Executive Committee and General Membership Meeting
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Radisson WorldGate Hotel, Kissimmee, Fla.
Called to order by President Garry D. Howard at 5:04 p.m. Motion to open meeting by Joe Sullivan, seconded by Josh Barnett.
Executive Committee roll call:
President Garry D. Howard
First Vice President Phil Kaplan
Second Vice President Michael Anastasi
Third Vice President Toby Carrig
Past Presidents John Cherwa, Jerry Micco and Glen Crevier
Executive Director Jack Berninger
Regions:
Todd Adams, Atlantic Coast
Tom Maloney, Canada
Paul Skrbina, Great Lakes
Josh Barnett, Mid-Atlantic
Mike Sherman, Great Plains
Hank Winiki, Northeast
John Bednarowski, Southeast
Michael Peters, Southwest
Dave Ammenheuser, West
Absent: Northwest.
General Membership:
Todd M. Adams, Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
Paul Antonelli, Amsterdam Recorder
Jim Carlson, Harrisburg Patriot-News
Lindsay Applebaum, Washington Post
Mike Bambach, USA Today
Josh Barnett, Philadelphia Daily News
Peter Barzilai, USA Today
John Bednarowski, Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal
Tom Bergeron, Yahoo/Rivals.com
Bob Berhaus, Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times
Bill Bowman, Sunbury (Pa.) Daily Item
David Ching, Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald
Frank Corsoe, Toledo Blade
Glen Crevier, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Chris DeLuca, Chicago Sun-Times
Tommy Deas, Tuscaloosa News
Oscar Dixon, Associated Press
Brad Engel, Naperville (Ill.) Sun
Arnold Feliciano, Gainesville Sun
Jeremy Felix, Williamsport (Pa.) Sun-Gazette
Barry Forbis, Orlando Sentinel
Chet Fussman, Florida Times-Union
Aaron Greenfield, St. Petersburg Times
Steve Hemphill, Roanoke Times
Steve Henson, YahooSports
Roy Hewitt, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Tom Jolly, New York Times
Mike Kates, Chicago Tribune
Jeff Kuehn, Oakland (Mich.) Press
Andy Kuppers, Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger
Reid Laymance, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Jim Luttrell, New York Times
Ruben Luna, Detroit News
Kathy Laughlin, Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
Tom Maloney, The (Toronto) Globe and Mail
Colleen McDaniel, Virginian-Pilot
Shane Mettlen, Culpeper (Va.) Star-Exponent
Jerry Micco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Michael Peters, Houston Chronicle
Mike Sherman, The Oklahoman
Paul Skrbina, Chicago Tribune
Tim Stephens, Orlando Sentinel
Ed Reed, The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press
Alexa Steele, Washington Post
Joe Sullivan, Boston Globe
Nick Talbot, Kileen (Texas) Daily Herald
Doug Tatum, The Times-Picayune (La.)
Scott Thurston, Boston Globe
Teri Thompson, New York Daily News
John Turner, Kerrville (Texas) Daily Times
Drew Van Esselstyn, Newark Star-Ledger
Bill Vilona, Pensacola News Journal
Danyelle White, Salt Lake Tribune
Eric White, Chicago Sun-Times
Hank Winnicki, Newsday
Jason Wolf, Danville (Va.) Register & Bee
Also attending:
Tim Franklin, National Sports Journalism Center
Kurtis Beavers, Indiana University School of Journalism
Committee Reports:
1. Commissioners, Kaplan: Commissioners meetings are scheduled for April 22-23 in New York City. They are open to any member; contact Phil if you would like to attend.
2. Futures, Sullivan: The APSE Contest, like our profession, must change to stay relevant. The contest circulation categories do not reflect where we are as an industry — just 24 papers are now above 250,000 (though a number of papers formerly in that category continue to enter their work in the larger division as allowed by contest rules). Sullivan said committee recommends changing the contest into four categories as follows:
30,000 and under
30,000 to 75,000
75,000 to 175,000
Over 175,000
Although a similar proposal was voted down two years ago, Sullivan said industry changes make this an obvious move now.
The Web section of the contest was deemed successful for its inaugural year. Committee recommends expanding that portion of the contest into three divisions from present two and adding a multimedia category.
Sullivan recommends that the Web division replace Special Section as the third portion of the Triple Crown, joining Daily and Sunday. He recommends eliminating Special Sections from the contest. One suggestion was to allow special sections to be entered with optional daily and Sunday entries. Sullivan also recommends eliminating the Explanatory division from the writing contest. A portion of the present contest should be eliminated to keep contest costs at budget and to not make judging the contest too overwhelming.
Anastasi, incoming First President and next year’s contest chair, invited members to seek him out over the coming days or to email him at manastasi@sltrib.com with thoughts about potential contest changes. Contest changes will be discussed again at Wednesday’s membership meeting, with proposals being prepared for a vote in Salt Lake City. Changes would be enacted for the 2010 contest year.
