BOARD MEETING MINUTES
SPJ South Florida Pro
Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
University Press at FAU
777 Glades Road, Boca Raton

The 2012 Board

Roll Call
Members present: Michael Koretzky, Dori Zinn, Lucy Reed, Rachael Joyner, Jason Parsley, Sergy Odiduro, Lisa Lucas, Karla Bowsher.

Approval of Meeting Minutes from August 9, 2011.

ACTION: Dori made a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Lisa seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

UPDATES

1. Elections for 2012 Board (Koretzky)
• We are shooting for a day in the second week of December. Members will be able to vote online. We will advertize at least 30 days in advance. Two new people contacted Koretzky about running for the board. A few of the current board members will not be running again.
• Koretzky will send out a Doodle to the board so we can decide on a date for the elections.
• Jason was nominated by Koretzky as the nominating chair. He will send out the slate of candidates.

2. Chapter Finances (Jason)
• The budget for next year projects the chapter having a $1,000+ surplus. We saved money with travel costs because the national convention is in Fort Lauderdale.

3. Next Year’s Sunshine State Awards & Banquet (Jason)
• The committee decided that we should keep the awards banquet in some form. There is a demand for it; it draws in the biggest crowd of all our events. They believe we can cut costs by changing the venue. Now we need to discuss how we will continue it. Jason checked pricing at Calder Casino & Race Course in Miami Gardens, which would be $15 per head for a buffet.
• Koretzky – I think it is important that we don’t lose money on the event.
• Lisa – I think we should have it as long as we break even.
• Lucy – I feel very strongly that we should have it. It is the only time that people in the journalism community get together.
• Koretzky – We have to make this a priority and spend time organizing it.
• Lucy – I think we need to have a speaker at the banquet to draw people in. We should also have the big award winners tell the backstory, as Jason suggested before. Last year people said they liked the categories and wanted more.
• The board discussed whether to add or consolidate categories.
• Jason – We need to appoint someone to market the awards and the categories.
• A committee will discuss what to do about the categories, awards, and banquet. Jason, Lucy, Gideon, Dori, Sergy will be members.

4. Recap of New Orleans National Convention (Koretzky)
• Koretzky was elected as the Region 3 director. He has money for programming, but national doesn’t know where it is. The previous regional director had the money in a private account, and it is now unaccounted for.

ACTION: Sergy made a motion that SPJ National investigates where Region 3′s funds are and suggests safeguards for handling the money in the future. Lucy seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

• (Koretzky) Gideon, editor-in-chief of FAU’s student newspaper, defeated three other candidates to win one of two student seats on the national board. He gave a rousing speech.
• The Helen Thomas resolution to reinstate the award was debated and voted on. It failed by about 10 votes. Another big change was that there will now be online voting for the SPJ national board. There is a $3 dues increase for professionals, $1.50 for students. Sergy was one of the diversity fellows and she addressed the national board.
• The board members who went briefly shared what they learned at the convention.

ACTION: Rachael made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Lucy seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

Update: Minutes approved at Jan. 10 board meeting.

ROLL CALL

Members present: Michael Koretzky, Dori Zinn, Lucy Reed, Rachael Joyner, Jason Parsley, Bill Whiting, Michele Boyet, Lisa Lucas, Sergy Odiduro, Darcie Lundsford 

OLD BUSINESS

ACTION: Michele motioned to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Dori seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

FINANCIAL UPDATE – Jason

This is our second year of deficit spending. Tim recommended that we find another stream of revenue. We won’t be spending $500 per year on tax returns anymore because they raised the amount of income needed to file. We will also be saving on expenses next year because that national convention is in September. Our accounts: $37,000 CD; $21,000 checking, $10,000 savings.

UPDATES

 ROCK OF AGES – what happened with protest and lawsuit – Jason

The city filed a response saying that the charges should be dismissed. We have to now file another response. The city hired outside counsel to take on the case. Basically, we are battling for damages now. If our side wins the case, our local chapter will receive the money for damages. No matter what happens with the lawsuit, we made our point and protected the First Amendment. This endeavor was a success.

WILL WRITE FOR FOOD – third annual incarnation of this journalism event at a homeless shelter – Michele

We got some amazing applicants ― more than we needed to select. Students from FAU, UCF, UF, Flagler were chosen, along with eight students from out of state, including one from Alaska. We’ll be giving the out-of-state students a $100 voucher toward their travel, and they will pay the rest. Everyone seems talented and edgy. Gideon Grudo, editor of the University Press (FAU’s student newspaper), will be the editor of the issue. We also have a lot of people coming in to be advisers. One difference this year is that we will spend more time covering the community. The event is Labor Day weekend. All production will be done on Sunday night of that weekend.

Koretzky: If anyone is interested in helping, let me know. Dori will be covering the event from SPJ’s perspective, something that hasn’t been done before.

PAPER BALL – quick details on doing it again, with SPJ national money – Koretzky

They got coverage from local and national media. The blog covering the event got 73,000 page views.

