Present: Tracy Sena (President), Michelle Balmeo, Don Bott, Randy Hamm (Treasurer), Paul Kandell, Ellen Austin, Sarah Nichols, Ed Galdrikian, Greg Stobbe, Rachel West (Secretary)

I. Call to Order (10:15)

II. Approval of Minutes (10:16)

A. Ed moved to approve. Rachel seconded. Motion passed.

III. Communications (10:16)

A. The only recent communication is from groups that are planning to attend RENOvation conference. There is a lot of interest so far. (See report below.)

IV. Reports of Officers (10:18)

A. Treasurer:

i. Net worth as of May 5 was $13,882.72.

ii. Reports were emailed to board members. Summary of expenses, special projects, and category details are all updated. Fall convention has almost broken even. We are within $250 dollars of our expenses.

iii. There are still outstanding expenses from the convention – Steve O’Donoghue’s attendees have still not been paid for. Still haven’t been able to track down the adviser from Avenal.

iv. There is still money coming in for the spring contest; some schools needs to be invoiced. Invoicing is still a huge problem for us because there are multiple people involved in the money coming in. Money goes to CNPA, then to Randy, but Michelle is also keeping track as she handles the actual entries. Michelle will involve Randy sooner in the process so the invoicing and follow-up goes through the treasurer.

B. Membership:

i. Michelle is working to enable members to check their member status on the website.

ii. Would like to create a survey to collect information from the schools in our region. Sarah suggested getting in touch with Cal-JEC because they have already done extensive information collection. Greg suggested we work with universities to collect the information that many of the J-programs are already collected. For example, Fresno keeps track of programs from Stockton to Bakersfield. Sarah will contact Rich Cameron, director of Cal-JEC.

C. President:

i. Tracy has signed the membership cards and the new version will be what is sent out to new members.

ii. Created and sent a new member letter to inform members more about the website and how to get information from us and use as a resource. She feels that the website is one of our most powerful resources. Sarah would like to link the website to the JEA Press Rights interactive map to help advisers with press rights questions. We need to include information for advisers who need resources and “evidence” to prove their journalism programs are worthwhile.

V. Old Business (10:45)

A. JEANC Online-submission Contest

i. 10 judges for 260 entries

ii. Yearbook entries are still under-represented

iii. Some entries are not from our member schools. Some are returners from our mail-in contest in prior years that stopped entering.

iv. Still digital complications with the website, but Michelle is still tinkering. She is still working on a better way of packaging the contest entries for the judges because it is currently very time-consuming. Sarah suggested using a site like Issuu to cut down on packaging time. There are concerns with this because it is a third party; also, we would not be able to monitor/regulate how the entries are uploaded and submitted to the judges.

v. Some categories had very low entry rates, should there be a minimum in order to cover our own costs? Consensus is set a minimum number of 2 entries; if there is only one we’ll contact the adviser to see if they want to submit in a different category.

vi. May 17 is the judging deadline for this year. Schools should have their awards before the end of the school year.

vii. Judges have been happy to continue working for us and seem excited at the ease and convenience of the judging. Sarah commends the contest coordinators for the job in streamlining the contest and making this so user-friendly.

viii. Advisers need to be notified their entries will be ineligible if their payment is not received and they have not paid for their membership. If entries are selected as winners, they will be removed from the winner list. Paul thinks that we should email the entire membership to verify whose entries/payment has been received and verify membership status. We can notify advisers of this and then inform them via email that their students will not be winners if payment and membership are not current.

B. JOY Report:

i. Ina Herlihy was the first place winner; she went on to win the national contest of the 39 state entries.

ii. Second place went to Samved Sangameswara from Monta Vista High School.

iii. Third place went to Nicolette Gmoser-Daskalakis from Davis Senior High.

iv. It was exciting and rewarding to see the quality of the Northern California entries. We would like to use Ina’s portfolio (or pieces of it) to show students what a great portfolio can look like.

C. RENOvation update:

i. E-blast will go out and cards have gone out.

ii. A lot of publicity at the Portland JEA convention helped create interest.

iii. Reno area people will be coming for day sessions.

iv. We are renting the dorm space from UNR and providing this program, it is completely JEANC-driven and planned. At this point we have no financial obligation, but we expect to fill the sessions.

v. We will know by May 22 if we have enough registered people to move forward; it seems likely.

