JEANC Annual Meeting

Jan. 10, 2015

10 a.m.

CNPA Headquarters

New address: 2701 K. Street, Sacramento, CA 95816

1. Call to Order

Meeting called to order at 10:24. Present: Sarah Nichols, Laura Zhu, Michelle Balmeo, Steve O’Donaghue, Rachel West, Kristy Blackburn, Don Bott and Paul Kandell (via phone)

1. Approval of Minutes from 13, 2014

Sarah moves, Michelle seconds, all vote

1. Communications

Joe Wirt: welcome to new headquarters, association management–CNPA is talking about possibly expanding to including more associations (college, etc) to represent CA, recap of JEANC/CNPA connection

1. CTA contest

Rachel: Matt forwarded contact info for Cynthia–woman in charge of CTA contest. Students have to submit published work, 2 printed newspages, one or more articles about teaching and learning in the school. It’s a free contest with one entry for class and a good way for someone to get into contest, esp. schools who don’t have funds to pay for entries. Rachel will put it out in an e-blast, and board members are encouraged to pass along flyer.

1. Don: Pioneer teacher did get in touch about in-house training, Don will be going in 2 weeks
2. Sarah: Scholastic Press Association group–FB and email–using JEANCs model to help fledgling press groups like Missouri JEA start advisor affiliate group. Also in MA, people complimentary about what JEANC has, esp. bylaws, website and contest. Also in contact with Beatrice, who does good job of communicating with Rachel, representing us well and pushing info out on a regular basis
3. Kristy: resigned from Peninsula Press Club board but will still be in contact with them to help coordinate any joint efforts.
4. Michelle: suggests adding feature to website that has all deadlines for all local stuff. Sarah suggests Google calendar. Board will return to this in G (New business).

1. Officer Reports
   1. President: Yearly recap/project list
      1. Scholarship committee never assigned because Journalist of the Year (JOY) became state director position. JOY is changing this year and we’ll need to have board people to work with JOY.
      2. Annual contest went well–more entries than ever, and entries from different schools and middle schools/yearbooks.
      3. Summer workshop days went well, made a little profit, and people appreciated what they learned. This is something to continue.
      4. Paly J-Day was a success as well. Over 150 students attended as well as advisers who hadn’t been to JEANC events before. Paul and Sarah were instrumental in organizing J-Day.
      5. Website is an area for improvement–to be discussed later.
      6. Unconference sessions/Google Hangout don’t always pan out, even though we are always excited about them in January. Michelle, Sarah, Tracy Anne Sena and Ellen Austin did Google Hangout with Mary Beth Tinker. YouTube tutorials hasn’t taken off yet, but there is still interest in developing them.
      7. Member recruitment and outreach update: we were good at getting folks to J-Day. With Ellen resigning there were transition pains with the changing positions. Rachel would like to focus on outreach and recruitment this year.
      8. Convention model–will discuss later.
      9. Overall, it was a good year for JEANC and we got a lot done on the list.

1. President-elect/Membership Chair (Vacancy)
   1. Discussion around the fact that pursuing a J-Day model instead of a convention will make the role of president a little less daunting.
   2. Rachel reported that it took a lot of time catching up the records, but that she can’t do both with her current president position.
   3. Discussion around the fact that the membership spreadsheet is not an automated process and if we are willing to pay for this instead of having a board member update it so that we can focus on programming.
   4. Steve brings up statewide umbrella group and how that could help with membership issues and taking care of that for all groups.
   5. No resolution in who will take over President-elect, although board will be super-supportive of whoever takes it on.

1. Treasurer
   1. Don: State of union is good–can do things we want to do and have around $30,000. Spent more than we made last year: $4000 in expenditures while income was $3213, with an almost $900 difference
   2. Discussion around teachers who didn’t join at J-Day but still attended event. Suggestion to have a check-in/registration table to capture those folks and encourage them to join, but most agreed it wasn’t a loss to provide J-Day for everyone, regardless of membership status.

1. Secretary
   1. none

1. Old Business:
   1. Bylaws revision update
      1. Discussion around Frank LoMonte’s edits and the necessity of having a lawyer follow up on the points that are beyond our legal knowledge. Question about the last time bylaws were updated, and there’s the need to add language around digital protocol and voting. Two options: choose to pay lawyer in Stockton to go over bylaws one more time or update language best we can based on Frank’s suggestions and legal counsel and then send to members.
      2. Don: moves that we make changes suggested by Frank LM and after those changes are made, the board will review changes and vote to submit to overall membership
      3. Sarah seconds, all in favor
      4. Timeline for getting bylaws to members: need to be mailed, so the board will have it for a vote by June and the bylaws will be mailed out to membership with other info by August. Also suggestion to have JEANC meeting as part of J-Day in the fall.

