Editor’s note: This is the text of APSE President Phil Kaplan’s speech on Saturday night at the awards banquet in Salt Lake City.
A few people to thank.
Toby Carrig: The champion of the small newspaper sports editor. Always looking out to make sure fairness and opportunities exist on all levels.
Jerry Micco and Glen Crevier: Past APSE presidents and convention hosts. Still involved with APSE and two people I can always count on for great advice.
Lynn Hoppes: So glad Lynn could be here tonight. Lynn started the revolution for me. I credit him for giving me the springboard for APSE.
Jack Berninger: I think I wore out Jack with phone calls. Jack has a true love for this organization and I thank him for that.
Michael Anastasi: More phone calls placed to Michael than my wife. We talked, planned and strategized. I don’t know how he does it. Family, job, and that wonderful website that was launched this year with the great help from Indiana U: apsportseditors.org. Timely stories, news, now a membership directory, but always content. Welcome to the 21st century.
And finally.
Garry D. Howard: What a year for Garry. First African-American to hold the office of APSE president. Honored by NABJ with the 2009 Pioneer Award.
And the tough times: dealing with exodus of 19 members of his sports department in August.
And the tragic loss of his brother, Bruce.
APSE has much to thank for Garry.
I was there when Garry walked into the completed Red Smith Hall of Fame on the IU campus for the first time. He stopped and looked at the wall where all the past Red Smith winners along with the APSE past presidents were displayed.
What was initially just a vision in his head and had become reality.
And then there was a tear. And another.
It was truly an emotional moment for Garry.
And a great moment for APSE.
A great legacy for Red Smith and now thanks to Garry, it’s now our legacy. And I thank him for that.
I remember leaving the convention in Pittsburgh a year ago. I was waiting in the lobby of the hotel that morning for my cab to take me to the airport.
What caught my attention was the hotel attendant at his desk, reading the morning newspaper. He quickly turned to another employee and a discussion started on the previous night’s baseball game.
It was followed by a middle-aged man with a pot belly, wearing just his boxer shorts, walking onto the terrace in the rooms that faced the lobby.
OK, so it wasn’t a perfect image.
Still, it was a sign that all is well in the world we work in. At least it was at that moment.
Nothing is easy anymore in the business we work in. Smaller staffs, smaller newshole, smaller budgets to cover events and more responsibilities. Nobody is immune to these issues.
And APSE has its issues.
Declining membership, low turnout at the convention, sponsorship money and the brain drain from former members have been haunting us for the last few years.
APSE can no longer be an exclusive club if we want to grow and reverse the trend.
APSE needs to be inclusive.
We have made some progress in the last couple of years adding sports-only Web sites, but except for the well-known ones like ESPN and Yahoo, we really have not reached out. AOL Fanhouse and MSNBCsports recently joined and we’ve reached out to foxsports.com and will do likewise to SI.com.
Where exactly that takes us I don’t know. But we need to explore the options.
We have an untapped source of membership from colleges.
And we have to sustain membership. There’s been a huge amount of turnover at big and small newspapers. Some sports editors know very little about APSE and some don’t even know we exist. And why?
In some cases we have failed on a region level even though we had tremendous success holding region meetings and great attendance by members.
We simply have to do a better job.
And that’s my charge.
That revolution that Lynn talked about is alive. I promise you that. The reports of APSE’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Garry has created a legacy for APSE to live on. And I’m confident with help from Michael, Gerry and Ben that APSE won’t let the work done by this great organization for 37 years to be in vain.
As Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times so eloquently said to close his speech at the Red Smith Hall of Fame, it is our turn. Believe it. Hack it. Weave the miracle.
