On Monday, Dec. 12, come join your chapter representatives and members at Southport Raw Bar in Fort Lauderdale for our annual election meeting at 7:15 p.m. Food will be provided. All chapter members are encouraged to attend and vote for the 2012 board. If you are interested in running for a position, please check out our current list of board seats and contact Jason Parsley, chair of the nominating committee. See the full slate of candidates here.

If you are unable to attend, we welcome email voting prior to the event. Please stay tuned for more information on email voting and a list of candidates. RSVP to the event on Facebook here.

On May 19, SPJ South Florida brings you Weird Careers in the Media at the Funky Buddha in Boca Raton. With traditional journalism jobs dwindling, freelancer and chapter president Michael Koretzky will show how pro journalists and recent grads can still land a job in media without handing over your journo card. The meet-up will start at 7 p.m.

Koretzky is a former hiring editor at a Top 50 newspaper, national website, and international music magazine. For the past decade, he’s also run a weekly media job list for one of the nation’s largest markets. Learn all the lessons he had to discover the hard way. Follow him on Twitter. RSVP on Facebook.

• Who: SPJ’s South Florida Pro Chapter
• What: Weird Careers in the Media – SPJ South Florida Monthly Meet-up
• Where: The Funky Buddha Lounge and Brewery, 2621 North Federal Highway Boca Raton, FL 33431
• When: 7 p.m., Thursday, May 19
• Cost: FREE (parking is free, too)

To sponsor this event, please contact Executive Vice President Michele Boyet.

Three South Florida journalists, including the Miami Herald’s Bridget Carey, South Florida Gay News’s Jason Parsley, and the SunSentinel’s Geo Rodriguez, gathered in the SunSentinel offices in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Despite the road closures of nearly every street in the downtown area surrounding Las Olas Boulevard due to an evening marathon run, nearly 20 professional and student journalists attended.

Pizza Fusion, an eco-friendly organic restaurant that originated in South Florida, provided pizza for the event.

If you attended, please fill out this short survey about what you liked, didn’t like, ways to improve and ideas for future meet-ups.

This was the first monthly meet-up hosted by SPJ South Florida Pro. To sponsor future events, please contact Executive Vice President Michele Boyet.

SPJ South Florida will host its first monthly meet-up on multimedia journalism on Thursday, March 24 at 7 p.m. in the Sun Sentinel building in Fort Lauderdale. The meet-ups are designed to bring local journalists together to upgrade skills, share knowledge and discuss trends.

Bridget Carey

Check out three South Florida pros who are on the cutting edge of new media and will share their experience and advice for practicing multimedia journalism:

Bridget Carey is the Miami Herald‘s technology reporter. Bridget reports on tech trends and local businesses and creates weekly gadget reviews in video and print. She also writes the weekly “Poked” column on social media and netiquette. Follow her on Twitter: @BridgetCarey.

Geo Rodriguez

Ihosvani “Geo” Rodriguez is a multimedia reporter for the Sun Sentinel. Geo gathers videos, photos and audio and tweets and writes for the Sentinel and WSFL. Follow him on Twitter: @GeoRodriguez.

Jason Parsley

Jason Parsley is the managing editor for the South Florida Gay News in Wilton Manors. Prior to starting at SFGN earlier this year, Parsley served as a beat reporter for Forum Publishing Group. Over the course of 3 years at the Forum, Parsley was a mobile journalist, covering West Boca, Wellington and Royal Palm Beach. Follow him on Twitter: @jeparsley.

Ask questions and share your experiences as Dori Zinn, the VP of programs for SPJ South Florida, moderates the discussion. This event is FREE and also includes FREE PIZZA. RSVP on Facebook.

• Who: SPJ’s South Florida Pro Chapter
• What: Multimedia Meet-up
• Where: Sun Sentinel, 200 East Las Olas Boulevard, Suite 2050 (20th floor), Fort Lauderdale, 33301 (map)
• When: 7 p.m., Thursday, March 24
• Cost: FREE

Parking garages and metered parking are available in the building and along downtown Fort Lauderdale.

This is the first monthly meet-up hosted by SPJ South Florida Pro. To sponsor this event, please contact Executive Vice President Michele Boyet.

has written her first book, I Found a Job!

You’re invited to her book signing and celebration

Tuesday, Feb. 8, J.Mark’s Restaurant
6:30 to 8 p.m.

1245 N. Federal Highway
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304

Hosted by
Doreen Hemlock
Harriet Johnson Brackey

The judging panel, which includes professionals from the journalism industry and academia, is seeking entries from news organizations, individual journalists and student journalists in broadcasting, print or new media. Nominations are accepted until Feb. 25, 2011 for stories published or decisions made in 2010. Journalists and media outlets can nominate themselves or be nominated by someone else. There’s no fee to apply, and the award carries a cash prize of $5,000.

We hope you will join us in giving well-deserved recognition to ethical and courageous journalists who inspire public trust in the media. Send nomination letters or completed nomination forms to payneawards@jcomm.uoregon.edu. Please provide the date of publication or the date of the decision, if available. Include articles, photos, Web pages or other relevant materials. You may also mail nomination forms and materials to:

The Payne Awards
Attn: Lewis Taylor
941 Oak St.
Eugene, OR 97401

For more information on The Payne Awards, contact Lewis Taylor at (541) 434-7038 or go to http://payneawards.uoregon.edu.

For questions, contact Heather Carney.

Florida Atlantic University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning and Scripps Howard Institute on the Environment are jointly sponsoring a one-day conference in Fort Lauderdale for Florida journalists. Scheduled on Nov. 8, this educational session is designed to offer reporters and editors deeper sight into Florida planning and land-use processes and related environmental impacts. The day begins with Planning 101 for journalists and segues into more advanced discussions of the Amendment 4 aftermath, mega-regions, climate change and improving media coverage of growth and development issues. Journalists can register or learn more by visiting www.fau.edu/surp/truthaboutflorida

Lip Service and the Society of Professional Journalists South Florida Chapter Present: Off The Record: Journalists Out Loud on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. An evening of storytelling featuring top local writers at Design Within Reach in Miami Beach.

What we’re looking for:
• True, first-person stories about funny, sad, humiliating, scandalous or 
uplifting experiences.
• Submissions from journalists of every fashion — print, radio, television and online.
• Writers who want to share their work with a live audience in a fun, 
appreciative setting.
• Typewritten stories of 1,300 words or fewer.

What we’re not looking for:
• Stories you’ve written about other people. This is an opportunity for you to write and talk about yourself. And what journalist doesn’t like to do that?

Modeled after the popular storytelling series Lip 
Service, Off the Record aims to toss objectivity aside and celebrate the art of 
writing and storytelling without concern for column inches, page views or 
ratings. Simply put, we want your story.

Send your story to submissions@lipservicestories.com. PLEASE PUT “Off the Record” in the subject line. There is NO FEE to submit a story or attend the event. It’s all FREE.

Submissions deadline: Friday, Oct. 22

For more information on Lip Service and to watch videos from previous events, visit Lipservicestories.com.

Design Within Reach is located next door to Books and Books at 927 Lincoln Road, Suite 101, in Miami Beach. Call 305-604-0037 or visit Dwr.com.

Brought to you by:

Whether you’re an editor looking for leadership ideas, a senior reporter looking for storytelling tools, or a cutting-edge journalist searching for multimedia and social media training, AASFE and Poynter will have the programming for you. Visit the AASFE website for conference details.