Minutes

Michigan Interscholastic Press Association
Board Meeting Minutes
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Submitted by Kim Kozian, secretary
1. President Jeremy Van Hof called the meeting to order at 9:40 am.
2.  Roll Call
Members present: Cheryl Pell, executive director; Jeremy Van Hof, president; Lynn Strause, first vice-president & yearbook chair; C.E. Sikkenga, second vice president; Kim Kozian, secretary; Brian Wilson, treasurer; Tim Morley, trustee; Sue Spalding, trustee; Pam Bunka, trustee; Diane Herder, video chair; Rod Satterthwaite, special projects chair; Jeremy Whiting, new media chair; guests Jesse McClean and Julia Ridgeway Members absent: Julie Price, newspaper chair; Gloria Olman, legislative chair; Jenny Birmelin, middle school chair; Jeff Nardone, hall of fame chair; Betsy Pollard Rau, workshop director
3. Agenda: C.E. moved to approve the agenda for the meeting with the following additions under New Business: G. Spring 2011 conference date, H. InDesign Workshop, I. Michigan Virtual University and J. Agenda/Minutes posted on web. Additional corrections included adding Jeremy W. to roll call, changing Lynn’s last name spelling and changing the dates on items 3 and 4. Sue and Brian seconded, all in favor.
4. Minutes from the May 16 meeting were approved with a motion by Diane, and seconded by Lynn. All in favor.
5. Treasurer’s report – referencing one handout.
Brian, Lynn, Cheryl met in June to work on the 09-10 budget. In email, Brian sent the following information, which he reiterated at the meeting:
• We are leaving “Constitution Day” off this year’s budget but we’ll need to remember to put it back in next year, assuming we stick to the every-other-year plan. We figured that that event cost $1676.14 and was NOT an item on last year’s budget.
• There was another one-time expense for the December 12 Warren Watson conference: $631.08. It is good to have some wiggle-room in the budget for these types of events however, as they tend to come up about once a year.
• The Up-North Conference has been added, with a projected expense of $1600 and projected income of $1000.
• The CPA continues to be more expensive than we first thought; $4195 last year. We budgeted $2500. Cheryl pointed out that while the initial costs were expected to be high, we thought that it would decrease after the first year. That hasn’t really happened. Cheryl will set up a meeting with him; prior to that, she will send a list of his duties/tasks to Diane whose sister is a CPA.
• We decided to keep the retreat in the budget – seems to be an every-other-year event. As of August 31, 2009, we have $11,566.46 with $7,870.79 in money management account and $5 in the Spartan Saver.
Lynn moved to approve the 2009-10 budget, Pam supported and all were in favor.
6. Director’s report
• Greater Lansing Woman: Jenny was featured in a two-page spread about her athletic activities.
• J-School: In celebration of  the J-School’s100 years, Cheryl passed around buttons.
• Quick Course: Karl Gude will host “WTF (What’s the Future?)” on Saturday, Oct. 10. It is $50. Check snd.org for more information.
• Google Groups: Cheryl may migrate the Google groups to Wiggio (a site set up for group work). Jesse explained that the site is private, offers space for meetings, conference calls, mass text messages, calendar, links and more and is rather like Blackboard for groups. “I’m not twittin’,” Diane said.
• Membership brochure:  Cheryl would like to do this in color on nice paper.
• Proposal: Jane Briggs Bunting has created the Capital J Journalism Incubator Project where groups can develop projects involving new media. She will present at the fall conference.
7.  Summer Workshop Report
The bill was $71,392.70 and is paid. Five students didn’t turn in keys so Cheryl is attempting to get those back. Total was 420 students and faculty. We may have to raise the price as costs have gone up. The buses alone cost $4,000 so we will try to get back to Shaw next year. Discussion on a year-end workshop report. Jeremy will send Betsy a note, asking her to attend the next meeting. Some discussion on innovative ways to promote the event.
8. Old Business
None
9.  New Business
A.  Fall Conference Preview: No grid yet, as Cheryl is still working on speakers.  She would like to get the Rapidian, a Grand Rapids-based  citizen journalist site or MTV’s social media director Dave Studinski. Board members suggested Shawn Windsor, Jack Ebeling, others. Sue Spalding will coordinate the critiques again. We talked about the luncheon room because it is so hard to hear speakers with the sound system. Perhaps the podium can be relocated and rent a better
PA system? Rod’s principal wants to do a session as well.
