Also, to clarify the statement about research in the Cheeseburger report, the research methodology was not as strong in its basis on a national data set. The report was based on some small-scale data tat did not compare with the national data in the Captive Voices report.

I nearly made an embarrassing mistake earlier this month while covering the graduation ceremony of Bergen Community College.

The commencement exercises took place inside a large area that once had been used for professional hockey and basketball.

With over 2,100 graduates to chose from, it was not hard to find one interesting student on whom to focus .

The valedictorian, an aspiring art therapist, had a great story to tell when she pointed out that her graduation came exactly 10 years to the day that her mom left Ecuador to find a life of better opportunity for her two young children in northern New Jersey.

The student gave a very heartfelt, emotional speech, and I hustled into the audience to interview her mom.

So I was feeling pretty good when I returned to the floor of the arena where a publicist for the college pointed out another story: One graduate had proposed marriage to another while picking up their diplomas.

A volunteer helped me locate the couple in a sea of blue caps and gowns, and I did a quick interview.

The student was named Jess, who wore a nice red tie, told me in a husky voice about getting down on one knee. That was the signal for a group of friends to unfurl a banner that read “Will you marry me?”

The other student, named Melissa, said yes.

That was pretty nervy in front of all these people, I suggested.

“You have no idea,” Jess replied.

So I wrote the story feeling pretty good about how it turned out. But then several hours later, my editor called.

The photographer — a much better observer then me — noticed that Jess, who I identified as a guy, was a woman. Jess was short for Jessica, not Jesse.

Fortunately we fixed it before publication. But afterward, it made me realize the extent to which my cultural blinders were in place.

Granted the interview was brief, and they were both wearing gowns. But in an era where marriage equality is a hot-button topic, I should know better than to assume that “couple”  and “marriage proposal” means a man and a woman.

It drove home the point to me how important it is to consider one’s own cultural assumptions and be more observant.

Next time I’ll know better. Plus, I owe the photographer a beer.

I have high hopes for this fellowship.  Kudos to ABC News for making an effort to find fellows from diverse backgrounds.

The chosen fellows will be offered:

• Rotation among several ABC News departments and broadcasts.
• Development of editorial, news gathering and production skills.
• Work closely with assigned news mentor at ABC.

ABC News President Ben Sherwood says the network is committed in recruiting, developing, empowering and promoting the industry’s future leaders.  The news network hopes to start this program on July 2, 2012.

What you need to qualify:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Solid writing skills
• Shooting and video editing experience
• Minimum two years experience
• Proficient in Spanish is preferred

Fellows will be employees of ABC News for one year.  For more information: ABC Fellowship.

Rebecca Aguilar is an Emmy award winning freelance reporter based in Dallas, TX.  She’s a board member with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and SPJ Fort Worth Chapter.

The price of a business license varies as does the term. Business license fees tend to be reasonable, and are a tax deductible expense. I’ve paid anywhere from $35 to $100 per year for a license. Regarding length of the license term, in Washington State, for example, you pay a one-time fee for a business license and the license is good for as long as you own your business. Local municipalities, however, may renew annually so mark your calendar with pertinent renewal dates to ensure your business licenses are always current.

Dana Neuts is a full-time freelance writer based in the Seattle area. In addition to writing for publications like South Sound magazine and The Seattle Times, she is the owner and publisher of several hyperlocal community sites including iLoveKent.net and iLoveWashington.net. She is the regional director for SPJ’s Region 10 and the chairman of the SPJ freelance committee.

• The Terry Harper Memorial Scholarships. This program is specifically designed to get journalists to the conference. It includes:

— A convention registration
— Three nights stay at the convention hotel, Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa
— Airfare to Ft. Lauderdale(Up to $250)
— Tickets to the convention’s two ticketed meal events

• The Diversity Leadership Fellows Scholarship. I was part of the first class of fellows back in 2005. It’s designed to encourage members from diverse backgrounds to pursue greater participation and leadership within SPJ. In my case, it worked! I’ve served on the national board and the Diversity Committee, and now I am the national Membership Committee chair. This scholarship includes:

— A convention registration
— Four night stay at the convention hotel, Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa
— Airfare to Ft. Lauderdale (Up to $300)
— Tickets to the convention’s 2 ticketed meal events

If you’ve been to a national SPJ convention you know it’s jam-packed with great training and networking opportunities for journalists across the mass media spectrum. The partnership with RTDNA proved very potent for last year’s convention in New Orleans, yielding more great speakers and programs than ever.

