Minutes of September 17, 2007
The meeting was called to order by President Darcie Lunsford at 7:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport Hotel in Broward County.
Board Members present: Sam Terilli, Sylva Gurinsky, Darcie Lunsford, Ron Levitt, Bill Hirschman, Beth Feinstein, Sergy Tabuteau, Jaime George, Julie Kay and Student Affairs committee chair Michael Koretzky.
President Lunsaford announced that Sunshine State Awards Chairman Harris Meyer has left South Florida for a position in Washington state and that Julie Kay will assume the Chair role for this coming year, Appointed to assist Julie Kay are Sergy Tabuteau, Jaime George and Sam Terilli. The Board voted to approve the appointments unanimously.
President Lunsford – explaining suggestions made by our Sunshine State paid administrator Tim Dodson – said the chapter must accomplish the following by the end of this year: 1. Solidify the judging chapters 2, Line up the Battan judges 3, Review all competition details and agree on needed changes (for example, adding or deleting categories, tweaking rules, etrc, 4, Distribute the first call for entries in early December.
Several Sunshine State Award details were left open for discussion. 1. There was a discussion of Dodson’s administrative fee. It was agreed to offer an additional $500 with an additional $500 based on a performance incentive. 2, After a Board discussion, it was generally agreed that any coordination of our awards with another Florida chapter would be deferred 3. It was suggested that the Sunshine State committee consider adding categories foe Best Blogger, more individual writing classifications for smaller publications and free lance writers (individual articles) and consideration of trade publications. It was agreed to brainstorm new categories before the final announcement. 4. Julie Kay will check with the hotel to reconsider a possible later date than April 12 (possibly May).
National Convention issues: Lunsford, Kay and John Hopkins will represent the chapter at the national meering in Washington. Our chapter agreed to support by-law changes regarding adding a lifetime membership classification and changing thr dues structure to allow 3 years for college grads to become regular members, Lunsford received the backing of the chapter inasmuch as she will run for Regional Director.
Jaime George will redesign and upgrade the chapter website and distributed a suggested possible format, She will coordinate with John Hopkins and Suzanne Levinson, both of who had access to post on the web.
Additional action items: 1, A press release should go out regarding scholarships which were awarded in 2007. 2, A discussion was held on inviting some scholarship recipients to the awards dinner, The Committee will look into this. 3. A Speaker Series was discussed for a possible program.
Bill Hischman reported receipt of a $2,000 check from national SPJ for our next Freedom of Information program,
The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.