JEANC Board Meeting

Jan. 26, 2013
CNPA Office | 2000 O Street, Suite 120 | Sacramento, CA 95811

I. Call to Order

President Michelle Balmeo called the meeting to order at 10:11 a.m.

Present: Michelle Balmeo, Kristy Blackburn, Janelle Eastridge, Randy Hamm, Ed Galdrikian, Randy Hamm, Janice Johnson, Sarah Nichols, Rachel West (and Ellen Austin by Google+).

II. Approval of Minutes

https://jeanc.org/2012/09/sept-9-meeting-minutes/

Ed moved to approve the minutes; Janice seconded. Minutes approved.

III. Communications

Michelle shared correspondence from former board member Margie Bell congratulating the board on its accomplishments and welcoming her former student Janelle.

IV. Reports of Officers

a. Treasurer

Randy provided a summary and clarification of the financial documents he had prepared prior to the meeting. We spent $2400 more than we took in (JEA seed money);  we spent $4500 to prepay convention expense for next school year’s fall convention. In loose terms, we are in good shape because we have $20K in the bank. The financial documents provide detailed information.

b. Membership Chair

Rachel reported that we 74 current members; two expired will renew definitely. This is consistent with our general membership pattern. In the time since our last meeting, Sarah shared a membership database with Rachel, who cross-checked those 400 NorCal names with our current JEANC member list. She found 59 current, 72 lapsed, 296 new names. Rachel is working to address the question of why JEANC members aren’t renewing. This led to discussion about a membership postcard to publicize at-home training, annual contest,  convention and other items as member benefits. Rachel also suggested doing a survey to find out why members don’t renew. The numbers indicate that we had an especially strong non-renew period about three years ago. Sarah said JEA did a similar survey nationally and can share the info. Sarah said the reason some join JEA and not JEANC is broadcast. We need to offer programming and contests.

Rachel believes there needs to be a budget for member outreach. Mailings are good. Not everyone gets our emails. Michelle says we’ll get that money back in membership if we do this effectively.

Janice says she gets too inundated with email and she deletes a lot but would look at a postcard or paper mailing. Maybe JEANC should do both. Rachel suggested doing a follow-up email reminding of the paper mailing we sent. The group agreed not to rely on digital alone and is aware of potentially inaccurate lists. Don says he’s less curious about the survey because we know the reason people don’t renew: money. Kristy said promoting the convention on the postcard would be great because the Sacramento convention is so much cheaper than the national option and will hit people’s interest.

Michelle shared that our e-blasts cost between $5-8 now (not done the old way by Joe Wirt from CNPA) and part of that cost is the analytics. We get who unsubscribed, how many bounced back, how many are opened and other relevant details.

Motion: JEANC will sponsor a membership postcard with up to $800 for the printing and mailing costs. Sarah moved. Randy seconded. Motion carried.

Rachel will move forward with the postcard project.

c. President

Michelle shared her vision that this meeting would set the stage for the next year and offered a brief recap of last year’s success: Sarah organized the scholarship committee for JOY and NorCal was competitive at the national level; Michelle and Rachel did their third round of JEANC Annual Contest and it made money; as a board, we’re doing great things; RENOvation offered partial scholarship, speaking to our attempts to be equitable; the summer workshop was shaky but resulted in last-minute success, small profit, very positive experience.

V. Old Business

a. Fall J-Day report/wrap-up

Sarah reported on the October j-day at The Sacramento Bee, which was a free student/adviser event that included three rounds of breakout sessions, lunch and a keynote speaker. This involved close to 40 people and was possible due to help from Pam Dinsmore. We had positive feedback. It was great to have help in teaching sessions from Rachel, Pete Leblanc, Kelly Wilkerson, Casey Nichols and Sarah. Sarah wants to do a plaque to thank Pam and to acknowledge her upcoming recognition from JEA as Friend of Scholastic Journalism (to be awarded in San Francisco); everyone agreed. Michelle will handle this.