Read More: The EIJ 2011 recap

I encourage members who may not have the conference in their budget to apply for one of the two scholarship opportunities! The deadline for both is June 11.

Holly Edgell with Jason Lamb, reporter at KTUU-TV in Anchorage, at EIJ 2011 in New Orleans.

If you can afford it, it is ideal to have a contract drafted by an attorney familiar with the work of independent contractors. If you can’t afford it, look at samples of similar contracts online and draft a one or two-page business agreement that meets your needs. You can also revise it as circumstances dictate.

So what should a business agreement include? This depends on your business and unique circumstances, but it should at least contain these basic elements:

•    Names of the parties involved in the agreement
•    Date of the agreement
•    Services you will provide along with applicable deadlines
•    Agreed upon rate or price for the project
•    Payment terms, including how late payments will be handled
•    Indemnification clause
•    Confidentiality clause
•    Termination clause
•    Client signature block (to include name of authorized party, room for his or her signature, date of the signature, mailing address, and preferred email address and phone number)
•    Your signature, date of the signature and your tax identification number

When a client and I have agreed to work together, I explain that I will email them a simple business agreement that outlines the terms we have agreed upon. I ask them to sign and return the signature page, and let them know that I’ll begin work upon my receipt of the document. This last step is precautionary, and I don’t always follow it. It primarily provides an incentive for a brand new client to review and sign the business agreement promptly, so I can start work on the project.

Though I have a signed agreement from each of my clients, I’ve only needed to use them twice to enforce contract terms. In one case, I needed the agreement to provide the project price when I turned an unpaid bill over to a collection agency. In the other, I used the agreement to fire a client who wouldn’t provide me with the information I needed to produce the work.

Hopefully, you’ll never need to enforce the terms of your agreement, but if you do, you’ll be glad you have the signed contract, and you’ll find that most clients appreciate the professionalism of having such an agreement.

Dana Neuts is a full-time freelance writer based in the Seattle area. In addition to writing for publications like South Sound magazine and The Seattle Times, she is the owner and publisher of several hyperlocal community sites including iLoveKent.net and iLoveWashington.net. She is the regional director for SPJ’s Region 10 and the chairman of the SPJ freelance committee.

Attending: Eileen Solomon, George Daniels, Nerissa Young, Butler Cain, Neil Ralston, Jimmy McCollum. Teresa White and Becky Tallent

Also attending: SPJ President John Ensslin and SPJ staff member Tara Puckney.

The meeting started at 8:02 a.m. Pacific Time (11:02 a.m. Eastern) with Becky asking if anyone is interested in writing Quill Toolbox columns for the final three deadlines of 2012. Butler Cain will write the column for the July/August issue on students deciding between maintaining traditional newspapers or switching to social media outlets for their reporting. Jimmy will write for the August 17 deadline and Eileen will take the Oct. 19 deadline, and their topics will be determined later.

In reviewing the Death by Cheeseburger project, George said he has talked with the Center for Scholastic Journalism (CSJ) Advisory Board and explained why the CSJ recommends we do not repeat the Cheeseburger study. While the data in the report is visual, George said the CSJ said the data is sketchy. George said it is recommended he committee look at replicating the 1984 work Captive Voices rather than Death by Cheeseburger because the original study was stronger. It is suggested the SPJ J-Ed Committee meet with the CSJ to determine the most critical questions to be asked and identify which questions should be addressed now and which should be addressed later. George acknowledged that some members of the committee want to use this as a research project for tenure and promotion, but we need to look at the whole picture as well as smaller pieces.
Becky asked if we replicate the Captive Voices project, as suggested by CSJ, would we keep it to New England (as the original study)? George said we should broaden it as much as possible; combining our respective locations around the country with CSJ’s identified areas.
George recommended a small sub-committee from SPJ meet with CSJ representatives to begin the discussion. Butler and Becky volunteered to meet via a conference call. Addendum: Lee Anne Peck has also volunteered for the subcommittee.
New committee member Teresa White from Indiana University asked for some more background, which was supplied by George and Becky. SPJ President John Ensslin asked George to supply the name of a CSJ contact and he will reach out as well. Neil said there is also a group of high school teachers who have implemented a website to discuss issues, and he will find the information that will be shared with the committee.