Gideon: We are ready to duplicate the project, with all the supplies packed up and ready to go. I think it will be a really neat event for other students to put on. It really makes you appreciate how easy we have it now.

DISCUSSION

1. SUNSHINE STATE AWARDS BANQUET BREAKDOWN – the numbers, your opinions of the evening, and your ideas for next year. – Michele

We did a great job cutting our expenses from last year, but we spent a little more because we moved the contest online. This year we had to pay the initial setup fee, which is why it was extra money. The contest is a great idea for us. The question is: Do we want to have the banquet again? We barely ever break even on it. This year we had 75 attendees, and the year before we had 100.

Koretzky: This year we expanded the college awards and partnered with FCPA. This will be an extra revenue stream for us in the future ― this year it brought in a little over $500.

Michele: The big thing we are missing is the ability to pay for entries online. That is something we are looking into for next year.

Jason: In order to cut the cost we should try to piggyback the banquet on another event. We need to make it worth people’s while to drive down. Especially since papers aren’t paying for their employees to come to this event anymore.

Karla: How did the banquet start?

Koretzky: Many SPJ chapters hold awards banquets and are successful in places like Chicago. It is harder in places that are more spread out like us.

Darcie: The year we held the banquet at the Cultural Center was much better. The venue was more conducive to getting people to show up and mingle.

Koretzky agreed that we need to partner with another organization or event. He suggested that next year we make it part of the regional convention in Fort Lauderdale.

Darcie and Lucy said that making the event late in September may not be a good idea. It is too far out after the news cycle.

Dori: What if we made it part of the regional convention?

Koretzky: Do we want to get rid of the banquet?

Most of the group agreed that it is important to do something, but it needs to be redefined. What are we doing with it? Should our goal be to make the banquet revenue neutral?

Lucy talked to most of the people who came to the event. They liked the food and the shortness. Many wanted a speaker. She thinks we should not worry about making it revenue neutral. We should treat it as program. We owe it to our chapter members to recognize the good work they do.

Darcie: What if we make it a celebration of journalism?

Koretzky suggested that we set up a banquet subcommittee to come up with the options, research them, and bring them back to the board at the next meeting. Michele was selected to chair the committee.

2. CHAPTER ADMINISTRATOR – we talk about Tim behind his back: what he makes, what he does, what we want him to do. (Tim knows about this and has some cost-saving ideas of his own) – Jason

We pay Tim $12,000 a year to be our chapter administrator. We have discussed this already with him. Tim suggested taking a three-month furlough each year that would cut his pay by 20%. The months would be whenever we choose, and they would not have to be all together. This would put his pay at $9,000 per year.

Lisa read off his job description and wondered how many of these things he still does.

Michele: Right now we have an active board, but what will happen when we aren’t here? Also, is there anything we want him to do that he isn’t doing now?

Darcie: Other chapters do fundraisers that bring in a lot of revenue. Maybe we could get Tim to work on that.

Lucy: I first thought we should give him more money and get him to be the executive director for our chapter. But now I’m torn. His fee shouldn’t be nearly half of our spending budget for the year.

Sergy: Tim is a resource, and he is efficient. However, his job description does have a lot of duplication. Maybe we should re-evaluate his salary on a yearly basis based on what we need.

Koretzky: If we cut his salary to $5,000, we could balance our budget. We shouldn’t be spending 50% of our budget to him. Tim will do anything you ask him to do, but he isn’t taking any leadership and he should for the money we are paying him now. Koretzky requested a subcommittee be formed to look at: 1) Just paying Tim to handle the Sunshine State Awards – What does he think they are worth?; 2) Offering him a bonus for getting extra entries and sponsorships; 3) What will he do for $6,000?; 4) What duties can we throw to other people for less money? Jason will chair the subcommittee.

3. HELEN THOMAS AWARD – we need to make a decision on this resolution – Brandon Ballenger

Since he spoke in May, three pro chapters have signed on to the resolution to reinstate SPJ’s Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award. The language has been changed a little to acknowledge that her comments were regretful and that it is a free speech issue.

Darcie gave an overview of why the national board made the decision to retire the award. The award’s namesake became more important than the people who received it. This is not a First Amendment issue. Darcie thinks that the board needs to make a decision on where they stand, and the chapter membership should be considered.

Brandon: Retiring the award is bad for SPJ’s image because it looks like SPJ bows to pressure.

Each board member weighed in on the resolution. Everyone had mixed feelings, but the majority leaned toward reinstating the award.

ACTION: Jason made a motion to support the reinstatement of the award. Dori seconded. Rachael, Michele, Dori, Sergy, Lisa, and Jason voted for. Lucy, Bill, Darcie, and Koretzky voted against. The motion passed 6 to 4.

4. NEW ORLEANS – SPJ’s national convention is Sept. 25 in New Orleans. Who are we sending? – Koretzky

Darcie: We need to decide if the delegates vote their conscience or vote how the chapter decides.

