Executive committee and general membership opening meeting minutes
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Sheraton Boston, Boston, Mass.
Called to order by president Phil Kaplan at 9:05 a.m.
Executive Committee roll call:
President: Phil Kaplan
First Vice President: Michael Anastasi
Second Vice President: Gerry Ahern
Third Vice President : Ben Brigandi
Past Presidents: immediate past president Garry D. Howard, Jerry Micco, Glen Crevier, Lynn Hoppes.
Executive Director Jack Berninger
Regions (Chairs, or the Vice Chair or other recognized representative in their absence):
Atlantic Coast: Absent
Canada: Absent
Great Lakes; Jeff Kuehn, Oakland Press
Mid-Atlantic: Josh Barnett, Philadelphia Daily News
Great Plains; Reid Laymance, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Northeast: Matt Pepin, Boston.com
Southeast: John Bednarowski, Marietta Daily Journal
Southwest: Brad Lehman, Houston Chronicle
West: Lauren Gustus, Reno Gazette-Journal
Northwest: Don Shelton, Seattle Times
General Membership:
Scott Monserud, Denver Post
Mike Sherman, The Oklahoman
Toby Carrig, St. Genevieve Herald
Burt Henry, San Antonio Express-News
Jim Reindl, AP Chicago
Lou Ferrara, AP New York
Hank Domin, Albany Times-Union
Sean Barker, New Haven Register
Paul Vigna, Harrisburg Patriot-News
Mike James, Los Angeles Times
Mary Byrne, AP New York
Mike Harris, Washington Times
Chet Fussman, Florida Times-Union
Matt Vita, Washington Post
Roy Hewitt, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Jorge Rojas, Miami Herald
Robert Gagliardi, Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Mike Davis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
John Silver, Chicago Sun-Times
Gene Warnick, Los Angeles Daily News
Butch Muir, Baton Rouge Advocate
Jeff Krupsaw, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
John Quinn, Philadelphia Inquirer
Gene Myers, Detroit Free Press
Lenny Neslin, Quinnipiac Chronicle
Bill Speros, Bill Speros and Associates
Opening remarks (Phil Kaplan)
Kaplan thanks the group for making this convention a success. Great turnout in Boston and vibe, noise at opening reception Wednesday. Asks membership to use #APSE if sending out tweets. Recognizes Tim Stephens of Orlando/Fort Lauderdale as incoming second vice president.
Executive director’s report (Jack Berninger)
Increased dues, job postings and increased dividends from fund led to almost $87,000 of income. Budget was $79,900, expenses of $84,493. Had about $400 we didn’t use from rainy day fund. We lost about $15,000 overall for year. Could be attributed to losses from last year’s convention, which led us to start with about a $15,000 deficit. This year looks like we could finish in black for the convention. Eighty-one paid members for the convention and about 105 total. Signed a contract for next year’s conference with the Chicago Marriott, June 20-33. Rate $199 a night. Will be a co-conference with AWSM. Yahoo! Sports will be main sponsor. Following year we have a contract with the Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroit. Rate will be $139. Dates will be June 26-29. Detroit Free Press and Detroit News will be main sponsors. Winter judging this coming February back in Kissimmee, Fla.. World Gate Hotel. Dates Feb. 18-22. Rate is $99 a night. 2013 back to Indianapolis, Feb. 16-20. University Place Hotel, $125 rate. Membership up 15 primary members thanks to Phil Kaplan’s leadership. Up 65 individual members. Now have 517 individual members and 319 primary. Four vendors this year (each gives brief explainer of what they do). CineSport, Soho Sports, StatSheet and Major League Soccer. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports had to withdraw from craft of writing seminar due to an assignment. He’s replaced by Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe. Jeff Otterbein of Hartford Courant had to withdraw due to death in the family. Red Smith lunch now in main meeting room.
Committee reports
Convention (Joe Sullivan)
There are many dining options at Prudential Center mall. Traveling on the “T”subway/trolley is the way to go to explore the city. Charlie cards available from Sullivan. Blue Man Group tickets available to those who reserved and Gardner museum passes also available. Internet access not free in room, but free in the lobby. Sullivan asks people to turn off cell phones during sessions in respect to panelists. Any questions reach out to Sullivan.
