SPJ @ W&L

Changes to the Web site

2008-04-15T12:35:00.002-04:00

As you might have noticed, I've made some changes around the W&L SPJ Web site in the past week. I've now moved all of the material regarding the spring conference to the conference recap page; the site is now dedicated to our chapter.

With the help of the W&L journalism department's tech guru, Michael Todd, I've also uploaded an audio version of Amy Goodman's keynote address for you to download and listen to at your leisure as well as the PowerPoint slideshow for the 2007 Mark of Excellence Awards.

Spring conference recap ... Take 2

2008-04-04T17:02:00.002-04:00

This is just a brief update to inform everyone that the Web site will be updated by next Wednesday with video of Mudcat Saunders' press conference and audio of Amy Goodman's keynote address. The site will also undergo organizational changes at that time.

Incidentally, the "spring conference" RSS feed has been removed from the page. If you'd still like chapter updates, we welcome you to sign up for that feed (link is in the right sidebar).

Spring Conference Recap ... Take 1

2008-03-31T12:35:00.002-04:00

Many thanks to those who came to Region II's spring conference this year! It looks as though we had a great turnout with great workshops, panels and an excellent keynote address by Amy Goodman. In the coming days, we'll get the site updated to reflect everything that went on over the weekend; hopefully we'll be able to post a video of the press conference with Mudcat Saunders and an audio download of Goodman's speech.

Nevertheless, I'd still like to thank a few of the people in our chapter and at the university (with a few honorable mentions) who worked behind-the-scenes to keep everything running smoothly: Kat Greene, chapter president; Melissa Caron, chapter treasurer; Drew Scarantino, Queenie Wong and Grace Wang, goody bags and silent auction; Joel Poelhuis, signs and housing; Keri Beth Cloninger and Monica Chinn, speakers; Jacob Geiger, sponsors; Alden Wicker, Laura Sanders, Alisha Budich, Michelle Boniface and Mike Fahey, Mark of Excellence slide show; Doug Cumming, adviser; Brian Richardson, W&L Department Chair; Melissa Cox, W&L Department Secretary; Michael Todd and Bob DeMaria, technical supervisors; Pam Luecke, Ed Wasserman and Harlan Beckley, panel moderators; Brian Eckert and Ann Augherton, Region II; all of our sponsors; all of our speakers; and anyone else I may have missed.

See you next year!

Don fry to offer writing workshop

2008-03-28T15:21:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately, Kate Long will no longer be hosting tomorrow's writing workshop at the spring conference (and she won't be on the povery panel, either) due to a nasty bout of the flu.

Nevertheless, reknowned writing coach Don Fry -- formerly with the Poynter Institute -- will be taking her place. Here's a little more about him:

Don Fry, the dean of newsroom writing coaches, has generously agreed on short notice to fill in for Kate Long, who had to cancel. Fry began a second career as a globe-trotting writing coach for journalists in 1984, after he had already established himself as a scholar and professor of Anglo-Saxon literature at the University of Virginia. He has published Believing the News (1986), Color In American Newspapers, with Mario Garcia, and Coaching Writers with Roy Peter Clark (2nd edition 2003). Previously affiliated with the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, he has been an independent writing coach, based in Charlottesville, since 1994.

The W&L SPJ chapter offers many thanks to Mr. Fry for filling in on such short notice!

Want the latest updates on the spring conference? Subscribe to spring conference updates via e-mail!

Meeting on Thursday

2008-03-25T22:21:00.002-04:00

W&L SPJ chapter members: Meeting this Thursday at 6 p.m. Not sure if there will be food, but we will be doing very important last-minute conference planning. I will be taking minutes again (and those minutes include a list of attendees).

Last chance to register!

2008-03-20T07:37:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow (Friday, March 21) is the last day to register before the conference begins. We will still be offering same-day registration, but at a much higher cost.

Want the latest updates on the spring conference? Subscribe to spring conference updates via e-mail!