ACTION: Michele made a motion to let the delegates vote their conscience. Bill seconded. Everyone voted in favor except Darcie. The motion passed 9 to 1.

Sergy won an award to go to the convention. Her airfare, hotel, and convention entrance are paid. Koretzky is going because he is running for regional director. SPJ member Gideon Grudo (FAU student newspaper editor-in-chief) wants to run for the student national board seat. He is from New Orleans, so he doesn’t need anything but airfare and admission to the conference.

ACTION: Rachael made a motion to cap the spending for sending delegates for the national convention at $2,500. Darcie seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

ACTION: Darcie made a motion to approve Sergy, Lisa, and Brandon as delegates and Dori as an alternate. Michele seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

5. SCHOLARSHIP REVAMP – moving forward for a 2012 rollout – Bill Whiting

The plan is to formalize the process and give out a larger scholarship. The idea is that a larger award will help a person get an education to become a journalist. The scholarship will be awarded to high school students or recent grads. We will target students who are excelling in school and demonstrate a desire to seek employment as a journalist. The deadline will be Feb. 1, 2012. This will allow us to announce in time for spring school award ceremonies. The award will be $2,500. We will heavily publicize the winner. The scholarship subcommittee will bring the finalists to the board, which will choose a final winner.

Koretzky: Maybe we should task Tim with trying to organize fundraising to support our scholarships, and we could put names on them. We need to vote on this item at our next meeting so we can start publicizing it.

ACTION: Dori made the motion to adjourn the meeting. Darcie seconded. Motioned passed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 9:56 p.m.

UPDATE: MINUTES APPROVED FOR THIS MEETING BY BOARD ON October 18, 2011.

Roll Call

Members present: Michael Koretzky, Rebekah Monson, Dori Zinn, Lucy Reed, Jake Cline, Rachael Joyner, Jason Parsley, Bill Whiting, Arlene Satchell, Tim Dodson (chapter administrator). Excused absences: Michele Boyet, Sergy Odiduro, Darcie Lunsford, Lisa Lucas

UPDATES

1. Awards Stuff (Tim)

-      Tim: He gave an overview of the entry process. For the most part it went well, but a few key publications who entered last year didn’t. At least one of them was because they never got the email soliciting entries. Next year may directly contact, but they were on the list to receive the emails.

-      Rebekah said that it may be worth investing in paper announcements for next year.

-      Tim: He discussed the need for scholarship sponsors. One key sponsor pulled, and he hasn’t heard back from the other.

-      Tim: We have 23 RSVPs so far, which is pretty good. This includes zero board members, which means we need to go online to RSVP.

-      Koretzky will do the presentation PowerPoint. The board has agreed to MC in segments. Michele will spearhead that. Rebekah agreed to design and print the programs.

-      Koretzky said there will be no scholarship presentation.

-      Tim: Silent auction/raffle – Last year we netted $296 from it. We had very few bids. Not really worth it from all the work that we did. He secured a 2-night stay at the Betsy Hotel in South Beach and free breakfast, a $1,000 value. We need more prizes. Tim proposed putting the few items we have online so our whole membership can bid. Rebekah said we could sell raffle tickets to everyone and do the drawing at the event. Koretzky suggested we email about this further.

-      Koretzky: He thinks that goodie bags are not a really good use of the board’s time. He wonders if we should continue it. The board deliberated and no one seemed to think they were a big deal. Lucy said that usually goodie bags are filled with sponsor stuff.

-      $44,000 was the cost for the reception last year. The money we took in was $39,000. We charged $39 per head. Jason said we need to make it affordable but we can’t price people out of it.

-      Koretzky: He thinks we need to change the way we do this event because we are losing money on it. We should be spending that money on scholarships and programs. If we are doing this event, we need to plan it way in advance and do it right so we don’t lose money. He thinks that we shouldn’t worry about fixing it this year, but plan on changes for next year.

-      Rebekah: On behalf of the board offered a big thanks to Tim for all his hard work this year.

2. Chapter Finances

-      $23,538.58 checking account, $45,425.44 savings account. Tim is working on the chapter annual report and Koretzky offered to help. Due June 1.

-      Jason: He gave an overview of opening a new CD. Bank United is waving all the requirements. We just need to sign some paperwork. Then we have to move the money from Bank of America to the new bank. $33,700 is the amount we are putting in.

-      Lucy: Should we put more of our money in a CD? Tim said the interest we earn is negligible.

ACTION: Jason made a motion to put $35,000 into the CD. Lucy seconded. All in favor.

3. Meet-ups (Rebekah and Dori)

-      Next one is in July, writing for SEO, probably held at the downtowner in Broward. We will probably be doing one every other month. We will be partnering with the UM chapter for a build your own blog/website meet-up once school starts (August or September, most likely). We are always looking for more speakers. We want to keep this a free, casual event.

4. Paper Ball (Koretzky)

-      The event will be at FAU this summer on a Saturday afternoon. The student newspaper is paying for the bulk of the event, and Koretzky got a grant. We are looking for people who worked at newspapers before computers. He will get back to us for a specific date.