Commissioners (Jeff Rosen/Kaplan)
Met in late April in New York City. Coincided with NFL draft. Plan to keep same timetable. Second year in row NFLPA, DeMaurice Smith backed out. Pretty sure they won’t be included in agenda next year. MLBPA interested in meeting with us. Got stories up on AP quickly. Thanks to Mary Byrne.
Contest, (Michael Anastasi/Gerry Ahern)
Fine 2010 contest and good feedback, Anastasi said. Passing baton to Ahern. Back in Kissimmee this year. Good show of hands for contest participation this year. Continue web judging offsite. Two dates selected randomly, same as last year. Three categories under 500,000 average monthly uniques, 500,001 to 2 million and over 2 million. Good commitment to web judging already. Still seeking more judges. Two eight-hour days to judge with possible followup deliberations. Goes over list of committed judges. Micco asks about procedure. Ahern explains conference call setup/rotation. It’s a work-from-home type situation. Multimedia will continue this year as well. Will be judged in Kissimmee. Two groups under 2 million uniques and over 2 million. Any suggestions for any contest changes are welcome. Mike James mentions considering another category for beat writing. Will take under advisement. Kaplan mentions discussion of what constitutes Triple Crown and Grand Slam (special section vs. web contest).
Special point of interest (Sullivan)
Adds that individual sessions with management folks from Poynter, Jill Geisler and Butch Ward, are well worth it and to take advantage.
Diversity (Jorge Rojas/Kaplan)
AWSM: APSE and the Association for Women in Sports Media will unite for a joint summer conference next June in Chicago. Three years in the making. Thanks to Anastasi/Kaplan for arranging. Anastasi notes it will be beneficial to numbers and energy in Chicago. Lynn Hoppes asks about sponsorships. Anastasi notes we will abide by APSE rules. AWSM will have a separate Pioneer Award luncheon, which AWSM will host. Some AWSM members will join conference committee. Hampton: Fourth annual Diversity Day planned in November. Two students will get $3,000 stipends from Scripps Foundation and will intern at APSE papers. If your paper would like a “free” intern for 2012 (funds have been approved), just contact Kaplan. Missouri/SJI: The Sports Journalism Institute will bring its 10-day crash course in sports journalism to the Missouri School of Journalism beginning in June 2012. SJI is a program that has helped diversify sports departments across the country since 1993. Each year, the Institute selects a class of 10-12 minority and female journalists based on academic achievement, demonstrated interest in sports journalism as a career and excellence on a required essay. APSE in turn will hold an annual event in the fall at Missouri. Colleges: Dave Schwartz, former SE Northwest Herald and Triple Crown winner in 2007, has been director of outreach and an adjunct instructor for the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication since August 2007. He has agreed to help me with an initiative to increase college student/advisor membership.
Futures (Sullivan)
Asked to consider membership for six websites last February in Indianapolis: SB Nation, Minnesota Hockey Hub, Real Clear Sports.com, Patch.com, the Bleacher Report and Examiner.com. After discussion, membership recommended approval for two: Minnesota Hockey Hub and Examiner.com. For Patch.com, recommended membership be applied for on a local site basis. Voted no on SB Nation, Real Clear Sports and Bleacher Report. Executive committee accepted those recommendations on Wednesday. Bylaws: Greg Brownell, who was absent due to other obligations, did a great job modernizing language and fixing other issues as necessary. There were two sections which raised debate/discussion. Defining what criteria news organizations need to meet to be considered part of APSE. Voting power for past presidents on executive committee. Didn’t find support to change stance on past presidents vote, so current procedure will stand. Approved by executive committee. Final approval will be voted on by full membership Saturday.
Legal affairs/ethics (John Cherwa/Kaplan)
This past year the legal affairs group continued to fight the same issues although enforcement of internet issues seems to be less. Currently on our docket is the treatment of women reporters by MMA and also the proven evidence that MMA discriminates against reporters it doesn't like. Both those issues are on-going. Also on-going is an issue with the Cincinnati Reds, who refuse to credential US Presswire for photos. While USP is not an APSE member, it serves many of our papers as a provider. We are working with MLB to get a satisfactory conclusion to that issue. We also quietly resolved an issue with restrictions against blogging in the NCAA baseball regionals. The NCAA tried to restrict content against pay sites. It was taken care of with little national fanfare. Special thanks to the lawyers from Time/SI for taking the lead on this. The NBA tried to institute background checks on some domestic reporters. Being this was an LA issue, it was pretty easy to get that solved with just a strongly worded response. The NBA, as it has in the past, was receptive to our concerns. There were also a few other very local issues that seemed to work themselves out. On a national level, none of the pro leagues increased their restrictions.
