Tempe, AZ

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In attendance: Alia Rau, Arizona Republic; Le Templar, East Valley Tribune; Joe Watson, New Times; Paul Rubin, New Times; Rick Barrs, New Times; Sarah Fenske, New Times; Monica Alonzo-Dunsmoor, Republic; Patti Epler, Tribune; Ryan Gabrielson, Tribune; Rebecca Allen, freelance writer; Valeria Fernandez, La Voz.

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Sarah moved to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Le seconded the motion. It was approved unanimously.

Joe moved to appoint Valeria Fernandez of La Voz to the Press Club board.

Sarah seconded the motion. It was approved unanimously. She is believed to be the Press Club's first member from Uruguay.

Contest report

Alia passed on information from the contest chair that she expected to have all of the judge's winner choices by March 10, except Virg Hill due do a health issue with one of the judges. The Virg winner was expected March 25.

There was consensus to wait until March 25 to release all the winner names.

Treasurer's report

Beque said the contest brought in $34,985 plus $355 still owed by various papers for the contest. The March 4 balance was $31,713.88.

Last year, the contest made $32,160.

Beque said even if nobody came to the banquet this year, we would still have $2,400 after paying for everything.

There was consensus among the board to pay Jill's expense for a hotel room she had the night before pack-up day.

There was consensus to wait until the April meeting and more research could be done to decide if and how much to pay Jeff to create the powerpoint presentation for the banquet.

Banquet report

There was consensus as to the menu for the banquet, which will include chicken marsala, penne, chips and dip appetizers and chocolate caramel cake. Monica said she would get the menu locked in with the caterer.

Beque moved to award Paul Schatt of the Arizona Republic the distinguished service award. Sarah seconded. It was approved unanimously.

The board agreed to ask Dan Nowicki to give a presentation and invite Paul's wife to the banquet. Alia said she would ask Dan to speak.

Sarah said she would write up an e-mail tasking for Brick Wall submissions.

Several members said they would like to see MCSO be submitted.

Joe said he would write up the narrative of the winners.

Beque said she would ask Gawain for the deadline to get the Brick Wall winner in the program.

Scholarship report

Le suggested we keep the application letter vague so we don't commit to giving out a certain amount or number of scholarships. He suggested we give up to three $1,000 scholarships.

Joe suggested we give one photography, one design and one writing.

Le moved to spend up to $4,000 on scholarships. The motion was approved unanimously.

Le and Valeria agreed to serve on the scholarship committee. Alia said she would ask Gawain to judge the design entries and Rob Schumacher to judge the photo entries.

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The next meeting is noon April 22 in Tucson.

Meeting/Pack-up Day January 28, 2006 at the Arizona Republic

Present: Laura Clymer, Jill Jorden Spitz, Patti Epler, Ryan Gabrielson, Monica Alonzo Dunsmoor, Rick Barrs, Joe Watson, Sarah Fenske, Paul Rubin, Beque Allen, Gawain Douglas, Francisco Medina, Rob Schumacher, Juan Villa

Laura called the meeting to order at 10:15 a.m. and explained there were several entries to discuss.

1. Jill explained that the Business Journal Special Section “City Living” seemed to have been entered twice. She moved to eliminate. Cisco seconded. Joe asked if we could call to see which category they wanted it in; Jill said we couldn’t because that would give preferential treatment to people in Phoenix.

Members voted unanimously to eliminate.

2. John Cannon of the Prescott Daily Courier had entered in A8, business reporting. The category calls for a single story; Cannon entered three. Jill moved to disqualify. Beque seconded. Unanimous vote to eliminate.

3. Betsy Rice entered Community Journalist of the Year. She submitted fifteen letters from various community members, something not called for in the rules. Jill suggested we remove them from the entry. Sarah seconded. The vote was 13-1 with Beque voting no.

4. John Cannon again. He entered three stories in a single packet for A1, which only called for one story. Jill voted to eliminate. Unanimous vote.

5. Bill Hess, Sierra Vista, entered Community Journalist of the Year. He had the letter and all the right entries, but no official entry form. There was discussion. Joe moved that we should fill out the form for him since all the information was there and it was merely a clerical error. Sarah seconded. Vote to do so: 12-2, with Beque and Ryan voting no.

6. WHO FROM WHAT PAPER entered Virg Hill with only one form. The rules called for them to supply four forms for each packet. Patti motioned to accept the entry and copy the form. Ryan seconded. 12-1-1, with Cisco voting no and Beque abstaining.

Paul motioned to adjourn. Monica seconded

The meeting resumed at 11:46 a.m.

Patti moved to approve the minutes from the last meeting. Joe seconded. Unanimous vote.

There were more contest entries in question:

7. Jonathan Athens of the Sun entered A8, which calls for one story, but entered two.

8. Athens entered A3, which calls for one story, but entered three.

9. Athens entered A1, which calls for one story, but entered four.

10. Tom Blazier, of the Sun, entered A-11, which calls for one full page or double truck, but entered three pages from three different months.