5. Unethical Press (Koretzky)

-      He gave an overview of the event. FAU completed in April over the course of two weekends. It was lauded by SPJ national. He passed around the issue. Everyone had a great time. Other schools want to do it next year. The money SPJ put it went for food for students and advisers over the course of the two weekends.

NEW BUSINESS

6. Will Write for Food

-      Rachael: Overview of the event. Now in its third year, our chapter has sponsored this event, which brings in students from around the state (and some from around the country) to take over the Homeless Voice, which is the largest homeless publication in the country and is based out of Hollywood, Fla. and run by the COSAC shelter, located in Hollywood. Students write, edit, design an entire paper over Labor Day weekend in September. Funding is for meals and hotel rooms near the shelter for the students to stay in.

-      Koretzky: We need $1,000 from the chapter to do it again. We are getting matching grants from FCPA and SPJ national. We also need advisers. We will have this year’s event on Labor Day weekend. We will vote on the budget by email.

7. Scholarship Revamp (Bill)

-      Bill: He sent out an email offering an overview of his findings. He did a review of other orgs. giving out scholarships. We are giving them out the same way we did 30 years ago. We need to come up with a formal process and program.

-      Koretzky: In the past, the scholarship program was controversial because one person ran it and the people from their paper won for most of the years. Koretzky took it over and didn’t have time to make it better. What does Bill need from the board to execute his plan?

-      Bill: Needs parameters from the board, but he thinks that one larger award would be our best bet. He thinks we need to set aside a bulk amount of money for our scholarships.

-      Koretzky: In the past, the amount of the scholarship varied a lot.

-      Bill said he will put together a formal proposal.

-      Lucy suggested further conversation at a committee level. We will get more done that way. She said she would help. Koretzky and Arlene want to help, too.

-      Rebekah thinks it is also important to keep those spot scholarships. They are good for drawing people to events.

8. Helen Thomas Award (Brandon Ballenger, SPJ member)

-      Brandon: Went over a resolution to reinstate the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award. He cited several prominent SPJ figures and journalists who do not agree with the award being retired. He took issue with how SPJ didn’t take the membership’s opinion into account before making their decision. He believes that it was not a democratic process. He wants everyone to be involved in the decision. “It looks like we are punishing her for her speech.” He disagrees with Darcie Lunsford’s position to retire the award. If 10 chapters sign the resolution, they can put it to a vote from the membership. He wanted to make us aware. Email him if you want to get involved with SPJ reform, the group he’s a part of.

-      Koretzky asked what the board thinks. Rachael thinks that we should ask our membership what they think since we represent them. Dori agreed.

-      Bill: SPJ made a mistake naming an award after her in the first place.

-      Board decided to table vote until next meeting on where we all stand on the reform. Will put info on website for membership to read and comment.

9. Rebekah motioned to approve minutes from April 7. Jake second. All in favor.

Rachael motioned to adjourn meeting. Koretzky second. All in favor.

UPDATE: MINUTES APPROVED FOR THIS MEETING BY BOARD ON August 9, 2011.

Thursday, April 7, 2011, 7-8 p.m.
Virtual Meeting

Roll Call
Members present: Michael Koretzky, Michele Boyet, Rebekah Monson, Dori Zinn, Lucy Reed, Karla Bowsher, Jake Cline, Rachael Joyner, Jason Parsley, Lisa Lucas, Bill Whiting, Sergy Odiduro, Tim Dodson (chapter administrator).

Approval of Meeting Minutes
Lucy pointed out one quick spelling change. Rachael said she would make the change before posting the minutes to the website.

ACTION: Rebekah motioned to approve the minutes from the February meeting. Jason seconded. All in favor.

1. Finances
 Tim: We cashed out the CD because it reached maturity. The money went into our savings account. Our total cash is about $55,000. We will shortly have additional income from the awards, about $17,000.
 Jason asked Lucy if she thinks we’ll need part of the money for a deposit on the National Writer’s Workshop locale. Koretzky thinks that we’ll have enough without dipping into the CD.
 Jason suggested two options for our CD renewal – stay with Bank of America at .55 percent interest or switch to Bank United for .70. If we go with the higher rate at Bank United, should we switch just the CD or all of our accounts? Jason, Tim and Koretzky will discuss the pros and cons more outside of the meeting.
 Rebekah was curious as to why we only looked at two banks. Jason said he looked at many banks, and these were the best interest rates.

ACTION: Rachael made a motion to roll over the CD to the bank with the best interest rate. Dori seconded. All in favor.

