The Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Wednesday, July 12, 2023

President Naila-Jean Meyers calls the meeting to order at 2:01 p.m. and introduces First Vice-President Dan Spears, Second Vice-President Paul Barrett, Third Vice-President Ed Reed, Executive Director Bill Eichenberger and Conference Coordinator Glen Crevier. 

Past presidents in attendance

• Jorge Rojas, The Athletic (2022-23)
• Gary Potosky, The Philadelphia Inquirer (2021-22)
• Lisa Wilson, The Athletic (2020-21)
• John Bednarowski, Marietta Daily Journal (2018-19)
• Tommy Deas, then Tuscaloosa News (2016-17)
• Phil Kaplan, Knoxville News-Sentinel (2010-11)
• Glen Crevier, then Star Tribune of Minneapolis (2005-06)
• Bill Eichenberger, Newsday (2003-04)
• John Cherwa, Tribune Co. (2002-03)
• Paul Anger, The Miami Herald (1994-95)

Region representatives

Northeast: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. (Hank Winnicki)

Atlantic Coast: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, West Virginia (Justin Pelletier)

Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virgin Islands (John Devine)

Great Lakes: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin. (Kyle Nabors)

Great Plains: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma. (Erik Hall)

Southwest: New Mexico, Texas. (Damon Sayles)

Northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming. (N/A)

West: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah. (Emily Horos) 

Representing the Associated Press: Barry Bedlan, Jake Seiner

Finances and budget update (Bill Eichenberger)

Host (Bill Eichenberger)

No update on finances. 

Thanks to Jorge for the conference with the format of the panels. I think we’re breaking new ground and moving in a good direction.

Conference update (Glen Crevier)

Attendance of around 140 people this week, includes sponsors and people on panels. Special thanks to Bill Eichenberger and Bill Bradley for all their help this week.

The site for tonight’s Awards Dinner has been changed to the Savoy Ballroom. It’s located just beyond and a right-hand turn from the Mesquite, where we have had our two luncheons. Follow the APSE signs. The pre-dinner reception remains in Carson City I and II and the post-reception will be on the Garden View Terrace.

Dates for the next 2 conventions:

2024 – Winter Feb. 25-29, Doubletree Suites, Lake Buena Vista, FL

2024 – Summer June 20-22, Marriott South Park Hotel, Charlotte, NC 

Did you like this conference? Do you have ideas for sessions or other things for next year? Do you have thoughts for 2025? We are seeking discussion for future locations. Talk to Glen and Naila.

Revenue (Tommy Deas)

Again, I’d like to recognize and thank our many sponsors for this year’s conference by their level of patronage:

Platinum: MLS, Associated Press, Showtime Boxing

Gold: PBR (Professional Bull Riders), ESPN, The Athletic, NHL

Silver: Temple University, the Philadelphia Inquirer, NASCAR, National Football Foundation

Bronze: MLB, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, APSE Foundation

Thai Night (Tommy Deas)

26 people at Thai Night this year, including some people who had Thai for the first time. Another hugely successful night.

Diversity (from A. Sherrod Blakely)

If you have interest in student chapter outreach and growth, or ideas on strengthening the Diversity Pledge, email Sherrod at sherrodb111@gmail.com, or call/text at 248.765.4517

NABJ is Aug. 2-6 in Birmingham with walk-up registration allowed, but hotels are full.

NLGJA Sept. 6-9 in Philadelphia. Had their highest-attended conference ever in 2022.

AAJA is NEXT WEEK in Washington, DC. Naila will be attending Sports Task Force events.

NAHJ is THIS WEEK in Miami.   

TIDES report (Naila)

We ran into a delay, but sports editors will soon be receiving the survey for the APSE Report Card on Racial and Gender Hiring, which is published by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. In 2018, about 75 organizations filled out the survey. In 2021, more than 100 responded. Let’s please keep the momentum going. The results are expected to be released later this year.

Please don’t be discouraged if you are not where you would like to be regarding your diversity numbers. Only positive outcomes will be highlighted in the report and no one will be singled out for negatives. Obviously, it has been a challenging two years since the last report, and it is of great importance that we get a handle on where we stand on our racial and gender hiring practices.

In 2021, APSE received an overall grade of C, a racial hiring grade of B+ and a gender hiring grade of F.

APSE Foundation (Lisa Wilson)

We’ve added a new mentorship pairing:

– Mentor: Gary Potosky (Philadelphia Inquirer), Mentee: Zach Cavanagh (Picket Fence Media)

Fellows from Class XI attended judging and received other assignments (such as newsletter), and are in Las Vegas in July for their crowning moment. The graduating class:

• Patrick Bernadeau, Pensacola News Journal
• Meredith Perri, MassLive / The Republican
• Zach Powell, Lock Haven Express
• Damon Sayles, The Athletic
• Alex Vejar, Salt Lake Tribune
• Kelly Ward, Seattle Times 

Class XII will be chosen in September 2023. Application goes out in August, keep an eye out for it.

