Newsworthy Café | Fort Lauderdale

QUICK UPDATES

1. Approve last month’s minutes -

MOTION: Rebekah made a motion to approve; seconded by Brandon. All approved.

2. Last two meet-ups – wonderful video by Gabriel, great work Dori and Devin

- Quick review of the first two meet-ups. The board discussed why the second event had lower attendance. The consensus was that the first event appealed to people looking for a job, and the second event was more specialized.

3. MOE Awards judging – Thank you – Brandon

- Brandon thanked the board for judging. He gave a quick review of how it went. We were the only group that got all our judging done on time. Kudos all.

4. Regional convention – March 23-24 at University of Florida

- Rebekah & Gideon are going. They will be representing our chapter.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Sunshine State Awards – 505 entries as of 6 p.m. today. There was a spike today, and tomorrow is the last day. Last year total: 714. Extend one week? – Michele, Jason, Lucy

- We expect to get more entries tomorrow, but Michele suggested extending the deadline another week.

- Jason said a lot of the top 100 newspapers entered fewer pieces. This is likely due to the fact that publications aren’t paying for entries for their employees as much anymore.

- (Michele) We have to start thinking about next year’s event. Planning needs to start soon if we are going to revamp it.

MOTION: Rachael made a motion to extend the Sunshine State Awards contest entry deadline one week; Cassie seconded. All approved.

- The board discussed how to market the deadline extension. It was agreed that everyone needs to reach out to individuals. Jason also suggested that we reach out to radio and TV stations, telling them we’ve separated the categories. Jason will draft the press release and Lynn will create a list of TV and radio stations to send it to.

- We will be judging awards for Pittsburgh and San Diego SPJ chapters. Michele will send out the info later this month.

2. Scholarship – 10 applicants, committee choose one winner for $2,500 prize – Bill

- (Bill) The deadline was March 1. We had 10 candidates from a good cross section of institutions. The candidates are outstanding. The committee came to a consensus, recommending a candidate from Miami-Dade County for the $2,500 award. Bill went on to give details about the person. The plan is to announce the winner by April 1. He plans to present the award during the Sunshine State Awards banquet.

MOTION: Rebekah made a motion to approve the committee’s recommendation. Devin seconded the motion. All approved.

3. Mike McQueen Grant – We voted to make it $1,000, Bill did some research, use Northwest Broadcast News Foundation’s application as a model – Bill

- Bill did some research on how other organizations similar to ours handle awarding a grant to a working journalist. He suggested awarding a $500 grant this year to test the waters, and then do it again next year to see if there is a big demand for this type of assistance. He thinks it would be wise to give this award out over a couple of years because this is supposed to be a memorial grant. He wants to “get McQueen’s name out there.” He would like to name a winner at the Sunshine State Awards.

- Lucy thinks we can come up with a way to raise $500 per year for this scholarship. Even if we just pass a hat around for donations at our events. Lucy said we need to make the grant more focused – not just an award for a working journalist.

- Bill suggested that it be awarded to a journalist who is interested in continuing his/her education. Michele said we need to be sure that we give the award to a journalist who is working. Bill’s committee will do some research and make a recommendation.

MOTION: Rebekah made a motion to approve the use of $1,000 for the scholarship split into two awards to be given out over two years. She also made a motion to push the research back to Bill’s committee; Brandon seconded. All approved.

4. First Amendment Foundation – Approve $265 for annual dues, we have been a member for years (as long as Tim has been involved with the chapter, at least) – Michele

- Lucy wanted to know more about the organization before our chapter gives them money. Koretzky agreed to do some research to present to the board at the next meeting.

- The issue will be tabled until the next board meeting.

5. Meet-ups – How planning is going for the next two – Rebekah

- Norm Kent and Carlos Miller will be presenting at the next meet-up on photography and their scuffles with the law. The plan is to host the event in Miami. Rebekah is trying to get approval to have the event at Miami-Dade College. She will be posting the event info within the week. The date and time: March 26 at 7 or 7:30 p.m.

- The next event will be a quick guide to backgrounding for a story. Lynn and SPJ member Karla Bowsher will be speaking. The event will be in West Palm Beach; Rebekah is still trying to decide on a place.

- Rebekah said if these meet-ups are going to be a priority for the chapter, we need to get a projector and screen so we don’t have to keep searching for a borrowed on at the last minute. Koretzky said he could probably get some discounted ones. She said we could also use it for the Sunshine State Awards.

