Thursday, March 18, 2021
Virtual meeting held via videoconference and conference call.
Present: President Randy Showstack; Treasurer Dan Kubiske; Vice President Dee Ann Divis; Recording Secretary Kathryn Foxhall; Corresponding Secretary Amy Fickling; board members Julie Asher, Denise Dunbar, Jacqueline Fuller, Ken Jost and Celia Wexler.
Excused absence: Board member Selma Khenissi
Special Guests: Stephenie Overman, SPJ Region 2 coordinator; Kathleen Burns, student chapter liaison; and chapter member Andy Schotz.
Call to Order
President Randy Showstack called the meeting to order at about 6:47 p.m.
Minutes
Board member Celia Wexler moved the board approve the minutes of the February meeting as emailed earlier by Recording Secretary Kathryn Foxhall. Treasurer Dan Kubiske seconded the motion.
Corresponding Secretary Amy Fickling asked that part of a strike through, previously requested and not completed, be struck.
Kathleen Burns, student chapter liaison, asked the report she had submitted be attached to the minutes.
Both revisions were agreed to.
The board agreed that an inadvertent skipping of the seconding of a motion at the last meeting should be overlooked since the motion passed.
The board voted to approve the minutes as corrected.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Dan Kubiske moved the board approve the financial statement for February.
Board member Denise Dunbar seconded the motion.
The board approved the financial statement for February.
Region 2 Report
Stephenie Overman reported Region 2 is participating in virtual “Super Regional” meeting on April 10, with a trivia night the night before. She said the two sessions include, “How I Got the Story,” and “Invest in Your Own Mental Health.” That will be followed by the students’ Mark of Excellence Award.
PIO Work Report
Foxhall had sent the board an update on the restrictions on reporters’ access, including forcing reporters to go through public information officers. A column she did was an SPJ contribution to Sunshine Week and eight local news outlets had published it. She said she felt good about that since it said some fairly direct things about the press itself. The SPJ is still waiting for a suit to be filed on the issue in Pennsylvania.
Kubiske said the work on PIOs is known all the way to Madrid since it was mentioned as part of the International Committee’s discussion of freedom of information around the world. Foxhall said if we can give a few people information and courage to speak up, all will not be in vain.
Dunbar said the blockages are frustrating in terms of both the PIO restrictions and blockages of Freedom of Information requests. She said in Alexandria her news outlet has caught public officials red-handed withholding material that should be released under FOIA requests. She said her news outlet has gotten text messages that show other officials copied on the message, but those officials did not turn in the message, as required by law. Unless a publication has deep pockets and can file a suit, officials know they can get away with it.
Foxhall said she thought the PIO restraints, the FOIA blockages and other constraints on reporting were massively interlaced. Dunbar also said many, many pages are redacted.
Student Liaison
Kathleen Burns, student chapter liaison, noted that the George Washington University Student Chapter had said they are moving their March program on college publications’ First Amendment Rights to April. The Marymount University Student Chapter has mailed in their membership fee to SPJ.
Board member Jacqueline Fuller gave a talk March 1 at Marymount University where she is an alumnus. She said she talked about her journey, in particular moving among public relations and journalism, the nonprofit world and consulting work and then focusing on journalism.
Nominating Committee
Nominating Chair Stephenie Overman said all people who are up for re-election for the board plan to run. She said Corresponding Secretary Amy Fickling would put out a call for other candidates. Overman said she would present a slate by the next meeting and the ballots are to be returned by May 1.
Hall of Fame Bio Project
Board member Ken Jost said the current Hall of Fame includes 200 names and 8-10 mini-bios.
Many Hall of Famers without bios are unfamiliar to him, and possibly to others on the board, and will be less familiar with people in the future. His ambition is to have bare bones bios for each member of the Hall of Fame.
He compared the project to the short bios in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. He said about 150 words for each Hall of Famer bio would be fine. He had discovered, for example, that Hall of Famer, Bernie Boston, was the first black photographer to cover the White House.
He asked that each board member do one a month.
Showstack requested this be a similar regular “ask” in the newsletter.
