… Chapter president Joe Cirone announced to the board after the November meeting that, because of an increased workload and other volunteer and personal commitments, he would have to step down, so he reisgned before the Dec. 1 meeting. At that meeting the board voted in Julie Asher to fill Cirone’s term. Asher was chapter president from 2012 to 2013 and served as the 2014 Dateline Awards dinner chair. Other vacancies on the board were filled, too. The board voted in Joe Starrs to fill the corresponding secretary vacancy. Starrs is director of U.S. programs at The Fund for American Studies (TFAS). The board also had two director spots vacant and to fill those voted in Daniel Young, a reporter who covers bank and thrift issues for SNL Financial, an online financial news website, and Jonathan Make, managing editor of Warren Communications News.
… Chapter board member Nafisa Safarova, who is a reporter at Voice of America (VOA), has begun videotaping out chapter programs and events, and also has planned a series of video interviews with board members and other chapter members, so look for a link to those soon on the chapter website, www.spjdc.org.
… Chapter board members Gideo Grudo and Andrew Mullen are spearheading a new chapter website — it’s still under contruction but we hope to unveil it soon.
SAVE THE DATE! Upcoming programs include:
— The D.C. Open Government Coalition is organizing a Sunshine Week event Tuesday, March 17. The theme for the program will be the Open Government Action Plan that the coalition has proposed to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser — including increasing the authority of the Office of Open Government, strengthening FOIA, the open meetings act, and open data. SPJ-DC expects to be among the sponsors.
— The second annual Washington, D.C. Area Journalism Job Fair hosted by Georgetown University’s Master’s in Journalism Program will be held Saturday, March 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in downtown Washington. Doors close at 1:30 p.m. It is sponsored by the Washington, D.C. chapter presidents of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Asian American Journalists Association, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Association of Black Journalists. The job fair will take place at the Georgetown Downtown campus, located at 640 Massachusetts Ave. NW, just two blocks from the Gallery Place Metro Station. Registration details coming soon.
— The 2015 Region 2 spring conference will be held Saturday, March 28, at University of Maryland, College Park. Details to be announced soon.