Mentorship/outreach (Toby Carrig/Ben Brigandi)
Carrig discusses reinstatement of sports management program with small paper editors being paired with those from larger papers to mentor/coach. Six regions represented. Small paper editors got critique and feedback on their sections. Summer sports coverage. Big-event coverage stressed. Success rate about 50 percent due to time constraints of various editors. Looking to do it again. Try to resume later this year. Perhaps recently retired sports editors could help. Possible travel reimbursement for small papers to travel to larger papers could be considered. Kaplan lauds Carrig’s work throughout on this program and other APSE duties. Brigandi mentions survey sent out to small paper editors for feedback on summer conference program. Convention planning in synch with what small papers wanted … high schools, social media, webs, blogging, investigations, future technology. Cost only reason there wasn’t greater turnout from small papers.
Regions (Carrig/Kaplan)
Every region will meet this year, Western met in November and Northeast met in December. Great Lakes Region meeting at Tribune Tower in Chicago on April 18. Mid-Atlantic Region meeting at Penn State in State College, Pa., on April 18. Southeast Region meeting at Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in Birmingham, Ala., on April 18. Northwest met in May in Seattle. Atlantic Coast in June in Richmond. Great Plains and Southwest upcoming. Regions to caucus on Saturday and fill vacant vice chairs. Regions can put out email vote. Consideration of redistributing members from outside of United States to a more active region.
Olympics (Roy Hewitt)
Key dates for London Games: Oct. 27 will ask for names of individuals for credentials. Ordering anything from the press card, Dec. 31 is the deadline without penalty. Fifty percent of your housing payment is due Jan.5, rest on March 27. Contact press operations with questions. Media summit in Dallas May 12-15. Very worthwhile whether going to London or not.
Special recognition (Kaplan)
To Joe Sullivan and the Boston Globe for all the work they did to make Boston conference so special. Also thanks to sponsors ESPN.com., Indiana University, Associated Press, New York Times, USA Today.
Red Smith voting changes (Anastasi)
Red Smith voting process and transparency discussed in February. Anastasi communicated with Bob Yates, who has run process for many years. Yates was open to any and all suggestions. We will begin in December better explaining the process to the membership. Yates will write a story for the website that nominations are now open. Past presidents and Red Smith winners are eligible to nominate and vote for the winner. The entire membership can suggest a nominee to eligible nominators. We will explain results online with winner and top five vote recipients. The top vote getters who don’t win will be eligible the following year. Executive committee had additional suggestions: Allow executive committee to vote on Red Smith, voting privileges extended to APSE members with 10 years in organization. Not resolved. Garry Howard mentioned we must be cognizant of diversity of nominees. Will discuss further on Saturday.
Diversity fellowship program (Anastasi)
Wants to launch. Historically have focused on college students. Expand to mid-career professional to develop a program that creates more and better qualified candidates for management openings. Can help increase pool of candidates. Can leverage things APSE already does. Two students selected in the first year will participate in all APSE activities. Website and other contest judging, sports management program, academic experience at Indiana, come to summer conference and receive certificates then. Rigorous, nine-month program. Women and people of color eligible. Will work with SJI as assignment editors.
Special recognition for Roy Hewitt and Butch Muir (Kaplan)
For Roy’s years of service to the organization, Olympic Committee and time and effort across the board. Butch has been attending conventions and been active in the organization for some 30 years.
Associated Press (Lou Ferrara)
Launched the hometown leads initiative to give two versions of game stories from MLB and it got great response. AP is going to expand for the NFL and for colleges, specifically top 25 and the six major BCS leagues. AP takes feedback seriously and hopes to respond accordingly. AP working with Roy Hewitt on sports content sharing network. More than 800 papers are using currently.
Meeting adjourned at 10:16 a.m.
