NCEW Board of Directors

Winter Board Meeting

Dec. 8, 2007

Unofficial minutes

Present: Vanessa Gallman, David Holwerk, Neil Heinen, Ron Dzwonkowski, Tom Waseleski, Robyn Blumner, Kater Riley, Lois Kazakoff, Eddie Roth, Marjorie Arons-Baron, Linda Campbell, Doug MacEachern, Harry Austin, John Taylor, Don Lemire, David Rhoades, Rhonda Daub, Tim Williams, Melinda Condon, Patricia Stroble, Bob Schnaars

President Vanessa Gallman called the meeting to order at 8:45 a.m.

Melinda Condon gave a brief history of PNA and its relationship with NCEW. Rhonda Daub explained how to read the financial reports.

Neil Heinen moved to accept the minutes from the 2007 Fall Board Meeting. Robyn Blumner seconded. Motion was approved.

Treasurer's report. Treasurer Tom Waseleski introduced a financial overview presented by David Rhoades and Rhonda Daub of PNA. Forecast for net income for 2007 is $10,400.

Dues were under budget by $5,105, mostly because of a decline in membership.

Convention netted $41,943, $1,842 over budget.

Gain/loss from investments was over budget by more than $8,000, reflecting a healthy market and conservative budgeting.

The 2008 budget reflects an anticipated decrease in dues of $7,500, and a decrease in convention income of $200. Convention expenses budgeted $1,700 below the 2007 budget.

Total income for 2008 is anticipated at $127,185. Operating expenses are budgeted at $126,122, leading to an expected $1,063 net income for the year.

John Taylor moved to approve the budget. Neil Heinen seconded. Approved.

Committee reports. Diversity survey hasn't generated enough response to generate a credible report. Holwerk recommended that the Diversity Committee produce a report from the 40 percent of newspapers represented by NCEW that responded.

Pat Stroble compiled a report about the last five conventions that shows a pretty steady decline in attendance.

Futures Committee chair Lois Kazakoff reported on a proposed bylaw change to help broaden membership to include more new media journalists.

Linda Campbell discussed the Best Practices CD that was given out at the 2007 convention. Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial page editor Paul Harrall sent some suggestions for better organizing future editions.

The board discussed a report from International Committee chair Jonathan Gurwitz about whether a continuing focus on foreign trips makes sense, given industry financial conditions. The challenge is finding funding sources that could provide most the financing, but wouldn't raise ethical concerns. The question is whether that effort is worthwhile. David Holwerk and Lois Kazakoff will check with the organizers of a Johns Hopkins program they are involved in to see if there are sources of funding for international travel for journalists that NCEW might be able to tap into.

Masthead editor Kate Riley discussed the potential for advertising in the Masthead. Some exhibitors expressed interest, but want to deal with an advertising professional. Rhonda Daub cautioned that advertising income is taxable. The Masthead committee will look into that further and present a proposal at the spring meeting.

Kate also demonstrated the Digital Quill, the publication of the SPJ. It is searchable and can be maintained online. NXTBook Media, which produces the publication for SPJ, and the cost would be around $1,000 per issue. Bob Schnarrs discussed how much of the functionality from NXTBook is available in the pdf format. Kate will look into moving Masthead toward digital publication, with 2008 as a transition year.

Convention reports. Vanessa outlined the tentative program for Little Rock. Tom Waseleski raised the question of whether enough time had been devoted to the Opinion Pool. Vanessa agreed to devote Friday morning to an Opinion Pool presentation, and Eddie Roth promised a dynamic presentation with detailed information from the pilot sites.

David Holwerk announced that the Salt Lake City convention will include a concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Tom Waseleski said Keven Wiley is making progress on the Dallas convention.

The Opinion Pool. Eddie Roth just came from Columbia, Missouri, at the invitation of the Reynolds Institute. They will be doing reader surveys at all the pilot sites. Missouri University is very excited about the project. Reader survey will probably be a 15-minute telephone survey, with about 50 questions.

Focus groups are moving forward in three pilot locations: Seattle, Vero Beach and Des Moines. A proposal has been prepared for the Kettering Foundation to fund the focus groups and facilitate five meetings on the Opinion Pool. A funding decision should be made by early January.

In the event Kettering funding doesn't come through, Eddie suggested that NCEW be prepared to guarantee funding for the focus groups, not more than $11,000 per site, plus around $5,000 to pay for recording the Seattle focus group to be broadcast on the Web.

Ron Dzwonkowski moved to provide $3,000 from NCEW for focus group funding, with the understanding that the rest would come from the Foundation. Neil Heinen seconded. The motion was approved.

A communication policy for The Opinion Pool was discussed. Eddie agreed that any communication to the entire membership would be approved by the executive committee.

Web site. Radmacher discussed issues involved in revamping the Web site. Because of issues with the database used by PNA, NCEW is relatively locked in to specific vendors. Fortunately, those vendors are upgrading their capabilities. The executive board will view a demonstration of what's now available and work on outlining the needs and desires for the new Web site.

Bequests. Robyn Blumner discussed her research into setting up a bequest society for members to set up donations to NCEW or the NCEW Foundation. John Taylor suggested naming it in honor of Nancy Keefe. Blumner suggested such money be directed to an endowment fund that could eventually help fund general operations.

Membership. Vanessa said the $50 membership initiative is on track, but has been scaled back to focus on states surrounding Little Rock.

A bylaw change has been proposed Membership Committee chair John Penney to add a new membership category for members between jobs. The proposal would add Category 6 to the membership categories: "Transitional members: Members in this classification can retain their membership in NCEW if they are between jobs. Members can stay in this classification for no more than one year and must have a minimum of five-year membership with NCEW before the transition period began. Members in this category will be charged the associate fee."

Holwerk moved to approve the proposal in concept and ask the staff to prepare the proposal in a form that fits the structure and language of the bylaws to submit to the membership in September. Linda Campbell seconded and the motion was approved.

Taylor moved to adjourn. Waseleski seconded.