| Chapter name: | Arkansas Pro |
| Region: | 12 |
| Name of person submitting report: | Jennifer Ellis |
| Email of person submitting report: | jellis@arkansasonline.com |
| When did you most recently conduct officer elections? | 06-08-2016 |
| Chapter president: | Chelsea Boozer |
| Chapter vice president: | Jennifer Ellis |
| Chapter secretary: | Sarah Campbell |
| Chapter treasurer: | Kelly Kissel |
| Additional board members: | Sonny Albarado, Sonny Rhodes, Sarah Morris, Syd Hayman, Iveta Imre, Rob Moritz, Bobby Ampezzan |
| How many programs and projects did you complete between 5/1/2016 and 4/30/2017? | 11 |
| Was your chapter represented at Excellence in Journalism 2016? | Yes |
| If yes, who represented your chapter? | Chelsea Boozer, Kelly Kissel, Sonny Albarado, Jennifer Ellis, Sarah Campbell, Syd Hayman |
| Was your chapter represented at your regional conference? | Yes |
| If yes, who represented your chapter? | Kelly Kissel, Sonny Albarado |
| What is the name ofyour financial institution? | Arvest Bank, Little Rock, Arkansas |
| What is the total balance of your account(s) as of April 30, 2017? | $729.48 |
| Reviewer #1 name and email: | Board member Calton “Sonny” Rhodes, emrhodes@ualr.edu |
| Reviewer #2 name and email: | Board member Sonny Albarado, salbardo@arkansasonline.com |
| Reviewer #3 name and email: | Chapter President Chelsea Boozer, cboozer@arkansasonline.com |
| Did your chapter file a 990? | No |
| If yes, are you submitting a copy of your 990 with this report? | No |
| Are you submitting copies of bank statements with this report? | Yes |
| Are you submitting copies of your bylaws with this report? | Yes |
| If yes to any of the above, please use the “Upload File(s)” button to the right to upload your 990, bank statements and/or bylaws. | Arkansas Pro SPJ Bank Statements.pdf |
| YOUR PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: What was your signature effort this fiscal year? What was the event that drew the biggest audience and the most attention? | #BlackLivesMatter in the Media
This event — which had about 400 people in attendance — was sponsored by the SPJ Arkansas Pro Chapter and the National Park Service/Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, in partnership with the Philander Smith College chapters of Phi Beta Sigma and Zeta Phi Beta. The keynote address was by Shaun King, a senior justice writer for New York Daily News and a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement. King’s talk was followed by a panel discussion on how the Black Lives Matter movement has been covered in national, regional and local media. The panel was moderated by Little Rock’s Malik Saafir, president and founder of the Janus Institute for Justice. The panelists included Ashley Yates of the the St. Louis area, who was an early on-the-ground organizer in Ferguson after the shooting death of Michael Brown; Richard Thompson of Memphis, the founder and lead writer of Mediaverse, an online publication that covers local media, as well as past president of the Memphis Association of Black Journalists; Rae Nelson, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Little Rock chapter; and Shahidah Jones is a represenative of the Official Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter. |
| SPJ OUTREACH: What did your chapter do to train or engage the public? We’re looking for anything you did to teach non-journalists about journalism. | Campaign Finance and Transparency
This Sunshine Week event hosted by the SPJ Arkansas Pro Chapter and Arkansas Public Media drew about 40 people. Many were not journalists, but were lawyers or citizens interested in the legislative process. We had a discussion on proposed FOIA exemptions and journalists got the chance to tell lawmakers face-to-face how FOIA laws help the public and how their proposed exemptions were harmful. Local journalist Benji Hardy moderated the discussion, which included talks by Reps. Jana Della Rosa, R-Rogers, and Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, who each sponsored bills to make Arkansas elections and government more transparent, and Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Berryville, who believes in protecting the privacy of political speech through private organizations, and Alicia Bannon, who leads the Brennan Center’s fair courts work and will discuss dark money in judicial elections. |
| STUDENT OUTREACH: Did your chapter present sessions at scholastic press association conferences or college media conventions? Did you visit high school or college classes as guest lecturers? | Our chapter has made an effort to reach out to the local colleges’ student chapters. We partnered with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s SPJ chapter on our Black Lives Matters event and our Women in the Media event. The school’s film club also partnered with us to film one of the events. Our chapter president has spoken to the college’s student newspaper and SPJ chapter. We have three professors on our SPJ Arkansas Pro board, so they keep in contact with the student groups. |
| SCHOLARSHIPS: Did your chapter offer high school and/or college scholarships to students pursuing a career in journalism? | We funded one $1,000 scholarship to a college student pursuing a career in journalism. |
| ETHICS: Did your chapter teach journalism ethics to journalists or the public in your service area? | Law School for Communicators
This event sponsored by the SPJ Arkansas Pro Chapter, the Arkansas Press Association and the Public Relations Society of America included a full day of training and lunch with a $25 registration fee for members of the sponsoring organizations and $40 fee for non-members. About 50 people attended. The professional development focused on legal issues that affect the practice of public relations and journalism. The keynote address was by West Memphis 3 attorney Blake Hendrix on “What Attorneys wish Communicators Understood about the Law” and sessions included Understanding & Covering Civil, Criminal Cases; HIPPA; Photography Law & Fair Use; Free Speech & Employment Law; FOIA Rules & Procedures; and Working with Legal Teams in Crisis. |
| FOI: Did you offer FOI programs? Did you partner with other organizations to defend press freedom in your service area? Did you lobby or protest for FOI? | Our Campaign Finance and Transparency event focused on proposed FOIA exemptions that were currently in the legislative process. Our SPJ chapter also works with the local Arkansas Press Association, which has an FOI Coalition. Several of our SPJ board members serve on the Coalition, which lobbies against FOIA exemptions. We also successfully lobbied for the creation of a new legislative committee that would review any proposed changes to the FOIA in future sessions before the bills are allowed to go to committee or the floor. The SPJ Arkansas Pro chapter will have a representative on that committee. We also revived our chapter’s FOIA committee this year, which is off to a great start.