Convention, Anastasi: Convention committee met Saturday afternoon to plan workshops and general sessions for Salt Lake City. A strong professional development program is in the works and will be finalized by the end of March. Sponsorships are on track. The Salt Lake Tribune is the host news organization and major sponsor. The Deseret News of Salt Lake City and MediaOne of Utah have committed as secondary sponsors. Berninger is working with organizations throughout the country and particularly in the West and Intermountain West to secure additional secondary and other sponsorships. The convention takes place at the Marriott City Center in Salt Lake City with an average room rate of $139 for the four convention nights. Anastasi said attendees will not need rental cars as Salt Lake’s light-rail line provides easy transportation around the city core. The hotel is a quick, $20 cab ride from the airport, and Anastasi said he will arrange transportation for anyone who requires it. There have been some changes to the social schedule since a preview video was prepared last June, but it provides a good overview of the week. The Opening Night reception will take place on the upper floor of EnergySolutions Arena, home of the Utah Jazz. Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan and Team President Randy Rigby of the Jazz will welcome editors, who are invited to sit with Jazz leadership as they make their selections and follow the NBA Draft from the arena the following night.
Other highlights include Major League Soccer’s National Game of the Week on Friday at new Rio Tinto Stadium with a game between Real Salt Lake and San Jose and a welcome from MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Dave Checketts, owner of RSL and the St. Louis Blues; a gaming/entertainment excursion to Wendover, Nev.; and a racing experience at Miller Motorsports Park. The tradition of a 5K APSE run, led by Kaplan, is being brought back, and there will be hiking and mountain bike excursions in the Wasatch Mountains as well. In addition, tickets to local attractions such as Lagoon will be made available.
In a change from past years, a news organization must pay only one $200 registration fee for convention registration. The fee is waived for additional attendees from the same organization.
Diversity, Howard: Jorge Rojas of the Miami Herald could not attend, but Howard reaffirmed APSE’s financial to the Sports Journalism Institute (SJI) program, Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) scholarship and our association with Hampton University.
Olympics, Hewitt: The credentialing process for the 2012 London Games begins this fall. As usual, APSE will play a key role in that process, and Hewitt assured editors of smaller organizations that credentials will be available for them. Interested editors should contact Hewitt at rhewitt@plaind.com to inquire about the process.
Contest, Kaplan: 79 judges are attending these meetings. Next year’s judging will take place at Indiana University in Indianapolis, home of the National Sports Journalism Center. Tim Franklin of the NSJC met with APSE leadership Saturday morning to finalize details. Judging will take place Feb. 12-16, 2011. The room rate at University Place Hotel is $119.
Legal Affairs, Cherwa: Highlight of the year was successful resolution of dispute with the SEC, and the committee also helped resolve issues with the Fiesta Bowl over background checks and the NBA over a potential limit on tweeting from games. Cherwa will be attending Commissioners Meetings.
Newsletter, Anastasi: Overall, the new partnership with Indiana University is working well. There have been a few issues, but we’ve been working through them. The 2nd Vice President is now running most parts of the Web site and is responsible for posting content, in addition to assigning and editing. That change has allowed APSE to save $5,500 in webmaster fees.
New Business:
Financial report, Berninger: APSE is looking at a deficit of $9,680.44 for the fiscal year due to membership losses, particularly from secondary members. Primary membership has fallen 12 percent and total membership by 21 percent (570 to 451). Group D membership (40,000 and under) has fallen 40 percent.
National Sports Journalism Center, Franklin: The APSE Red Smith Hall of Fame, a joint venture between APSE and the Sports Journalism Center, is opening with a banquet on Saturday, April 24. The Hall of Fame features winners of the Red Smith Award and, secondarily, past APSE presidents. Michael Wilbon will be the keynote speaker. Invitations will be sent out this week, but the banquet is open to any APSE member. Contact Franklin at timfrank@indiana.edu for more information. Franklin shared the plan for the design of the Hall of Fame. A slide show of the individual displays will be posted on the site.
An all-day workshop on reporting on college sports is taking place on Wednesday at the National Sports Journalism Center. The workshop, featuring Buzz Bissinger, will be live-streamed over the Web on both the APSE and NSJC sites.
New members, Kaplan: Several general-interest sports Web sites have inquired about APSE membership. Per bylaws, those sites must be voted in by the executive committee. A vote on aolfanhouse.com, msnbc.com, si.com and foxsports.com will take place Wednesday.
Old Business:
Bylaws, Howard: Bylaws guru Greg Brownell is preparing a number of proposed changes for the APSE bylaws. Those proposed changes will be published individually on the Web site in advance of the Salt Lake City convention and voted on by item then.
Before Kaplan handed out judging committee assignments, a moment of silence was held for Tim Wheatley, former APSE 2nd vice president who died in an automobile accident last fall.
Adjournment: 6:20 p.m.
