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Meeting minutes
May 4, 2006
Commonplace Coffeehouse

Convened:

5 p.m.

Present:

Jenni Easton
Elizabeth Gaffron
Bill Harder
Rose Huber
Dave Loomis
Margaret Harper
Kendra Sledzinski
Jared Stout
Melissa Turley

Business

New officers:

President: Bill Harder
Vice-President: Jared Stout
Secretary: Elizabeth Gaffron
Treasurer: Rose Huber

Faculty Adviser: Dr. Loomis

Ideas for the coming year:

• Symposiums - Two topics were suggested for symposiums. They were: 9/11's impact on the media in light of its fifth anniversary and health and science reporting, specifically focusing on the bird flu.
  
• To put together a symposium on 9/11, Bill and Elizabeth are going to look into getting Pentagon people and journalists from Somerset to appear as panelists. In the way of IUP faculty, Krys Kaniasty, professor of disaster sciences in the psychology department, was mentioned as a possible speaker.
  
• The event needs to be somewhat together by mid-June, and a news release needs to be issued by August.
  
• Recruiting - Those present agreed recruitment should be given attention in the fall. Social chair Kendra agreed to make flyers. The SPJ will also have a bulletin board in the fall. Attention will be given to persuading entering freshman and other journalism majors to join.
  
• Field trip – A possible field trip might be planned to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Tribune Review in the fall.
  
• Radio - Bill and Jared are looking for participation in their SPJ show. Radio knowledge is not considered important. They would like to have a new time-slot, referably one with greater amounts of listeners.
  
• The suggestion was made for the SPJ to put pressure on other radio shows to bring back news briefs. Members could record briefs for the DJs to play back, or write for them to read. Bill said he will meet with the station manager.
  
• Recognition as an organization: To be officially recognized as a student group, the SPJ needs to apply for recognition in the fall. Applying means we need a constitution, a list of activities for the coming year, and a budget. The benefits are that the group will get some funds in the fall, be listed on IUP's website, and be able to be present at activities fairs. Dr. Loomis is in charge of looking into how to go about seeking this recognition and funding from the Student Cooperative Association.
  
• Website: Loomis will represent the chapter in asking the Journalism Department's Web designed, Carlo Leo, to create a Web site for SPJ. Members should start thinking about content.
• Movie Nights: Occasional movie nights were thought up as a way to intermingle with the campus.
  
• Constitution: Bill volunteered to get other chapters' constitutions to use as examples for the one we will draw up.
  
• Dr. Loomis agreed to contact SSHE spokesman Tom Gluck about convening a summit of other SSHE campus-newspaper editors to share resources, etc. - unless Melissa Turley wants to do this.

Adjourned

A little before 6 p.m.

Have a good summer, all!