We also sponsored the SPJ AFTER DEADLINE mixer this year, which had a discussion focus on FOI. |
| DIVERSITY: Did you teach diversity to journalists or partner with diversity media groups to promote the concept? | We sponsored two diversity programs including Journalism and Islam: Halal Food for Thought and Women in the Media.
About 60 people attended Journalism and Islam: Halal Food for Thought. At the event we offered a free halal dinner and frank discussion about how Muslims are covered in the news at home and abroad. When should reporters mention the faith of a source? Are there stories that aren’t being covered? What terms should be avoided and more. Imam Mahmoud Al-Denawy Hassanein of the Islamic Center of Little Rock gave us a tour of the mosque and several of the center’s members shared information about Islam and their thoughts on coverage of Muslims in the media. Participants had the chance to ask questions and mingle with members of the center. Our hope was that we would learn from each other, and that we come away with a better understanding of how to cover the Muslim community. About 40 people attended our Women in the Media event. The SPJ Arkansas Pro Chapter partnered with Arkansas Press Women to present a Women in the Media panel Saturday, March 11, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus. The event included four panelists and one moderator, all women, who shared their various experiences working in print, broadcast and radio. The panelists were Gwen Mortiz, editor of Arkansas Business; Raven Richard, weather anchor and reporter at THV11, a CBS affiliate; Jill Bleed, breaking news reporter at the Associated Press; and Ibby Caputo, who provided the keynote presentation on pay and whose work has aired on NPR and appeared on TheAtlantic.com. Mariel Ruiz, meteorologist at THV11, moderated the panel. Topics of discussion for the panelists included which roles in media feel closed to young women, instances when gender was blatantly an issue in the newsroom and what advantages women may have in the newsroom. |
| SPJ SUPPORT: Did your chapter help judge the Mark of Excellence or Sigma Delta Chi awards? What about regional and other chapters’ awards? Contests from other organizations? | Yes and we fund our own regional awards program – the Diamond Journalism Awards – which honor journalism excellence in Arkansas (the Diamond State) and bordering media markets in West Tennessee, East Oklahoma, South Missouri and North Louisiana.
We also help several other groups judge their contests, including 2017 Heart of America Awards by the Kansas City Press Club, the Sunshine State Awards, SPJ Green Eyeshade Awards and contests in Texas. |
| MEMBERSHIP: How many members did you gain or lose this fiscal year? What specific actions did you take to retain or recruit members? Any innovative efforts? | We currently have 34 members as of May 17, but we usually gain members at our annual mixer in June when we have a membership table set up and tell people about our events. We have eliminated local chapter dues in an effort to make joining more enticing.
We also hosted the SPJ After Deadline mixers. |
| COMMUNICATION: What did your chapter do to keep members informed about chapter activities? Do you publish a newsletter? Communicate via an email string? Can you provide links to a chapter Web site(s), Facebook page, Twitter account, or other ways you reach members? | We do monthly email blasts announcing our events as well as send email reminders about the event the week or day before the event. We have an active Facebook page and create event pages. We also have a Twitter account and website.
Our website is: www.arkansasSPJ.org Twitter: @ArkansasSPJ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arkansasspj/ |
| FUNDRAISING: Did your chapter conduct any fundraising activities this year? Explain your efforts and the results. | We use proceeds, about $5,000 annually, from our $100,000 investment account to fund our programs and scholarships. |
| Did your chapter complete any other activities during the year not explained above? Do any of the above activities require elaboration? If desired please provide no more than 250 additional words to support your annual report. | Another event the Arkansas Pro Chapter hosted was Math for Journalists. Let’s face it: 80 percent of journalists are bad at math and the other half are good at it. There were about 40 people who attended this lunchtime refresher. The topics presented by Kelly P. Kissel included
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics; Outliers; Percentage vs. Percentage Point – There is a difference; Household Math Tricks (Try This At Home); and Beware The Decimal. Kissel has been Arkansas news editor for The Associated Press since 1994 and Oklahoma news editor since 2009. He’s had to deal with a lot of numbers, including Election Day vote counts, government budgets, political polling and the checkbook for the Arkansas Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. |
Society of Professional Journalists | Arkansas Pro Chapter 
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