South Bay J-day (Michelle asks Ellen to chime in via webchat)

This event did not happen yet as hoped; the challenge is the lack of a person like Sac’s Pam Dinsmore; Joe Wirt previously suggested to have it at a school instead (not as prestigious without a cool newspaper facility but it’s more doable); Kristy suggested a local college and that would be nice compromise (College of San Mateo) and Ellen agreed. Michelle asked Kristy to pursue this with the Peninsula Press Club and make an inquiry. Randy mentioned this is recruiting for their own school/program.

b. Journalist of the Year contest/scholarship update (deadline approaching)

Sarah stepped down as committee chair due to other responsibilities and to give someone else the opportunity. She will help with the transition to a new chair. Rachel offered to serve as the chairperson. Janelle, Don, Janice and Kristy will serve on the committee and will help evaluate portfolios. Members of the committee to meet shortly after the deadline (March 1) to select winners. Sarah will help Rachel coordinate with Mitch Ziegler, the JEA state director, for other related details because the JEANC winner is the Arnetta Garcin Memorial Scholarship recipient but not automatically the state winner advancing to national competition unless there is no Southern California entry.

c. #hsjSF activities planning

Michelle reported that she placed a half page ad for RENOvation and teasing other upcoming activities. We will get back 80 percent of the ad cost. Half page ad for $500.

At the last meeting, we also discussed purchasing exhibitor space. The concern was having someone there to staff it at all times. Michelle is available and sees that as her responsibility. We also get back most of the cost, and it would give us a place to do a meet-and-greet type of event for NorCal advisers. Ellen said yes, we have to do this because all of the visibility. Randy asked about cost.

Motion: JEANC will purchase exhibit space at the San Francisco convention. Ellen moved and Kristy seconded. Motion carried.

Michelle will talk to Sarah about JakPrints for pricing to order buttons (NorCal) and stickers (RENOvation).

Michelle shared a member referral idea: $5 incentive if someone joins on the spot, you get a coupon for your next JEANC purchase. $5 off for you and for the new member if you register at the convention. Need membership forms available at the booth for SF and Randy will handle having a cash box ready.

Janice suggested creating a poster or list of all of our member schools, or a photo or screen shot of the staff or publication. This also could be a photo booth where we shoot and post staff photos on our board. Ellen said it should be a kid or small group of kids helping to photograph and post these photos at the booth as a way to get them involved.

Michelle said she wants to design and hand out “NorCal” buttons to identify advisers in the region. Sarah suggested using our Twitter handle and making them something advisers and students could keep and reuse rather than something too specific.

d. Annual Contest update – nothing changes

1. Contest opens online on Feb. 15. Deadline is April 15. Acceptable works will come from April 16, 2012 to April 15, 2013.

2. New policy kicks in this year: first three entries per adviser are free. Decision from Spring 2012 meeting.

3. We need help finding a few more yearbook judges.

4. News, sports, feature video component, Michelle suggests. Rachel says it’s an easy way to add in something for broadcast. Rachel said descriptions are really important so people know the criteria. Sarah can ask Jesse McLean to judge the broadcast category. Sarah got more yearbook judges and Rachel got people during her time at the San Antonio convention as help for other categories.

e. Digital RENOvation 2013 June 16-19

1. What’s the same: at UNR, mid-June, Sunday-Wednesday, hours, concept

2. What’s new: Michelle reported that we will need 50-80 paid participants to be healthy (break even vs. cap)

2a. New, more specific course offerings. Print Design (Don and Rachel), Visual Storytelling (Photo/Video) (Kelly W. and Ellen), Web Design (Michelle), and Editorial Leadership (Sarah)

2b. NorCal transportation for a fee. Lots of kids and advisers are having trouble getting to Reno (actually, most are having trouble getting home on a Wednesday). The idea here is to charter a bus that departs from San Jose at 7 and makes stops in Walnut Creek and Natomas on the way to Reno, then the same in reverse on the way back. Cost would be $50-60 depending on where you board. We’ll break even with 30 passengers. We would need a faculty member to take the bus (we’ll pay an hourly rate to the faculty member and the ride will be free), and it will require an extra permission form. Ellen is offering possibly to ride the bus. Separate permission slip and the bus is a charter and is ensured. Need 30 on the bus to break even. Max on bus is 47.