1. JEA Mentoring Donation (revisit documentation here)
   1. Discussion around previous amounts given to JEA Mentoring program. Sarah clarifies that because of Yellow Chair, board has always agreed to contribute but never had to in the past.
   2. Rachel: JEA is now asking state organizations to fund the mentoring programs by paying a quarter of the mentor costs, but would also like board to up the amount if more mentors are added. There’s also an expectation of ongoing commitment.
   3. Discussion around sustainability of stipend model, requirement for mentors to be retired instead of current advisers, and balance between supporting JEA model but also developing better model for JEANC.
   4. Suggestions: mentees are given JEANC membership for their first year in mentoring program, but JEANC would also get contact info for mentees so that mentees can get connected to more resources than just mentor. Also, JEANC could start to track mentees to see if they are staying in education and continuing to pursue journalism, and so we can get a sense of what factors affect them staying or not, which will help us plan our programming.
   5. Discussion around current mentors (Casey and Katherine) and who they are mentoring. Paul suggests putting some language into JEANC communications that would get mentors and mentees to connect with JEANC. Steve suggests creating an award that would honor teachers who are mentoring other new teachers in journalism, so that JEANC advisers would send us that information. Clarification that mentoring is ongoing help and should be generally free, while in-house training is focused on a specific skill, which is why JEANC charges for it.
   6. Don: moves that JEANC will donate $125 for every mentee in our area with a maximum contribution of $1250, JEANC wants to be notified when we get new mentees and get contact info for every new mentee, JEANC will encourage JEA to have all mentees their notify local region organization, and will offer local mentees free year-long membership to JEANC.
   7. motion tabled so Paul can contact Katherine
   8. Don makes official motion at 12:11 p.m. (same language as above)
   9. Michelle seconds, 5 say aye, Sarah abstains

1. Statewide Journalism Organization (Steve)
   1. Concept is to have one organization for all journalism organizations, a portal that feeds to a database that keeps track of members. This would mean there is one person in charge of membership for everyone, which would reduce costs and increase services. Example: if we want to have convention, JACC also has convention in Sacramento every year, so if we had our conventions at the same time, we could split costs of keynoter, negotiate better with hotel, etc.
   2. Dec. 5 meeting in SF: not a lot of serious pushback, and everyone is going to meet again Mar 7 in Northridge with Linda Bowen hosting, to discuss the nitty gritty details.
   3. Looking around for money to help facilitate this, but not getting a lot of money. CNPA could do this because they have person who already does this, everyone could chip in for assistant to help with membership, etc. Lawyers might be involved if non-profit funds are combined, but membership is a natural place to start organizing.
   4. Discussion around potential benefits: combining business aspects could leave organizations free to create things like job ladders to careers and linking high school programs to colleges and professional opportunities. Organizations could also combine awards and competitions. Joe says that there would be great potential in having one organization negotiate things like facility use, etc, for the various events organizations throw. Each group could also assume a different responsibility as well–one group in charge of calendaring, for example– and focus on one thing, which would lead to more time for programming.
   5. Sarah: beneficial pieces are administrative, networking, and getting true alignment systemwide, as well as lobbying piece for education. Biggest question in next steps is financial contribution and what does JEANC offer to the overall organization? Michelle suggests we bring a directory for membership and that colleges would love access to contact info for advisers as well as email addresses of students submitting to JEANC contests.
   6. Steve: next steps, people need to prioritize and we need to cost it out, like for website, and for membership position. Also says they need to figure out how to fund this, and will be asking groups about membership info to figure out the funding piece.
   7. Discussion around creating a model that other states could replicate and getting a large funder to provide money. Discussion around what board could look like–for example, having delegates from each organization being empowered to vote in meeting. Overall support for starting small and growing the effort.
   8. Sarah: moves that JEANC send a delegate, fully funded, (airfare, sub day, etc.) to attend meeting on our behalf
   9. Paul seconds, all in favor
   10. Rachel thinks she can go. Google Hangout to offer suggestions for Rachel to take is scheduled for Wed., Feb. 25th at 7 p.m.