11. Kyrsten Sinema, of InTouch News, entered B-2, which calls for a single story, but entered three.

12. David Salcido of WHAT PAPER entered B-2, which calls for a single entry, but entered two.

Monica questioned whether the stories in A-11 were related. Because that was in question, Jill moved to eliminate all of the above entries other than the A-11 entry, Blazier. Monica seconded, and the vote was unanimous.

Addressing the Blazier entry, Jill explained that it included stories from June July and September. Gawain said he didn’t understand why anyone would find the rule confusing; clearly, it only called for one day’s story. He moved to eliminate. Cisco seconded. Vote 13-0-1, with Monica abstaining.

Jill then discussed the design entries from the B category. We say in the rules that it’s any publication up to 75,000 circulation, but then we ask for any section of the newspaper. So what about the magazines that entered B?

Jill said we can move the magazine entries to C, or we can keep them here, but we shouldn’t throw them out because it wasn’t their fault. In the future, we should have two design categories in B.

Patti pointed out that they could have chosen to move to C on their own. Gawain noted that comparing a glossy to a newspaper is practically impossible. Patti suggested we ask the judge to split the category. She moved to divide B11 into two categories: B-11A, newspapers, and B-11B, magazines. Ryan seconded. Unanimous vote.

Jill brought up another problem that’s our fault: Spanish newspapers can enter in any category, but they have to translate the story if they’re not entering specifically Spanish categories. But we only wrote that rule in English. So there were a bunch of entries not translated in the non-Spanish categories. Jill moved that we transfer them to whichever Spanish categories seem closest. Next year, we’ll translate the rules fully. Monica seconded. Unanimous vote.

Jill then raised the issue of Raising Arizona Kids Magazine. They entered A-11, but submitted more than two pages. Do we care? Technically, it’s a violation. Beque thought it was okay. Monica asked how could we compare when it was different than the other entries. Jill said we could just move it to B-11B, the new magazine design category. Cisco moved to transfer; Patti seconded. Unanimous.

The AZ Daily Star Earth Day Package in C-20 was then discussed. It started with one day’s package, as required, but continued with parts that followed on subsequent days. Monica said the package was supposed to be a single day. Sarah noted that the rules don’t make that clear. She moved to keep the entry this year but fix the rules next year to specify a single day. Joe seconded. Unanimous.

Jill then raised the Republic’s entry for C-16. The rules state five parts of a story in an eight day period. The entry included six parts, in the correct time frame. But since they had the same logo, Patti moved to accept. Laura seconded. Unanimous.

Next. LaVoz’s entry for D-3. It was supposed to be a single story; they entered two stories from different months. Gawain moved to eliminate. Patti seconded. Unanimous.

Next. Jason Skoda of the Republic entered work from a zoned edition in a B category, a clear violation of the rules. Jill moved to eliminate. Gawain seconded. Unanimous.

Jill then explained that Phoenix Magazine entered G5, which called for a single article, but they entered six stories on one theme. Jill said they should have entered under the special section category. Gawain said he flagged it because there were multiple articles. Cisco moved to eliminate; Monica seconded. Unanimous.

At 12:15, the meeting broke for lunch.

At 12:40, it reconvened while at lunch.

Beque gave the treasurer’s report. We had $4,865 and now we have $3,690. Add this year’s contest fees of $35,000 and the estimated costs of $35,120, we’ll have $2,750 left over, plus what we make from the banquet. Last year that was $8,000.

Monica noted that the menu was flexible; we could mix and match and drop things to save money. She said she would look for other places to cut back.

Laura said we need to determine if Alia wants to be scholarship chair again. Beque said we also need to discuss Brick Wall and Distinguished Journalist.

Monica said we have to pay the deposit by next meeting.

Joe sung the praises of getting Mike Watkiss for the MC instead of Tom Zenner. He moved to ask Watkiss. Beque seconded. Unanimous.

Cisco asked who would do the slide show. Scott did it last year. Jill and Laura said we should probably pay him this year. Jill said she would ask him. Gawain said he’d do the contest program again. The Daily Star was to pay for it.  Jill suggested cutting programs from 750 to 1,000.

Laura said at the next meeting we’d have new people join the board. We need more reporters and small paper people.

The next meeting was discussed and suggested that we do Alia’s house March 4 and then meet in Tucson in April.

Cisco moved to adjourn at 1:20. Monica seconded. Unanimous.

At 3:20, the meeting resumed.

There were three violations to discuss. In each case, they’d entered multiple stories when they were only allowed to enter one. The entries in question were Gina Read, of InTouch News, in B1; Melissa Morrison of Phoenix magazine in B6: and Jarrod Dill of InTouch in B8. There was a motion to eliminate. Unanimous.

There was a limited discussion of whether to move the price of admission to the banquet to $35.

Laura moved to adjourn. Everyone agreed.