April 13 2009 board meeting minutes

April 13, 2009 board meeting minutes

The meeting was called to order at about noon by president Jennifer Monnin. A quorum was present. In attendance were Chuck Nelson, Katy Waters, Kevin Kemper, Jennifer Monnin, Julanne Hohbach, Robin Hepler, Sharon West, Beth Gianforcaro, Mike Lorz, and Sarah Bacha.

To recap the spring conference of April 3-4, Monnin and the board thanked Waters for coordinating and members expressed pleasure with how the conference turned out. Waters said the bill had yet to be paid to the hotel because there was trouble with getting the state tax removed. It was agreed that thank-you notes would be sent to speakers.

Board members decided to send a mailing to chapter membership about the 60th annual Founders Day to be held May 7 at the Fawcett Center at OSU. Kemper moved and Nelson seconded to award the Faulkner scholarship of $2,000 to Eryn Bostwick of OSU, the Dohn scholarship of $2,000 to Evan Millward at OU and the Meckstroth scholarship of $2,000 to Tom Knox at OSU. All voted in favor and the motion passed.

Kemper said he would write a letter notifying Business First editor Dominic Cappa he was the recipient of the chapter’s annual Appreciation Award. Members said a letter notifying the Olentangy Local School District Board of Education they had won the Brick Wall award would be written by Joe Meyer and sent by Kemper. Gianforcaro said she would take care of getting plaques for winners. It was suggested that she try Village trophy on King Avenue. Lorz said he wondered where to send last year’s Brick Wall award, which was never delivered. Members said it should go to the Ohio Department of Education’s headquarters. Monnin said she would send notes later to board members on who was writing which notification letters and then they would be sent to board once completed. Kemper said he checked into sports tickets for an auction and had no luck. Auction will have to resume next year perhaps.

Monnin said Barbara James at the Columbus Dispatch agreed to fill board member Sherri Williams’ vacated seat. All other members with expiring terms said they would re-up.

Lorz said he would send Monnin the swearing-in language. Nelson suggested Region 4 director Jeremy Steele be invited to administer the oath.

Gianforcaro said she would look into creating some historical information for tables at the event as it is the 60th annual and also the centennial of SPJ. Members asked whether any family members of founders would be there and whether past presidents would get personal invites.

Lorz said he’d met with members of the Columbus Association of Black Journalists about a project CABJ is undertaking to study the ethnic makeup of newsroom employees and local content. The audit will be conducted with guidelines from Maynard Institute. Members said they wanted to learn more about the institute but expressed support for the idea. They asked Lorz to have CABJ clarify to how the results would be presented to local news editors. Monnin asked that the audit be evaluated in more detail before the chapter signs off on participation. Nelson suggested the results be shared at a joint event with a panel discussion.

Monnin said the chapter’s leadership transition has traditionally been at Founders Day, but that the bylaws say July. Kemper said he did not mind doing the transition at Founders Day.

Monnin said the chapter’s annual report is due April 27 by online survey, She said she would call national to ask for an extension until June 1.

Hepler asked whether there was an easy way to post job openings on the chapter’s Web site, and members agreed the easiest thing would be to post links to job ads. Monnin said the issue could be taken up at the next meeting.

Members discussed waiving local dues for laid-off journalists. There was favor for the idea, but members asked whether there would be a time frame or whether it would be indefinite. Gianforcaro said there should be a window on the waiver and it should be promoted.

Monnin said a membership drive should be discussed at the next meeting.

Bacha presented the financial report. She said she was still sorting out details from the conference. She moved registration fees from the PayPal account and the checking account had $12,000 in it after that. It was suggested that past president Dave Richter might have the chapter’s tax exempt certificate.

Lorz said he has been working with Africans in New Directions and the owners of Columbus’ Somali newspaper on a program to teach journalism to high school students. He said they needed nine part-time instructors to work M-R 8:30-3 p.m. He said it would pay $15-20 per hour.

The meeting adjourned at about 1:15 p.m.