The SPJ Advisor Breakfast for the AEJMC Conference in Chicago has been set and Tara Puckney described the event, and then asked for any additional discussion topics from committee members. Eileen said the meeting should emphasize programs and how to deal with students diluting the SPJ meeting by attending other groups that are specific to their area of interest (PRSSA, BEA, UNITY, etc.). George added the breakfast time will be limited so the questions should be submitted in advance and the meeting should talk about strategizing so SPJ chapters can integrate with existing classes. George noted the later does put additional pressure on student leaders to know what is happening in the classes and to plan enough in advance to coordinate the meetings with lectures. George also echoed earlier comments about co-advisor models so campus advisors do not burn out because they must do everything.

Looking at the new minimum chapter requirements, George and Neil explained this is a way for all the chapters to know what they should do, exactly how chapters will be reviewed and what the officers should expect. Neil said the last board meeting changed the number of required campus chapter advisors from two to one, which should make it easier for smaller chapters to form. They also explained the inactive status for some chapters is actually a form of housecleaning by SPJ, identifying those chapters who have not turned in annual reports for the past several years. By inactivating, they said, it makes it easier to re-boot the chapter later than if the charter was revoked and the chapter process would need to be started from the beginning.

Becky reminded everyone of the committee’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/223322924414419/) and the blog. On questioning if anyone wanted to handle managing the blog, George reminded everyone we have had the discussion before; we should blog when we have something of importance that should go out.

Finally, George reminded everyone the new voting rules for SPJ means every member will be able to vote for national officers now, so here will be educational information being sent out for, by and about candidates. Every member should take note and vote.

The meeting ended at 8:56 a.m. Pacific/11:56 a.m. Eastern.

The English language website Honduras News reports President Porfirio Lobo Sosa has offered a financial reward for anyone who has information concerning Villatoro’s murder. He worked for National Radio Honduras.

Carlos Lauría, the Committee to Protect Journalists‘ senior program coordinator for the Americas, said the flow of news in Honduras is being restricted by “a climate of unrelenting hostility toward Honduran journalists.”

SPJ’s International Journalism Committee joins its professional colleagues worldwide in condemning Villatoro’s kidnapping and murder.

Pinstagram shares the same basic layout design as Pinterest.

And just last week, the merger occurred out of humor. It’s called Pinstagram, an amalgamation of Pinterest and Instagram employing the former’s downward-streaming interface design as a display setting for the latter’s broad public appeal of kitchy imagery techniques.

Ideally, Pinstagram provides a desktop environment for a mobile application that didn’t have one of its own, explained co-creator Pek Pongpaet in a Wired interview. This way, Instagram lovers now can view entire portfolio themes and concepts in a Web page-size environment distinct from Instagram lovers’ blog sites.

Not that this deeper realization originally factored into Pinstagram’s creation. Pongpaet revealed in Wired that he and business partner Brandon Leonardo concocted it as a joke — playing off the Pinterest and Instagram names — but saw value in the idea after mulling it awhile longer.

Because it’s so new, Pinstagram has only a few thousand image shares and even fewer members, but the registration rate has been prodigious. And Pinstagram possesses many of the same traits that make Pinterest a convenient and creative platform for photojournalists, educators and job hunters.

A version for iPad is said to be in the works.

David Sheets is a sports content editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com, and president of SPJ’s St. Louis Pro chapter. Reach him by e-mail at dsheets@post-dispatch.com, on Twitter at @DKSheets, or on Facebook and LinkedIn.

These are good things to include in our lives, but they do conflict with getting work done, and freelancers have the added burden of friends and family not always understanding what we do and why we need time to do it – if we aren’t leaving home for the office at regular hours, how can it be an imposition to manage personal and family stuff whenever it crops up?

And it’s even more challenging for freelancers with children; one demand on my time and energy that I don’t have, but that is part of the life of almost every freelancer I know.

How do we do it all?

The first and most important aspect of balancing work and family is to acknowledge that we need to create that balance. It doesn’t just happen serendipitously.

We have to start by educating everyone we know and interact with on the validity of what we do and how we do it. We have to take our work seriously, or no one else will. Then we have to figure out what comes first and when, because that will fluctuate. And we have to be conscious of the fact that the best-organized to-do list is going to blow up when something unexpected happens, such as illness, equipment malfunctions, death. The occasional reminder that “life happens” can help head off panic when it does.