- Michele suggested that the board collaborate more with Rebekah so we can plan more events ahead of time, perhaps make a Google doc to foster communication. Rebekah said she needs help. Michele would also like to get a quote on what the projector would cost before we vote on it.

- There will be no meet-up in June because of the Sunshine State awards. The SPJ National Convention is in September in Fort Lauderdale, so we could attach our meet-ups to those.

6. Future programming? – All

Sunshine State Awards Banquet

- (Michele) Is everyone OK with having it in June? Lucy said that in committee metting they discussed dates. Some felt June was a little late. She thinks we need to just look at a calendar and pick a day. We will continue having the event on Saturday night because people drive here from distant places. – Jason visited Gulf Stream in Hallandale as a possible location for the event.

- The board discussed how to handle the budget: Should the goal be to have a revenue-neutral event? Koretzky said that if we spend money, the event should have some kind of journalistic value. Lucy said that the event does have value because people like to be recognized for their work. Koretzky suggested having a speaker. Jason said that a few of the winners should talk about the “story” behind their story. The board went back and forth discussing whether to have a speaker or not.

- Michele is the chair of the banquet committee, and they will discuss the event in further detail. Jason, Cassie, Lynn, and Sergy will be on the committee.

Event idea – Lynn suggested doing some kind of job event that involves the concept of speed dating. Rebekah said she will put the idea in the meet-up Google doc for more discussion.

7. Next meeting – Back to Boca in May? – All

- We will continue to alternate between meetings in Boca and Fort Lauderdale to be fair to everyone on the board. Michele will send out a Doodle.

MOTION: Lucy made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Rebekah. All approved.

Michele Boyet, president                                             Devin Desjarlais, director

Jason Parsley, executive vice president                 Rebekah Monson, director

Brandon Ballenger, treasurer                                    Cassie Morien, director

Rachael Joyner, secretary                                           Lucy Reed, director

Dori Zinn, membership vice president                   Gabriel Tyner, director          

Lynn Walsh, programs vice president                   Gideon Grudo, student member

Michael Koretzky, immediate past president        Sergy Odiduro, director

 QUICK UPDATES

Minutes from Oct. 18 board meeting approved. Motion by Jason, second by Michael Koretzky.

1. 1.     Financial status – quick look at our money, fiscal year ends Jan. 31 – Michele & Jason

- We have a budget of just over $66,000 among all our accounts. Jason will hand over his financial duties to Brandon before the next meeting, when we will have a more detailed update.

1. 2.     Scholarships – update on this year’s HS/college awards, deadline March 1 – Bill & Michele

- Lucy, Arlene and Koretzky are on Bill’s committee; contact him if anyone else wants to join. He is chair of the scholarships committee. Rebekah will help make flyers for our new scholarship program. She wants to see a lot of applicants.

1. 3.     MOE Awards judging – if you’ve signed up to judge, starts next month – Brandon

- Thanked all for signing up to judge. Judging will be done online. He will provide more updates as the date approaches. Judging opens Feb. 6 and closes Feb. 27.

1. 4.     Regional convention – March 23-24 at University of Florida, who wants to go? – Koretzky

- Koretzky doesn’t have many details about the convention yet. Our chapter will pay gas and hotel stay for any board members who want to go. We need to have at least one person representing our chapter. Rebekah and Gabriel expressed interest in going. Koretzky suggested they each present a session at the convention.

1. 5.     Membership update – we’ve lost some members, we’re going to get them back – Dori 

- Dori said we now have 114 members. We lost 38 people last year and 45 the year before. She has a breakdown of the membership trends for our chapter over the past several years.

- Michele suggested dividing up the list of people who didn’t renew and reaching out to them. Dori will make a Google doc. Rebekah suggested using our content management system to automate sending out reminders to renew a month or so before. Devin said we should make the email more creative with a hook to get people to review. Rebekah said we should make a packet available for people to renew at our events.

- Michele suggested making a committee to handle these issues. Dori will chair it; Devin and Brandon volunteered to be on it.

- Lucy: What’s the benefit of having more members? Koretzky: We get local dues money and the more members we have, the more delegates we are allotted at the SPJ National Convention election. Now, however, it is easier to vote for SPJ national positions, and the delegates aren’t as important. Rebekah thinks it is important to get more members, even if we aren’t reaping any financial benefits.