1. Journalist of the Year changes
   1. Change in date for deadline, but there is also a change in how students have to submit because national program changed how they are submitting.
   2. Link to application that Adriana Chavira created. This is all online so it mimics the online application program for national.
   3. Due by Feb. 9
   4. Steve: started JOY program in Contra Costa, will do this in Sacramento and in Chico. It gets people to pay more attention initially and then submit to state and national programs. Entries are being submitted directly to Steve via pdf and email, due date is Jan. 31. Project schools are eligible for this.

meeting adjourned for lunch at 12:46 and reconvened at 1:15

1. New Business
   1. Convention model change
      1. agreed via email that majority was to change it to one day. Need to decide date, location and point people
      2. Discussion around keeping it as last Saturday of September, since that seemed to be a good fit with staffs. Rachel suggested having it at the Paly MAC for the next few years to establish the continuity.
      3. Tentative date is Sept. 26, 2015, and Paul will check with Paly to see if MAC can be reserved for then.
      4. Discussion around capacity–could run 10 sessions at once in classrooms, but could add different classrooms outside of MAC and could count in upper balcony for main sessions. There was space in most every room during the sessions, and if we include Maestro piece and critiques, not everyone would need to be in the classrooms all at the same time.
      5. J-Day was successful because students got to check out how other schools work, and because of location with Bay Area schools. Also, it was easier to organize for one day and advisers are more willing to organize it. Reminder to think about Sacramento schools and how to continue to serve them as well, not just focus on the Bay Area.
      6. Pieces to add: name badges, write offs either in afternoon, or in morning so that other advisers can help judge contests during afternoon, registration table for best of show and to collect membership from advisers who don’t belong to JEANC.
      7. Discussion around lunch: nominal cost could provide lunch for kids, since having kids go off campus could create a fraying of the experience and the risk that they may not come back as focused in the afternoon.
      8. Onsite pre-registration for students will also help with getting membership info and charging for contests. Could include incentives for pre-registration, like getting one write-off free or cheaper registration cost. Could also create a registration menu so advisers could pick and choose what they want to pay for
      9. Idea of charging for kids also includes the idea of accountability, even with $5. Laura: idea of charging $50 per student but if they’re preregistered, it’s only $5. Also charge for contest ($10) and critiques ($20)
      10. Idea of adding sponsored tables for making money. Potential vendors: local colleges, Midpen media center, local journalism-related startups who want to connect with students. This could expose students to useful apps but also entrepreneurial aspect of developing an app
      11. Jobs list:
          1. facilities: Paul will take this on
          2. sessions/program: Sarah will help with speakers, schedule and work with Paul around envisioning strands
          3. contests: Kristy and Laura, could use computer labs to produce write-off entries
          4. Critiques: Don
          5. promotion: Sarah
          6. Registration/name tags: Michelle and Rachel
          7. date for adding ideas to the Google doc: May 1 by 11:59 p.m.

1. Kickstart days – Summer
   1. Date conversation for summer sessions: date before July 4th last year was best attended. Goal is to increase enrollment in first day and break even.
   2. Sessions: trying to balance what is needed with people to be able to design their own things. Leadership session and InDesign sessions went over best. Will create three student-centered sessions including these two and something else.
   3. SFSU more interested in getting kids to see the facilities, and not as interested in having things for advisers, especially with August adviser event in Bay Area
   4. Michelle will let board know when and what sessions she may need us for, and will have dates by the end of the month
   5. Since kids pay, it’s a service we offer to any school, not just JEANC members

1. Co-sponsorship of Harrower day at Paly
   1. Discussion around JEANC co-sponsoring day by providing funding for lunch. Tim Harrower will be at Paly on Mar. 28 and the Paly parent booster group is willing to pay Harrower’s expenses. Paul is looking for suggestions on what the day will look like–preliminary idea is to have Harrower speak in the morning, give staff work time, have Harrower speak again in the afternoon and then have more work time. Doesn’t want it to be just print focused and would like it to be more interactive with break out groups.
   2. Lunch costs not really known because attendance isn’t confirmed but lunch was $1100 for JDay.
   3. Don: moves that JEANC agrees to cover cost of food for Tim Harrower event as co sponsor, not to exceed $1100, Sarah seconds, all in favor
   4. Send Paul a note if you want to bring kids or help plan curriculum
   5. Board thinks it’s a nice trend to hold a fall J-Day and then have spring speaker, instead of having convention model every other year.
   6. Paul clarifies: Students will be charged $10. Paul hoping that fee could be paid to JEANC, who will then give money to boosters to help cover costs. Discussion around whether per student money will be distributed between JEANC and Paly Boosters or just given back to Boosters, and whether food should be funded full amount. Idea of Paly kids being free and having outside kids pay for experience and lunch for $10. JEANC still involved for visibility.
   7. Vote stays as it stands after the discussion. Paul will send out information, and Rachel does eblast at the end of the month, so she will include it.

