Hello, APSE members and would-be members,
Time is officially running out to become an APSE member for 2024 in order to enter our annual contest. The deadline for entering the contest is a month away: Jan. 15.
First vice president Dan Spears is hard at work getting your entry folders ready, so I hope you are hard at work compiling what to put in them. First rule of the APSE contest: Your organization must be a member to enter. To renew your membership — or start the new member process — click here.
Contest entry is not the only perk that comes with being an APSE member. For many members, their favorite benefit is judging the contest. You get to read the best pieces of sports journalism produced over the past year, come away with fresh ideas to bring home and talk shop with editors from around the country. For more information on contest judging and to sign up for either in-person or remote roles, click here.
After you’ve entered the contest, there are many other benefits to being part of the APSE family. I want to highlight one of them here: The Diversity Pledge. APSE can help you network, recruit and fill positions, and you can help APSE in our mission to recruit and retain more women, journalists of color and LGBTQ journalists into sports departments. If you want to have your job opening posted on the APSE website and promoted on APSE social channels for free, you can do so via the Diversity Pledge.
It’s a simple process. The sports editor will have a short phone conversation with APSE Diversity Committee Chair A. Sherrod Blakely about equitable hiring processes, the importance of diversity among the candidates under consideration and any journalists already in our database that may be good prospects. After the hire is made, the sports editor and Sherrod will have a follow-up conversation about what stood out about the candidate chosen and about any diverse candidates who were not hired so we can add or update our recruiting database and be on the the look out for positions they may be more suited for. We can then assist the next news organization with an opening by providing names of candidates to consider. If you have any additional questions about the Diversity Pledge, A. Sherrod Blakely can be reached at sherrodb111@gmail.com.
Quick hits:
- Thanks to Rachel Axon on Sports Business Journal for sharing her expertise on NCAA athletics databases and to those who attended her webinar. Watch it on our YouTube channel.
- As you ponder year-end giving, consider a donation to the APSE Foundation to support the Diversity in Leadership Fellowship. Donations to the APSE Foundation are tax deductible. You can set up one-time-monthly or annual contributions on the foundation’s website or by clicking the red “Donate” button at the top of this page.
