Approved as corrected in San Francisco, April 12, 2018.

CALL TO ORDER

A meeting of the Journalism Education Association board of directors was held Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017, in the Windsor room at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. It began at 8:30 a.m. and was presided over by Sarah Nichols with Connie Fulkerson as secretary.

ATTENDEES

Voting members: Sarah Nichols, president; Val Kibler, vice president; Megan Fromm, Educational Initiatives director; Lori Keekley, Scholastic Press Rights director; Tom Gayda, director at large; Mike Malcom-Bjorklund, director at large; Julia Satterthwaite, director at large.

Nonvoting members (committee chairs, liaisons, editors, staff): Nancy Y. Smith, contest chair; Kim Green, certification chair; Bill Flechtner, mentoring program chair; Karen Slusher, awards chair; Erin Coggins, social media editor; Kelly Glasscock, executive director; Connie Fulkerson, administrative assistant; Laura Widmer, NSPA executive director/liaison.

Guests in attendance: Priscilla Frost and Erika Quick, Contest Committee members; Jean Folkerts, interim director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University; Dustin Devers, director of education for Business Professionals of America.

READING OF NOTICE OF MEETING

The following was posted on JEA.org on Oct. 13: The Journalism Education Association board of directors will meet at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017, in the Windsor room, Atrium Level, of the Hyatt Regency in Dallas.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

A motion to accept the minutes, with corrections, of the spring 2017 board meeting in Seattle was made by Megan Fromm and seconded by Lori Keekley. (passed 7-0)

AFFIRMATION OF ELECTRONIC VOTES

Sarah Nichols affirmed these electronic votes:

Motion: To endorse Nevada SB 420, increasing protection for student publications
(passed 7-0, May 19, 2017)

Motion: To approve minor budget adjustments for FY 17-18, including funds for new social media, CTE, higher ed positions (passed 7-0, June 8, 2017)

Motion: To approve Marriott Orlando World Resort contract for fall 2020, 2026 National High School Journalism Convention (passed 6-0, June 27, 2017)

Motion: To endorse Rhode Island HB 5550: Student Journalists’ Freedom of
Expression Act (passed 6-0, July 16, 2017)

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

A motion to approve the agenda was made by Julia Satterthwaite and seconded by Val Kibler. (passed 7-0)

COMMENDATIONS

The following individuals or groups were commended by board members or committee chairs:

Kate Klonowski by Megan Fromm; Mike Malcom-Bjorklund by Megan Fromm and Tom Gayda; Linda Barrington by Bill Flechtner; Linda Puntney by Tom Gayda; and Howard Spanogle, Susan Tantillo, John Wheeler and Connie Fulkerson by Bradley Wilson.

Sarah Nichols also recognized Bradley Wilson for his 20 years as editor of Communication: Journalism Education Today.

REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST

Write-off Contest and Quiz Bowl — Nancy Smith

The pre-qualifying test for the Quiz Bowl will be discontinued after the Dallas convention. Thirty teams took the test this time but none had to qualify to attend the convention. It was time consuming to come up with all the questions for a prequalifying exam, and the process reduced the number of teams participating.

Junior High/Middle School Media Contest is doing well. There were 330 entries in the spring. The committee is working to promote the contest to middle school advisers. This may also encourage membership.

Because Write-off registration opens soon after Labor Day for the Chicago convention (fall 2018) JEA will need to make sure people are aware of deadlines.

Broadcast contests had a major revision for Dallas. The team will troubleshoot this time to see if changes will need to be made. Numbers were low in broadcast.

There are 1,581 students registered in 48 categories for Dallas. Write-off registration, in general, is about 30-32 percent of total registration.

The Contest committee will collaborate in the fall with the Scholastic Journalism Week Committee to help boost numbers in the SJW logo contest. The graphic design logo and advertising contests will include the 2019 SJW theme as part of the prompts. Any JEA member’s student would be eligible to enter even if they would not be attending the convention in Chicago.

The new spring convention format will affect the schedule for the Write-off committee, especially for getting the awards ceremony presentation ready by Saturday afternoon. Nancy Smith was concerned that no Sunday awards might affect Saturday vendor/adviser dinners, and she wanted to make sure they didn’t get scheduled for Friday night. That would affect Write-off judging.

There were a lot of last-minute online entries and issues with people getting their entries uploaded. Most waited until the last two days to upload their entries.

Conventions — Kelly Glasscock

There were 4,829 people registered as of close of online registration Friday. There should be a couple hundred walk-ins.

There was a concern that the hotel allowed advisers to call in. Registrants were supposed to use the hotel link on the convention website after registering for the convention. The hotel registrations went over our contracted room block but the hotel allowed JEA/NSPA to do that at our contracted rate. This created a lot of early registrations but it worked to our advantage. We met 100 percent of our room block, which could help future contracts.

Headquarters — Kelly Glasscock

1. Website. JEA has a short-term contract with Collegian Media Group to start revamping the JEA website. College students will start the process and Kate Dubiel, JEA’s programmer, will continue once she is done with the revised Write-off system.