VI. New Business (11:20)

A. Additions for Journalist of the Year:

i. Tracy would like to incorporate a $500 travel stipend for the state winner to be able to attend the Spring JEA convention. This would add to the prestige of the award, and help schools that can’t afford/don’t have permission to travel long distances for field trips. Sarah would like to offer the students the option of using the additional $500 for the trip or for their scholarship fee. Paul likes the idea of paying for the trip, especially because we can use it as a benefit to our program, and the student.

ii. Sarah suggested eliminating payments to 2nd and 3rd place and awarding money to the first-place winner only. Don expressed that it may appear suspicious that the money goes only to board member schools if they are the schools consistently winning.

iii. Recommendation for JEA: There should be a reception for the winners. Students should have flags on their nametags recognizing them as a state winner. Sarah suggested have sessions where the winners from each region offer sessions to other students about the process. It would also be nice if at the awards ceremony there was a digital showing of the portfolios. Randy suggested that we get a Memo of Understanding with Southern California JEA that each organization will pay half of the convention costs to the state winner.

iv. Sarah would like to explore more with Southern California and JEA support with Ellen Austin.  It seems like other groups can help us in this endeavor. Ellen said that the current climate may mean that national would probably turn down anything relating to student travel stipends, but it is possible for her to propose that at a meeting. She likes the idea of a JOY reception, and is willing to promote that at the national level.

v. Michelle asked why the portfolios are not on display for convention attendees to view. It seems secretive. Sarah said that part of it is purely logistical, but also that there is a concern they will be stolen.

vi. Follow-up activity will be required on this issue.

B. Adviser one-day workshop:

i. Tracy would like to have several of these again if possible, or at least one in San Francisco. She would like to do this Aug. 21. Don may be able to help. Greg said last time the Fresno possibility only had one registrant, who ended up going to SF. He is willing to look into the possibility of having one at Fresno Christian if there is room in the summer schedule. He will communicate with Diane Honda to see if there is a way to work with her and other Fresno advisers.

ii. Tracy suggested the agendas gear towards technology if possible. Sarah and Michelle said we should ask the advisers what they are interested in; last time we tailored it to their needs. Don suggested having something in his classroom that is less of an agenda-driven session.

iii. Michelle is concerned trying to make a vague “you might do this” workshop is not going to sell advisers. They want to know what they are getting into when they sign up. Sarah suggested calling the sessions a PLC workshop, and allowing for curriculum sharing and development, etc. Ellen said we should include an option of attendance certificates for people to take back to their school site.

iv. Paul reminded us that most new advisers want more connections with other advisers. He likes the idea of making it a social event and allowing it to be a networking idea. Sarah said there are many groups offering connections, but it doesn’t mean we can’t at least make the offer. Don said he would rather target new advisers. Michelle said we don’t offer a lot of ongoing support for current advisers. Paul said we should include both. Sarah supported the idea of having a social activity after.

v. Sarah wants to take a serious look at the reality of this vision. Can we honestly support three different sessions three months from now? Consensus is probably not.
vi. Greg likes the idea of doing local socials for our own areas. Michelle reminded us that we probably could do this better if we knew who the new advisers are. Ed reminded us that new advisers are not targeted with the JEANC e-blast.  Greg suggested that JEANC is the accountability piece we need to ensure we are planning a social, but it is not a JEANC event. Michelle suggested doing regional partners. Paul suggested having all of them within the same month and JEANC promotes rather than sponsors. We can then post pictures on the website and create an area database of contact information.

vii. Randy moves: in lieu of one-day workshops, August will become meet and greet month and each pair of board members will sponsor a regional meet and greet. Sarah seconds. Motion carries. Each area should promote their own date on the website.

C. Possibility of a Listserve:

i. Tracy would like a listserv for JEANC in addition to JEA. This can begin as a subscription only, free for all advisers, and later on move to members only as it grows. This will focus only on Northern California.

ii. Sarah questions the need of a listserve that is targeting people who probably know our information. Michelle said she would feel obligated to be a part of the group, but she wouldn’t necessarily want another email.

iii. Tracy is willing to forego this at this time.

D. Membership initiative with JEA:

i. Sarah would like us to work with JEA to create more member benefits for JEANC and try to connect these with what JEA offers. She would like to work with Michelle and come up with some recommendations for the board later this year.

E. President-elect:

i. We currently do not have one.

ii. Ed nominates Michelle for President-elect for 2010-2011. Ellen seconded. Michelle is willing to accept the nomination if she can pass off many of the other items she is working on when she becomes president. Sarah will do membership items and Tracy will do the web items at that time. Michelle accepts. Motion carries.

F. Regional Director report:

i. Lynn McDaniel is stepping down as the JEA State Director, and she is being followed by our own Sarah Nichols.  Congratulations to Sarah.

G. Lesson on using website:

i. Board members adjourned to computer lab to learn how to post content to the JEANC.org website.

VII. Good of the Order (1:50)

A. Ed shared historical documents relating to the passage of AB 207, the predecessor of Ed. Code 48907, which was passed in 1977. He also passed out copies of the JEANC constitution.

B. We will do a virtual meeting at 9 a.m. on Sept. 18. Directions to follow.

VIII. Adjournment (1:56)