Thursday, April 21, 2022
Virtual meeting held via videoconference on Zoom.
Present: President Randy Showstack; Vice President Dee Ann Divis; Treasurer Dan Kubiske; Corresponding Secretary Amy Fickling; Recording Secretary Kathryn Foxhall; and board members Julie Asher, Jacqueline Fuller, Ken Jost, Selma Khenissi and Celia Wexler.
Excused absences: Board member Denise Dunbar; Ken Jost.
Special guests: Region 2 coordinator Stephenie Overman; chapter member Bill McCloskey; and whistleblower coordinator Marcel Reid.
Call to Order
President Randy Showstack called the meeting to order at about 6:48 p.m.
Minutes
Treasurer Dan Kubiske moved that the minutes be approved as circulated earlier by Recording Secretary Kathryn Foxhall. Board member Julie Asher seconded the motion. During discussion, Amy Fickling said “in early June” should be added to the line about the Paul McCartney concert in Baltimore, to give context as to why the chapter was thinking about having a program tied to it. The motion was changed to “minutes be approved with minor changes to the circulated version, as discussed during the meeting.” The board voted to approve the motion.
Treasurer’s Report
Kubiske reported that he had not had the time to get a financial report to board members. However, the only financial changes for March were for paying the accountant who does work for the Sigma Delta Chi D.C. Foundation, receiving payments from PayPal and receiving some interest payments.
He said the April statement will show funds have been transferred in for payment from entries for the Dateline Awards.
Region 2 Conference
Region 2 director Stephenie Overman reported that the Region 2 conference had been very well done from the technical side, with the hybrid set up. There were about 45 people attending and it was done with the Virginia SPJ Chapter’s award ceremony in honor of Beth Macy, the author of “Dope Sick.”
Report on Restraints through PIOs, etc.
Kathryn Foxhall reported on work on obstructions by PIOs and other restrictions on reporters. She said she is in the editing stage of an article for the Columbia Journalism Review. Freedom of Information officers for SPJ and the Society of Environmental Journalists got a letter in Science magazine, responding to the recent Office of Science and Technology Policy report on scientific integrity. The OSTP report had endorsed Obama era standards of constraints on scientists without addressing the impact of the forced notification of PIOs for all conversations.
SDX Foundation of Washington, D.C.
Corresponding Secretary Amy Fickling reported that the SDX Foundation of Washington, D.C. board met earlier that day. She is serving as SDX-DC president. It chose four candidates for scholarships of $5,000 each. She said there was discussion about complimentary tickets to the Dateline Awards Dinner, but there had been no decision.
She said there was discussion during that board meeting about whether the chapter will provide complimentary tickets for the scholars and a guest each to attend the Dateline Awards Dinner, and there was an effort underway to find a donor for those tickets from among past donors to the SDX Foundation. Several chapter board members added that there is no set way the chapter handles this, that sometimes a chapter member will donate a ticket or two toward the scholars attending at no charge, and sometimes the foundation gets a table donated on the scholars’ behalf. As the fundraising is underway, the chapter will wait to see the outcome before proceeding on this.
The board discussed ways to assist the foundation in increasing the number of applicants for the journalism scholarships.
Showstack took a moment to thank Fickling for her good work with the foundation.
Nominations Committee
Nominating Committee Chair Stephenie Overman had emailed the board a slate of candidates for the 2022-2023 chapter year, as required by the chapter bylaws.
Kubiske moved and board member Selma Khenissi seconded to approve appearance on the official ballot for the upcoming election. The board voted to approve the motion.
For President – Dee Ann Divis
For Vice President – Denise Dunbar
For Corresponding Secretary – Amy Fickling
For Recording Secretary – Jackie Fuller
For Treasurer – Dan Kubiske
For a 2-year term each for board members:
- Kathryn Foxhall
- Kenneth Jost
- Allison Hageman
The board approved the motion.
Kubiske moved that member Andy Schotz be approved as the tellers committee for the counting of the ballots for the election. Asher seconded the motion. The board approved the motion.
Upcoming Programs
Showstack read an email from board member Denice Dunbar which said that well known photographer Dennis Brack has agreed to do a Zoom forum with the chapter on Tuesday, May 24, which will focus on being a White House photographer and taking iconic photos of the Beatles. Kubiske, who schedules the Zoom calls with SPJ, selected 7 p.m. for the time, since Dunbar was not attending the meeting.
The board has previously discussed attempting to get an appearance by Sir Paul McCartney who will be performing in Baltimore on June 12.
