JEANC MINUTES
Saturday, January 22, 2011
CNPA Headquarters | 708 10th Street | Sacramento, 94814
Present: Tracy Sena, Sarah Nichols, Michelle Balmeo, Karl Grubaugh, Joe Wirt (CNPA), Don Bott, Ed Galdrikian, Randy Hamm, Rachel West
I. Call to Order (10:06)
II. Approval of Minutes (10:14)
a. Ed motioned to approve the minutes. Sarah seconded. Motion Passed. 10:14
III. Communications (10:07)
a. Tracy contacted Wayna Polk (JEA) regarding the Journalist of the Year with our JEANC suggestions from our last meeting. There will be ribbons on nametags for the winners. There will be session/panel for the students to attend. The winning portfolios will be shown, at least in part. Sarah suggested they make the PowerPoint from conventions available to use for students who cannot attend.
b. Tracy contacted Kelly Furnas (JEA) and Logan Aimone (NSPA) regarding the next Northern California convention – San Francisco 2013, but chairs and committee have not yet been named. There are some suggestions for Google tours and other things that are local, but require years of advance planning. Sarah and Ellen have also been brainstorming on this. There is some concern regarding overtaxing NorCal planning committees because of the JEANC state convention and the national convention having similar timeframes and using the same resources. Tracy told JEA that we are concerned about money for outreach. NSPA has plans to raise the amount per student registration that will go to the local committee – from $1 to $1.50.
c. Northern California Press Women contest is February 15. Betty Packer is the contact person.
IV. Reports of Officers (10:14)
a. Treasurer – Randy Hamm
i. Summary report – we spent $4600 more than we took in. But $5000 was spent in advance for the convention this year. Ed commended Tracy for that. Membership dues were $1100 of the $19K we took in. Combined the contests from Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. We were close to breaking even on this. The RENOvation workshop netted $1700. There has been no activity on the account to report since Jan. 1 of this year. Everyone appreciates the diligent job Randy performs.
b. Membership – Michelle Balmeo
i. We have 53 current members, counting those whose memberships are Lifetime or expire in 2012 or 2011. A year ago we had 58. 35 people joined or renewed their membership during 2010. Six people renewed their memberships in response to our fall mailing. 24 people whose memberships expired in 2010 have not renewed. Another 25 people whose memberships expired in 2009 did not renew. The spreadsheet contains 165 names and includes people whose memberships expired all the way back to 2006. Based on current numbers, it looks like we are losing around 25 members per year. Current spreadsheet from CNPA includes a lot of expired members and memberships. Observations: new memberships are not coming from beyond our current JEANC activities. Most members are joining to attend activities. If we provide more events, we are more likely to have members renew and join. Even if we provide small JEANC hosted/led activities, we would be more likely to retain/gain members. Michelle spoke with Kathy Schrier (WJEA) and their organization spaces everything throughout the year. They do summer, fall, winter and spring activities, and they are mainly for students. The summer workshop is a big event, but their fall journalism days are “simple” to organize and only one day. Events like this would increase membership. Is this something that JEANC would be open to and have ideas to promote?
ii. Karl is concerned about the regions in California being so big and separate from each other. Sarah said that in Indiana the group split events and each board member became a “director” for whatever event they were in charge of, with complete support of the board. Sarah then asked why we don’t do a convention every year, since so many people ask why. Ed shared that the conventions used to alternate between Northern and Southern California every year until 2001. Karl recommended that we divorce ourselves from SoCal because we have been unable to coordinate with them.
iii. Membership ideas:
1. Sarah shared Steve O’Donoghue’s model of bringing students/advisers together once a month to meet speakers and put together a county newspaper. Karl recommended there be a place on the website for advisers to send in a question or request for advice – not just a spot that has names of board members. Randy made the point that not all of us are full time organizers like Steve.
