Thursday, August 20, 2020
Virtual meeting held via videoconference and conference call
Present: President Randy Showstack; Vice President Dee Ann Divis; Treasurer Dan Kubiske; Recording Secretary Kathryn Foxhall; Corresponding Secretary Amy Fickling; Immediate Past President Jonathan Make; board members Denise Dunbar, Jacqueline Fuller, Ken Jost and Celia Wexler
Excused absence: Selma Khenissi and Julie Asher
Special Guests: Stephenie Overman, SPJ Region 2 Coordinator; Kathleen Burns, Student Chapter Liaison; and Sue Kopen Katcef and Andrew Schotz, chapter members.
Call to Order
President Randy Showstack called the meeting to order at about 6:47 p.m.
Financial Report
Immediate Past Treasurer Amy Fickling had emailed a financial report to the board earlier. Treasurer Dan Kubiske moved that the board approve the report. Board member Celia Wexler seconded the motion. The board voted to approved the financial report as presented.
Minutes
Wexler moved the board accept the minutes as emailed earlier by
Recording Secretary Kathryn Foxhall. Kubiske seconded the motion. It
was the sense of the board that the report from the awards coordinator
not be included in the minutes, because it contains propriety information. Wexler also accepted a friendly amendment that the version of the minutes include revisions by Fickling. The amended motion, also leaving off the attachment, was approved.
Programs
Stephenie Overman, SPJ Region 2 Coordinator, reported that Region 2
had done the “Report the Vote” program and it will also be presented at the
national SPJ conference.
Resignation from the Board
Immediate Past President Jonathan Make announced that effective at the
end of the meeting he would be resigning from the board. Showstack
said he was sorry to hear that and that Make had made an enormous
contribution to the board.
Freedom of Information
Foxhall noted she had sent a report to the board about activities on
the issues surrounding the obstruction through public information
officers and related problems. She noted that, for example, in this
health crisis, the 10,000 people at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
reality can rarely talk to a reporter.
She noted that documents obtained by the Knight Center for the First
Amendment indicate the Department of Health and Human Services says
all requests to talk to someone must go through one office, which
creates a log jam. She also said Christina Jewett, the reporter who
uncovered a secret database on medical devices, was never given
permission to speak to anyone at FDA.
She said these controls are not only problems we have and our problems
interlace with each other.
Awards Coordinator
Corresponding Secretary Amy Fickling, who also is the liaison with the Dateline Awards contest coordinator, said our last year’s awards coordinator, Jane Giles, is interested in doing the work in the next cycle.
She said Giles has asked for the contracted stipend to be raised to $3000. Fickling said that as a practical matter, that amount is the
equivalent of what she was paid this year, after the bonus the board added.
Fickling said we thought the job of managing the contest require fewer hours on the part of the coordinator when we went to an electronic format, but under Ms. Giles, it has not. She has been more active in working on the Dateline dinner aspect, and in some ways she has carved out more time involvement that the scope of the contract does not cover.
Vice President Dee Ann Divis moved we increase the compensation for the Dateline Coordinator to $3000 for the 2020-2021 year for Jane Giles. Wexler seconded the motion. The board approved the motion for increasing the compensation for Jane Giles. Fickling abstained from the
vote.
New Board Member
Showstack noted this was the first meeting for new board member
Jacqueline Fuller and he welcomed her to the board.
Discussion with Candidates for National Office
At 6:58 p.m., the board business moved to hearing candidates for national office.
Four declared candidates for president-elect and secretary-treasurer
met with the chapter virtually during the meeting.
The president-elect candidates were Rebecca Aguilar and Sue Kopen Katcef.
The Secretary-Treasurer candidates were Andy Schotz and Elle Toussi.
It was the sense of the board that after the meeting the recording of
the discussion would be made available on our YouTube channel.
Wexler and board member Ken Jost suggested the board do a report on
the candidates’ discussions for its members.
Overman suggested we talk to more of the members about the candidates
and push people to look at their positions online.
The board discussed whether to endorse candidates but decided not to.
Kubiske suggested we ask the candidates’ permission and put the audio
of the discussions with each candidate online. It was the sense of the board
we do that.
Future Discussion, Upcoming SPJ Meeting
Showstack said he would like to have a future discussion of the SPJ
national strategic plan and how the chapter can align its work with that.
Kubiske reported the SPJ International Community will feature Mary
Louise Kelly from National Public Radio and others at the annual meeting.
Showstack noted the chapter’s delegates to the SPJ annual convention will be Fickling, Foxhall, Wexler and himself. Since EIJ2020 is now SPJ2020 presented as a virtual conference only, the “convention” of delegates, per SPJ’s Bylaws, is to meet separately online during the same weekend as the conference.
Divis said the chapter can use some of the programs we had planned for EIJ2020 that did not get used for the SPJ conference.
Fickling said she got a notice that the Montgomery County, Maryland, building where the chapter has been holding its annual membership appreciation meeting will be closed in January. We will need to consider a different location or format for 2021.
Showstack adjourned the meeting at about 8:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Foxhall
Recording Secretary
2020-2021