Don’t let family and friends talk you into being the neighborhood or family patsy – sorry; errand-runner, helper, do-gooder – just because you’re working from home and perhaps at unpredictable hours. If you don’t mind dog-watching, cat-sitting, picking up kids from school and taking them to extra-curricular activities, accepting packages, doing airport runs – fine; if doing all that for everyone interferes with finding freelance projects and getting your work done – not fine. Learn to say no: “Sorry, I’d be glad to help out, but I’m on deadline today and not available. Maybe next time.” “I’d love to chair that event, but I’m neck-deep in work, so I just can’t take on that much responsibility. Is there something else I can do instead that takes less time?” “I’ll play catch with you in an hour; I have to finish this interview first.”

Some freelance journalists set regular work hours – even posting signs on their office doors and websites, so family and friends know when not to disturb them and clients know when not to try to contact them.

It helps to have a separate work space and your own computer that no one else in the family is allowed to use, so you can’t be bounced off it while the kids do their homework or your partner takes care of his or her personal business. Having your own work space and equipment is not only one mark of the professional, but an invaluable way of marking the boundaries between work and family.

The best tool for balancing work and family is to put everything in writing. Treat family matters and volunteer projects in the same way as paid assignments: Put them on your calendar with their dates or deadlines and even the odd “tickler”: a calendar reminder that such-and-such a commitment, event or responsibility is coming up a week later. Once you see all these things on paper (or in an onscreen Word or Excel document; whatever works best for you), it’s a lot easier to organize the time to handle all of them without going bonkers – and to know when to turn something down or hand it off because it’s just not going to be possible to do everything.

Be prepared to delegate or refer. Build up a network of reliable colleagues to turn to when you’re overloaded and must choose between a family event and a new assignment, or a crisis occurs, or a new project is in the offing that your common sense says you really shouldn’t accept at that particular time, or a worthy charity event arises that you don’t want to turn down flat.

Try to stay ahead of deadlines – don’t just meet them, but sometimes beat them, so it’s easier to respond if a family matter comes up unexpectedly. It’s hard enough to cope with a personal emergency when the decks are clear, but ulcer-generating when you have to fit it in around work deadlines. Most clients will be sympathetic to what they see as genuine emergencies, but your and their definitions of “genuine” may be worlds apart, and even the most dire issue won’t compensate for leaving a client with empty column inches or pages to fill at the last second.

Expect to burn the occasional late-night oil. Sometimes the only way to meet work deadlines while fulfilling family commitments is to put in the occasional all-nighter.

Try to maintain a savings cushion. It’s a lot easier to turn down an assignment because a family event needs your time and attention when you aren’t desperate for every incoming penny.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t put family first, because we (usually) should. Family and family moments are irreplaceable. But we have to get our work done, and sometimes family and other non-work demands get in the way. Only the individual freelance journalist can know when one should trump the other. The best way to create an enjoyable balance between the two is to acknowledge that they might interfere with each other on occasion, be as prepared as possible, and cultivate enough flexibility and backbone to direct that traffic in the directions you need them to take to handle both.

Now I’m off to spend some quality time with my mom; I’ll be working into the wee hours of the night to meet a couple of urgent deadlines, but some things come first.

You can find chapters in your region using this handy map at http://www.spj.org/chapters.asp

Each week I receive a dispatch from SPJ membership guru Linda Hall. It includes stats about overall membership, and noteworthy news. This week’s message was especially heartening: We have eight new chapters and nine reactivated ones. A reactivated chapter is one that may have gone dormant for any number of reasons but has met the requirements to officially rejoin the ranks of the Society (see “Restoring Chapters to Good Standing” on the Start an SPJ Chapter page).

Welcome–and welcome back!

New chapters:

• Texas Panhandle Pro – Region 8
• Tarleton State University - Region 8
• Canisius College – Region 1
• Webster University – Region 7
• Regent University – Region 2
• Oakland University – Region 4
• Colorado Mesa University – Region 9
• Fullerton College – Region 11

Reactivated chapters:

• American University - Region 2
• North Carolina Pro - Region 2
• Franklin College – Region 5
• Wichita State University - Region 7
• Pepperdine University - Region 11
• University of Louisiana Monroe – Region 12
• Jacksonville State University – Region 3
• Auburn University - Region 3
• Hofstra University - Region 1

You can find your nearest chapter here. If one does not exist, learn how to start or re-start one.

