Minutes from the opening meeting at the Associated Press Sports Editors Summer Conference on Thursday, June 26, 2025, at the Courtyard Marriott Downtown in Minneapolis.
President Dan Spears called the meeting to order at 1:04 p.m. and introduced First Vice President (and incoming president) Paul Barrett, Second Vice President Perryn Keys, Third Vice President Tony Maluso, Executive Director Bill Eichenberger and Conference Coordinator Glen Crevier.
Past presidents in attendance
Naila-Jean Meyers, The Minnesota Star Tribune (2023-24)
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)
Mike Sherman, then-The Oklahoman (2014-15)
Phil Kaplan, then-Knoxville News-Sentinel (2010-11)
Glen Crevier, then-Minneapolis Star Tribune (2005-06)
Bill Eichenberger, then-Newsday (2003-04)
Jim Jenks, then-Philadelphia Inquirer (2006-07)
Region representatives
Northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia. – Jane Havsy
Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. – Justin Pelletier
Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. – Aaron Ferguson
West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming – Chris Boan
Representing the Associated Press: Oscar Dixon and Barry Bedlan
Executive Committee Reports
Finances and budget (Bill Eichenberger)
We’re in the best shape we’ve been in in three years thanks to the leadership of past three presidents. We have $78,000 in our checking account. We do not have a reserve fund but want to consider bringing it back.
Income came in $5,000 above projection thanks to increased dues. I don’t think anyone noticed, but it helped with the bottom line. Billie Jean King award numbers came in under projections. We didn’t get the response we anticipated, but we have plans to fix that for next year.
Total our balance was $3,300 over projection. Expenses was $602 under budget.
Membership is up. We had 290 total paid members in 2024; this year we have 334. There are 188 primary members, up 31 from last year. Jason Murray is leading charge on membership.
Paul Anger, former APSE president, called to praise the organization for surviving turbulent times in the industry when others have not.
Bill is stepping out of this role for the next couple months to go on the Appalachian Trail. Glen Grevier will fill in while Bill is gone.
Conference (Glen Crevier)
We have 141 people registered, much more registered than in recent years. The rate has gone up for this conference, too.
The opening reception is about a 10-minute walk from here at Day Block Brewery & Restaurant.
We have three workshops scheduled Friday. Two of them will repeat. The only one that won’t repeat is MaryJo Webster’s on data in sports journalism. That’s in the morning.
Continental breakfast is Friday and Saturday.
Friday night Associated Press reception is in the outdoor courtyard. It will move inside if necessary. Saturday night’s reception, weather permitting, is in the courtyard as well. The closing meeting will be in the Gallery Room
APSE conferences are set for 2026.
Feb. 22-26: Winter Conference and Judging; South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas
July 16-18: Summer Conference; Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va.
Naila-Jean Meyers (Host)
Yay for the light rail! We’re excited to show off our city and news organization. Come ask me or any of the 20 Star Tribune members for any tips on Minneapolis. Seek us out and ask questions.
Apologize for the rain. It is in honor of Paul Barrett’s pending presidency.
2026 Winter Conference (John Bednarowski)
We are booked into the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas Feb. 22-25. The room rates on Sunday are $90, and $135 Monday through Thursday. That includes the resort fee.
I already have the link to the hotel reservations.
The South Point is about a 10-minute drive from the airport. It’s considered an off-strip property, more of a locals-property, but you’re not too far from the Bellagio, etc.
Revenue (Tommy Deas)
We have raised $50,500 in sponsorship for the 2025 Summer Conference, with 12 sponsors on board.
I’d like to thank all our sponsors – platinum sponsor The Associated Press; gold sponsors Perfect Game, ESPN, The Athletic, NASCAR, NHL and The Washington Post; silver sponsors MLS, PBR, MLB and the APSE Foundation; and our host sponsor the Minnesota Star Tribune – for their support.
I’d also like to thank our leadership, along with Glen Crevier and Bill Eichenberger, for their help and support. I look forward to working with John Bednarowski as he steps into his new role as conference coordinator as we look to Washington, D.C., next year and beyond.
Thai Night/Mini golf (Tommy Deas/Justin Pelletier)
Thai Night tradition started about 10 years ago. The restaurant is right down the street, a 1-minute walk — Thai Garden Fusion. We’ll gather in lobby at 7:15 p.m. Friday and walk over. If you did not email Tommy and want to go, raise your hand.