2. Michelle suggested advertising a service that is on in “as needed” basis. For example, if an adviser needed to redesign a website, he/she could contact us, and someone will go to the school for a fee ($275?) to work with students to do this. Included with cost may be a membership. If you can’t pay for it, you apply for a scholarship. Tracy suggested involving some of the other advisers who are in the area who have great programs and offer them free memberships to help us do the seminars. Karl says that we should pay teachers for their time. Karl also suggested that there should not be a complete scholarship to pay the cost. We can send advisers to CNPA for training grants. Schools could also share costs and have multiple staffs attend.
3. We could also do an “amount off” of the member renewal costs if you get a colleague to join.
4. Michelle suggested we do one-day sessions again, but instead of doing sessions are “same content, multiple places,” we could create a three-part sequence that started North, then worked its way down the state. Participants could come to all of or one of them, depending on level of expertise. Sarah suggested a certificate if they complete all of the sessions that are offered. This could be for both students and advisers.
iv. Michelle will create some online proposals for concrete events and take some of these ideas. We can then vote online.
V. President (11:00)
a. Margie Bell has resigned from the board. Diane Honda and Lynn McDaniel chose not to run for reelection.
b. Ed organized and completed the online vote for members. Michelle put the form online. Both worked hard to complete the election process. Good job to both.
c. Attended the Cal-JEC meeting last week in SoCal. At the Anaheim convention there will be colleges to meet with. Steve Lopez from the LA Times. Lisa and Laura Ling will also be speakers.
d. Summer workshops in 2011: NewsRoom by the Bay at Stanford will be June 27-July 1. This is a completely updated model from the former Newpapers by the Bay. $1200/registratant includes a flip camera. Note that BAMA at SFSU lost all of its funding and will now be charging $3000 for the two-week session.
e. Tracy, Ellen Austin, and Paul Kandell went to Hawaii to teach advisers how to get their publications online. In Hawaii it costs twice as much to produce a paper as here, so the online model will be a huge support for them. There are now triple the number of Hawaiian advisers as members of JEA due to this session. It was a JEA initiative and it was highly successful.
f. Tracy placed two ads in C:JET for the 2011 RENOvation workshop.
g. At this point it looks like there will not be an online session at San Francisco State that Tracy and Paul have been doing for the last few years, but the information will be provided in Reno and Stanford.
VI. Old Business (11:15)
a. Arnetta Garcin Scholarship/JOY Additions for Journalist of the Year: There was no resolution on whether or not JEANC should pay a portion of the cost to attend the national convention if the JOY from California is from Northern California. Sarah said that we need to figure out whether the student is attending or not in advance, because we shouldn’t have to pay for students who are already attending. Karl said that the idea of a travel stipend in addition to the scholarship seems reasonable if we want to ensure that the student is in attendance. Sarah said that it shouldn’t just automatically given. Karl said that as long as there are receipts given, we should reimburse them for the amount of travel for up to $500. It would then become the student’s responsibility to provide the receipts for reimbursement. Don recommends that it be used for travel, lodging, and registration. Sarah motioned that JEANC create a written policy application for State JOY winner if the student is from Northern California to receive reimbursement up to $500 for attending the Spring National Convention at which he or she would be recognized, only to cover hotel, transportation, or registration. This would be payable to the student or school upon providing appropriate documentation of expenses. Karl seconded. Motion passed.
b. Report on RENOvation 2010
i. We made money. Five advisers taught. 32 attendees. People were wildly enthusiastic about the results. Jerry Ceppos, Dean of UNR Reynolds School of Journalism, said that the student work was at a very high level. Decision has already been made by online vote to have another one in summer of 2011. More information will follow.
