June 7, 1999 Meeting Minutes

Society of Professional Journalists – Minnesota Professional Chapter
Board of Directors Meeting – Monday, June 7, 1999

Members Present
Dave Aeikens, president; Mike Knaak, treasurer; Kathleen Hansen, secretary; Gary Hill, president-elect; Lucy Dalglish, Jim Durkin, Juliana Thill, board members

Thanks to Jim Durkin for hosting the meeting.

Presidency and Elections
The main order of business was to count the ballots. Members counted and recounted ballots and checked totals.

The results were:
Hill — President, 57
Borger — President-elect, 55
Hansen — Secretary, 54
Knaak — Treasurer — 53
Board seats (top five vote-getters)
Glass — 39
Kupchella — 37
Lowe — 36
McMenamin — 35
Walsh — 35
Fedor — 34
Pumarlo — 33
Peterson — 16

Borger’s one-year seat on the board was supposed to go to the person in 5th place. Because of the tie between McMenamin and Walsh, a coin toss determined that the one-year seat would go to Walsh.

Aeikens said he would post the results on the SPJ web site and notify the candidates.

Page One Banquet
Knaak reported that the chapter made $4648.65 on the banquet. While board members thought the food and service at the Hilton were very nice, they also thought the venue was expensive.

Finance Report
Knaak handed out a sheet detailing the whole year of check book expenditures. The chapter finishes the year with a balance of $23,917.16.

The chapter sold 8 Media Guides to American Express through the SPJ phone-bank number.

FoI Report
Dalglish reported on the NFOIC meeting, where the hot topic was the fact that the national SPJ Board had held secret, closed meetings this spring. The SPJ Board was discussing where to move the headquarters, and many people at the SPJ meeting complained that there was no reason to close the board discussions. The SPJ Board closed their deliberations anyway.

Bruce Sanford has offered to do an SPJ event in connection with his book tour to the Twin Cities in September. Simon & Schuster, the publisher of his book titled Don’t Shoot the Messenger, will pay for his visit. Board members asked Dalglish to extend an invitation and get more details about dates and the type of event he would like to do.

New Business
Hill and spouse will throw their annual solstice party on June 27 from 4:00 on. People are invited to bring something to grill.

Hill’s initiatives for the coming year include enacting the changes in SPJ programming that were discussed throughout the past year; effecting changes in the Data Practices Act, with two or three targeted reforms; conducting a statewide audit of compliance with data requests by each county.

Hill can host meetings for the coming year at KSTP.

Dalglish offered a motion commending Aeikens for all of his hard work and for leading the chapter in an outstanding year. The motion passed by acclamation.

Next Meeting
The next meeting will be called by Hill.