The Mini-Golf outing will be at The Puttery in Minneapolis, a 25-minute walk or a 5-minute Uber trip up Washington Avenue. We will leave after Thai Night. It’s $25, play-all-you-want.
If you are here Sunday and want to attend Pride Parade, see Erik Hall. Parade starts at 11.
APSE 5K (Dan Spears)
Working on a course that likely will go over the river and back through the University of Minnesota. We’ll meet in the lobby at 6:50 am Saturday.
Donn Walden Leadership Grant (Dan Spears)
The third Donn Walden Leadership Grant recipient is Jane Havsy of The Record in Morristown, N.J. Jane’s been a longtime member of APSE and we’re happy to have her here representing our smallest newsrooms. (Jane stand up and wave). If you haven’t met Jane yet, please take the time to introduce yourself this week.
Naila-Jean Meyers Grant (Dan Spears)
Olivia Janik from the Wisconsin State Journal is the winner of the Naila-Jean Meyers Grant this year. Thanks to Chris Carr and the Minnesota Star Tribune for its support of sports journalism. Olivia, you want to stand up so folks can see who you are? Please make sure to introduce yourself throughout the week.
APSE Foundation (Lisa Wilson)
We have five Diversity Fellows who will graduate as part of our 13th class at Saturday’s Awards Banquet. Fellows, please stand when you name is called so we recognize you:
Dan Alegria (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Courtney Jacobs (Cape Cod Times)
Mark Kim (The Athletic)
Ainslie Lee (Gannett Center for Community Journalism)
Kata Stevens (formerly Post and Courier)
When you support the APSE Foundation, you support diversity programming as well as our current and future classes of Fellows. This week we have our second annual silent auction, bidding begins Friday.
We’ll welcome Dan Spears to the board as outgoing APSE president, and we’re seeking a replacement for Erik Hall, who is leaving us as he begins his tenure in APSE leadership. If you or someone you know has any interest in joining the board (fund-raising ideas/grant writing experience would be a huge plus but is not required), please reach out to Lisa at lisabellwilson46@gmail.com
Other summer journalism conferences
NAHJ: July 9-12 in Chicago. https://nahj.org/event/nahj-2025-conference-expo/
AAJA: July 30-August 5 in Seattle. Pre-registration deadline is July 9. https://www.aaja25.org/
NABJ: Aug. 6-10 in Cleveland. https://www.nabjconvention.com/
NLGJA: Sept. 4-7 in Atlanta. https://www.nlgja.org/2025convention/
AWSM: Trying to plan October conference in California, dates TBD.
Committee Reports
Dan: After the winter conference in Orlando, I asked for volunteers for committees and we’ve had a decent showing in that space. “In the old days,” we had boards in the lobby where attendees wrote their names down in order to join a committee. That went away during COVID and didn’t come back. I hope that we can revive that work-together attitude we had in the past. If you already filled out that online form, thank you. I’ve passed those names on to the committee chairs, and they will reach out to you here in Minnesota, or via email if you’re not here this week. If you’ve not completed that Google Form, the link is https://forms.gle/nkyjYKq7fFAtzjKP8.
Diversity (A. Sherrod Blakely)
No major updates on this front other than the following goals (among others) that the soon-to-be-announced Diversity committee will unveil as short and long-term objectives in the near future:
- Develop a clearer vision of what diversity among our membership should look and feel like. (There’s more to diversity than color and gender.)
- Better practices when it comes to the implementation of diversity in our newsrooms. (i.e., community engagement; diverse sourcing)
- Improve how we explain to news orgs the benefits of a more diverse workforce, and if possible, do so with specific examples of this working successfully. (i.e., increased circulation numbers from historically marginalized groups; more thought into innovation; enhanced sourcing; just to name a few)
I am also planning to have quarterly Zoom meetings for a soon-to-be-announced Diversity Committee, on the third Wednesday of the month beginning in July (July 16). After that, we will meet in October (Oct. 15), January (Jan. 21), and April (April 15).
One of my goals for this weekend is to better determine who is interested in serving on the committee, outline specific roles and goals for the group, and determine the best time to meet on the third Wednesday of every three months. I’m flexible pretty much anytime at or after 11 a.m. on Wednesdays between now and the end of April.