1. Adviser training
   1. Discussion around idea of having a day of adviser training, esp. with Reynolds being phased out. JEANC has more of a place in local networking, and not as much in the training piece, since advisers are in so many places in their career.
   2. Sarah suggests networking + training through a teach-in activity: everyone who comes does some sort of programming, location is cool (Napa, etc.), just advisers (no students) and sharing ideas with both daytime programming and evening social events.
   3. Discussion around session times–½ hour session, 1 hour training, 3 hour session–could all be learning, and it would build trust and camaraderie among board members and among advisers. Could be summer or over MLK weekend, and just one night. The board can also use time during this event like the night before or second night to meet and plan for the year.
   4. Discussion around how to draw people in: board members can bring people with us to the retreat, set up a system where if you are in your first three years of advising you can show up with papers but not teach if you don’t want to.
   5. Discussion around logistics: having it at a hotel would work, we would have to pay for meeting space because it’s a small group, but we could also charge a small fee to help set off that cost, could look for things like urban hive spaces and just have people pay for hotel. Could offer professional development certificate to make it more legitimate with admin.
   6. Next steps: Pitch to members at the J-Day general meeting, Sarah will do research for Sept. meeting, Rachel suggests winter target date, like MLK weekend or a long weekend in Feb.
   7. Other adviser training ideas:
      1. do a hangout for CA advisers around something like UC approval for journalism courses or something useful.
      2. Make the website a repository for CA specific issues, with a video on UC approval behind the password protected area.
      3. Make an at-home training around UC approval for journalism courses; offer training for language and a template.

1. Arnetta Garcin Scholarship guidelines
   1. Issues from last year when JOY was going in different directions: good that statewide director took over state JOY because Beatrice and Adriana are finding judges from all over the state to look at portfolios, with representative samples from different areas.
   2. This created some issue with the scholarship: which NorCal JEANC member student had best portfolio, but also ways to target scholarship info clearly and promote it separately because it’s not part of JOY.
   3. Discussion around whether to just make highest scoring JEANC member portfolio the recipient or if we should market it differently and draw more people in (it doesn’t have to be digital). Suggestion that SCJEA could also set up an award and then the highest scores in north/south could get scholarships.
   4. Discussion around how to promote Arnetta scholarship–getting something written up on scholarship so it’s on the website with her bio and how to enter the scholarship contest. Promotion should start earlier since searching juniors can then find out about the scholarship this spring.
   5. Rachel will ask Ed to write a bio about Arnetta, who was an adviser at Lynbrook who was super involved, passed away
   6. discussion around how many people have applied who are not JEANC members and whether mandating membership will help recruit more schools.
   7. Rachel will let Adriane and Beatrice know that she needs the rankings for NorCal JOY so that we can give out scholarship to our kids and will contact the other state organizations to let them know what we’re doing

1. Annual Contest
   1. Laura and Kristy stepping into role, will be publicized in February
   2. Any categories that need to be changed? Matt said he was surprised that there’s no news category for photo. Laura and Rachel reported that with the yearbook category structure last year, middle school entries went up and high schools dropped.
   3. Next steps:
      1. need to make big order for certificates
      2. smaller plaques were ok,
      3. Laura, Michelle and Kristy can do contest updating, connecting with judges early and putting things on their schedules
      4. Sarah: add social media category or multimedia stuff? she will write the blurb for that
      5. Don says make it news/features photo

1. Revamp of website – resources area
   1. Rachel: reached out to Matt, has no login information, but if he has to do list and password he will do updates.
   2. Sarah: each of us commit to sending stuff from your students and one other school to refresh header, could photoshop it appropriately. Paul also thinks that he might have the folder from the JDay stuff that was projected on the screens throughout the day.
   3. Michelle can update stuff on the website if you send it to her.

1. Good of the Order
   1. Laura got CJE
   2. Sarah: lots of NorCal publications are nominated for Crown Awards
   3. Sarah may send boilerplate congratulations letter to Rachel to send out to members who win recognition. She is also willing to make a social media badge for JEANC on FB, and live tweet from awards ceremony in Denver for any NorCal publication.
   4. Don’s son graduates from college in 2 months

1. Set next meeting dates:
   1. hangout on Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. about the statewide organization
   2. bylaws comments on google doc by May 1
   3. schedule a virtual meeting on Sept. 10th to plan for of J-Day on Sept. 26th which is when we’ll have our general membership meeting
   4. annual meeting should be Jan. 9, 2016

1. Adjourn to social at 3:23