2. Meetups / Scholarships
 Dori gave a brief overview of the first meet up held last month. The event went well. It was a panel discussion. The next event will be on April 21. Koretzky will be doing his presentation on weird careers in the media. Dori tried to find a place in Palm Beach County to hold the event but ran into trouble. So, it’s going to be at the Sun Sentinel again.
 Koretzky: Our on-site scholarships have been successful with college students in the past. If we do it again for this event, it could attract a lot of college students. We could do a tour of the Sun Sentinel and have Sun Sentinel people judge the scholarship contest.
 Rebekah: The next two meetups will be in May and June. The first will be on how to build your on website, held in Miami. The second will be writing for the web/search engine optimization, held in Palm Beach County. If you know anyone who would be a good panelist for the second one, email Rebekah.
 Bill: Do we have a specific budget for college scholarships?
 Koretzky: There is nothing defined in our bylaws. Koretzky suggested doing more on-site event scholarships. He asked Bill to get involved in setting up a more formal system for our scholarships if he’s interested.
 Tim: The board approved the 2010/2011 budget that had scholarships (and student affairs chair) listed as $2,000.
 Rachael: Maybe we could do a combination of on-site scholarships and a larger scholarships. Lucy wondered if we were committed to handing out a certain number of scholarships at an event even if we believe we don’t have enough qualified entries. Koretzky said no.

ACTION: Rebekah made a motion to approve $100 for food and a $250 scholarship for our next meetup. Dori seconded. All in favor.

3. Sunshine State Awards Results
 Tim: 732 total entries, 620 of those were pro entries. That is less than the 700 pro entries we got last year. But he thinks we are starting to stabilize because it is less loss than last year. Seeing a trend of fewer bulk organization entries and more individual entries. Tim said we should market more to individuals. We won’t make our budget because we had planned to net $18,000. Koretzky said we are saving on shipping costs by going online.
 Lucy: How many of those entries are free? Tim said he did just some rough math to guess how much we would net this year, about $17,000. But most people who enter aren’t chapter members, so we shouldn’t have very many free entries in our total.
 Rebekah: She helped a lot of Sun Sentinel people with their entries. They have suggestions for improving the online system. 1) Can we accept payment online? 2) Having one account per newspaper was problematic because there was one password and people kept forgetting it. Tim said that by next year we should have Paypal capabilities. He also talked with rep about creating individual accounts for each entrant.

4. Sunshine State Awards Reception
 Tim: The event will be on Saturday, June 11 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood. He needs volunteers. No one has stepped forward to be chair of the event. Koretzky said he will help. Lisa would be willing to help chair. Rachael volunteered to help the day of.

5. Website Revamp Update
 Dori: Our chapter’s new website went up Tuesday night (April 5). It is a template with a lot of flexibility. Right now it has events listed. There is a rotating image on the front page. We are still having link issues right now. Joey is the web developer who volunteered his time to revamp the site.

6. Unethical Press
 Koretzky: The event is happening at 11:30 a.m. this Saturday (April 9) in the University Press newsroom at FAU. We need volunteers to be advisers during the event. We need professional journalists in the room to offer advice on why something isn’t ethical. It’s not a lot of work. He explained the details.

Wrapping Up
 Koretzky will be sending a doodle out for a meeting on May in person. He wants to do it in Fort Lauderdale.

ACTION: Jake made a motion to adjourn. Dori seconded. All in favor.

UPDATE: MINUTES APPROVED FOR THIS MEETING BY BOARD ON MAY 25, 2011.

Saturday, Feb. 23 2011, 7 p.m.
Hollywood Beach Marriott, Hollywood

Roll Call
Members present: Michael Koretzky, Dori Zinn, Jason Parsley, Jake Cline, Lucy Reed, Bill Whiting, Arlene Satchell, Michele Boyet, Lisa Lucas, Karla Bowsher

Tour of the Marriott
Manager Monique showed us the meeting space available for the National Writers Workshop.

Introductions
Quick introductions from the new board members.

1. National Writers Workshop
 Discussion of which location is better, the Hollywood or Fort Lauderdale location. Hollywood is more low-key.
 Mostly students and non-journalists will show up.
 Lucy: Once we decide who to target, we can decide where to have it. Need a brainstorming meeting to discuss this. Will set something up.

2. Sunshine State Awards
 One entry free for SPJ members, all other entries are $28. Setup is taking longer than expected, but this is just a one-time setup fee.
 Koretzky: We need to pimp the freebies for members, the price, and that it’s premier awards for Florida journalists. How do we market this?
 Jake: sometimes places like the Sun-Sentinel don’t pay the entry fee.
 Tim: Not sure our current (email) database is up-to-date since so many people move around. Monday (2/28) will have a launch.
 Koretzky: Send all contacts for potential submitters to Koretzky and Lucy.

3. 2011 Budget
 We’ll be out of a deficit of $7,000.
 Checking: $14,867; Savings: $12,159; CD: $33,077; Total: $58,000
 CD matures is March 28. It’s a 12-month CD. Looking into Alli Bank.
 Tax return is due March 15. Last year we’ll have to do a tax return since the IRS raised the threshold from $25,000 to $50,000. Our receipts will be under that amount, where we save – $500 in tax return expenses.
 Projecting $18,000 net profit for Sunshine State Awards.

4. Monthly Meetups
 Request to approve funding for these small, monthly events where media pro’s can hone their skills and learn new ones. Expecting 20-30 attendees at each meetup.

