Board members present: Darcie Lunsford, Bill Hirschman, John Hopkins, Sylvia Gurinsky, Merwin Sigale, Beth Feinstein-Bartl
Committee chairs and representatives present: Tim Dodson (Sunshine State Awards), Michael Koretzky (student affairs)
Guests: Tim Collie (Sun-Sentinel)

Darcie called the meeting to order at 7:26 p.m.

SUNSHINE STATE AWARDS UPDATE

• Tim provided a timeline for the awards process through the banquet, which will be Saturday, April 12 in The Empire Room at the Sheraton on Griffin Road. The hotel is booked.

• Added two web categories (breaking web news, web enterprise reporting) that Sylvia will write descriptions for. Added “cumulative” to the grade report required for the college journalist of the year.

• Tentatively scheduled a banquet post-mortem on Thursday, April 17.

• By Monday, the board will email Tim regarding the cutting of any under-performing categories.

• Tim will email Phil Latzman about emceeing the banquet. Darcie will email the last three Batten judges and ask them to repeat.

• Bill and Julie will brainstorm about a high-profile banquet speaker.

• Tim will look into a press release to Hispanic PR Newswire to tout the Spanish-language categories, which hasn’t had many entries.

• Tim will contact past judging-partner chapters and ask them to do it again.

• Set “call for entries” for Dec. 10 or earlier, with entry deadline Jan. 18.

• Sorting party on Saturday, Jan. 19, at Tim’s party room. Use student chapter members? Koretzky will ask UM students.

• Shipping date is Jan. 26, with delivery to partner chapters in about a week and one month to judge. Entries back Feb. 29.

STUDENT AFFAIRS REPORT

• The University of Miami hosted a successful First Amendment Free Food Festival on Oct. 23 for more than 200 students in the courtyard of the Communication school. The event was funded by a $1,000 grant from the national Louis Inglehart First Amendment Fund. SPJ South Florida had approved $250 as a matching grant, but the money wasn’t needed.

• Koretzky announced that the First Amendment Free Food Festival won a national award from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, an organization founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1949.

MISC

• Darcie urged the board to ponder speakers for Ethics Week that could be underwritten with an SDX ethics grant. Sylvia suggested someone from Venezuela.

• John asked on behalf of the National Membership Committee: How to pitch lifetime memberships and extended college-rate memberships to journalists in our area? Board will brainstorm ideas.

Meeting adjourned 9:20 p.m.

— submitted by Michael Koretzky