It’s about time a reporter said “fucking nigger” on CNN.

Before you blow a gasket over my lede, let’s revisit this story: CNN reporter Susan Candiotti read the following on air as reportedly posted from the Facebook account of a shooting suspect in Tulsa, Okla.: “Today is two years that my dad has been gone, shot by a fucking nigger.”

The phrase was that of the suspect, not the words of Candiotti, who warned viewers about the offensive nature of the statement before she read it. Anchor Fredricka Whitfield apologized for the use of the phrase immediately following the report.

A little more than a week later, the Los Angeles Times published photos of U.S. troops posing with body parts of Afghan insurgents who reportedly blew themselves up by accident. The photos were given to the newspaper by a soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division and included images such as (from the story):

“Two soldiers posed holding a dead man’s hand with the middle finger raised. A soldier leaned over the bearded corpse while clutching the man’s hand. Someone placed an unofficial platoon patch reading ‘Zombie Hunter’ next to other remains and took a picture.”

Both of these media incidents drew criticism in the days that followed each one, raising questions about standards practiced by each news organization. In the case of CNN, according to the Poynter Institute, at least one critic suggested that the network was “ginning up a race war,” an opinion I personally believe to be utter garbage – history teaches us that no one ever benefited from a race war. Just ask the city of Los Angeles.

The fact of the matter, however, is that this sort of reporting doesn’t happen frequently enough. In case you’re just entering a career in journalism, then you’ve likely been introduced to media law through a college course or, if you like to go about it the hard way, trial and error in your first job. You’ve undoubtedly learned about obscenity and its relationship to the First Amendment.

In case you snoozed through the lesson, the former is not protected by the latter. But since we’ve seemingly taken to furious discourse daily through near absolutely free speech on the Internet, the question I have to raise is this: What’s obscene nowadays?

Have you ever read the comment boards on Entertainment Weekly’s website? Even a story about the top 10 roles of Will Ferrell can draw out the aggregated ire of a Web browsing public that just seems to feel the need to verbally beat the hell out of each other.

My Twitter and Facebook feeds alone are full of tweets and posts in which users post a variation of obscenity – f—, a$$, $&^%*#&!, etc. (And doing that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re any nicer than the tweeter calling Rush Limbaugh or Keith Olbermann an “asshole.”)

Many Americans (more than ever before it seems) are just plain ugly toward each other in public discourse. We see it in our politics. We see it at our kids’ soccer games. We see it on our smartphones. So, why is it bothersome to hear the word “nigger” in a TV news report or seeing dead bodies in the daily newspaper?

Well … because it is really bothersome. As a reporter, you still carry the weight of responsibility in your reporting. So before you go tell your editor that the blogger from SPJ said it was OK for you freely use offensive words and curse throughout your stories and other content, learn the standards and practices set by your news organization.

When situations arise in which your reporting may push the line from credible toward obscene, whether in a quote, photo, or op-ed, ask your editors directly just how you should approach it. Don’t guess at it and turn your story in without recognizing policy … your editors may lower their expectations of you and your maturity, and that’s only damaging your career.

But if you have justification for including an element of your news story that could be considered obscene by the readers, then don’t back down at the start. Argue the relativity and show how the story can be less informative without it. You’re going to have to sell your editor on the story just as much as you have to sell the reader on it with your lede.

Unfortunately, for many of you in the next generation of journalists, your job is or will likely be to report bad news. And sometimes, the news you’re tasked with reporting is worse than bad – even obscene. But at least it will be the whole truth. And that should be the standard by which news operates.

David Brandt is the Web managing editor for the Institute of Industrial Engineers, where he writes and edits Web content, produces new media projects, and writes for a monthly magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @iamdavidbrandt.

On Monday evening, SPJ Generation J committee members spoke on Twitter about their use of Pinterest. Pinterest is, as committee member Jennifer Sullivan said, the hottest new social network and delivers great brand techniques for individual journalists and news orgs, although Mike Brannen noted, organizations are late to the game.