In December, a new site theme will be researched and chosen, and navigation ideas will be developed. This plan will be distributed to the board in January. In February or March the current site will be shut down for two days to transfer files. After the new site is up and running, the team will look at the Scholastic Press Rights, Digital Media and Mentoring sites to see if the new theme will work for these. Sarah Nichols asked for a tentative timeline or order for migrating the other JEA sites so committee chairs would have an idea of what to expect.

2. Documentation of subsequent events. There was none for this meeting.

3. Advisers Institute. This is the last year the Advisers Institute will be held in Las Vegas. A flier will be distributed in the Dallas hospitality area. Kelly Glasscock will review procedures on how to get instructors, stipends for speakers, and evaluate top speakers from conventions. He will get invitations out to speakers soon. He is looking at offering a variety of experiences to advisers. Tom Gayda suggested having a theme for the institute.

RFPs have been sent out to Myrtle Beach, Charlotte, Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans as potential sites for the Advisers Institute.

4. Membership. The annual chart for membership was processed Oct. 2. Kelly Glasscock wondered if we should have a set date when this is pulled from the membership database. He reported that Texas is the first state to surpass 300 members. He challenged California to be the next state to do so. Sarah Nichols accepted that challenge for her home state.

5. Write-offs. Kelly Glasscock said that Write-off registration numbers are usually 33-34 percent of overall convention registration. The new Write-off registration process should make it easier for people to register.

He showed screen captures of the progress Kate Dubiel is making on the revised Write-off system. Nancy Smith said she appreciates Kate asking for feedback as the system development progresses.

Committee and editor reports

Awards – Karen Slusher explained the Broadcast Adviser of the Year and the Rising Star nominations were lower because people may not have been aware they switched to a fall presentation. The Lifetime Achievement Award presentation was moved to the spring. The committee will discuss ways to get more people to apply. Some people are uncomfortable with nominating themselves but much of the information requested on the form needs to be completed by the person getting nominated.

Mentor Program – Bill Flechtner distributed the Mentoring Matters newsletter and a new brochure about the Mentoring Program. Mentor forums at conventions expand the education of the mentors so they can learn how to deal with common problems their mentees are experiencing. Mentors must have at least two mentees a year. Sarah Nichols gave kudos to the mentoring program leadership for good record keeping and budgeting through the years.

Certification – This is year two of online testing. The committee tested 65 CJEs and 13 MJEs in the fall, winter, spring and summer. Among CJEs, there was an 80 percent average score. Eight CJEs failed; one retested on entire test and passed. Of the 13 MJEs tested, two failed the law/ethics section only. Both retested and passed. Advisers have been testing at the yearbook company sites. The committee is working to get an archive of the MJE projects on the JEA website. Green said the Certification Committee may decide to have their retreat at the Advisers Institute in 2018.

JEA/NSPA Partner Project

Val Kibler reported that the Partner Project leaders met with Willamina High School in Oregon. It is a school where 100 percent of the students are on free/reduced lunch but close to 25 percent of the students are enrolled in journalism. Michelle Balmeo and Anthony Whitten were Partner Project instructors along with Val Kibler. Amy Korst, a former professional journalist, is the adviser for yearbook, newspaper and website.

Kibler noticed the student enthusiasm for journalism was high. The instructors worked on team building and basics (interviews, etc.). They had multiple storytelling opportunities and set goals on site. They will be involved with video conferencing to see how they progress. Administrators are involved, and the superintendent and principal signed two-year agreement for the Partner Project.

Saturday workshop involved six school and eight advisers. The best received activity was virtual conferencing about the First Amendment with Lori Keekley. The Q-and-A could have gone on much longer. A facilitator is needed for this to stay on track, but the students found this to be the most valuable part of the experience. The students’ knowledge in this area was the most improved from when they started the project based on post-visit survey results.

Expenses for the project was $917.47 per organization. The project came in below budget because the University of Oregon donated about $300.

The student evaluations showed the before-and-after learning was good on First Amendment and WordPress. Principal gave good testimonial on the project.

Other positives: The Willamina adviser will be testing for CJE certification and has plans to take students to the San Francisco convention.

Looking at a virtual teaching model will allow JEA/NSPA to do more with underserved schools that need instructional assistance to build their journalism programs. Local support and connection will continue.

National Critique Summit — Sarah Nichols

Sarah Nichols reported that the National Critique Summit first met June 2017 in Denver with Laura Widmer and Gary Lundgren from National Scholastic Press Association; Jack Kennedy from Colorado High School Press Association; two representatives from STN; Jeremy Steele from Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, and Jeff Browne from Quill and Scroll International Honor Society participating.

Outcomes: Several summit attendees will present a session at Dallas titled “You be the judge: A look at student media evaluations,” which will discuss what it’s like to be a judge. Summer endorsement includes what good critiques are and why we stand behind them. Repository of types of critiques 11 organizations offer will be established.