B. Indiana Meeting: Cheryl will email the Indy board president to see if they want to meet in December again.  C. Constitution Day: Cheryl thinks she can get a grant to help pay for this (and it’s not a money-maker). Next year, Constitution Day is on a Friday so should we hold it during the school day instead of after school? Talked over having it the day before versus on Friday. Rod will coordinate and update us at the next meeting.
D. MLive Student Journalists: They want access to student work to post on the site. Another company, Your News Site, wants names, content (without paying for it). Perhaps this area could be part of Jeremy W.’s job, to establish criteria on what to allow or disallow for these types of requests and sites. We discussed having them at the fall conference but if these are a commercial endeavor, they should have a booth; if it’s strictly a how-to, then they could do a session.
E. HSCEs/Journalism Endorsement: The state is pushing to narrow down its nine ELA endorsement areas. Cheryl will attend a meeting this week and we are probably going to have to fight this. Perhaps we will have to ask colleges to require a certain number of credits in that certification area – posters, promotional materials, target counselors. Perhaps we can host a poster contest and the winner could be used in this marketing campaign. Winners could win workshop
scholarships. Diane will handle the PSA, C.E. will do poster contest.
F. Calendar: Sat., December 5 – meeting in Indiana at Pokegon State Park/Potowatomi Inn; Saturday, January 16 at Comm Arts; February 19 – contest due date; Friday, March 5 – evening meeting and judging day is March 6; April 30, 2010 – spring conference; May 15 – meeting at Comm Arts
G. Spring 2011: April 27-29, 2011 are the possible dates, after Easter
H. InDesign Workshop: February 19, 2010? Bad weather is a big concern. Pam suggested providing PC technology as opposed to Mac. Suggestions include Illustrator, Word Press, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and InDesign. Put choices on the table at the fall conference lunch and have advisers choose the top 3 or so.
I. MI Virtual University:  Jeremy was asked to teach a Journalism class. He is paid per student, has little control of subject matter and is sort of a paid grader. Cheryl has met with them twice. Their approach is not student or teacher – centered. Diane said that her school no longer offers classes through MVU due to lack of feedback for the kids.
J. Documents on web: Cheryl would like to put up the agenda and minutes, treasurer’s report, etc. Board agrees.
K. College of Law: Does anyone want a First Amendment attorney to speak to classes? They are part of the Great Lakes Student Press Law Clinic.
10.  Members’ Reports:
Lynn: She was just in Alabama doing a workshop series in several cities. They are jealous of the number of students we get at our workshops, as they had 300 total in three cities.
Kim: Fire up, Chips!  Working on first paper for October and theme/cover idea is almost ready to go for yearbook.
C.E.: First day issue out, went to a tabloid, wish he could teach it 8 hours a day!
Tim: His yearbook is out (passed around), and he will be a featured speaker at JEA.
Brian: First issue out, tabloid size; he’s teaching Intro to Journalism at OCC. He’s fired up about the future with the new, young teachers. Jesse: Thanks!
Jeremy W.: Thanks for the welcome. He’s already tackling the web Spartan criteria and he’s interning at Haslett and the first issue is out.
Pam: Also has first issue out, masthead redesign and launching a web site soon. September 24 is her 33rd anniversary.
Diane: great classes. Someone broke in and stole all their computers but now she has a room full of new computers!
Cheryl: welcome, guests. STET writers??
Rod: all new computers, 20-inch monitor Macs – but no software. Pacemaker finalist. Julia: has been censored for four years but now that she has tenure, she did submit her first issue without administrative review.
Jeremy VH: fourth year of program, still trying to grow the culture. Currently it’s 9 weeks as a club, 9 weeks
independent study/club and then it will be a class/independent study. Having a core group helps.
11. Adjournment: the meeting ended at 12:10 with a motion by Diane, and a second from Tim.
Upcoming events
Fall conference – Monday, October 19, 2009
Middle School conference  — November 5
Board meeting – Fri/Sat., Dec. 4-5, Indiana – has since been cancelled and will be held at Comm Arts instead?