03-11-2018 Valley of the Sun SPJ Meeting Minutes

SPJ Minutes – March 11, 2018

 

Board Meeting of the Society of Professional Journalists, Valley of the Sun Pro Chapter

March 11, 2018, 10:00 a.m., Normal Diner, Tempe

 

10:15 am – Meeting opens

  • Previous minutes approved.

 

Treasurer’s report

  • Dip in investment account – a couple hundred dollars in Jan. Possible we regained in Feb. Didn’t check
  • We got a dues check — $246
  • Cash available à $3,880.53
  • Teri – preparing to do the annual report. Will be ready by next meeting

 

Mark’s Mighty Minute!

  • PRSA registration discount for Pub. Summit – only good until August
  • IABC – registration discount for Pub. Summit – only good until August
    • These guys are a bit in the doghouse – they didn’t show last year
  • Met with Paige Phelps on Thursday for First Amendment Coalition à she’s ready to go.

 

Old Business/Updates

  • NewsTrain, April 6-7 at ASU Cronkite – Registration is available (http://bit.ly/PhoenixNewsTrain – $85)
  • We’re sponsoring a little bit. Tim is going.

FAC – no report yet

  • They’re apparently offering a writing award – the Star Award

 

  • First Amendment Coalition liaison report (to be submitted by Paige Phelps)
  • January 19 mixer at Original Wineburger, Phoenix
  • Small but successful
  • February 16 mixer at Lustre Bar, Palomar Hotel, Phoenix
  • Not as successful – smaller turn out, but people were sick. And parking was outrageously priced. Probably not a good follow up
  • Spring educational programming:
  • FOIA/Sunshine Week event (Wednesday, March 14, 2018)
  • Coming up. We’ll see how turn out is. Thus far, no tickets sold.
  • We need to start advertising earlier.
  • Covering the aging population (moderator Deb Krol)
  • Date is April 2 – however, no advertising has been done – do we no the venue and all the speakers? We need to push back.

 

New Business

  • March 16 mixer at Rosie McCaffrey’s, Phoenix.
  • KM – will send parking suggestions
  • Clarendon Hotel nomination as an SPJ Historic Site in Journalism
  • They’re thrilled and ready to be honored
  • Possible design/launch of a recurring chapter email newsletter, and creation of a social media strategy
  • We need to bring in someone. Tim had talked to someone who might be interested in doing Social Media for us. Paula Pedene is also excited. We need a content strategy. Sit down with Paula. Tim will reach out to schedule a meeting.
  • Annual SPJ report will be due May 30, 2018, and cover the period from May 1, 2017, to April 30, 2018.
  • Further notes on this above.
  • SPJ Regional Conference, Los Angeles, April 27–28, 2018 (early-bird registration closes March 19)
  • Board members going: Mark, Tim
  • SPJ National Conference, Baltimore, Sept. 27-29 à anyone want to go?

 

  • April Happy Hour à April 20, 2018. Casey Moore’s.

 

 

  • Possible educational programming:
  • Reschedule Aging Conference
  • Government Accountability Project event idea (from Paula Pedene)
  • SPJ/Facebook Journalism Project event
  • Also: Eliminating the use of jargon in journalism (Mark Scarp); Transborder issues (Robert Leger)

Final notes:

  • We need to look at increasing board members. We need to do better on looking further ahead.
  • We need to focus on getting more journalists on the board
  • Identify our “leaders” who show up to events, volunteer
  • Also reach out to our new members
  • Teri reimbursed Mark for Facebook boosting — $14

Next board meeting: May 20th, at First Watch, 10 a.m., address: 111 W. University Drive
Tempe, AZ 85281 

11:28 — Meeting close

Tim Eigo recorded the minutes of the meeting in place of the absent Kaely Monahan.