If you feel as though you too are “late to the game,” review the chat and check out these five “how-to Pinterest” tips to peak your interest in creating a resume on the site, or even just using it as a way to show a more personal side of your brand.

A pin is something that you like (which is represented by a heart) on a particular board. A pin board is a collection of pins that can be grouped by a user to show exactly what category they believe the items fit into. Some common pin boards are titled: Home, Wedding, Decor, Cooking, Books to Read, etc.

To add a new pin board, upload a pin or add a pin, you simply click the Add+ button on the top right hand corner of the homepage.

To view different sections of Pinterest, you click the “Everything” button under the Pinterest logo and select the category you’d like to view.

When you click a pin, you are taken to that user’s board and then if you click the pin again, you’re taken to the website where it was found.

You should download the Pin It button (which is a bookmarklet for your bookmark bar on any browser) so that you can easily pin photos and videos from your favorite websites. These can also be Tweeted and added to Facebook.

Facebook’s Pinterest app is now a social application, which means that unless you select “no” in the settings, all your Pinterest activity will be shared to your Timeline. Timeline shared activity can be changed in Facebook privacy settings — whatever the default is (which you can customize) is how your Pinterest activity will be shared. For example, if you share everything with all your friends, that’s who will see it. If you share with a select (or custom) group of people, that’s who will see it. It can be altered at any time.

Once you’ve setup the site, you have to start “pinning.” You can repin things from other boards, like individual pins or upload your own pins from photos/videos on your computer.

The pins you like can be viewed on your interest homepage (pictured below).

Victoria Reitano is the Assistant Editor at SDTimes, an enterprise technology trade magazine for enterprise developers and their managers. She is also the publisher of The Giornalista Files, her personal blog and portfolio site where she shares her ideas about being an early career lady journo with anyone who will listen. Reitano feels Bikram Yoga is the perfect compliment to her obsessive need to consume information on a constant basis. Connect with her on Twitter @giornalista515.

View the complete #GenJ Pinterest Twitter chat below:

Melissa Chan has been AJE’s China correspondent since 2007, but the news organization has been forced to close its bureau in Beijing.

Salah Negm, director of news at Al Jazeera English, said AJE is “committed to our coverage of China. Just as China news services cover the world freely we would expect that same freedom in China for any Al Jazeera journalist.”

A breeze that blew across the old mining town carried four sounds: A dog barking. The spring runoff in the creek behind me. A distant train whistle. A brass band.

The music came from Silverton Brass Band, which was playing John Phillip Sousa’s Washington Post March. This seemed fitting since they were there to celebrate SPJ honoring The Silverton Standard & The Miner as one of our Historic Sites in Journalism.

Here’s a clip that sets the scene:

Next, here’s a video of Mark Esper, the paper’s editor and publisher, in Victorian period garb, who tells a bit of the paper’s history and why being added to the SPJ list was such an honor.

What happened to the paper in recent years is one of the great “feel good” stories about journalism in recent years. In this clip, Fritz Kinke, a printer and board member with the San Juan Historical Society, explains the Society’s decision to buy the paper and run it as a non-profit.

And finally, here’s is a clip of the Silverton Brass Band, playing their rendition of “Kansas City.”

What was really heart-warming about this story is that we were honoring not just a historic newspaper office but the unbreakable bond that has developed between that paper and the community it has served since 1875.

I missed the crackle of the scanner with whatever breaking news. I missed rushing out the door to the everyday stories of wildfires or house fires. I missed the excitement of getting a call with a kernel of a story. I missed my newsroom buddies.

I became depressed, but took steps to get myself out of it.

This is not an uncommon problem, with all the layoffs, downsizing, rightsizing, whatever you want to call it. I have great company — some very good journalists have made the transition from Main Stream Media to freelancing and had similar problems adjusting.

Here’s some things I’ve learned that may help:

- Move your body. Once a day, at least, go move. Go for a 30-minute walk with the dog. Your dog will appreciate it and your heart will too. Even better, do what my friend and SPJ freelance committee chair Dana Neuts does and schedule an hour out of your workday to work out. It will give you more energy all day and bonus — up your metabolism all day — if you do it first thing in the morning.