Also, I will send those interested in being part of the Diversity Committee a document with some specific roles outlined. If there are other roles you see needing to be added, or those that may be better supported if merged, do not hesitate to let me know.
You can reach me via my cell (248.765.4517) or email at sherrodb111@gmail.com or sherrodb@bu.edu.
Membership (Jason Murray)
No large updates. Myself, Dan and Jake Adams have had discussions about getting the newsletter up and running again. We’re in search of volunteers so if you’re interested in contributing to the newsletter, please let me know.
Also continue to let me know if you have events to add to the APSE calendar and if you don’t have access to the APSE Google calendar let me know and I’ll add your name to the list.
Sherrod says his diversity committee would like to help contribute to a revived newsletter.
Career Advancement (Lisa Wilson)
We had two virtual events for our student chapters and student members: our annual How to Get an Internship panel in the fall as well as a Q&A with The Athletic’s Indianapolis Colts/Pacers/Fever writer James Boyd in the spring. The goal is to offer more programming (ideally monthly) as this committee grows.
We have an application from Hampton to become our second HBCU student chapter, joining North Carolina A&T. If approved, it would mark our 15th student chapter.
The next class is forming for the APSE mentorship program. If you are interested in being a mentor or mentee, please fill out this Google form.
It’s also not too late to get a resume/work sample critique as part of today’s Career Development and Feedback session. Please fill out this Google form.
Regions (Dan Spears)
A reminder that the duties of region chairs and vice chairs now fall into the career advancement committee to further assist with outreach and programming for APSE. This includes annual region meetings that remain their responsibility, and they’ll assist Lisa with other online or in person meetings as needed.
A big thank you to Jason Hoffman in Cincinnati and John Devine in Miami, whose region chair duties come to an end this week. New Midwest Region chair Aaron Ferguson of the IndyStar, new Southeast Region chair Patrick Obley of the Daily Sun in Port Charlotte and I are seeking people interested in being the vice chairs in those regions. Please reach out to me or Paul if you have questions or interest.
The rest of the lineup:
Northeast: Jim Pignatiello of Mass Live and Nate Mink in Syracuse
West: Chris Boan with Gambling.com and Maria McIlwain of the Philly Inquirer (who lives in Texas)
Scholarships (Phil Kaplan)
Committee is in the process of picking the four winners. A story should be available on the website in early July.
Commissioners (Hank Winnicki)
We had another successful meeting in late April, highlighted by NCAA president Charlie Baker’s first appearance. Attendance was strong, so thank you to everyone who was able to attend. We also had some first-time attendees who were very impressed by the experience. If you’ve never been to these meetings, I strongly encourage you to try to attend.
We’ll aim for late April next year, since that seems to be the best time during a busy time of the year. As always, I’m open to suggestions as to how to make the program even better.
Legal affairs and ethics (Gerry Ahern and John Cherwa)
No report.
Olympics (Roxanna Scott/Naila Meyers)
The Olympic summit for Team USA is Oct. 28-29. The credential deadline is July 16. If you’re going to the 2026 Olympics or looking for facetime with figures, send in credentials.
World Cup (Paul Barrett)
The 2026 men’s World Cup committee has met just once since the winter conference, and that was a check-in leading up to the Club World Cup.
I’m planning to schedule a meeting after the Club World Cup so we can discuss what we learned, and flag any potential issues heading into next year’s World Cup. We probably should do another Q&A with the FIFA media-relations staff at some point, like we did in Orlando. Maybe they’d be interested in joining us again at the winter conference in Las Vegas.
If you would like to join this committee, please let me know.
Red Smith Award (Matt Pepin)
Red Smith’s family – specifically his son, Terence (Terry) Smith, and grandson, Chris Smith – reached out to APSE to ask about ways they could be involved in the Red Smith Award. We had an initial meeting with them to discuss ideas, and they have recorded a short video to be shown at the luncheon on Friday as a first step. Additional ideas are being discussed this week as well with APSE leadership, but I think having this connection with Red’s descendants is good for us. I will note both Smiths have strong familiarity with media, and Terry was a journalist himself.
Beyond that, I would like to reiterate my request to the membership to think about nominations with an eye toward all markets so we are considering those sports journalists who may have spent significant time, or even a whole career, in a smaller market and could have had every bit as big on an impact on their audiences. This award should not just be for the big names in the big markets of our industry, and I hope everyone can help me find nominees that reflect the hard work, toil, and creativity of our members across the US.