Motion: JEANC will sponsor a workshop charter bus from San Jose to Reno and will cover all related costs. Rachel moved. Sarah seconded. Motion carried.

2c. Facility fee to UNR = $1500. We haven’t paid this in the past but the fee kicks in now and is not negotiable. We will be charging a $30 facility fee to participants. This includes tech support, four labs, classroom space, and the broadcast studio with a faculty member to help. Anything over the $1500 we pay will stay with us as profit, up to 80 kids is all we can accommodate. They will contribute to our outreach efforts in Reno. Sunday and nights Barbara Trainor until 8 p.m. and we love her. Broadcast isn’t for the duration of the camp; we’d schedule specific times to use the lab for the kids enrolled in that class/track. Last year we had 32 kids. Michelle wants to offer partial scholarship again but fixing the problem of last year in that kids applied, won scholarships, and then didn’t attend.

3. Tracy Sena shared an interesting idea: what if we offered a digital registration for advisers/individuals to pay a fee to participate from home? They would get live streams of sessions and somehow participate. This led to a discussion of other online offerings, both at workshops or conventions and in other times.

f. Fall Convention planning

1. Theme. Sarah suggested three themes with a basic visual for each (all of the above, 21st Century Journalism and converge”). Sarah’s preference was the third idea because of the graphic treatment with the 13 in the logotype. This idea was based on a similar idea from the Arkansas Scholastic Press Association for the spring convention.

Motion: JEANC’s fall convention theme will be CONVERGE. Ed moved, Janice seconded. Motion carried with one abstention.

Sarah will talk to Alan Loibner at ASPA and we’ll move forward.

2. Convention timeline. Online registration will open Sept. 1 and the early-bird price will go until Oct. 1. The convention dates are Oct. 11-12, 2013.

3. Duties

– Facilities, including AV (Don)
– Web setup and registration – Michelle
– Contests (incl. judging) – Rachel and Janelle
– Critiques – Randy
– Speakers – Don (all of us to help)  – and ask Ellen & Paul
– Gifts and thank yous – Janice
– Vendors – Janice
– Program design, copies – Sarah

After a lunch break, the meeting resumed at 12:35.

Michelle appointed Janelle as secretary.

VI. New Business

a. Posting news to the JEANC site

Michelle asked whether anyone would be interested in filling a specific role of posting news items to the JEANC website? Rachel offered to help if she had a tutorial or more help.

b. Online J-Day (Silicon Valley)

Michelle shared an idea that JEANC could host an un-conference (idea modeled off of ONA). This could include sequence of webinars that feature a guest speaker, an interviewer, and X number of open slots for member staffs to sign up to join in via Google hangout. Staffs would join from one location (say, at 4 p.m., for example) and all be in the room together. Advisers could project the hangout on their screens. Could be very cool!

Ellen loves this idea and chimed in about meeting Roy Peter Clark at Poynter and agreeing that he probably would do it. This takes away complications with cost, travel, logistics, and this could be more attractive because it’s new and contemporary. Interactive. Sarah and Ellen feel that we need to lead the charge even if it isn’t perfect the first time.

Ellen mentioned ability to archive and how many more people that can reach. Michelle explained Tracy’s idea about a pay structure to stream live content (virtual attendance). The board discussed questions about tech needs and how that would complicate our workshop model, but we want to test it at RENOvation (Sarah said Tracy would be the person if we want; Ellen agreed that Tracy is interested in this if her help is needed). The group agreed that outreach and preplanning would be critical in order to have things set up in advance.

This led to discussion about virtual conference vs one Hangout and a variety of logistical concerns. Kristy mentioned comparison to swap shop and interactivity. Ellen and Sarah said how they would like to have archived expert videos available. Sarah suggested we create a YouTube channel and post segments called “5 minutes with…” using our @jeaNorCal brand.

Michelle will set up the YouTube channel.

VII. Good of the Order

Michelle shared a new event the journalism programs in her district are putting together. Randy shared news of another grandchild. Ed shared that this will be his last term on the JEANC board.

VIII. Adjournment