Chapter Website
Kubiske suggested that rather than pay someone to remake the website we should use a pre-made site, and populate our data into it. He asked for two or three people to work with him in a Zoom meeting on this.
If such a site doesn’t work, he said, we can explore other options for a website revision.
Showstack said the website should be easy to maintain and update, look attractive and do what we want it to.
Kubiske said we would not be touching any of the material currently stored. We are just putting a new shell on it.Vice President Dee Ann Divis said we need to have a hard look at what we want the website to do.
Kubiske said the shells are flexible. He said, for example, in a three-column design there would be three issues that would always be upfront.
Divis brought up the functionality of an archive. Duncan talked about the possibility of ads, where they could be put and how many there could be.
Showstack appointed a task force to look at these issues. It included Kubiske, Fuller, Fickling, Divis and himself. He asked Kubiske to set up a meeting.
Online Documents from the Courts
Showstack reported that the session we co-sponsored with the D.C. Open Government Coalition on March 18 had attracted 90 people.
Robert Becker, a chapter member and a member of that coalition, asked the chapter to consider endorsing a request to court systems that documents that are available at a courthouse be available online.
Board member Celia Wexler noted that the right to privacy would be protected if someone convinced a judge it should be on the grounds it is personal information.
Wexler said she wanted ensure that victims of violence or sexual assault get needed protection.
Jost said Becker had filed the request with the Judicial Conference, the national policy-making body for the federal courts.. The question was whether the Judicial Conference wanted to go through the process of making everything available online. Jost noted the Supreme Court does have everything online. Jost said it is a big task for all 13 courts of appeals and about 500 district courts to undertake putting these documents online.
Chapter member Andy Schotz said there is a long standing and serious problem called “practical obscurity,” which refers to the fact that although a document is theoretically available, it may be impossible to obtain due to time and distance.
He said he understood the issues Wexler had raised. He noted victims’ names are often in case files. He said the court system would have to do what every other part of government does, including redaction of what should not be public. He noted that creates a whole new level of work for the courts.
Dunbar said it would be worth a discussion for the whole board. She said she has seen redactions made by officials to avoid accountability.
Wexler said Becker should be part of the board’s discussion and that the work on this issue will continue past the April 12 deadline cited by Becker.
Jost moved that the board recommend in principle that federal courts make available online all documents available on request at the courthouse where copies are filed.
Kubiske seconded the motion.
The board passed the motion.
MDDC Director
Rebecca Snyder, director of the MDDC Press Association, joined the meeting. She said that day House bill 183 in the Maryland legislature passed third reader. It is a major reform for public information. Currently the Public Information Act compliance board reviews disputes about fees above $350. There is an ombudsman who mediates between requestors and custodians. The new bill would make the ombudsman more effective in getting people to enter mediation because the parties could eventually be forced to go before the compliance board.
Snyder said that a provision for reporting, which MDDC had wanted, was pulled out of the bill as was jurisdiction over fee waivers by the board.
She said her association is also working hard on anti-slapp (strategic law suit against public participation) measures. She said the Public Participation Project rates the Maryland Anti-Slapp law a “D.” The law has no fee-shifting, she said, and no bad faith requirement. House Bill 308 on the issue was referred out of subcommittee on March 18.
Member Recognition Day
Kubiske said he and Fickling are still talking about how and when to do the membership recognition program.
Student Press Freedom
Schotz said there was a listing of schools with student press freedom activities and several were in this area. Kubiske suggested we might have a program on it.
Discussion on Committees
Showstack asked board members to note the chapter committees they are on.
Overman said she is on the Nominations Committee and has been on the Hall of Fame Committee.
Foxhall said she is on the Press Freedom Committee and the PIO Restrictions Task Force.
Fickling said she is on the committees for Bylaws and Constitution, Membership, Hall of Fame Dinner, the Dateline Contest, Programs, Outreach and Publicity, the SDX Foundation, website and the newsletter.
Fuller said she would be on the Student Liaison Committee
Asher said she helps with Hall of Fame Dinner and would like to help with membership.