Website/social (Perryn Keys)
In working with Andy Rhinehart, we decided to remove the Twitter feed from the website altogether. For some users, the feed seemed to be updating just fine. For others, myself included, the top tweets were from 2022 or earlier. Andy did some tinkering and we finally just figured the hell with it. The juice was not worth the squeeze.
Open to any other suggestions on the site. I don’t mean to put Erik Hall on the spot, but we all know Erik is smart and forward-thinking, and it wouldn’t shock me at all to put a fresher and better spin on this in the coming year.
Also, hat tip to Erik, we’re also now on Linked In. If you haven’t made a connection with us.
Old business
Elections (Dan Spears)
Congrats to Erik Hall, our incoming second vice president. He’ll officially move onto the officer team at the closing meeting.
Also, if you have interest in running in next year’s election, feel free to reach out to any current officer or a past president. There are a lot of people in this room who would be great assets to the organization in these roles.
TIDES report (Dan Spears)
The TIDES report is currently awaiting final approval by the dean of the college at UCF. TIDES director Brandon Brown let us know this morning where the report is in the system (it’s the public school system in Florida, so it’s not a straight line).
As soon as the report is approved and sent to us, we will email it to the membership so you can ask questions of Dan or Paul and be prepared for any external feedback. We will then publish it on the website for public consumption.
Contest (Paul Barrett)
Thanks to everyone who helped with this year’s APSE Contest and Billie Jean King Award contest, both in person and remote. A lot of people put significant time and work into both, and it was greatly appreciated.
Many of the award winners will be here Saturday night to receive their plaques. Also, the certificates are finished, and links to those have been sent to the submitting editors.
This year we began giving feedback to some contest entrants who requested it. It was a great idea by Matt Pepin, and he took the lead on it. Matt, what are your thoughts on how it went?
Matt says execution left something to be desired. Feedback has not yet gone out, it will be out last week of July. Still in the process of getting everything organized. Looking for ways to streamline it. Appreciate the judges who helped. It was done in Division C&D high school beating writing and short features.
The second year of the BJK Award contest also went well, and this year’s winner, Lindsay Schnell, will be here Saturday night to receive her award. I was encouraged by the number of people who volunteered to judge the contest, and I’m happy to say that each judging group was led by a woman. I thought the decision to divide the entries into categories this year accomplished its goal and allowed more great work to get recognized.
I’m putting together some notes on both contests that will include suggestions I’ve received on possible changes, and I’ll pass those along to Perryn.
I’d like to take a few minutes now to see if anyone here wants to share their feedback and/or suggestions. Anyone have anything they want to suggest?
From Tommy Deas: The addition of the high-school beat writing category is the single greatest evolution of the contest, so thank you.
Paul: Yes, it was a great idea that was not my idea. I think it was Gary Potosky’s idea, right?. (Gary nods.) Great idea, Gary, thank you.
Thanks, everyone. And if anyone else has suggestions or feedback, you can talk with Perryn and me about it.
Student Contest (Perryn Keys)
We’re hoping to have the results any moment now. We still have some judges’ results still outstanding. We were right at 20 entries — I’d like to ask Iliana if that’s more than usual, fewer than usual or just about right. (Erik: That’s down just a little from when I ran it).
At any rate, hopefully we’ll get this wrapped up soon, ideally by the end of the conference, so as to announce the winners and give them their victory lap at the closing ceremony.
New business
Erik Hall would like to get old contest results on the website. If anyone has results from the 1980s and ’90s, please send them in. Tommy Deas says it may be on the Dallas Morning News version of the website.
Erik would also like to consider a sports editors Hall of Fame and would be interested to hear feedback over the week.
Tommy Deas urges everyone to wear their name tag during the conference, so as everyone gets to know each other.
Naila Meyers notifies everyone that Stribby, the Star Tribune mascot, is available for pictures until 3 p.m.
Bylaws Changes
Changes to 4I
Current
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 selection 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.
In the event of a vacancy in a regional chair, the vice chair will succeed immediately. If less than a year remains in the original term of office, the new chair will serve the balance of the term and all of the following two-year term. If more than a year remains in the term, the new chair will serve only until the end of the original term, and an election for a new vice chair will be held, such vice chair to succeed the new chair at the end of the original two-year term.