VII.New Business (12:13)
a. Election Report – See information above regarding online voting.
b. Appropriation of new equipment: This came up at RENOvation. We would really like to have a kit to include video cameras, projectors, etc. for people to use at conferences and have available at conventions. This way people won’t have to bring equipment from their school sites. Tracy would like to purchase equipment so that we can use the equipment for JEANC sponsored workshops. Don is concerned about the geographical logistics of this. It would be convenient to own a projector, but it is for only a few days a year that we would need these, and people can bring them from their schools. But smaller items might be okay. Sarah said that we probably shouldn’t buy them now, when we don’t do anything to need them for. But it is a great idea. We could tie the purchase to a rise in membership, or after we have a certain amount of events, in a year. Michelle said that the likelihood of having it shipped or coming to Sacramento to get it seems like an unreasonable expense. Ed suggested that we move to have a certain amount that we set aside for board members to be able to purchase equipment if it is on an as-needed basis. Randy recommended the possibility of renting projectors or other equipment as needed. It seems that projectors are not the problem, but the smaller cameras, recorders, video equipments, are. Michelle suggested having “multimedia starter kits” available for the kids to sign up to buy at RENOvation. We could also offer “rental kits” available, that we would be as needed to supply to students. Consensus is that this is the way to go.
c. Arnetta Garcin Scholarship/JOY – Sarah shared information about this. Information is on the website, portions of the current JOY portfolio are on issuu.com, there was an e-blast sent, and we are currently two weeks away from the submission deadline. Sarah needs judges. Rachel and Tracy volunteered. Tracy will recuse herself from looking at the Palo Alto portfolios in advance as she was asked to do so she can judge. The committee will meet as schedules and the submission deadline permit.
d. JEANC Online-submission Contest:
i. We did lose money on the spring contest last year; there were a few reasons why. The double contest year meant many schools didn’t enter. We also had a lot more winners, because we have added categories and there were few entries per category, so we had to purchase more plaques for winners.
ii. Karl suggested that we downgrade the plaques to smaller, less expensive ones. Consensus is that this is a good idea to save money.
iii. Michelle said that Rachel did a good job doing all of the printing and certificates and mailing of all of the certificates so that we could have them by the deadline. Rachel said that Michelle did an awesome job as well.
iv. We still need to check on the eligibility of entries. Michelle will write a form email that we have received entries, but if the adviser is not a member, they will be informed that they need to join in order to have their entries judged.
v. We did have an error in the processing of some of the entries. Even online entries. There was one mistake, because one entrant didn’t add a PDF to their entry form, and that PDF was not included in the judging. Michelle is changing it to not allow advisers to move forward without an uploaded file.
vi. What happens if we have issues with their online entries? Do we need to go to the advisers and follow up on their mistakes? Consensus is that we should, at this point while the contest is small, that we should be helpful and contact individuals.
vii. Feb. 1 is the open date for this year and the deadline is April 15 for entries from the prior year.
e. State Convention
i. Facilities update: Don reported that all rooms are reserved and is mainly paid for. Oct. 14-15. This is a new one-night model. The insurance waiver is taken care of. The AV/Internet situation: there is a new group who has the contract for
AV with the Convention Center. The new group has not currently responded to Don’s inquiries. The Internet situation has not been resolved either, as those inquiries have gone unanswered as well. Don assumes the AV will be around $2500. We need to look at how many meals/rooms we will need for the contests and judges. Meals need about a month’s notice. We will still have an office and hospitality, but we will not have the bookstore due to a lack of profit. Michelle really would hope for at least one room with Internet because from a registration standpoint, the Internet really needs to be accessible. This will also enable us to use credit card payments.
ii. Committee volunteers and assignments:
1. Don will do facilities
2. Sarah will do schedule of sessions and rooms/AV
3. Joe can do nametags if we get him the information
4. Rachel will do the bulk of the contests, but Don, Tracy, and Sarah will help
5. Michelle will do registration
6. Everyone needs to recruit speakers for sessions
iii. Theme/color/logo: Sarah will make something for Anaheim if we can come up with a theme. We can pass out postcards and things at the regional meet and greet. After discussion, consensus is that: “OMG – Our Media Generation” will be the theme for this year. Sarah will do some mock-ups and send out for review.
iv. Promotion: Web, Cards, C:JET, Adviser Update: Tracy will get the information to Adviser Update and may be in C:JET as well.
v. Registration will open August 1.
vi. Sarah suggested that the local aspect – lower room rates, maps of the area, food, etc – is a job. Karl said he will work on this. We have no commitment to the Sheraton at this point, so it’s possible to work with other hotels.
