Minutes – Jan. 15, 2010 – Online News Association

In attendance:

Not in attendance:

Welcome

Christine welcomed everyone, urged the need for subcommittees to do their work, thanked everyone for voting.

Minutes

Discussion of Bylaws

Discussion of bylaws changes that were revised by Jon Hart. Changes as recommended by Jon, including content in brackets, were voted on and accepted.

Finances

Expenses and revenue are being prepared for upcoming audit. A new 2010 budget process is being developed to include a tagging system so that reports can be more easily searched, checked and recorded. Because the budget process is still being finalized, the 2009 budget has not yet been finalized and is not ready for approval. Jane says that the budget will be ready for the February 2010 meeting.
Jane says that she will know the status of two Knight grants at the end of the month. She can more accurately put together the 2010 budget after hearng about those grants.
Neil asks that all Board members pledge to donate a set amount of money for 2010.

Rainmaker Board

Neil has been reaching out to people. Jane is setting up a time for Board members to meet to discuss how to move forward.

Education committee

Training committee

Ken has finalized a next round of training in south Florida, and content is posted on basecamp. Ken is working on an additional event at the Freedom Forum. Ken suggests creating ONA gear on Cafe Press with local city designations. ONA could make T-shirts, mugs, etc. available to buy online. He also suggests working more closely with Katie on developing a bigger presence for ONA in the Arabic-speaking world.

Membership committee

Liz mentioned a phase one and phase two approach to capture more members outside of the annual conference.

Diversity committee

Kathryn has prepared a statement to principal and to put it into place formally. Events: ONA will continue to offer webinars for free via NewsU. Jane will seek sponsors and will create a calendar.

Newseum

Newseum has finished the kiosk concept. Anthony will check to make sure that content is accurate. A press release should be sent mid-January.

International committee

Katie asked co-chairs to offer their ideas and feedback for 2010. Eric Scherer in Paris said that he’d be elected to France’s version of ONA, suggested a partnership between the two organizations. Kirk LaPointe in Canada would like to get an ONA social conversation going in Canada via Facebook, Twitter. He is also planning regular meetups in various cities. Twitter feed in UK has resulted in animated, popular meetings. Rosenthal Alves is working with the ONA country chair in Brazil, they would like to host a regional conference in May 2010.

Awards

Committee is aiming to have a light touch on awards definitions this year. New software will be used for judging. The committee is evaluating vendors now to select a new system. The screening process will be changed to include a team process. OJA winners will be presented in a session at ASNE.
2010 Conference committee: Website launched in January. Josh Hatch coordinated designers and efforts. Session selector will be announced at the end of the month. Tom Regan is working on sponsors again. There are two sponsors so far, Webbmedia Group and AP. A list of possible keynote speakers has been posted to the conference site on basecamp.

2011 Conference

Legal committee

Signing onto briefs is the best thing that we can do right now. We also partnered with OMLN to provide resources for members.

The call was adjourned at 1:12 p.m. ET