ACTION: Jason motions to approve. Sergy seconds. All in favor. s

5. Chapter App
 (Koretzky): We can offer 50 chapter members a free (iPhone only) app. This will increase to visibility of our brand and create an incentive to be a chapter member. The cost would be $200.

ACTION: Jason makes a motion to go with app. Michele seconds. All in favor.

6. Website revamp
 (Karla): Before a revamp, should we be gutting content? What should be posted?
 Michele: This should be a place where people come to learn about our awards, events, and chapter news. Not “news about the news.”
 Karla: most of the useful stuff is buried.
 Lucy: Do we want to offer members-only content?
 Michele/Dori: What would we offer to members that we don’t offer to everyone? (Question not answered.)
 Koretzky: we just need a simple website that promotes our contest, our meetups, and how to join. Karla will email when revamp is complete.

7. Unethical Press
 During Ethics Week, FAU’s student newspaper will print an entirely unethical issue, breaking every SPJ code in the Code of Ethics.
 The SPJ National ethics chair will be in attendance. His local chapter is paying for him to come down and stay.
 This will happen on April 16 – an entire issue done in one day – for printing during SPJ Ethics Week. Some stuff would be done in advance, and most of it will be written and designed in one day.
 Asking for $200 for food.

ACTION: Motion by Jason to approve, second by Sergy. All in favor.

PROGRAM UPDATES

1. Unethical Press – Jason says Rebekah is in contact with Lynn University and working on concrete dates. Also contacted Journalists in Transition to see if they want to be apart of the event, and they declined.
2. Summer Media Camp – Lisa (no update). Koretzky said to plan on doing something in late Summer. Will revisit this in mid-March.

3. Paper Ball – Old-school newspaper project where we put out a paper with no electricity. Got $500 from SPJ National, may not need any more money. Will have a darkroom set up. Would like to do it at UM. Participants will be college kids and professionals alike.

NEW BUSINESS

- Michele promoting SPJ Regional Convention on April 1 in Birmingham, Ala. If interested in going, contact Michele.

- Koretzky wants to set up a go-to meeting account so people who have a long way to travel can attend meetings virtually.

- Connecticut Chapter Letter. Koretzky: SPJ national voted to “retire” the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award (at least the name). It made this decision without consulting the membership. An SPJ Conn. chapter wants to lobby the national board about the way it conducts business. Looking for support.

ACTION: Koretzky made a motion to adjurn the meet. Bill seconded. All in favor.

MEETING MINUTES
2011 Board Planning Retreat
SPJ South Florida Pro Chapter

Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011, 11 a.m.
Marriott Harbor Beach Resort, Fort Lauderdale

Roll Call

Members present: Michele Koretzky, Michele Boyet, Dori Zinn, Sergy Odiduro, Rachael Joyner, Jason Parsley, Jake Cline, Lucy Reed, Rebekah Monson, Lisa Lucas, Arlene Satchell, Bill Whiting, Darcie Lundsford, Karla Bowsher (interim student board seat)

Tour of the Marriott
Destination Sales Manager Natasha Lannone showed us the meeting space available for the National Writers Workshop.

Introductions
Quick introductions from the new board members.

1. National Writers Workshop

• Lucy, who is directing the event, shared her vision. She wants to bring this great event back to life. She remembers it being high quality and affordable. We are looking at September or October of this year for the event. We’ve talked with some of the former organizers at the Sun Sentinel, and they said that most of the people who came were writers and not as many journalists. We have a lot of decisions to make to shape how this event is going to look.

• Koretzky suggested getting a group together and do planning meetings online. Rebekah, Tim, and Michele want to join.

• Lucy said that last year’s board approved $10,000 as seed money for the event. We would have to get 200 people paying $50 per head to earn the money back.

2. Student Board Member

ACTION: Michele made a motion to approve Karla Bowsher as the interim student board member. Jason seconded. All voted and approved.

• Koretzky said they will advertise the position to the colleges in the area, and if we get several applicants we will have a revote.

3. Paper Ball

• Koretzky gave an overview of the program. It is an opportunity to bring older journalists and younger journalists together to experience what it was like making newspapers before modern technology.

• Dori, Rachael, Lucy, Sergy want to help.

4. Will Write for Food

• Rachael gave an overview of last year’s program and plans for this year. We want to open up the application process to SPJ members nationwide. We need to think of ways to get funding and then how we want to divide it (for air travel, etc.). We need to decide on a date.

• Anyone interested in helping should email Rachael.

5. First Amendment Free Food Festival

• Rachael, Michele, and Dori gave an overview and plans for this year. Dori will handle the high school event, Michele the college level, and Rachael at the community level.

• Rachael plans to get on the community level by holding the event during a city’s downtown event, such as the 4^th of July celebration that Delray Beach holds. Rachael will chat with someone at the city.

• Dori wants to hold it on the high school level at the FSPA high school convention. Michele mentioned the session we held after the event that educated the students on what happened. It was a big success.