vii. Tracy wonders if we need to have Convergence training like last time. Michelle and Karl said that the sessions were fun for the students, but it may not have been overly educational, and the students did miss the contests. Michelle suggested doing an initial session on team reporting, and then there is a follow up session the next day to critique what students do. Sarah suggested making this a contest, perhaps the only contest that we want to have – produce something from the beginning of the convention to submit at the end of the convention. This seems like a problem in terms of revenue and to find a place to put students. Randy suggested putting in a cub (freshman/sophomore) and advanced (junior/senior) categories so you do more awards. Michelle suggested the doing a carry in contest as well. Sarah said that the yearbook contests especially would benefit from a carry in contest because at that time of year they can bring in their own work that they may be able to get feedback on. There will be more discussion on this as we progress.
f. RENOvation 2011
i. Progress: Will be able to top out at 75 students this year, which is June 19-24. Last year’s enrollment was 34, and we think we can double our numbers for this year. The enrollment cost will go up from last year – possibly between $50-$75. We would like registration to be open at Anaheim.
ii. Faculty: Randy and Karl are interested in hearing about requirements for teaching. Number of faculty may change depending on enrollment. Tracy would like to up the staff stipends – maybe to $1000. We’ll discuss it further when we have figured out
iii. Curriculum changes: The original idea was that morning would be for writing and afternoon for design. We did not end up doing it that way. It is a very big conversation right now, but there does need to be a lot of discussion about this in the upcoming months.
g. Website
i. Michelle has created a dummy WordPress site to replace the former Joomla site. This will make it easier for more people to ad and update content. The site will go live soon, probably at the same time we announce the new annual contest. Joe asked about advertisement availability; there may be some he can get for us. Many items on the original agenda can now be taken care at separate times because of the change in website.
ii. There is a goal to add a lot a member database form so that advisers can look up their memberships, allow board members access from the back end of the site to see the member information, and overall be more convenient to keep updated and available for members.
iii. Sarah suggested that there a place on the website where adviser members could be recognized for special honors and news items. It would be nice to have a page of recognition for JEANC members.
h. Board members: CJE/MJE exam dates
i. Any board member who wants to do this, Sarah is eligible to proctor the exam. Ellen is in the process of getting hers, and Tracy is interested. It is a project and a test. The exam is a five-question essay test, of which four must be answered. At least one is a law and ethics question. Sarah would like all board members to be MJE certified if possible.
i. Motion(s) for honors: Ed makes a motion that the board awards retiring JEANC board members Lynn McDaniel and Margie Bell each the status of Board Member Emeritus for their contributions, which will include a plaque. Sarah seconds. Motion passed. Sarah will order the plagues. Ed would like a perpetual list of board members to be available. A perpetual plaque would not be realistic, since there is no true JEANC headquarters, but it will be appropriate to put on the website.
VIII. Good of the Order (2:50)
a. Michelle shared that she went to the Scholastic Journalism Institute at Reno, and there they selected an initiative to preserve scholastic journalism through grassroots efforts. Michelle’s project is to provide administrative outreach. Her principal went with her to Kansas City and did a session. In Anaheim, the Deputy Superintendent will be presenting the session. Then, Michelle will go to administrative conventions to present to a group of administrators. The real effort is that journalism really isn’t an English class, and it really isn’t a CTE course, and we as advisers should be working to try to get true recognition for journalism.
b. Joe said that at CNPA.com there is the second in a series of writings by Konnie Krislock. They also have a campaign about promoting scholastic journalism, the leader of which wants to incorporate testimonials from advisers who have used CNPA grants. He recommends that JEANC try to affiliate as much as possible with the broader community of newspapers and NorCal events.
c. Randy sat down with the Associate Superintendent of Instruction of the Bakersfield High School District, and was able to share his vision of journalism being student driven. The Associate Superintendent, sadly, did not think most advisers thought this. But the good news is that he spent two weeks in Europe this summer.
d. Don’s son is still applying for colleges and has not heard from everywhere yet. He will keep us posted.
IX. Adjournment (3:02)