March 7, 2016

SPJ/LA Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Monday, March 7, 2016

Louise’s Trattoria

10645 W. Pico Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90064

Present: Tammy Audi, Joel Bellman, Stephanie Bluestein, Christina Cocca, Sarah Favot, Michael Fleeman, Richard Hendrickson, Frank Mottek, Navid Nonahal, Richard Saxton, Lori Streifler, Alice Walton, Jeff Wald, Roberta Wax, Natalie Windsor

I.               Approval of minutes from Feb. 8 board meeting

a.     Wax moves to approve the minutes, Bluestein seconded. The motion carried.

II.             President’s report – Nonahal

a.     Board attendance to events and mixers – Nonahal suggested more board members attend events planned by the board to show support. Traffic and work schedules when planning/choosing the dates were discussed.

b.     Nonahal mentioned the SPJ Region 11 conference in Phoenix, April 29 – 30 and suggested board members to consider going.

III.           Treasurer’s report – Hendrickson

a.     Wald moves to approve, Bellman seconded. The motion carried.

b.     Bank of America balance on March 1 is $30,170.67. Balance on books is expected to be $27,838.47 after an Omni hotel deposit for the banquet of $2,332.20 clears.

c.      Morgan Stanley balance as of March 1 is $69,499.22, which is a loss of $62.39 from February. No outstanding debts.

IV.            Standing Committees

a.     Awards – Marcellino

·      No report.

b.     Banquet – Walton

·    2016 Banquet update: The board discussed potential candidates to emcee to event. Favot volunteered to help with the program. Wax suggested reaching out to the Rams for sponsorship. Mottek has reached out to TWC and suggested AEG.

·    The banquet will be held on Thursday, April 14 at the Omni. Cocktails at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $100 for members and $140 for non-members. Board members suggested we contact Sandy Banks to ask if she would be the MC. Alice asked board members to contact their newsrooms and PR relations to sell tickets.

c.      Courts – Marcellino

·      No report.

d.     Diversity – Flores/Nonahal

·      Nonahal reported that Flores is organizing the March 24 diversity event, #JournalismSoWhite, at USC. Panelists are set and Flores will moderate.

e.     Ethics – Bluestein/Hendrickson

·      Ethics event recap – Hendrickson said event went well even though we had three panelists instead of four. The board got a sizeable list of new people joining the SPJLA mailing list, and the event had many more attendees than expected from the RSVPs.

f.      FOI –Zahniser

·      No report.

g.     Generation J – Bowen

·      No report.

h.     Membership – Saxton

·      Saxton is putting together a list of bureaus and media offices in LA to recruit for memberships. He emailed national inquiring about promotions or group deals. Hendrickson spoke to Linda Hall, who mentioned the St. Louis chapter getting rid of chapter dues. Hendrickson suggested a possible 50% discount on initial local chapter dues, making them $10 instead of $20. The board initially suggested this topic at the retreat in January. Wax said it might be tough logistically with how national charges people on the sign up. Bellman said it would end up being a net loss in our overall budget. Windsor inquired as to the results by the local chapters that decreased or nixed the local dues.

i.       Nominations – Bellman

·      No report.

j.       Scholarships – Audi/Fleeman

·      Audi said we can announce scholarships at the banquet and proposed a deadline of June 13. Winners potentially announced June 27. Scholarships combined will award a total of $4,000.

V.              Old Business

a.     SPJ/LA’s March karaoke mixer recap – Peschiutta/Walton – Attendance not as high as last karaoke mixer, construction near the venue may have been an issue with commuting, and two mixers with the same theme were back-to-back. Walton proposed partnering with other journalism groups to cross promote, and choosing different themes monthly.

VI.            New Business

a.     The board revisited the discussion about if there is a need for a local sunshine ordinance. Bellman will draft a proposal for professors to possibly get students to help research.

b.     Fleeman said there is an event on May 14 being held by ONA, the same day as a computer workshop for SPJ/LA. The board will keep the date but will let ONA know that the chapter cannot co-sponsor their event.

VII.          Next board meeting: April 4 at Louise’s, 7 p.m.

VIII.          Adjournment

a.     Hendrickson moved to adjourn, Windsor seconded. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,Christina Cocca