May 12 2008 board meeting minutes

May 12, 2008 board meeting minutes

Attendance: Board members Sarah Mills Bacha, Brian Ball, Jane Beathard, Robin Hepler, Paul Kostyu, Mike Lorz, Joe Meyer, Dave Richter, Hillary Warren and Sherrie Williams; guest and board nominee, Julanne Hohbach, and; guest Jung Jing, editor of the Ohio Chinese American News/Ohio Taiwanese American News.

President Lorz called the meeting to order prior to 12:11 p.m.

Amended minutes of April 14, 2008 board meeting accepted: The board unanimously approved a motion by Kostyu, seconded by Ball to approve the minutes of the April 14, 2008, board meeting prepared by Secretary Meyer, with the following changes: Under Chapter Awards, it was noted Kostyu (not Lorz) made the motion to award the Chapter’s Brick Wall Award to the Ohio Department of Education and Lorz (not Kostyu) seconded the nomination; Under New Officers and Directors, it was noted Meyer also would be on the slate of five officers to be sworn in to new three-year terms at the Founders Day banquet.

Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Bacha provided board members with a Financial Statement detailing activity in the Chapter’s checking and PayPal accounts (statement attached). She noted one change to the prepared checking account activity: a debit listed for “videotaping” for the April 23 ethics workshop panel at actually was incurred for audio recording, for podcasting. Bacha and Richter led a discussion on how PayPal was functioning in our first use of it to take payment for Founders Day banquet reservations.

Programming: Vice President and Programming Chairwoman Jennifer Monnin was not present but sent an e-mail to board members prior to the meeting detailing recent activity – namely, the April 23 ethics program. More than 30 people attended the luncheon event hosted by Otterbein College. Catering of the meal and recording for podcasting came in under the $500 grant received by the Chapter from national SPJ, so we will have to reimburse national for the difference.

Monnin’s e-mail also noted the podcast was not posted to the Chapter web site “in respect of the participants and the honest questions they asked.” This led to discussion by board members about the decision not to post, with consensus agreement the recording should be posted. At the suggestion of some board members, President Lorz said we would delay a decision until we could get an account of the decision with Monnin present, hopefully at the June board meeting.

Founders Day
Scholarships: Lorz said he received back three rankings of applicants from the packets of all the Faulkner Scholarship applicants’ resumes, distributed by overnight mail to all board members late the previous week. Discussion followed on the lack of the applicants’ explicit desire to go into public service reporting careers – the one qualification of the scholarship. Lorz noted he had on his own added a qualification that any applicant be recommended by a college faculty member. Other board members noted the applicants were early in their college educations. Kostyu suggested that in the future, the solicitations for the scholarship go out earlier and include statements about the public service reporting aspect. Meyer suggested that in the future, we follow our past practices and have the Chapter president or a scholarship committee debate and present recommended students for the Faulkner Scholarship, rather than a committee of the whole board. Lorz asked for volunteers to stay after the meeting concluded to choose among the applicants, and several board members volunteered.

Meyer moved that the board authorize awarding the Faulkner to two students chosen by the group, and authorize awarding the Dohn and Meckstroth scholarships to the students recommended by our faculty representatives at Ohio University and Ohio State, respectively. Richter seconded.

Kostyu proposed an amendment to allow the group to choose “zero to two” students for the Faulkner. Ball seconded.

The amendment passed with Meyer voting no and the rest of the board members present voting yes; the amended motion then passed unanimously.

Chapter Awards: Lorz said a mailing to all Chapter membership offering those nominated for Chapter awards, soliciting votes and write-ins had not been sent.

First Amendment – Lorz mentioned giving the award to Columbus Dispatch Editor Ben Marrison rather than the reporters in the “ABCs of Betrayal” series. The board previously had accepted the nomination of the reporters on the series, Jill Riepenhoff and Jennifer Smith Richards; Board members discussed the options of otherwise recognizing the series by adding the other editors who worked on it or just giving the award to the Dispatch. Kostyu then made a motion to give the First Amendment Award to Riepenhoff and Smith Richards. Bacha seconded. The motion passed unanimously. The board discussed the possibility of rescinding the 2007 First Amendment Award presented to former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, though no action was taken.

Brick Wall – Kostyu moved and Warren seconded a motion to award the Brick Wall Award to the Ohio Department of Education, for stonewalling, feet-dragging and general lack of cooperation with the Dispatch in responding to public record requests during work on the “ABCs of Betrayal” series – as previously nominated. The motion passed unanimously.

Appreciation Award – Richter moved and Ball seconded the motion to award the Chapter’s Appreciation Award for contributions to Central Ohio journalism to Danny Russell, former editor of The Other Paper, also as previously nominated. The motion passed unanimously.

Distinguished Service – Meyer moved and Kostyu seconded a motion to approve the previous nomination of Brian Ball and Dave Richter for the Distinguished Service Award. Ball abstained on the vote with the rest of the board members present voting yes to approve the motion.

New business: Founders Day meal prices for family/guests of scholarship and Chapter award winners were discussed, with Lorz proposing family members of students be charged the student rate (one-half the standard rate) and that past presidents be invited to come for free, leading to discussion about the number of reservations and complimentary meals. No action taken.

Membership: Kemper recounted a recent Social Hour held at Patrick J’s in Clintonville. He said about a dozen attended and the event went well. Unlike past Social Hours, the Chapter incurred no expenses.

State and Regional SPJ: No updates

New Officers and Directors: No write-in nominations were received since the slate was settled in April, and the board unanimously approved a motion/second by Kostyu/Kemper to close nominations.

On a motion by Kostyu, seconded by Warren, the board unanimously approved the proposed slate as follows: Directors to new three-year terms: Julanne Hohbach, Joe Meyer, Chuck Nelson, Ismail Turay and Katy Waters; 2008-09 Officers: President Jennifer Monnin, Vice President of Programming Kevin Kemper, Vice President of Membership Katy Waters, Secretary Jane Beathard and Treasurer Sarah Mills Bacha.

Move to adjourn: Kostyu moved and Beathard seconded a motion, and with unanimous approval, the board adjourned at 1:03 p.m.

Next meeting: Noon June 9 at Plank’s.