APSE Opening General Membership Meeting
9 a.m. Wednesday, June 24, 2015
The Westgate Hotel, San Diego, Calif.
Welcome
President Mike Sherman introduces himself and:
First vice president Mary Byrne
Second vice president Tommy Deas
Third vice president John Bednarowski
Executive director Jack Berninger
Welcome to San Diego, home of the 42nd APSE Conference from Sherman and Berninger.
Vendors recognized: CineSport, Reuters, SportsDirect Inc., SportsManias, Sports Xchange, USA TODAY Sports Images, Major League Soccer.
AP recognized.
Past presidents present:
Bill Eichenberger, now Bleacher Report then Newsday (2003)
Jerry Micco, then and now Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2004)
Glen Crevier, The Star Tribune of Minneapolis (2005)
Phil Kaplan, The News Sentinel of Knoxville (2010)
Michael Anastasi, then Salt Lake Tribune/The L.A. News Group (2011)
Gerry Ahern, USA Today Sports Group (2012)
Tim Stephens, then CBS Sports/Sportsmanias (2013)
Region representatives
Atlantic Coast
Andi Petrini, The Daily Press of Newport News, Steve Hemphill, The Roanoke Times
Great Lakes
Loren Nelson, Sport Ngin/Minnesota Hockey Hub,
Great Plains
Michael Peters, Tulsa World; Chris Fickett, Kansas City Star
Mid-Atlantic
Carron Phililps, Wilmington News Journal
Northeast
Jim Luttrell, New York Times
Northwest
Don Shelton, The Seattle Times (proxy)
Southeast
Chris White, The Louisville Courier-Journal
Southwest
Randy Harvey, Houston Chronicle (proxy)
West
Tom Moore, L.A. News Group
Opening Remarks
Special thanks to Jack Berninger, Todd Adams, Larry Graham, Mary Byrne for their work in pulling together a strong and unique lineup of learning opportunities, social engagements, networking and celebration for the 2015 APSE Conference.
Executive Director update
Jack Berninger has informed us of his plans to retire following the 2016 Conference in Charlotte. Jack’s importance to APSE and his contribution could not be overstated.
Former presidents Glen Crevier/Phil Kaplan formed a two-person search committee and interviewed potential replacements and reconsidered the needs of the organization and demands of the executive director position.
Recommendation: Split the job into two positions. Begin discussions with Bill Eichenberger as candidate for secretary treasurer. Other position would handle conference planning.
Diversity Fellows recognized.
Committee updates:
Conference: Winter 2016 set for St. Petersburg, Fla.; Summer 2016 in Charlotte; 2017 Winter in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; working on 2017 Summer Conference locale
Commissioners (Jeff Rosen): Most attendance ever at commissioners meeting; NHL is interested in seeing session becoming more of a give-and-take dialogue than a press conference
Contest (Mary Byrne): Proposed changes include mandatory change for Daily sections (week-long window as opposed to specific mandatory dates); explanatory coming back to Under-30 and game stories to remain; Projects to be judged by link including multimedia rather than just text; off-site judging to be utilized to judge one category from each division for prelims (final judging on site); multimedia participation was down so it will be further defined (general category and a specific video category or categories); Website Contest will now be known as Digital Contest and will include mobile experience as well as web and will move to more of a year-round format.
Diversity (Jorge Rojas): Chairman addresses need for more consistent funding, urges self-imposed “Rooney Rule” on hiring practices for inclusion of minority candidates. Phil Kaplan proposes consideration of moving Diversity Day from Hampton University to Ohio University.
Legal affairs (Gerry Ahern): Update on discussions with Penn State over access policy, Mayweather-Pacquiao credentialing problems and progress with NCAA on media issues.
Olympics (Jerry Micco): Credentialing essentially done; initial housing payment due by July 31 for Rio 2016.
Outreach (Phil Kaplan): Ongoing effort to contact new sports editors; Twitter account traffic and followers up; Facebook is useful communication tool among members
Red Smith Award (Joe Sullivan): Chairman is satisfied with nomination and voting process.
Regions (Andi Petrini): Andi taking over chairmanship from Todd M. Adams.
Scholarship (Joe Sullivan): Applications up from 52 to 78, recipients to be chosen in July.
Student Chapters: Four chapters (Ohio University, Maryland, Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State) already on board, several schools in the process to launch before the end of the year; chairman Tim Stephens suggests consideration of future scholarship for student member and involvement in student sports journalism contest
Website (Tommy Deas): There have been issues with the website, especially in high-traffic time, looking forward to working with new leadership with our partners at IUPUI and Indiana University in solving issues.
Writers liaison (Mark Faller): Vacancies in auto racing and golf writers association, APSE contact person needed to establish and continue contact with these groups.
Writers membership (James Crepea): Goals of writers are to create resume bank on website or through Googledrive/docs; video storage access from conferences and region meetings (with two-year members-only access); formalizing mentorship (writers mentoring writers); Q&A on APSE website on current issues; need for integration of membership with members of writers organizations.
Meeting adjourned.
