Membership Appreciation Meeting

Reconnect with SPJ friends and get to know other SPJ members you haven’t spent time with before during our annual recognition of members whose SPJ membership milestones were reached in 2019 – that is, their membership anniversary years fell on 5- and 10-year intervals last year. We have some chapter members with more than 50 years of membership, and some who have been members for five years. And of course, a range of anniversaries in between. See the list of honorees below.

If you were honored last year or a previous year, honor us with your presence again this year! The more the merrier. If you are a new chapter member, and want to just have an occasion to mingle with other members, without a formal program to sit through first, do join us.

RSVP on Eventbrite here.

As you are probably aware by now, the annual SPJ-RTDNA convention – called Excellence in Journalism – will be held in Washington in September 2020. Our chapter leaders are eager to have EIJ20 be a truly excellent experience for all attendees, who will be coming from around the country to the nation’s capital for an immersive couple of days of journalism training and organization business. Learn more about this at the membership meeting, and solidify your plans to attend as well.

We will want to hear from you, about you, at the meeting – so prepare a few remarks about what you’ve gotten out of your years of membership, and the state of journalism today, if you like. Tell us about your career, too. There is so much to celebrate about the past and the future in a changing media landscape.

We’ll have some light fare and beverages, but since we have to clean up the room ourselves before leaving, we’ll steer clear of flaky or sticky things. No alcoholic beverages or punch allowed in the facility – but, like we did last year, we’ll have another nearby restaurant in mind for us to repair to following the meeting, for happy hour or other munchies. The county government facility is strict about groups adhering to the scheduled end time of the rental, so we must be cleaned up and out by 3 p.m. While we hope you can come to the meeting, those who can’t make it that early should plan to join us afterward.

DIRECTIONS

The Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center is located just off the Bethesda Metro stop in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. When you get to the top of the escalators exiting the Bethesda Metro stop, go left through the bus bay. The street just outside the bay is the one where the B-CC RSC is located, and it is almost straight ahead of you, with parking beneath it. Walk around to the entrance. The West Room-A is on the second floor. There is free parking on Saturdays in several Montgomery County garages in the area, with Metropolitan Garage #49 in the same block as the B-CC RSC.

See information about getting to the B-CC Regional Services Center by various modes of transportation, including the nearby Red Line Metro stop in Bethesda, and free Montgomery County parking on weekends, on this page.

BEFORE THE MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Those wishing to attend an SPJ DC board meeting can arrive at noon for the board’s monthly meeting, which is scheduled to last 45 minutes before adjourning to prepare for the membership meeting starting at 1 p.m. on Jan. 25.

HONOREES FOR 2019 ANNIVERSARIES

Here is the list of national SPJ members who are either DC Pro Chapter members or are in the metropolitan area for chapter membership but who are not now chapter members but may have been in the past — who hit a 5- or 10-year interval in membership longevity milestones:

70 YEARS (joined in 1949)

Stan Degler

65 YEARS (joined in 1954)

William Miller

David L. Thomas

60 YEARS (joined in 1959)

Sidney Hurlburt

55 YEARS (joined in 1964)

Paul Heed Byers

Donald Crutchfield

John Grady (lifetime national SPJ member)

Bruce Sanford

Richard Simon

Andrew Wahlquist

Joel Whitaker

50 YEARS (joined in 1969)

Robert Saul Becker  (past chapter board member)

James Plante (past national SPJ president)