Donn Walden Leadership Grant

Lee Horton from the Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal was this year’s grant winner.

Committee Reports 

Membership (Jason Murray)

No updates, but will talk about welcome packets for new members. 

Regions (Michael Kates, Gary Potosky)

No update 

Career Advancement (Lisa Wilson)

No update

Scholarships (Phil Kaplan)

No update

Commissioners (Hank Winnicki)

No update

Legal affairs and ethics (Gerry Ahern and John Cherwa)

No update

Olympics (Roxanna Scott)

No update 

Red Smith (from Rachel Crader)

No update. Nominations will come in February so think of who you would like to nominate.

Website/social (Dan Spears)

Hat tip to Bill Bradley for working with UNLV student media to get two students here on Monday and Tuesday to write stories for the website from sessions. Big thanks to Wyatt Touchet and Ryan Gilder for their time – good kids that I will reach out to after this week to push individual student memberships. We’ll post up those stories, as well as the stories from the Diversity Fellows, hopefully early next week.

I’ll start the handoff to Paul Barrett on the website next week and get him together with Andy Rhinehart.

Contest (Dan Spears)

In the next month, I will be putting together a group of people to discuss the contest from 2022 and any other contest thoughts in your head. If you’re a newer member who has not been on a committee yet and has some thoughts on the contest, this is a great opportunity to get involved for the first time. Email me at starnewsdan@gmail.com or dspears@gannett.com. 

Also, this is my first outreach as contest chair to editors – have you started compiling your best stories, sections, etc. from the first 6 months of 2023? Do you know what’s needed for a good entry in Event Coverage? Make a Word/Google Doc with those links and things now. Get ahead of the game! One idea that’s pretty high in my list is moving the entry deadline up about 10 days, which would be around January 8. We’ve realized that we need more time for remote judging, and this is one of the ways that we can help that part of the process.

Date drawing for portfolio first six months of 2023, using random.org. Ed Reed witnessed: 

The week February 20-26, 2023.  

You can pick either the Sunday or daily from that week. Remember you’ll have to pick the opposite for the week in the second half of the year. 

Date for the final six months of the year will be drawn in December.

Student contest (from Iliana Limon Romero)

This year, we had 31 students enter the contest. The winner – Evan Gerike of Indiana – was published this morning and Iliana will be doing a short story on him for the website today. He’ll also be announced during the awards banquet tonight. We also have several of these people that have graduated and are looking for jobs (hint, hint!)

If anyone wants to volunteer to judge next year’s contest, please email me or find me here at the convention. I am making an early list of volunteers. Contest judging starts in April and should run four to six weeks, giving ample time to review entries while working around your schedule. 

Again, when you see the top 10, please consider reaching out to the students on the list. It would mean the world to them, would show students getting a chance to communicate with sports editors is a benefit of entering this contest and will expose you to some outstanding student journalists.

Old business 

My understanding is we have to vote again on our regions proposal. Have to read this, so bear with me. 

Proposed bylaw changes with regard to APSE Regions  

Under 4. DUTIES (Section I, paragraph 2):

Old

I. Regional chairs and vice chairs. Chairs serve two-year terms and are succeeded by vice chairs.

Terms of the Atlantic Coast, Southeast, Southwest and Western regional chairs expire in odd-numbered years. Terms of other regional chairs expire in even-numbered years. Time of succession coincides with succession of organization officers. Duties of regional officers are described below.

The method of election of vice chairs, which occurs every two years unless it is necessary sooner because of resignation, will be determined by regional membership with the approval of the APSE president.

New

I. Regional chairs and vice chairs. Chairs serve two-year terms and are succeeded by vice chairs.

Terms of the Southeast and West regional chairs expire in odd-numbered years. Terms of Northeast and Midwest chairs expire in even-numbered years. Time of succession coincides with the succession of organization officers. Duties of regional officers are described below.

The method of election of vice chairs, which occurs every two years unless it is necessary sooner because of resignation, will be determined by regional membership with the approval of the APSE president.

Explanation: Changes names and numbers of the regions.

_________

Under 4. DUTIES (Section I, paragraph 5):

Old

A regional chair or vice chair must be a working APSE member from the region. If a regional chair or vice chair transfers to another region or is no longer working for an APSE member organization, such regional chair must resign. The position will be filled as prescribed above.

New 

A regional chair or vice chair should be a working APSE member from the region. If a regional chair or vice chair switches jobs or moves to another region or is no longer working for an APSE member organization, such regional chair must resign. The position will be filled as prescribed above as soon as a seamless transition can be made, as determined by the president, with the advice of the Executive Committee.

Under 7. APSE REGIONS:

Old

Member organizations shall be placed in the following regions. Member organizations outside of North America will be placed in regions by the Executive Committee.

A. Northeast: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.

B. Atlantic Coast: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, West Virginia.

C. Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee

D. Great Lakes: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin.

E. Great Plains: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma.

F. Southwest: New Mexico, Texas.

G. Northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming.

H. West: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah.

J. Canada: All provinces, and any other regions the Executive Committee may choose to include.

New

Member organizations shall be placed in the following regions. Member organizations outside of North America will be placed in regions by the Executive Committee.

A. Northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia.

B. Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia.

C. Midwest: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin.

D. West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.

* It is at the discretion of the executive committee to add members outside the United States as part of a separate (fifth) region, or to include them with one of the four regions. 

Explanation: Changes the number and breakdown of regions.

Executive Committee Vote: 20 for, 0 against.

If you were scheduled to be in region leadership for 2023-24, the executive committee will be reaching out to you in the coming week to discuss future leadership structure.

Proposed bylaw change with regard to eligibility of unemployed region chairs

I’d like to propose changing the “unemployment” bylaw to extend the time that an officer, region chair or committee chair can stay in their roles, pending Executive Committee vote, from six months to eight months. Jobs take time to fill and people are often in an arguably better position to carry out their responsibilities. It would still require an executive committee vote. I have seen good APSE leaders, most recently Steve Hemphill, who ran out of time, and see several solid APSE contributors who are currently free agents. I’d like to ease the pressure a little. 

Under 3. OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, in bylaw G, Paragraphs 1 and 2, it reads:

G. Any officer, region chair or committee chair who involuntarily loses their full-time job may ask the Executive Committee for permission to continue in their role for up to six (6) months. A two-thirds majority of those voting shall decide the issue. The officer, region chair or committee chair in question will be ineligible to vote.

If said officer, region chair or committee chair is allowed to continue in their role by the Executive Committee, he or she may not work for an employer outside the scope of APSE membership under 2 (A) of these bylaws during the six-month period. If said officer, region chair or committee chair is not employed within the scope of APSE membership under 2 (A) of these bylaws by the end of the six-month period (said period to have started on the day the person became unemployed), that person’s position shall be considered vacant.

If the APSE president is the officer in question, the first vice president will assume the powers of the president for the purposes of conducting such a vote.

The new proposal would change paragraphs 1 and 2 to read:

G. Any officer, region chair or committee chair who involuntarily loses their full-time job may ask the Executive Committee for permission to continue in their role for up to eight (8) months. A two-thirds majority of those voting shall decide the issue. The officer, region chair or committee chair in question will be ineligible to vote.

If said officer, region chair or committee chair is allowed to continue in their role by the Executive Committee, he or she may not work for an employer outside the scope of APSE membership under 2 (A) of these bylaws during the eight-month period. If said officer, region chair or committee chair is not employed within the scope of APSE membership under 2 (A) of these bylaws by the end of the eight-month period (said period to have started on the day the person became unemployed), that person’s position shall be considered vacant.

If the APSE president is the officer in question, the first vice president will assume the powers of the president for the purposes of conducting such a vote.

Vote: 16 for, two opposed. That passes. 

New business

Erik Hall proposes that Missouri be moved from the Southeast to Midwest Region. Tommy Deas seconds.

Lisa Wilson wants the executive committee to look into wording in recent bylaw change about committee chairs being stricken from those requirements.

Dues survey (Naila / the officers)

Just a reminder to fill out the membership survey on dues that went out on Sunday. An adjustment in dues is coming either to the amount (small increase) or to the tiers that we’re established by Gary Potosky two years ago. We have about 22 responses so far and we have more than 200 members. 

Naila: I will be proposing soon a change in the bylaws to remove frequency of print publication as a condition of full membership. I just need a little more time to educate myself on the bylaws and to adjust the language. I expect to have the bylaws adjusted before our membership drive in the fall.

Motion to adjourn: John Bednarowski

Second: Justin Pelletier

Meeting ends at 2:48 p.m.

Attendance

Greg Brownell, The Post-Star

Jorge Rojas, The Athletic

John Devine, Miami Herald

Kyle Nabors, Northwest Herald (Ill.)

Damon Sayles, The Athletic

Meredith Perri, MassLive

Christina Kahrl, The San Francisco Chronicle

Jason Murray, The Washington Post

Hank Winnicki, Newsday

Glen Crevier, APSE

Lee Horton, Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal

Jane Allison Havsy, the Daily Record (N.J.)

Gary Potosky, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Maria McIlwain, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Jeff Perkins, San Antonio Express-News

Perryn Keys, The Advocate/Times-Picayune

Lauren Jennings, USA Today

Anthony Maluso, Capital Gazette (Md.)

Jim Pignatiello, MassLive

Phil Kaplan, USA Today South Region

Erik Hall, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lisa Wilson, The Athletic

Bill Bradley, APSE

Jake Seiner, AP

Barry Bedlan, AP

Oskar Garcia, New York Times

David Boyd, Daily Memphian

Tanya Ramirez, The Advocate/Times-Picayune

John Bednarowski, Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal

Tommy Deas, USA Today Network Center for Community Journalism

Emily J. Horos, The Arizona Republic

Patrick Obley, The Daily Sun

Iliana Limón Romero, Los Angeles Times

Christopher Boan, Gambling.com Group

Matt Pepin, Boston Globe

Zach Cavanagh, Picket Fence Media