Minutes: Sept. 1, 2016

Minutes of the September 1, 2016, meeting
of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges Board of Directors

Attending: President Patricia Stark, Santa Barbara City College; Northern California Faculty Rep Judy House, College of the Sequoias, Visalia; Southern California Rep Patrick Schmiedt, Citrus College, Glendora; Northern California Faculty Rep Cindy McGrath, Los Medanos College, Pittsburg; Student State President Laura Tapia, Riverside City College; Student Southern California Rep Evan Solano, Citrus College, Glendora; Student Northern California Rep Michaela Payne, City College of San Francisco; Communications Director Alicia Edquist, Cerritos College, Norwalk; CNPA Services Inc. Administrator Joe Wirt. Absent: Industry Rep Jorge Medina. Vacancy: Four-year Rep.

Stark called the meeting to order at 4:19 p.m. and asked for approval of the minutes of the Aug. 4 meeting. House moved; Tapia seconded; motion passed.

Tapia reported on the JACC student Twitter chats at 8 p.m. Mondays and mentioned some topics that organizers were considering to engage others.

Schmiedt and Edquist gave updates on work to produce the SoCal Conference at Cerritos College. They also compared plans with McGrath’s work on the NorCal Conference at Los Medanos College.

McGrath reported on how she is managing the judging of the NorCal and SoCal contests. She also went over workflows in advance of the conferences, including creating awards and possibly slideshows to present at the events.

McGrath also reported on work by a contractor to renegotiate the hotel contracts for JACC’s state conventions in 2017 and 2018.

Wirt reported that CSI Controller Hal Weber was set to prepare files for submission to CPA Ed Pierini. Wirt updated directors on the status of dues and contest payments. He also reported that the addition of new Associate Members to the JACC membership rolls was working smoothly.

Directors briefly discussed cost of conference tote bags and of name badges and lanyards.

Stark then began a discussion of potential regional conference fee adjustments. Following discussion, House moved the item to action; Schmiedt seconded. On the motion to reduce the SoCal conference fee to $50 per delegate, Schmiedt moved; McGrath seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Stark then led a discussion of membership benefits for JACC Associate Members. Directors clarified that students from Associate Member universities who manned an exhibitor table would be admitted free, but those participating in workshops would need to pay a registration fee.

Directors then discussed potential ways to support under-funded or reviving college programs.

They also went over price breaks or freebies for the advisers and students at regional conference host campuses. House moved to waive registration fees for advisers, staff and students hosting regional conferences starting this fall. Solano seconded. McGrath abstained. The motion passed.

Stark said the next meeting would be at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct 6. With no further business to discuss, she ended the meeting at 5:59 p.m.

–Respectfully submitted by Joe Wirt, CNPA Services Inc.

Posted in Meeting Minutes.