• Koretzky needs to talk to SPJ national about stuffers for the bags.

6. The Unethical Press

• Koretzky gave an overview. To celebrate ethics week, we will help college students put out an unethical issue with the SPJ Code of Ethics printed on the back. We will have professionals there to advise. The event will be in April.

• We need to pitch the idea to some schools to see who wants to do it. Koretzky hopes this will become a regular SPJ ethics event. He thinks the max cost would be $500.

7. The Sunshine State Awards

• Tim said we have revised the categories and approved them. He expects the system to be live by Feb. 15. Before we make the call for entries we want to make sure the system works. The judging will begin immediately. By April 30 we would know the winners. Then we can have the event in June.

• Michele proposed creating a small marketing committee to market the awards. Michele agreed to head it up. Lucy agreed to help.

• Koretzky said if you are on the board you are still allowed to enter. There will be no conflict of interest because the judging is done by outside chapters.

8. Other Business

ACTION: Darcie made a motion to approve $265 for the Florida First Amendment Foundation. Jake seconded. All voted and approved.

Other Program Ideas discussed by the board

Unemployed J-Event – Rebekah gave a little overview on where we stand. It would be a weekend workshop working on new media skills. People have told her that that’s what they want. Plan to have the event at Lynn University over a weekend. Darcie said this would be a great opportunity to get a SPJ student chapter rolling. Jake said that we should also include a portfolio/resume review. Jake also wants to be involved. Rebekah wants to have a planning meeting next month. Koretzky suggested working with ONA (Online News Association) again. They can fly down their own people and pay for it. Rebekah suggested partnering with Journalists in Transition and gearing the event to any journalist who wants to revamp his or her skills.

- Dori and Rebekah talked a little bit about the Refresh meetings for journo tech people that are popular. They want to bring it to the journalism community, something that they could do monthly. Koretzky suggested that we try to get a rotation going so that everyone takes one and no one gets stuck doing every one. Rebekah wants to start with one in March.

- Jake suggested making a professional events committee to be in charge of these events. Rebekah said that the events will be free for SPJ members and a nominal fee for nonmembers. Tim said he would help us find a space. Rebekah said the next step is to come up with a schedule and meeting spot. Arlene, Dori, Jake, Dina want to be involved.

- Lucy suggested making these mini membership meetings, giving the general membership an opportunity to get together.

Project Invictus – Jason gave an overview of last year’s event. It’s based on appreciative inquiry. It is outside the box, and journalists get together and really discuss journalism and news. Was very well attended the last two years. Dan Gretch does not want to be involved this year because he is overcommitted. The founder of Project Invictus will be down here for the unemployed journalist event, so we could get him to help with this event if we do it at the same time.

- Rachael said that who your partner is determines how much you get out of the event. You have to someone who is talking about something you are interested in or can relate to. Rebekah and Jason will brainstorm more.

High-School Mentoring – Rebekah talked a little bit about her vision. This would be a volunteer basis for journalists to reach out in the community to high school kids interested in writing. Start with the county’s journo high school programs. The goal would be to have the schools sign up and by the end of the summer send out a form letter to get journalists to sign up for what they want to do. It’s a year commitment that they would have to do once a month. Jake suggested partnering with an organization already doing this. Koretzky suggested partnering with high school advisers in this endeavor. This would be another way to get people to join SPJ.

Something Totally Gay – Koretzky and Jason talked about partnering with some gay and lesbian group to do a big event. Jason thinks this can be considered a diversity event. Dina and Arlene are also interested. More ideas are needed.

Lip Service – Jake gave an overview of the event. It’s storytelling for real journalists about themselves. It is a great opportunity for journalists to have their copy edited and read out loud. Through our event someone at the Palm Beach Post wrote about them and got the Lip Service People a big gig.

- We need to look for ways to save money on this event, perhaps getting a cheap videographer.

Public in the Press – Darcie got money from SPJ regional to do the event. We will be working with PBS in studio. Maybe during ethics week. She will reach out to Jack Elliot. More to be discussed at the next meeting.

9. More Meetings. Where and when?

- Koretzky will send out a program where people put down what days will work for them. After a brief discussion the board decided to tentatively have meetings every other month on Thursday nights at Panera Bead.

ACTION: Motion to adjourn by Jason. Seconded by Lisa. All voted in favor.
The meeting was then adjourned at 1:50 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Southport Raw Bar, Fort Lauderdale

1. Roll Call

Board members present: Lunsford, Cline, Lucas, Reed, Joyner, Zinn. Meeting called to order at 6:48 p.m.