Training: For anyone interested in being certified as a judge there would be an online test. They still are deciding what platform to use for the test. Potential judges will need to complete three modules that will incorporate reading, videos and quizzes.

Several video clips featuring Sarah Nichols, Val Kibler, Gary Lundgren and Lori Keekley were created but the files are too large so it has been difficult to send these for editing.

The team will continue recording video clips, and the plan is to list judges on the website. The board will need to look at project and decide if we will continue to fund it. May be deciding what platform to use in early December. It would not cost individuals to get the training.

It was suggested the committee use another word than “certified judge” so there is no confusion with the JEA certification program.

Curriculum

Megan Fromm reported that more than 66 lessons were added across all curriculum modules in August and September.

There has been a focus on variety among lessons (bell-ringers, multi-day units, etc.) and a mix of conceptual and technical lessons.

All deadlines were met.

The JEA website now has a curriculum preview of four lessons outside the paywall to entice potential members. Each lesson shows a different style. These lessons will rotate every six months or so.

Fromm showed data showing top downloads, top views and how long people spent at the site.

Next up for the initiative: More lessons and curriculum maps. Applications for a new round of curriculum leaders will be requested soon.

Big picture plans:

1. The curriculum leaders hope to move all curriculum training to digital/virtual spaces to free up the budget for other needs.

2. Rename entrepreneurship module. Perhaps put it in our magazine to educate people about this.

3. Brainstorm what’s next for news literacy content.

4. Rethink curriculum white paper so it’s in another form (video? infographic?).

5. Update, condense and refine what’s already there. That could be the next round of curriculum leaders.

NEW BUSINESS

Boston, fall 2023, fall 2027 contract — Kelly Glasscock

Motion: Moved the JEA board allow the executive director to sign the contract to have the 2023 and 2027 fall national conventions in Boston, Massachusetts, under the provided terms of the proposal. Moved: Tom Gayda; Seconded: Julia Satterthwaite (passed 7-0)

Nashville, spring 2020, fall 2025 contract — Kelly Glasscock

Motion: Moved the JEA board allow the executive director to sign the contract to have the spring 2020 spring and fall 2025 national conventions in Nashville, Tennessee, under the provided terms of the proposal. Moved: Tom Gayda; Seconded: Lori Keekley (passed 7-0)

National High School Journalism Convention registration fee — Sarah Nichols

Motion: Moved JEA increase the National High School Journalism Convention registration rate to $99 early-bird pricing ($109 after) and $119 nonmember early-bird pricing ($129 after) effective fall 2018.
Moved: Sarah Nichols; Seconded: Megan Fromm (passed 7-0)

Approval of 990 — Kelly Glasscock

Grants and scholarships: If we call financial awards scholarships, such as Journalist of the Year, Future Administrator and Future Teacher, there are criteria we must follow. The money awarded must go toward an educational purpose. For taxable events above $600, recipients need to complete a tax form.

Motion: Moved to approve the 990 form as presented to the board.
Moved: Megan Fromm; Seconded: Lori Keekley (passed 7-0)

Investments

Kelly Glasscock said the board should be focused on what we can do for our members now that we have a one-year reserve. It’s a safe place to be. JEA has not drawn from investments since 2012.

Other Business

Dustin Devers, Business Professionals of America educational director, came to the meeting to introduce himself to the board to help make connections for the JEA/BPA partnership.

JEA Power Hour — Sarah Nichols

Sarah Nichols asked board members to revisit their goal-setting workshop from the May retreat to revise and develop more specific strategies for the rest of this year and for the three-year term.
SMART goals will help the board focus on budget in January.

The board reaffirmed their focus on five goals:

1. Supporting First Amendment and press rights.

2. Working with administrators.

3. Leveraging our position that scholastic journalism is the best 21st century education.

4. Outreach to underserved areas.

5. Mentoring new teachers.

Val Kibler said that outreach should be a huge goal, especially focusing on those who can’t come to convention. Mike Malcom-Bjorklund agreed.

Megan Fromm would like to see more people trained to help with the Partner Project. Could it reach six schools every year? Val Kibler would like one in every state with some incentivizing for members. This could grow virtually much faster than onsite. Use more virtual methods for all instruction.

Lori Keekley suggested focusing on press rights, legislation and support. What is status of New Voices legislation throughout the country? How can JEA further empower the people on the ground. Should JEA become a one-stop shop for New Voices resources or is that duplicating effort? Should JEA develop a New Voices tool kit that can empower the grassroots efforts in a state.

Sarah Nichols would like the board to finalize a plan before Jan. 1.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

A follow-up meeting will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, in Pryor-Crockett, Atrium Level,
Hyatt Regency.

ADJOURNMENT

Tom Gayda moved and Megan Fromm seconded that the meeting be adjourned, and Sarah Nichols adjourned the meeting at 3:34 p.m.

The board will meet at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, April 12, 2018, at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco.