Check out this open letter from SPJ President Sonny Albarado to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The letter answers Holder’s invitation to attend one of a series of off-the-record policy meetings at the Department of Justice, in response to the DOJ’s seizure of Associated Press phone records.
Read Albarado’s letter here, and visit spj.org for updates.
SPJ Board Meeting 5/23/13 at the Salt Lake Tribune building
Minutes
In attendance:
Tom Haraldsen, Sheryl Worsley, Jim Fisher, Shane Farver, Linda Petersen, Lisa Carricaburu , McKenzie Romero
Awards:
Tom reported that just seven board members had voted on the honor awards.
Tom reported that we still have to judge entries for the Louisiana SPJ chapter. The entries are all TV, so Sheryl will work on getting judges and will contact Ben Winslow to help.
Awards dinner:
Thursday, June 20 at the Fort Douglas Officers Club
Sheryl has contracted with Isabella’s to provide the catering. They will provide Lasagna, Chicken Cordon Bleu, vegetable dish, sides and dessert for under $1,800.
Sheryl will get the second half of the facility rental to the officers club.
Sheryl and Lisa have been working on ideas for the ceremony:
Tom and Jim will be the M.Cs for the evening.
Robert Kirby has agreed to speak as long as he doesn’t have to have shoulder surgery. (He will know next week. Lisa will contact him.)
Program Outline:
Dinner first
Board members will take turns honoring the first place winners.
McKenzie will get the email list of winners from Trent and send out the invite.
Sunshine /Black Hole Awards
After discussion, the board voted unanimously to give more than one Sunshine Award (Lisa proposed the motion; Tom seconded).
Lisa made the motion to give Betsy Ross the first award for her long history of open government and transparency. Tom seconded it. The board unanimously supported it.
Shane made the motion to give SL Police Chief Chris Burbank the second award for his for his creation of a real-time online police call log.
Motion was seconded by Tom and was approved unanimously.
Black Hole
After discussion of whether to give more than one award, the board decided that doing so would dilute the impact of the award.
Lisa made the motion to give the award to UTA for its lack of transparency in several areas. Jim seconded it and the motion was unanimously approved.
Lisa will write the press release and get it to McKenzie– who will send to all the chapter’s email lists and to the legislature. She will post the list on the chapter web page and Facebook after the banquet.
Search Warrants
Nate Carlisle, on behalf of the chapter, attended the Judicial Council over Rules meeting where search warrants were discussed. The council seems to support a six-month sunset on the sealing of search warrants. However, the Salt Lake County District Attorney is concerned about how that would affect cold cases. The item was tabled so language could be formulated to address cold cases.
Nate believes the council is pretty committed to the sunset provision. However, the idea of addressing the language to clarify the ambiguity did not get much of a response from the council.
They will still provide the database of search warrants by district as unsealed. No one knows why.
McKenzie brought up the issue of reporters (and others) now being charged $2.50 each to see probable cause statements. Even though the information is digital to begin with, there’s now a charge. She believes it’s because X-change was set up as a pay system and they incorporated these data bases without adapting for free access.
Sheryl said this is an issue our chapter needs to address. There’s a meeting of the committee which has been working out the details of media access for cameras in the court room in June. She will bring the issue up to that group then.
Next meeting: Sept. 12, Jim’s house, 6:30 p.m.
Tips on taking better smartphone photos and a great new tool from Salt Lake City police. Download this month’s Headliners newsletter to learn more!
Minutes from SPJ Board of Directors meeting
April 27, 2013
KSL Broadcast House—Salt Lake City
Present: Tom Haraldsen, Sheryl Worsley, Lisa Carricaburu, Shane Farver, Jim Fisher, Don Meyer, McKenzie Romero
AWARDS PROGRAM
Sheryl reviewed the assignments related to the SPJ awards banquet. The date is set at Thursday, June 20, 6:30 to 8 p.m., Officers Club at Fort Douglas. Cost is $25 per person.
Tom will be responsible for posters and judging roundup.
Sheryl and Lisa will handle ordering dinners—banquet style. Lisa said The Salt Lake Tribune will provide wine as well.
Jim will emcee, and both Sheryl and Lisa will help with introductions. A decision as to how the names of first-place winners are presented will be discussed between Sheryl and Lisa.
Linda will coordinate the trophies and prize certificates. Jennifer Weaver will be responsible for the printed program. McKenzie will start sending out emails right away with “Save the Date” information for that night.
Tom reported that he’s only received judging for two photo categories so far, but it’s still two weeks before deadline. He also indicated that board members need to vote for their choices for the five honorary awards categories. Along those lines, there were some categories this year that received only single entries. Don made a motion that next year, if nominations for the honorary awards only total one in a category, we extend the deadline for two weeks so that board members can solicit more nominations. This is ONLY for the five honorary categories. Tom seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. This does not affect this year’s contest.
REGIONAL CONFERENCE
Sheryl, Lisa and Don all reported on the Santa Fe regional conference, stating much of it was good, with solid information and a couple of good speakers and sessions. Sheryl said the chapter sold reporter notebooks and had a silent auction as fundraising events, something we might try next time we host. She said it is probably Utah’s turn next year.
SUNSHINE/BLACK HOLE NOMINATIONS
Sheryl asked for nominations for these awards. Former records director Betsy Ross and SLC Police Chief Chris Burbank are being considered for Sunshine Awards. Sheryl said the SLPD has implemented its new online reporting procedure for calls (she has forwarded a link to all board members), and while it is not perfect, it is a great step in the right direction. She is hoping for more nominations prior to the next board meeting.
CAMERAS IN COURTROOM
Sheryl reported that the rules have been modified to allow for a pooling of photos for websites to be made available after the supporting participants have the video. An FTP site is still being discussed for pooled video.
NEWSLETTER
Jim is still waiting for articles for the next newsletter. Sheryl reviewed assignments that are due to Jim by May 1. She and Lisa will follow up with those assigned articles. Information on the banquet dinner will be included in the newsletter.
REGIONAL DIRECTOR
Don met with the national leaders earlier this month. Among developments—approval for chapters to get up to $5,000 in grants from the Legal Defense Fund without national board approval. He also suggested that, regarding the Regional Director’s fun, which is used for both travel and for supporting programs for chapters, that $1 per entry for those in the Top of the Rockies contest be donated to that fund. This would be in addition to any appropriated money individual chapters agree to donate. He said the Colorado chapter will be asked to consider the proposal as well.
NEXT MEETING
Thursday, May 23, 6:30 p.m. at The Salt Lake Tribune.
Minutes from SPJ Board of Directors meeting
March 26, 2013
Fisher home—Salt Lake City
Present: Tom Haraldsen, Sheryl Worsley, Shane Farver, Jim Fisher, Trent Nelson, Don Meyers, Jennifer Weaver, Chad Curtis (via phone).
CONTEST
Judges are working on our contest from Louisiana, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Denver. Trent is contacting his photog friends to see if they will take that category. Our chapter has already judged for both Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Louisiana’s entries will be coming our way in early May. Our judging deadline is May 10.
About 800 entries and around $9,000 in entry fees this year, close to totals of the past.
P.O. BOX
The SPJ chapter has been using the post office box in West Jordan paid for by The Valley Journals. The Journals are giving up that P.O. Box, but we feel a need to retain it if possible. Tom was authorized to pursue that if possible. Our yearly rental fee would be $54 if it is the same rate as the Journals has been paying.
AWARDS BANQUET
Date set for Thursday, June 20 at the Ft. Douglas Officers Club. Sheryl has made a deposit to reserve the space. Jim agreed to emcee the event. There will be short intros for major award winners but no speeches. Tom will be in charge of poster signs as last year, Jennifer will coordinate the program which we’ll have printed again at the U. Sheryl and Lisa will coordinate the food and drink (the Trib may provide wine this year).
ANNUAL REPORT
Sheryl will coordinate. Reports on activities will include the Utah Council for Citizens Diplomacy (from Tom), the radio interviews conducted by Jim, and the boot camp (from Sheryl). Treasurer and FOI reports will also be included.
REGIONAL CONFERENCE
Sheryl, Lisa, Don and Shane Farver will attend from our chapter. It is April 13-15 in Santa Fe.
SUNSHINE/BLACK HOLE AWARDS
There is an April 30 deadline for nominations, which Sheryl asked for from the Board. Don suggested Betsy Ross for a Sunshine Award. Sheryl also suggested Eric, formerly of the Sanpete Messenger, for a Sunshine Award. Many thoughts on potential Black Hole recipients, to be narrowed down.
CAMERAS IN COURTROOMS
Sheryl and Chad chimed in on this, as broadcasters have banned together for pool coverage going forward. The new rule took effect April 1. Chad offered an FTP site as a potential password protected server where video/audio could be posted. Board agreed to further investigate this, which Sheryl will do. This will be an ongoing work in progress, and Sheryl will report on how the program is working going forward.
NEWSLETTER
Several assignments for the newsletter are still outstanding and need to be submitted to Jim. They include Shane on social media, Sheryl on President’s column, Nate on computer assisted reporting and Rent on taking quality pictures. The deadline is April 10 to get those to Jim.
NEXT MEETING
Saturday, April 27, 9:30 a.m. at KSL