Meeting This Thursday

2008-03-18T12:11:00.002-04:00

Chapter meeting this Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Rowe Conference Room. Pizza will be served, and we will be taking minutes. It's the second-to-last meeting before the conference, so be there!

Speaker change

2008-03-17T18:27:00.003-04:00

Contrary to the previous post, we've received news that Bill Choyke -- not Chris Dinsmore -- will represent the Virginian-Pilot on the Everyday Business and Out of College panels.

The Web site should be updated to reflect this change by tomorrow.

Want the latest updates on the spring conference? Subscribe to spring conference updates via e-mail!

More spring conference announcements

2008-03-16T14:55:00.006-04:00

The W&L SPJ student chapter has kicked it into high gear with the conference preparations, so I've got a few new things to announce:

1. It's official: Students will be able to stay at W&L's currently-empty Kappa Sigma house for a very reasonable rate. For more information, contact us.

2. More people have confirmed that they will, in fact, be speaking at the conference:

Walter Cumming - Presentation: Visual journalism: The enhancement (or heart) of a story
Sam Dean - Presentation: Visual journalism: The enhancement (or heart) of a story
~~Chris Dinsmore~~ Bill Choyke - Panel: Everyday business: Telling the globalization story locally
Kathy Lu - Panel: Out of college, into the job market
Ed Wasserman - Panel: The other America: How do we cover poverty?

3. We also have moderators confirmed for all the panels:

Harlan Beckley - The other America: How do we cover poverty?
Doug Cumming - At its roots: Why community journalism is thriving
~~Chris Dinsmore~~ Bill Choyke - Out of college, into the job market
Pam Luecke - Everyday business: Telling the globalization story locally
Albert L. May - Election coverage: What's fair? What's fair game?
Brian Richardson - Environmentally conscious with a news conscience
Ed Wasserman - From the eye of the storm: Reporting a crisis

4. As you might have noticed, we've added a presentation to our schedule: Visual journalism: The enhancement (or heart) of a story. The presentation will take place during the second session.

5. Driving directions have been added to the destination page, in case the map takes too long to load or doesn't appear for some reason.

6. The schedule has also been updated; we now have a .pdf file of the full schedule available for download.

That's all! Many thanks in advance to our speakers and to those planning to attend. See you in Lexington!

More speaker announcements

2008-03-13T17:17:00.002-04:00

We've confirmed several more speakers for the spring conference!

Christina Kolock - Panel: Out of college, into the job market
Dan Smith - Panel: Environmentally conscious with a news conscience
Melissa Manware - Panel: From the eye of the storm: Reporting for your audience during a crisis
Dugald McConnell - Workshop: Embedded multi-media reporting; Panel: Election coverage: What's fair? What's fair game?

For more information on our speakers, check out the speakers page.

Reminder: Early bird registration ends March 7

2008-03-06T22:36:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone!

This is just a quick reminder that the early bird registration for the Region II spring conference ends tomorrow (Friday), March 7. After tomorrow, registration costs will increase by $20:

Regular registration costs:

Student (SPJ member): $70
Student (Non SPJ member): $80
Pro (SPJ member): $90
Pro (Non SPJ member): $100

Note about contact us page

2008-03-03T20:17:00.002-05:00

The e-mail form on the contact us page has been having technical difficulties; however, I think I've got the problem fixed. If you've sent us an e-mail through the form and we never responded, please feel free to re-submit your note.

Thanks for your patience!

Region II Spring Conference now on Facebook!

2008-03-01T14:45:00.004-05:00

For those of you on Facebook, we now have a Region II Spring Conference Facebook group. Join now to see who else is coming, ask questions and get the latest conference info!

Blog updates now available via e-mail

2008-02-28T19:44:00.004-05:00

Now you can subscribe to blog updates via e-mail! Just click the link on the right side of the page.

Only one e-mail per day will be sent, no matter how many updates we make. Your e-mail address will remain private, and we promise not to send you any spam.

Edit: You can now also subscribe to only updates regarding the spring conference. The link is also in the sidebar to the right.

