In-person, San Francisco Hilton
In attendance:
- Ken Sands
- Tom Brew
- Cory Tolbert Haik
- Amy Webb
- Neil Budde
- Katharine Fong
- Katie King
- Jim Brady
- Denise Polverine
- Jon Dube
- Jane McDonnell (Executive Director)
- Sherry Skalko (Webmaster/Online Editor, journalists.org)
- Jon Hart
Not in attendance:
- Jody Brannon
- Kinsey Wilson
- Ju-Don Roberts
- Anthony Moor
Conference wrap-up: Board members discussed the un-conference sessions and the need for more of these sessions next year. Jon Dube and Jane McDonnell thanked all who helped plan and work this conference.
- Livestream.com: we had some bandwidth issues but a lot of people took advantage of this. -Amy Webb suggests we send out a “save the date” to members and potential sponsors.
- The board agreed that the University of Miami is a fantastic awards partner. Winners were taken aside and were interviewed. We’ll use these tapes to put in the Newseum exhibit along with judges tapes.
- We’ll soon send out a survey for attendees to take re: the conference, with a chance to win a nano ipod.
- Next year is at the Marriott Washington D.C. Jane says we should have no wireless issues.
- Jane went over the conference budget.
Finances: Neil Budde reported on the 2009 budget.
Grants/foundations: Jane gave an update to the board on various funding projects and potential grants. Sherry Skalko also notes that the “Support a Journalist” campaign was successful, we’ll continue that. We may also partner with the Newseum to promote and raise funds for the preservation of great digital journalism.
Rainmaker Advisory Board: The board recently approved the formation of this advisory board. Several board members such as Jim Brady and Jon Hart are pinpointing people who might be a good fit.
International Membership: Katie King says we had 70 international members in attendance. She’s like to propose a restructuring the International committee and have chairs for various countries. She’d like to have a board meeting in London. The international committee is 4 years old now and we originally had 15 members. The board discussed how we can promote the awards a little better to international members.
Future conference locations: The board discussed several options and we will come back and revisit this. One idea was to send an RFP to various cities/hotels/venues to see who is interested in hosting this conference.
Web site: Sherry says our awards get lost on our current site and we need to better showcase them. The board agreed. Sherry is going to pursue several ideas/individuals who offered to help and will report back.
Committees: Jon Dube says it’s now time to think about which committees board members would like to be on, areas that members want to focus on and where we need to most outside/volunteer help. At the board meeting in December, we can clarify what everyone wants to do. Some of the general areas include: development, diversity, membership, training, legal etc.
Events: Ann Arbor conference coming up. Ken Sands is planning with Cory Haik’s assistance. Tony Dearing and Shawn Smith are heavily involved. In November, there is a day-long training session in Richmond, VA.
Board nominations and membership: The board will be discussing the board process and make-up during the Dec. in-person meeting.