting stories of self-censorship in high school journalism — help spread the word to ask people submit stories they wanted to cover, but couldn’t. Aurora is working on a blurb to help promote.
Can anyone talk about New Voices at a conference at University of Miami on April 4?
National Day of Giving (Michele)
SPJ National Day of Giving (a day dedicated to fundraising and awareness for the organization fueled by the power of social media) is April 26, how can we participate? Michele sits on the committee. Idea: we challenge other chapters to donate and we can agree to match (but really, we would just give). These challenges will spark communication.
SPJ National Communication Committee (Michele)
Michele and Koretzky are on the committee. They met in January in San Diego. They are doing a full audit (Michele is leading it) on everything SPJ does. Michele and Koretzky can bring our concerns to a national level. Email or Slack Michele with your feedback (be specific!). Immediate change will be shorter leads (think The Skim!).
DISCUSSION
Workload Assistance (Dori) — 5 minutes
Want to help out in teeny ways that would make a world of difference? Dori and Christiana are looking for help with communications. If anyone is interested in helping with newsletters/e-blasts, website posts and updates, and/or social media scheduling, please let us know!
Ethics Hold’Em Money Request (Koretzky) — 10 minutes
Region 3 Director Michael Koretzky is requesting $350 for more Ethics Hold’em decks.
Background: “The program is Texas Hold’em with a twist. We print special decks of playing cards with entries from the SPJ Code of Ethics on the faces. Because there are more cards than codes, some codes are repeated. Find the match, win an extra 100 chips. We’ve been doing this on and off since 2007, and it’s great – people learn the Code of Ethics out of greed, but they learn it. I last did it at FIU and ran out of decks.”
Question from Dori: Last meeting, we voted to let Region 3 tax us $500. Why wasn’t our tax money used to pay for the decks?
Answer from Koretzky: Because the $500 will go towards something else. This program can towards us winning Chapter of the Year.
Concern: How will people know it’s by us?
Suggestion from Emily: Put an SPJ Florida sticker on the deck case so everyone knows it’s by our chapter.
Jason makes a motion to approve the $350. Michele seconds. Passes with 1 abstention and 1 no.
Abbi makes a motion to end the meeting. Emily seconds. Passes.
Minutes were approved at the June 1, 2017 board meeting.