"Mudcat" Saunders to give press conference

2008-02-27T21:18:00.006-05:00

The W&L SPJ chapter is pleased to announce that Dave "Mudcat" Saunders will host a press conference before the Mark of Excellence Awards Luncheon. The colorful Bubba-Democratic political advisor helped get Democrats Mark Warner, Jim Webb and Tim Kaine elected in Red-State Virginia.

Saunders has been featured in the Weekly Standard and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. The Roanoke Times has described him as "the go-to guy for national reporters searching out freewheeling, in-your-face quotes -- kind of a James Carville meets Dale Earnhardt meets Barney Fife." And the book he co-wrote with Harvard Professor Steve Jarding is said to be a blue-print for how the Democrats can re-take the White House: Foxes in the Henhouse: How the Republicans Stole the South and the Heartland, and what the Democrats Must Do to Run 'em Out. Mudcat says Steve wrote the book, and "I added the cuss words."

Paul Freedman from the University of Virginia has also agreed to speak on our "Covering Elections" panel.

Freedman is the 2003 recipient of the University of Virginia Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award. Freedman's current research projects focus on campaign advertising, issue framing, and the politics of abortion. His work has appeared in Public Opinion Quarterly, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Political Communication, Campaigns and Elections and Slate. He has recently completed a book about television campaign advertising and American democracy. Freedman served as research director for the Project on Campaign Conduct at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership. Since 2000, he has been an election analyst for ABC News in New York.

Other confirmed speakers include Greg Esposito (Roanoke Times), Wilson Lowrey (University of Alabama), Juliet Bickford (WSLS10 in Roanoke, Va.; WKTR in Norfolk, Va.), Duncan Adams (Roanoke Times) and Kelly Evans (Wall Street Journal).

Confirmed speakers

2008-02-08T14:05:00.001-05:00

Hello SPJ members!

We are pleased to announce, again, that Amy Goodman will be the keynote speaker for Saturday's Mark of Excellence luncheon. Goodman co-hosts Democracy Now!, a daily, independent news program, with Juan Gonzalez. The program airs on over 650 stations, "pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.," according to the Democracy Now! Web site. The site says this about their coverage and purpose:

"Democracy Now!'s War and Peace Report provides our audience with access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S. corporate-sponsored media, including independent and international journalists, ordinary people from around the world who are directly affected by U.S. foreign policy, grassroots leaders and peace activists, artists, academics and independent analysts. In addition, Democracy Now! hosts real debates–debates between people who substantially disagree, such as between the White House or the Pentagon spokespeople on the one hand, and grassroots activists on the other."

Goodman also wrote Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back.

We are still confirming speakers for all of our workshops, but we'd also like to officially announce that Kate Long will be running a workshop on feature writing called, "Turning News Into Great Stories." This workshop will be available from 9 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. on Sat., March 29. This hands-on workshop is limited and pre-registration is required. Long has worked as a writing coach for more than 20 years. She has won numerous awards for fiction, songwriting, and newspaper stories, and she produces programs for West Virginia Public Radio and Television in addition to her writing workshops.

Soon we will have a speakers page with more information about Goodman and Long. We will continue to update this page for each confirmed speaker. Check back often!

Big news!

2008-02-07T20:50:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! Big news about the conference:

The keynote speaker for Saturday's Mark of Excellence luncheon is...
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

More info to follow, but in the meantime, check out www.democracynow.org and read her stuff.

Web site launched

2008-02-07T17:15:00.002-05:00

Today we launched our chapter's official Web site. Check it out at http://journalism.wlu.edu/spj.

Basic Details

2008-01-31T21:47:00.002-05:00

Hello SPJ members!

Welcome to the blog for the Region II Spring Conference. We'll be using it to send out important details to our guests. Here is some basic information.

Date: March 28-29, 2008

Where: Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.

Contact:

Kat Greene (greenek@wlu.edu)

Doug Cumming (cummingd@wlu.edu)