2. Approval of Sept. 22 Minutes

ACTION: Cline made a motion to approve the last meeting’s minutes. Zinn seconded the motion. Motion carried unanimously

3. Sunshine State Awards

Online contest discussion.
- Overview by Tim Dodson. We were planning to use the same company that national uses for their contest, but they are still working on the proposal and their price is a bit steep. Option B is to go with a company called Small Town Papers. They have already submitted a proposal.
- Zinn, Koretzky, Cline, and Joyner have used it before to judge a contest and it was easy.
- Dodson said they have given us two options, offering an individual contact or a partnership with two other chapters. It looks like it will be just a good a deal to have our own contract. The cost: $1,128 for 2011 competition plus $1.47 per entry, and a one-time set up fee of $350.
- Koretzky wondered if we can bargain them down and if we should consider any hidden fees.
- Dodson suggested that the board approve going with this company and Koretzky and Darcie negotiate the contract.

ACTION: Reed made a motion to approve the contract in concept and appoint Koretzky as the negotiator, which was seconded by Lucas. Motion carried unanimously

Categories.
- Lucas had some questions about the blog and web categories. Lucas and Reed pointed out that there are no categories that fit their niche careers in journalism.
- Reed recapped the action from the subcommittee meeting. We have added new student categories. They are going to be combined with Florida College Press Association’s annual awards. We will help them market their awards and we’ll get a slice of their entry fee income. It will be a combined award from FCPA and SPJ.

ACTION: Reed made a motion to pass the new student categories and have the subcommittee to hash out what other categories will stay. It was seconded by Lucas. Motion carried unanimously

- The subcommittee will meet at 8:30 a.m. on Monday to discuss. (See notes from that meeting for more info.)

Timeline.
- Dodson gave an overview of the proposed timeline. We are not collecting, sorting, or shipping hard copy entries because everything is going online. This will give us extra time. We will launch the contest in the last two weeks of January and will give people a minimum of one month to submit.
- Lunsford thinks that we need to give them five weeks.
- Reed asked who is in charge of this whole process.
- Because it is online, the judging period can start as soon as the deadline ends.
- Koretzky said we should extend the deadline one week after what we tell entrants to accommodate stragglers.
- Dodson said June is when the event should be, after Memorial Day.

ACTION: Joyner made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Cline seconded. Motion carried unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m.

Called to order at 8:32 a.m.
In attendance: Lucy Reed, Dori Zinn, Michael Koretzky and Tim Dodson

ACTION: Voted to leave the category divisions unchanged for this year:
Large for publications 100,000 and over; Small for publications less
than 100,000.

We discussed at length a change in the circulation number, but there
are 10 newspapers in Florida over 100,000 — all of them the metro
dailies we envision competing in this category (plus a couple others).
Lowering the number to 90,000 would only add two more newspapers,
neither of which is a metro daily. Lowering it to 60,000 would add
several more metro dailies (Florida Today, Sarasota Herald Tribune)
but might also serve to steer those papers away from entering if they
have to compete with the Herald and St. Pete Times.

We discussed at length changing the names of the divisions to Metro
and Community as a first step in a more comprehensive change next
year, but agreed that we haven’t done enough outreach nor gotten
enough feedback from entrants to merit the change. The change of words
could cost us entries, so we played it safe and decided not to change.

We also agreed in concept that we will take a much more aggressive
approach to interacting with winners and entrants both at the awards
ceremony and after to get feedback before making any more changes to
the contest.

Meeting adjourned at 8:54 a.m.

MEETING MINUTES

Special Meeting to Approve Chapter Bylaws Revision

SPJ South Florida Pro Chapter

Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010, 7 p.m.

Maguires Hill 16, Fort Lauderdale

Background

A special meeting was held to approve the chapter bylaws revisions that the bylaws committee has been working on for months. All of the members of the South Florida SPJ Pro Chapter were invited to participate in the proceedings. A discussion was planned after which the membership would vote to approve the revised bylaws.

The Meeting

Chapter president Darcie Lunsford handed out a summary of the proposed bylaws changes. These included:

1. Revision of the electoral process.

2. Creation of a student board seat; addition of a 12^th pro board seat.

3. Purging of all outdated and conflicting articles.

4. Financial safeguards that limit spending and contractual obligations that the president/treasurer can enter into without full board approval.

5. Clarification of membership eligibility and expansion of categories to be in line with SPJ’s national bylaws.

ACTION: After a brief review of the changes, board member Jason Parsley made a motion to amend the chapter’s constitution. The motion was seconded by board member Lisa Lucas. Voice vote from the membership followed. The motion passed unanimously.

ACTION: Next Parsley made a motion to approve the bylaws revisions, which was seconded by Lucas. The membership cast its vote by voice, and the motion passed unanimously.

Closing Business

Darcie announced the upcoming chapter elections, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 9 at Maguires Hill 16 in Fort Lauderdale. The board will have its final meeting at 6 p.m. that same day. Darcie opened the call for nominations for all elected seats to the board. The positions available are:

President

Executive VP

Treasurer

Secretary

VP of Programming

VP of Membership

Six at-large director seats

She explained that all terms are for one year and commence on Jan. 1, 2011. You must be a professional member in good standing to run. She said that those who are interested should contact chapter administrator Tim Dodson at tim@timdadson.com or 305.756.0735.

The meeting was then adjourned.

Click here to read the revised bylaws and amended constitution.