- Stay away from the fridge. Put a big “Stay Out” sign on your refrigerator and then stay out of it unless it’s breakfast time, mid-morning or afternoon break or lunchtime. Gaining weight from fridge proximity for home-based workers is not uncommon – make a conscious decision not to. I gained weight working out of the house, which didn’t help my mood. Spend an hour Sunday afternoon planning healthy meals that give you energy for the whole week, and have healthy snacks ready when you do get cravings.

- Be a joiner. Network with your fellow SPJ members. Join Toastmasters and learn to be a better speaker. Join your local writers’ group(s.) Join a cycling, sailing, noodling or other interest group (really, there are places where they noodle.) Then — write about what you learn in those groups. My group of choice is master gardening, and it’s one of my favorite things to write about.

- Take a professional development class. See what the local technology center or library offers to improve your still or movie camera skills, Photoshop or PowerPoint or other computer skills.

- Get a post office box. And then go get your mail once a day. Gets you out of the house and it looks more businesslike to not be getting the mail at home.

- Make yourself busy. Have a Query Monday and set a goal to write as many queries as you can that day. Some of my journo friends have Freedom of Information Fridays and make at last one FOI request for a story you’re working on each Friday. Come up with a theme for your day and it will help keep you organized and focused.

- Get help. If you find yourself getting clinically depressed, don’t hesitate to get help. Talk to a professional therapist or psychologist. Talk to your pastor. Get together with friends. Don’t be an island.

Here’s what not to do:

- No TV … unless it’s a channel that’s solid news like CNN. When I worked at The Associated Press, we had a bank of televisions on local stations. However, the sound was off and we only turned it up when we spotted breaking news.

- No housekeeping, laundry or personal phone calls during work hours. I make an exception for cleaning the office, because occasionally my editor used to make me clean my desk and also schedule the occasional hour for filing or organizing your gear. If you need to make personal calls, set a timer for 15 minutes for your break and that’s all.

Good luck.

Carol Cole-Frowe is a veteran journalist and full-time freelancer, working primarily in Oklahoma and North Texas. Her website is www.carolcolefrowe.com.

The Colombian and French governments said Romeo Langlois was out with government  troops in a remote area of southern Colombia when they were attacked by the rebels leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.  According to reports, Langlois took a bullet in the arm, then ran toward the rebels, shouting that he was a journalist. He apparently feared being taken for a soldier. Four Colombian soldiers died in the attack.

An alleged FARC member said Langlois is being held as “a prisoner of war.”

The Colombian and French governments, the European Union and the Committee to Protect Journalists say journalists are non-combatants and under international law.

Colombia’s Foundation for Press Freedom or FLIP says Langlois’ capture is another demonstration of “the difficult conditions and the danger faced by journalists covering the armed conflict” in the country.

The FARC announced in February that it would no longer kidnap people and hold them for ransom. Last month, the FARC released 10 soldiers and police officers, some of whom had been held as long as 14 years.

I’m interested in the growth (and coming explosion) of what’s already being called “SoLoMo” — the technology-driven intersection of Social, Local and Mobile media. That could include news or advertising, or innovative ways to get daily deals (your mobile buzzes with a text message when you approach a pizza place that is putting slices on sale for $.25 each!) to easy ways to find the closest hardware store when you’re in a neighborhood you don’t know very well.

SoLoMo is all about content and interactions that are keyed to your location, via the GPS in your mobile phone or device. At its most basic, SoLoMo is when you check in to a restaurant on Foursquare or Facebook.

Why is it important for journalists to know about SoLoMo?

Because it’ll be a big part of the future of media, including news media. The Street Fight interview with the founder and CEO of Banjo, one of the hottest new location-based mobile social apps (I guess that would be LoMoSo…), asks the question of how Banjo and SoLoMo applies to journalism:

The news is already starting to use Banjo. A couple of weekends ago I had CNN on, on a Saturday, and one of the reporters was using Banjo to report on the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. He said with Banjo he could go there and he could actually search by the keyword “Trayvon” and he knew every person that was showing up, whether it was Twitter or Instagram or whatever the case may be, was talking about Trayvon and was actually in Sanford, Florida, and was therefore highly relevant.

Another news channel was using it to report on the weather where there were tornados. They couldn’t get to the affected area right away, but they could go there with Banjo.

Download Banjo on your phone and check it out, willya? It’s available for iPhone and Android. Try it, and if you don’t find a use for it, delete it. At least you know about it and how it works, and won’t be out of the loop as it becomes more and more popular.