Divis asked if we might do a raffle for a ticket to the concert. Showstack said that the least expensive tickets are now going for $250.
Khenissi reported that all the Hall of Fame and Distinguished Service Award honorees have agreed again to take part in the Dateline Awards and Hall of Fame Dinner. The awardees’ names have not yet been announced. The chapter has not been able to hold the dinner for the past several years due to the pandemic.
Asher reported the obelisks and to honor Hall of Fame and plaque to honor the Distinguished Service Award have been ordered.
Board members agreed for the HOF committee to contact Jim Bohannon and ask him to again be master of ceremonies.
Fickling discussed the budget for the dinner in light of the fact we will not do the printed invitations this year. The committee will be asking chapter member Ann Augherton to do the layout of the program. Fickling said we will likely be within the same budget as in previous years.
Board members discussed whether they wanted to do a video of the dinner and post it on the chapter website. They discussed how much it would cost and whether it’s possible to have a hybrid event on Zoom.
Divis said she would discuss the possibility with the National Press Club.
Board members also discussed doing short videos interviewing the winners, which was successfully done in the past.
National SPJ Conference Planned in Washington
Divis reported that there had been another meeting of the committee that is planning the sessions of the national SPJ conference this fall. She encouraged people to put in proposals for conference sessions, especially for some of the really serious issues the nation faces at the moment.
Showstack seconded that.
Fickling noted that an issue of concern for some time has been electronic capabilities and electronic privacy.
Showstack reported that, after recent correspondence with SPJ HQ, it looks OK for the chapter to move forward with plans to have a gathering of a number of local journalism groups and chapters of national groups (and perhaps some national journalism organizations that are based in the D.C. area) to meet during an evening at the start of the 2022 national conference in D.C. The board decided we should book something at the National Press Club for October 28, the Friday the SPJ conference begins.
Board members also agreed to work toward having a preliminary get-together of journalism groups, possibly during the summer, prior to the SPJ conference.
The members who said they would be on committee for planning these meetings are: Board members Celia Wexler, Khenissi, Fickling, Kubiski, and Showstack. Showstack said that board members absent from the meeting could be on the committee if they wished.
Other Discussion
Showstack encouraged the board members to read the results of the membership survey.
He reported that our Dateline Coordinator emailed that we have 30 people volunteering to be judges for the Hawaii SPJ chapter’s Best of Journalism Contest and the judging is proceeding well.
Showstack asked if there is a way we can capture the names of our members who are judging those entries and those who are volunteering for other things.
He also asked for members’ input on things that should go into the chapter’s annual report to national SPJ.
Kubiske reported that the SPJ International Community will do a program on May 3 on some of the Afghan journalists who are in the area, as well as Tammy Rice, who has helped settle many people in this country.
Foxhall asked for further discussion on what proposals were going forward for sessions on the threat to democracy at the SPJ national conference.
Wexler said she is thinking about something to help reporters know what this upcoming election day may be like and whether it might be dangerous or confusing.
Showstack said he and Divis would like there to be a session at the national conference with Robert Costa or Robert Woodward to discuss democracy and journalism.
Divis said that younger reporters need to hear that just because public information officers tell journalists they have to notify or go through the PIOs to speak with people in some government agencies, reporters don’t need to follow those obstructions.
Overman suggested the information on that could be done in a cartoon animated presentation.
Special guest Marcel Reid made some remarks to the board saying that if there is a group equally as concerned about democracy being eliminated as journalists are, it’s whistleblowers.
The board had further discussion on finding experts on democracy, particularly in Washington, for the national conference. Members also talked about possibly doing radio programming and other programming at and/or before the conference to raise journalism issues and to raise the profile of the conference, of SPJ, and of SPJ-DC.
Chapter member Bill McCloskey joined the meeting to discuss his plans revive his tradition of providing tickets to a Nationals game which chapter members could enjoy as a group and raise money for the Washington, D.C. SDX Foundation.
Showstack applauded McCloskey for his generous donation of the tickets.
Members agreed that McCloskey could look for a weekend day game or a weekday evening game, possibly earlier in the summer, that he could set the donation level at $30 per ticket, and that he could see if he could get 15 tickets.
Board members also thanked McCloskey for his offer of tickets to be raffled off at the Dateline Awards Dinner, but said that this could extend the dinner gathering, which may go too long as it is.
Adjournment
Kubiske moved that the meeting be adjourned. Foxhall seconded. The board was adjourned at about 8:40 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Foxhall
Recording Secretary
2021-2022