Valley journalists and communicators: Enjoy a cold beverage with colleagues and competitors on the year’s longest day at our annual Summer Solstice Soiree, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, at State 48 Brewing Co., 345 W. Van Buren (at 4th Avenue), downtown Phoenix. (Previous messages had a different date. June 18 is correct.) Please RSVP on our Facebook event page so we can get an accurate count to order the free appetizers, courtesy of the chapter. (If you’re there early enough, the chapter will be buying the first round of beverages as well.)
Once again, our event will include Beer for Bylines, where we buy you a drink if you briefly share with the group a recent story you helped cross the finish line, as a reporter, editor, producer, or in any capacity. Other than that, we feed you great appetizers, and everyone pays for your own beverages.
We also will briefly hold voice-vote elections for our 2025-2026 chapter officers at this event. Nominations for candidacy for officer positions closed on June 8. Our nominations committee is proud to announce that our current officers are all standing for re-election: Tim Eigo, president; Nicole Greason, vice president; Mark Scarp, secretary; Kerry Fehr-Snyder, treasurer.
WANT TO RUN? Any chapter member in good standing as a member of the SPJ national organization and the Valley of the Sun chapter as of May 28, 2025, may also seek one of the above offices. Please send an email to phoenixspj@cox.net with your member ID number for verification no later than 5 p.m. Arizona time on Monday, June 9, 2025. You may learn your member ID number on spj.org or from the mailing label on the print edition of SPJ’s magazine, Quill.
TERM OF OFFICE: The term of office is July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. The election will be conducted by voice vote at approximately 6:30 p.m. and may be participated in only by current Valley of the Sun SPJ chapter members in good standing. We’ll have a list of them current as of that date at the event. More information on the election and our officer candidates may be found here.
The duties of each officer are found in Article III of the Chapter Bylaws, posted on our chapter website. Questions? Contact phxspj@gmail.com.
See you there! (By the way, we’ve checked the potential traffic report. Both the Diamondbacks and Mercury are playing out of town that night, and there are no concerts scheduled at the nearby performance venues.)
Photo of beer mug by Lucas Oliveira for Unsplash
SPJ: Phoenix, Arizona Chapter 