Our routines are changing frequently, as the nation and the global community attempt to deal with the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Your work as a journalist may be more important than ever, as it seems no sector of society or journalist’s beat is untouched by the human health, psychological, financial and political impacts of measures undertaken to prevent the spread of the disease.
SPJ DC Pro has been affected as well. Our participation in several annual events has been curtailed due to guidance about avoiding large gatherings and limiting person-to-person contact.
This month of March 2020:
- the annual D.C. Open Government Coalition Sunshine Week event, supported by DC Pro and to which the chapter and the public are traditionally invited, has been postponed from March 18. But the vigilance of the DCOGC has not waned during the public health crisis. Check out the blog post about what a public emergency in the District means for open records and open meetings.
- a planned monthly chapter program was affected, even before the national emergency was declared, by some corporate travel restrictions on employees. The session will be rescheduled.
For April:
- the annual Journalism Job Fair, co-produced by the DC Pro Chapter and six other journalism groups in D.C., is postponed; a new date is not yet selected.
For May:
- the SPJ Region 2 Conference, scheduled for Annapolis May 8-9, will not be held in person, now that the Centers for Disease Control has recommended restrictions on gatherings of groups over 50 persons total, for the next two months. Region 2 was the last of the SPJ regions to have to make that decision, since the date was outside the usual March-April time frame for regional conferences. Region 2 Coordinator Stephenie Overman says that “virtual alternatives are being considered.”
Day-to-day:
On Thursday, March 19, 2020, the chapter board held its March board meeting in a virtual format, with video and teleconferencing available for board members and committee chairs. In part due to some technical difficulties, the full agenda was not taken up. Another meeting in a similar format (probably using a different platform) is scheduled for Thursday, March 26, 2020, to complete that agenda. You may contact Chapter President Randy Showstack at president@spjdc.org about it.
On Friday, March 20, DC Pro joined a host of other organizations on a National Freedom of Information Coalition statement on government transparency during the COVID-19 national emergency.
Government bodies should not opportunistically take advantage of the public’s inability to attend large gatherings to make critical decisions affecting the public’s interest if those decisions can reasonably be postponed.
The national SPJ website has a page of resources to help journalists covering or referring to the coronavirus in their work. Check out the information appearing in a section after the regional conference coronavirus information on this web page.
Near future:
The chapter’s annual Dateline Awards and Hall of Fame dinner is still scheduled for June 9, 2020, at the National Press Club Ballroom. Dateline Contest judging is to begin soon. Stay tuned for updates and details about both chapter activities.
National SPJ is monitoring developments on the public health front, as they may impact the annual Excellence in Journalism convention, slated for Sept. 10-12, 2020, in Washington, DC. The DC Pro Chapter has been anticipating the annual gathering coming to our hometown for several years, when the site was announced. We hope it will be possible to hold the convention here this year, as planned. But if not, we hold out hope it will be rescheduled for another time in the same location! Watch for developments here on the national SPJ page devoted to it. Registration was set to begin the week of March 24, 2020, but has been postponed.