Minutes

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

November 13, 2021, 3 p.m.

Started: 3:01 p.m.

Attendees: Tim Eigo, Mark Scarp, Teri Carnicelli, Doug MacKenzie. Absent: Deb Krol

Opening

• Secretary’s report/approval of minutes from July 18, 2021 – Moved (Teri) and seconded (Doug) — unanimously approved.
• Treasurer’s report – Teri reports our investments with Russell Life Points/Northwestern Mutual as of Nov. 12 gained $117.41 in the past quarter, to $20,410.69. Our checking account as of the same date contained $6,009.02, compared to $5,066.28 on July 19.
• Mark’s Mighty Minute! – Mark revisited his motion in July, approved unanimously by the board, to make the chapter’s annual $500 financial contribution to the First Amendment Coalition. At the time, the board authorized Teri was to inquire about invoices/paying for 2020 and 2021 and make whatever payments the chapter owed the coalition. Teri contacted FAC President Morgan Loew, who said he’d check on the amount owed and would send Tim an invoice. So far, the invoice has not arrived. Teri said she would re-contact Morgan. Mark also asked if there have been any meetings of the coalition board since our July chapter board meeting, as Deb was authorized by unanimous board vote at that meeting to be the chapter’s representative to those meetings.

Old Business

• Recap of SPJ national conference, Sept. 2-4: Tim attended and said there were many good sessions including a great documentary that was shown about a small family-run newspaper.
• Arizona Newspapers Association annual awards event Oct. 9 (and our FOI awards): Tim said it went well. Two honorees attended, two did not. Tim has their awards and will get them to them.
• ASU-Cronkite Dean’s reception, Oct. 28: Dean Battinto Batts told Tim and Mark he’d be happy to meet working journalists at some SPJ event at a bar.

New Business

• Final (almost) report of 2021 Publicity Summit: The 17^th annual Valley Publicity Summit, Presented by SPJ, was held Oct. 16, a delay from the initial Sept. 26 date that allowed for time to arrange to move the event outdoors on the ASU Tempe campus. Mark gave the board a copy of preliminary income-and-expense report. On income of $3,441.26 and expenses of approximately $2,076.02, proceeds are expected to be about $1,365.24. The last expense, estimated in the report at $200, is the thank-you dinner for the Summit Committee to be held this Monday, Nov. 15. Mark reported expenses were higher than usual to accommodate the outdoor venue for the event, including rental of chairs, tablecloths and lectern and more bottled water, among other ancillary items. There were 52 PR attendees and 20 media representatives. This compared with the average of the last five Summits of 58 attendees and 23 media representatives. Overall, attendees responding to a Survey Monkey survey expressed very positive feedback. Most respondents said they liked the outdoor venue and the mid-October date, which is information to consider when setting the date and location of the 2022 Summit.
• Possible launch of annual scholarship essay competition, spring 2022: Too late for fall, but Tim said we could launch it at start of spring 2022 with a possible award for either late spring or fall 2022. Deadlines would have to be set up. We could wait a year, but Tim said it’s important that we start adding events and functions again in what we hope will be the waning months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tim will do more research and report back to the board
• Arizona as possible location for 2023 SPJ national conference: SPJ Executive Director John Shertzer wrote Tim to say Phoenix is in the running for the location for the 2023 national conference. More later.
• Plans to welcome ASU Cronkite Dean Battinto L. Batts Jr. ourselves: Likely an event for early 2022, spring semester.
• 2022 programming suggestions: Postponed until later.
• SPJ selling national HQ building and asked chapters if they want records: Robert Leger joined other former national SPJ presidents in Indianapolis to clean out records from the building basement in anticipation of a possible sale of the headquarters building at 3909 N. Meridian St. Robert returned to Phoenix to hand over Valley of the Sun chapter records to Tim; they were all from 1995 or later. Tim said many of the records are useful. He will be going through them more thoroughly.
• Board members expressed hesitation about the chosen location of Old Town Tortilla Factory in Scottsdale, the estimate cost of $25 per person (it’s about $10 at our own previous events) and the possibility of a low SPJ turnout. Teri will check on Ocotillo as another possibility. Also, she’ll look at REBAR for SPJ to go it alone on Dec. 7, 8 or 9. This will be done on the week of Nov. 15.

PROPOSED NEXT MEETING: Sunday, January 9, 2022, 10 a.m.

Adjourned: 4:13 p.m. (72 minutes)

Respectfully submitted,

Mark J. Scarp, Chapter Secretary