Divis said she is on the committees for the Hall of Fame Dinner, Programs, and PIO Restrictions and that last year she worked as a liaison for the national SPJ conference. She is also looking at the chapter’s ability to communicate with members by email or test message.
Kubiske said he has helped with the social media, but most of his time is spent on programs for the international community.
Dunbar said she is on the PIO Restrictions Task Force. She has done ad hoc things like judging contests.
Jost is on the Hall of Fame Committee.
Overman noted Board Member Selma Khenissi (absent from the meeting) is interested in diversity.
Board members discussed where we can use help with our efforts.
Showstack said we could use help on the committees for membership and programs. In addition, he noted Steve Taylor will be cycling off as chair of the Hall of Fame Committee, so there will be help needed there.
He also suggested we set up a small task force to figure out how to involve members who are not on the board in various efforts.
Overman said it would be good to find someone who is not on the board to lead the Hall of Fame effort. It might be good to have a younger person, she said, and it would also be good to have someone who knows people of Hall of Fame status.
Foxhall said she had asked a member about doing outreach on the PIO restrictions. She cited the need to follow up when the chapter sends letters. She suggested that someone could make the calls, talk to people and hand it over to her if they so wished.
Dunbar noted we have a large number of committees considering the limited number of board members. She said she is much more able to do ad hoc tasks.
Showstack noted that some of the committees are dormant and Overman said few were meeting monthly.
Wexler suggested we work to get non-board members involved in chapter tasks as well.
Dunbar suggested we send out a list of tasks to members and ask what they would be willing to help with. That might prompt some members to be more active.
Schotz said that in other large chapters, everyone on the board is in charge of one thing and they report at each board meeting. He suggested sitting down and deciding what is important to us. He said every committee should have at least one person who is not on the board in order to get people to be more active.
Divis said she felt the committees are about things that need long term work, and other things that need specific effort are subjects for task forces.
Asher moved the board meeting be adjourned. Kubiske seconded the motion. The board approved the motion to adjourn at 8:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Foxhall
Recording Secretary
2020-2021
Addendum:
Report on PIO restrictions work from Kathryn Foxhall
Things Happening:
I have a Zoom meeting with a person at Freedom House this afternoon.
PEER also said they would like to talk to me about this. Both of these were aided by the letter the chapter sent to CDC, which I put in my letter to them.
The chapter’s task force also suggested a contact with the Congressional Press Freedom caucus. I can’t find an address or evidence of activity for the caucus. I did write the Sen. Leahy’s office (on a personal basis, but citing SPJ). No answer but I will keep bothering them.
The Sunshine Week column I wrote for SPJ has gotten about five pick ups from local newspaper that I can find so far.
I have asked SPJ to lead an effort to get many journalism groups to sign a letter to the scientific integrity review that the Biden administration is supposed to be doing.
I had a good conversation with Tim Wheeler of the Society of Environmental Journalists. They also are focused on targeting Biden’s scientific review process and I hope to coordinate with them. They are also writing to a number of agencies. They are having meetings with PR staff at EPA. I sent them our letter to CDC.
We sent out the chapter’s letter to CDC. It got a 32 percent open rate, meaning 2000 opens from journalists on our Meltwater list and my personal email list I have built up.
It was opened by 41 percent of the 249 email list of open government and journalism groups.
I got almost 800 hits on my blog, due to the links from the press release, which is unheard of.
I did a talk show with WHUR, the Daily Drum. I don’t know whether I got the point across or not, what with the other issues facing African American journalists at this time. Jonathan Make said I did okay.
I did an hour Zoom interview with a professor from the University of Wisconsin who is studying free press issues. She said she followed me on Twitter. She seemed intrigued with everything and I sent her all the links, etc. It seemed good to pass this understanding to a younger generation and someone outside of journalism.
I did an interview with Jonathan Make on the extreme restrictions at FCC. He did an in-depth piece for his Communications Daily newsletter about the lack of news conferences and tight controls on the news conferences they have. My summary of the situation: This agency with massive impact on our lives stopped allowing employee-reporter contacts by using PIO controls years ago. Now, it basically chokes off news conferences.
The MFIA Yale legal clinic is continuing to work toward filing a suit on a local level.