Mark Faller, director of the azcentral sports group, has been charged with rebooting the APSE writers group liaison commitee.
Currently the West Region chairman, Faller is also the head of the re-formed writers group liason committee. APSE members interested in serving on the committee can email him here.
Faller, who has spent nine years with the Republic and is a past Northeast Region chairman, coordinates content for the Arizona Republic, azcentral.com and KPNX Channel 12.
He talks here about the APSE's new/old committee:
Question: Why is APSE re-starting the writers group liaison committee?
Answer: The committee went dark a few years ago, and Gerry Ahern has made resurrecting it a priority for his term as APSE president. The timing is right. In the past year, there has been activity between various writers groups and their sports – the Baseball Writers Association of America comes immediately to mind – that led to some agreements that the APSE membership might not have been aware of in advance. This committee should allow us as an organization, but also as individual managers at our own companies, to stay current with these issues.
Q: What service did the committee provide in the past?
A: Committee members served as the eyes and ears for APSE, letting the membership know of important developments as they were happening in areas ranging from credential issues, athlete access, awards, the use of dues.
Committee members work with a member of each writers group, usually the president or chairman, to stay abreast of issues and report back to the APSE executive committee and membership. If there is a problem area, APSE can offer guidance to the writers group as it works with officials in its sport. Occasionally APSE has taken a more active stance, especially when there was concern over loss of access or other restrictions.
One of the more recent committee chairs, Bill Bradley, reminded me of some of the hot-button topics that popped up on his watch:
— Convincing the Pro Hockey Writers from taking money for their votes, which they had been doing for about a decade.
— Keeping College Football Writers from trying to monetize their awards.
— Working with the BBWAA to keep MLB from trying to sell their annual awards to ESPN without permission.
Q: Which writers groups will APSE be focusing on?
A: Traditionally, APSE links to the writers groups of the major sports – MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA, major college sports – and this reboot will start with those. From there, as more committee members join up, we can expand our reach.
Q: Your previous experience with the committee was serving as the liaison to the golf writers' group. What came out of that relationship?
A: The president of the Golf Writers Association of America at the time was Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press, and in the year or so we communicated I don’t recall any major problems or issues. Doug was very easy to work with, and our contact was fairly low-impact – a phone call every six months or so. That’s pretty typical because these organizations don’t meet very often. For example, the BBWAA usually meets at the All-Star Game, the World Series and the winter meetings. The other time period of note is when credential applications become available – as we all know that can lead to some interesting conversations.
My biggest takeaway from that experience, and also from talking to other liaison people, was that many of the writers groups welcomed APSE’s interest and were glad to know we had their back if things got hairy. (Some groups have bristled when APSE called them on some questionable ethics.) Also, it allowed me to learn a little more about the machinations of a sport that I’ve covered and enjoy personally, but have minimal experience with on the inside.
Q: There's a proposal to allow writers to join APSE as associate members. What role will your committee play in that and where do you see that proposal going?
A: This committee is an excellent opportunity to reach out directly to writers through their organizations, explain what the APSE proposal is all about, and gauge interest and possibly facilitate associate membership as we move forward.
What’s the next step?
A: So far this is a committee of one (me!), so I’m actively looking for volunteers. It won’t take a lot of time. There will be a form to fill out with basic information – officers, membership, meetings, issues/activities – so the membership can become acquainted with the group. Ideally I’d like to have our initial group in place by the start of football.