NEW BUSINESS

1. 1.     Sunshine State Awards – category changes and plans for this year’s awards – Lucy

- They had two successful committee meetings. They nearly finished putting together the categories. They discussed pushing the application deadline to the end of February to avoid conflicting with a few other large contests. A guy in charge of the submissions for the Orlando Sentinel suggested changing the categories to reflect the style of writing rather than the content, such as deadline story. They also suggested having categories that recognize excellence in a particular beat and have the writer submit several stories. Feb. 3 is Lucy’s expected launch date. She is holding off making the final decisions about categories until she gets the opinions from the board. Michele said we trust her judgment and that she should move ahead with the decisions based on what she’s heard in committee meetings. We need to decide now so we can promote this event a lot. Lucy said she will have the category list to everyone on Friday for thoughts, and then she will send it Tim on Monday.

- Michele: We also need to figure out our marketing strategy. Lucy: Tim needs to be more involved with the marketing. Rebekah suggested doing a postcard to send to the newsrooms (she will design it). The group agreed that postcards will be more effective than emails. We also need to create a list of media contacts for the state, a job that Tim could do.

1. 2.     McQueen scholarship – money was donated to the chapter in McQueen’s name,
   what are we doing with it? – Jason

- We haven’t done anything in the past few years with the money, $630. Michele: We should give it out at our Sunshine State Awards banquet.

Motion: Rebekah made a motion to add money from our chapter’s scholarship fund to make it $1,000; seconded by Brandon. All approved.

Motion: Lucy made a motion to move the money to the scholarship committee to research McQueen and decide the criteria for awarding someone with the money; Jason seconded. All approved.

1. 3.     Website improvements – Adding SPJ news briefs and testimonials – Dori

- Dori put up a blog post with news briefs. This is something she wants to do often to get people to look at our website. She asked the board to be on the lookout for info. She wants to do it once a week. Lynn suggested also highlighting the work that our members are doing. We could ask them to submit ideas. Dori said a few hundred people a week visit our website. Koretzky wondered if it was worth our time investment to do this. He thinks SPJ National does a good job marketing SPJ stuff, but it is just buried on their website. If we want to drive people to the website for hits, we could hire a person to blog about media news, following the model of the Daily Pulp. He suggested spending our time devoting a page to each winner of the Sunshine State Awards — it would be a good way to drive traffic to our site. Koretzky agreed to be in charge of it. Lynn and Cassie said they could help.

1. 4.     2012 goals, program ideas – everyone

- Media guide – Lucy suggested creating a media guide. She knows other chapters make money with it. Koretzky said PRSA used to make one. Michele will find out if they still do it. If they don’t, we could make a guide online that is searchable.

- More meet-ups - Rebekah wants to have more in Miami and Broward. She thinks we need to have more little events throughout the year. The hardest part in the past was securing a location. We need to find consistent places in each county to hold the event and then rotate them. Michele’s goal is to set up three in advance before starting the first. Rebekah will chair the committee on this and create a list of tasks. Devin and Gabriel volunteered to help.

- Brandon’s ideas – We need to meet some of the things we say we do in the mission statement, such as diversity. We should also do a survey to ask members what they want. Cassie suggested doing it on Facebook or Twitter. Lynn said that we could make the survey short, five questions or so. Rebekah, Michele, and Cassie will work on the poll project.

- Combining STA banquet with programs – Koretzky wants to have the SPJ regional convention down here and do it whenever we want instead of in March/April, when it is traditionally done. We should combine our STA banquet with the regional convention and have great programs and sessions. He would even consider having the regional convention down here permanently if it’s awesome. We should try to combine all our ideas for programming into the regional convention. Koretzky is willing to put in the work for this if the board is interested. We could shoot for next year.

1. 5.     Next meeting – Lucy’s groovy new Newsworthy Café in Fort Lauderdale?

- Lucy gave an overview of her new Newsworthy Café. We discussed using it as a venue for meetings and other events.

- We will shoot for our next meeting at the end of February. Michele will send out a Doodle.

- Rebekah said we should have a networking event at the end of January just to get people together and talk about what they want out of our chapter for the year. She has people asking her when SPJ’s first event is. Several people suggested making it a regular event, maybe the last Monday of the month and a different county each month, from 7 p.m. to 9ish. The first event is Jan. 31. Rebekah will find a place by the end of the week.

MOTION: Jason made a motion to adjourn the meeting; seconded by Rebekah. All approved.