Proposed:
I. Regional chairs and vice chairs. Chairs serve two-year terms and are succeeded by vice chairs.
Terms of the Midwest and Southeast regional chairs expire in odd-numbered years. Terms of Northeast and West 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 selection 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.
In the event of a vacancy in a regional chair, the vice chair will succeed immediately. If less than a year remains in the original term of office, the new chair will serve the balance of the term and all of the following two-year term. If more than a year remains in the term, the new chair will serve only until the end of the original term, and a new vice chair will be determined by regional membership with the approval of the APSE president.
Changes to 6
Current
A. Each APSE region will conduct at least one annual meeting, sites and dates to be determined by the regional chair and vice chair with advice from the regional membership. The APSE president must be notified of all such meetings before they are conducted.
B. Financing of regional meetings will be determined by the regional membership, with advice and consent of the president and the Executive Committee.
C. Regional meetings will be devoted to professional development and to regional business. Any other regional business as determined by the regional chair may be conducted at regional meetings. The APSE president may suggest topics for discussion at regional meetings.
D. The regional chair will file a report of each regional meeting to the APSE president. Such reports must be filed within 30 days of the meetings, and excerpts from these reports will appear on the APSE website.
E. The regional chair may make appointments necessary to the conduct of regional meetings.
F. Each region will caucus at the convention. Additional caucuses maybe held as necessary. The purpose of these caucuses is to discuss topics of interest to the region, so that the regional chair or representative will be informed as to the feelings of regional members when such chair votes or participates in discussions at the next Executive Committee meeting.
Proposed
A. Each APSE region will conduct at least one annual meeting, sites and dates to be determined by the regional chair and vice chair with advice from the regional membership. The APSE president must be notified of all such meetings before they are conducted.
B. Financing of regional meetings will be determined by the regional membership, with advice and consent of the president and the Executive Committee.
C. Regional meetings will be devoted to professional development and to regional business. Any other regional business as determined by the regional chair may be conducted at regional meetings. The APSE president may suggest topics for discussion at regional meetings.
D. The regional chair will file a report of each regional meeting to the APSE president. Such reports must be filed within 30 days of the meetings, and excerpts from these reports will appear on the APSE website.
E. The regional chair may make appointments necessary to the conduct of regional meetings.
F. The region chair and vice chair are encouraged to caucus with their membership virtually or through email at least once per year to determine points of interest for region members for future meetings and sessions, including summer conferences.
Closing
Motion to adjourn: John Bednarowski
Second: Chris Boan
Meeting ended at 2:11 p.m.
Attendance
Tommy Deas, USA Today Sports Network
Maria McIlwain, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Nate Mink, The Post-Standard
Jim Pignatiello, Masslive.com
Gary Potosky, Philadelphia Inquirer
Justin Pelletier, McClatchy Southeast
Chris Vinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal
Kirkland Crawford, USA Today Sports
Phil Kaplan, USA Today South
Matt Pepin, Boston Globe
Bill Eichenberger, Executive Director
Jane Allison Havsy, Daily Record (N.J.)
Aaron Ferguson, IndyStar
John Bednarowski, Marietta Daily Journal
Jorge Rojas, The Athletic
Kata Stevens, Freelance/Diversity Fellow
Ainslie Lee, USA Today/Diversity Fellow
Christina Long, Wholehogsports.com
Emily Leiker, Minnesota Star Tribune
Cassidy Hettesheimer, Minnesota Star Tribune
Shelby Swanson, Minnesota Star Tribune
Olivia Janik, Wisconsin State Journal
Amie Just, Lincoln Journal Star
Catherine Galanti, Baseball Propectus
Erik Hall, The Telegraph (Alton, Ill.)
Mike Sherman, USA Today Network
Bill Bradley, Detroit Free Press
Greg Brownell, The Post Star (Retired)
Ralph Walter, The Spokesman-Review
Mitch Freisenborg, Indiana University-Indianapolis
Evan Newbauer, University of St. Thomas
Jason Murray, The Washington Post
Barry Bedlan, AP
Oscar Dixon, AP
Hank Winnicki, Newsday
Lisa Wilson, The Athletic
Naila Meyers, Minnesota Star Tribune
Wes Huett, Peoria Journal Star
Glen Crevier, APSE
David Boyd, Daily Memphian
Sherrod Blakely, Boston University
Oskar Garcia, The Athletic