It’ll be increasingly important as we embrace the digital-first imperative that some companies are espousing, to stay on top of new developments and cool new apps and tools that can help us be better journalists. Even if you choose not to use some of these new tools, it’ll help your career to be familiar with them.

The SPJ’s Digital Media Committee will help you keep up with the ever-evolving media technology, both here on the Net Worked blog and in the Quill column.

Stay tuned…

That was the case Saturday in Indianapolis when the national SPJ board gathered for its spring meeting. We took on several big topics. Here’s a brief recap of what was discussed:

- Past president Hagit Limor briefed us on the email ballot system we will be using in September when all 8,000 SPJ members will have their first chance to directly elect officers under the one member, one vote rule we adopted last year.

We also approved a set of campaign guidelines for candidates that reaffirmed our long-standing tradition that board members should not engage in any electioneering for other candidates.

Our plan calls for a process that will enable candidates to send up to three email messages directly to members as well as a means to create candidate websites. You’ll hear more about this in the months ahead.

Much of our meeting was devoted to issues involving growing SPJ’s membership. No surprise there since that had been my emphasis this year.

-We discussed reviving our institutional membership for media organizations on a one-year trial basis. We currently have about 19 collegiate institutional members. We formerly had some newspapers join as institutions, but currently we do not have any.

The board instructed Executive Director Joe Skeel to craft a proposal later this year as well as to explore ways in which we can make SPJ’s presence felt in more newsrooms.

-We had a long discussion on the pros and cons of actively recruiting SPJ members from other countries. We also talked about whether our legal defense fund should be only for U.S. journalists or should it be a global fund.

The board didn’t take a vote on that,  although an informal show of hands indicated a majority of the board favored taking a global approach on both of these questions. This matter will come up for a vote later in the year.

-We also adopted a recommendation from Region 11 Director Teri Carnicelli, by streamlining the requirements for a new campus chapter to form. From now on, such chapters will be required to have one adviser who is an SPJ member rather than three faculty members.

-Sadly, we deactivated several pro and student chapters that we had been carrying on our membership rolls despite the lack of any recent activity. We did, however, welcome a new chapter, the Texas Panhandle Pro chapter.

-Last but not least, the board agreed to locate our 2014 Excellence in Journalism conference at the Grand Opry Hotel in Nashville, TN. I’m very excited by this selection. Nashville is a great city in which to hold a national conference.

Your national board members are a hard-working bunch. They started at 8 a.m., and except for a lunch break, kept going until 5:30 p.m. when we adjourned. I appreciate their effort and attention.

But so far, it’s only a promise.

Assignmint.com is the Web address for this ambitious operation and Jeff Koyen, a former New York Post writer, is the person said to be in charge of it. According to the early media buzz, Assignmint intends to consolidate all aspects of freelancing — from pitches to payment — in a cloud-sharing model designed to streamline the business in such a way that freelancers have more freedom to be productive.

The site and Koyen’s plan gained attention last week in articles by Fast Company and Mediabistro’s FishbowlLA. However, for now, the site itself only asks visitors to submit their email addresses if they want to be included in the limited beta release in June. Assignmint tentatively launches in a broader format later this year, and at least the basic memberships will be free, Koyen says.

Ideally, once registered with Assignmint, member freelancers can “filter and manage incoming pitches, issue assignments and then handle all related fulfillment (e.g. contracts and invoices) right from their dashboard,” Koyen explained in FishbowlLA. Assignmint is even expected to have features for matching freelancers with prospective clients.

Premium accounts meanwhile will have a broader selection of workflow and sharing tools, as well as advice on 1099 tax filing.

Assignmint is targeting writers and editors first, other media later. And if that relationship works as intended, the site will expand to include academia, and financial and IT services, among others, Koyen says.

Surely though the most interesting part about Assignmint will be its attempt to minimize hassle from payment collection. Assignmint proposes to act in the freelancer’s interest in exchange for a yet-to-be-determined service fee, sort of the way sites such as eBay and PayPal handle e-payments.

At least that’s the general idea. For now, however, Assigmint is like a story pitch that’s a long ways away from payout.

David Sheets is a sports content editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com, and president of SPJ’s St. Louis Pro chapter. Reach him by e-mail at dsheets@post-dispatch.com, on Twitter at @DKSheets, or on Facebook and LinkedIn.